Back to It

I have got to get back to taking more pictures! And to blogging regularly. I haven't blogged since Halloween. Shame on me! Our family photo album will be sparse this quarter!

We left for California last Thursday. We didn't know that Anna's Friday class was going to be doing a little performance on Friday. But her teacher was nice enough to let us watch the dress rehearsal the Friday before we left. Anna is in the middle.

It snows in Colorado and then a couple of days later it's warm enough to go to the park without jackets.

The first snowstorm was a doozy with over a foot of snow and winds that knocked all the leaves off the trees.

Play dough on a cold day - this guy just steals my heart.

The girls helped me make the gluten free dairy free cake for Mia's adoption anniversary. It wasn't half bad.

Once we got to California we went to L.A. so Dan and I could attend the Air Force Ball. Dan had meetings in the morning so we walked in the sunshine to the mall play area.

Then we had some lunch at Giggles and Hugs, a restaurant with a playground and healthy food.

Later we went out for dairy free ice cream made with only coconuts and raw honey.  The chocolate was really good!

In the morning we headed out to La Quinta. We stopped at Denny's for breakfast and the girls ate these reindeer pancakes, made with both milk and wheat. The rest of the day was not good. :(

Before we got to the house we stooped for groceries. As we approached the car with our two shopping carts it dawned on us that the trunk was full of luggage!

I was thrilled to find an orange on my new tree!

Dar and Sean are our first visitors for the week.

On Tuesday, Dan and Sean went golfing and Dar and I took the girls to the children museum. They have a lot of really hard puzzles that adults have a hard time solving!

Tuesday afternoon, Beth, Greg and Paige arrived. 

It's going to be a great week!

Halloween 2015

Halloween is always a lot of fun around here! As usual, we had hot dogs for dinner and then the kids went trick or treating! The night before we carved our pumpkins.

The kids are getting a little pickier about what the want but they are not quite ready to carve themselves.

Dan did a pretty good job making a doggie pumpkin. Mia opted for My Little Pony and I forgot to take a pic.

We roasted pumpkin seeds which no one really ate.

Becky and family came over!

Maks was a policeman but preferred to be called Chase from Paw Patrol.

Are you surprised by Anna's over-the-top girly mermaid?

Becky was a giraffe and Oli was his usual tongue baby.

One of our favorite families!

Mia was a "police girl". She spent about 5 seconds in the girly aisle at the Halloween store. We certainly were well protected this year!

I guess our dog is not "small"??? His size small bumble bee costume was too small.

Happy Halloween!

Skeleton Coop

A few days before Halloween we had a skeleton coop. We first heard a story about skeletons.

Then we made spines out of lifesavers.

After that their hands were placed on paper and paint sprayed around them to make an "X-ray".

So here is how it went. For each of us, it was a typical reaction.

Maks:  I did most of his project while he watch everyone, entranced.

Mia:  She decided that all the bones in her hand would be broken.

Anna: She decided this was not a project she felt like doing.

Me:  I took a picture of the blank space in front of Anna to document her not wanting to do it and by the time I wrote this post I completely forgot why I had a picture of part of the table with nothing on it and quickly blamed the kids, in my head, for taking a picture of nothing. So of course I deleted the picture.