Tuesday, October 7, 2014

Sweet Sixteen! Wha??

I guess I'm not completely caught up yet. Last week, Pen turned 16!! Seriously, how can that be true?? Here's a little photo collage that I posted on Instagram to commemorate the occasion:



We haven't had her friend party yet, but I do have some pictures from our low-key family party. It was really pleasant and relaxing, actually. Pen opened two presents, each containing a certificate-- one for some money for clothes and another for tickets to see her favorite band in concert. You can tell from the photos that both made her pretty happy. I really loved watching her open them.


I made Pen a flourless chocolate cake to celebrate. Making a new recipe for a birthday always makes me a little nervous, but it turned out great. It was like eating the inside of a truffle. Not too gross, if you're into that sort of thing. :)


Okay, now here we go…


Success! The candles are all out and no hair caught on fire! Happy Birthday, Pen. We love you!

The Mostly-Edith-Show

I'm trying to catch up to the present, so this post is going to be a total mish-mash of stuff. It will be The-Mostly-Edith show again now that the bigger kids are back in school. I'll start out with a photo Rophone took of me, though. I really love this shirt he got for me. 


One day, when I was getting some work done at the couch, I looked over at everyone that was gathered at the bar. We like red.


It seems like the beginning of this school year was chock full of appointments and other errands to be run, so Edith and I spent a lot of time in the car. Thank goodness we like to sing along to the radio together.


We also spend a lot of time doing things like these:


A few days after school started, a dear friend of mine came into town and we took the kids to the park and hung out. It was so good to see her.


Edith and I have only managed to take a few hikes. On this one we hiked about 4 miles total-- 2 miles uphill and then 2 miles downhill back out, and Edith hiked the WHOLE way! I was super impressed, although at the end (like the last hundred yards) she started to cry a little and complain about how tired she was. What a tough kid! We had so much fun. Well, except for the last hundred yards… :)


I enlisted Ginger's help in folding laundry one day. Wearing Dora the Explorer underwear on your head makes it way more fun. 


As a mom, I'm always calling my kids by the wrong names, and mash-ups occasionally occur. Pen really liked one of them, so it looks like she has a new nickname. Welcome to the family, Carrot.


Edith and I have discovered that it's a lot more fun to do yard work when you have glamorous hats on. 


Edith loves giving her daddy a makeover. She announced that she was changing him into Superman. Here she is in the process of "painting" his hair black. I think he looks handsome.


The three youngest kids got some really cool shirts from Rophone's cousin's family to say "sorry" about the death of Rophone's mom. So nice. The kids really, really love their shirts. I do, too. They're cool.


Edith has been into creating new outfit combinations recently. I'm especially fond of her two-skirt creations. 


I even found a sketch she did of an outfit she designed on the back cover of her notebook. Edith was pretty embarrassed that it didn't turn out how she wanted, but I think it's beautiful. Who knows, maybe she'll be in fashion when she's older. All I know is that it's pretty awesome for a 3 year old!


Edith has much less enthusiasm for filming construction than Big does, so we don't go do it very often, but at least she's a good sport about it when we do. 


Since we're in temporary quarters, we don't have access to our big home library. Kind of a bummer, but I'm trying to make up for it by making lots of trips to the library. The kids don't seem to mind. I love how much they love to read. 


Here's a series of photos of Edith, to illustrate even more of how things typically go around here:


On Sunday afternoon, I managed to get out on a hike with Pen and Edith. We hiked about the same distance that Edith and I did the last time, but this time she got tired so I piggy-backed her the rest of the way up and then almost all of the way back out. I was pretty pleased to realize that I could do it without getting out of breath. I'll admit to being a wee bit sore today, though. :) It was so nice to get out, just the three of us. I can't wait to go again.


Then, today, Edith and I walked to the park while the older kids were in school. It's funny how it felt so hot even though it was only about 70 degrees. We're definitely ready for fall temperatures.


Wow. Being caught up all the way to what we did this afternoon means I'm really caught up! It feels good. Now if only I could pause life for just a minute to have a break…. Ha!

Wednesday, October 1, 2014

It's a Total Kick

Both Big and Ginger played soccer again this fall, but Ginger asked me not to take any photos of her, so this post will pretty much only feature Big. Ginger continues to play with the same team she's been with since 4th grade. It's a great group of girls and they have developed a super strong bond as a team. We love that the coach has made such an effort to keep them together. Ginger plays goalie for half of the game, which she loves to do, and plays on the field the second half of the game to keep up her footwork. It works great.

Big played on a 1st and 2nd grade team this season, but was one of only 2 second graders on the team. That made for a pretty small team compared to some of the others, but they still did great. Big loves to play in the goal, too, which just warms this old-goalie's heart. I think now we'll just move on to the picture phase of the post….


Big played really hard and had a great season. Good job, Big! Now this week we start basketball!