Everyone should go camping

With a ten foot, water balloon chucking crossbow on the
top of their car!!



Just to be fair, it is a prize winning, ten foot, water balloon
chucking crossbow on the top of my car!!

And you thought this went out a century ago...

Nope! Kids are still beating rugs with sticks! (and it was even Delainey's birthday...I know, mean...)

Project de jour

We learned a bit about Russia in history so we had
borscht for lunch, made this kokoshnic headdress
for Delainey, and Chase worked on a batik print.
(the print didn't turn out so well)



We made a fancy one.

The big "B"

The second official teenager is now in the house!!

Every girl's crazy 'bout a sharp dressed man!

Look out girls!

Overheard at Family Home Evening last night

"You know how the Chinese have the year of the rat,
pig, etc? Well we're American and we have a much shorter
attention span, so we're having the Week of obedience!"

Guesses?

Turkey Trot 2011

This morning we hauled all the kids out of bed at 5:45
so that they could go run in a Turkey Trot. Andrew and
Braden ran the 5K and Chase and Delainey ran 1/2 mile.
They had a good time and I was able to have a quiet
house to cook in!!

Andrew crossing the finish line:



Braden's turn:



All the runners after the race, plus Emily:

Halloween Dinner-on November 1st!

We lost power on Halloween and weren't able to have

our fun dinner. Delainey was very sad, so we had it the

next day!

Some of the dishes-guts and blood with slime (spaghetti

squash with spaghetti and alfredo sauce), dried leprechan

poop (mini tater tots-I mean, what else would a creature

from Ireland poop???), goblin smiles (orange slices), troll

eyes (grapes), swamp punch (der, punch...), crunchy bug

pods (sugar snap peas), and a few other favs, mummy hot

dogs and salty bones (bread sticks in the shape of bones).

Add in some dry ice and it's all good! Happy Halloween!

Trick or Treat!

We have a great neighborhood for holidays!
The kids were able to go trick or treating
with some friends down the street and another
family from the ward that came to our
neighborhood to trick or treat.

This is Chase and Delainey with friends
Ethan and Noah who live five houses down.



Our favorite cowgirl! My niece, Emily!



A Roman Legionnaire! Braden made his shield and pilum (spear)



Delainey as an Egyptian Princess



Chase as "Brainwashed"-a costume he found in a magazine
that we made....



The main gang-Andrew had swimming and came later so
we missed him. He went trick or treating with friends later.

Sweet Sixteen!

Happy birthday to Andrew!! He's a great young man
and we're happy to have him in our family! The
pictures aren't great, but it's something to commemorate
the day!

Eagle in the house!!

A few weeks ago, Andrew passed his Eagle Board of Review!!
First Eagle in this house!!We're waiting for paperwork to plan
his Court of Honor, but here's the happy new Eagle with most
of the fam!

Caramel Apples

Time to make the apples!!

Most of the gang





Finished products:



The proof's in the pudding-or face??

An outing with their father

What do you do with your dad when you go to the Kennedy Space Center?
Stick rockets up your nose, spear rockets through your head, defy gravity,
and hold up rockets! What else?









And a great one of the group!

New Superhero!

SCHOOLBOY!

Time for Science and Poetry

Just a few pictures from school happenings...

Today we were learning about new things about stars and galaxies. Chase
and Delainey made pictures of Galaxies, Eclipsing Binary Stars,
Variable Stars, and Supernovas.



A week or so ago we had poetry reading. One person suggested that you have
cookies and set out the tea, etc. to make it fun.
Here's our spread (with Raspberry Herbal Tea, lest anyone worry...)



Braden was the creator of such a fine looking spread so
we had to catch him with his work!

Medieval dress up

In history this year we will be learning about Medieval history. Chase and
Delainey got a nice introduction at Medieval camp at the Orlando
History Center this summer where they learned lots and had a great time
(so did I cause I was home all day alone!) We will be doing lots of activities
and making lots of fun things and this was the first project-medieval
shoes for Chase and a wig with braids for Delainey!

In process



Final product which he wore for, oh, three seconds...



First incarnation of headdress


Second incarnation of headdress which she wore around the house for two days-so far!



(why that last caption keeps being a different color and underlined
I don't know, but I can't make it go away!)

First day of school

I managed to get everyone's picture except for Andrew, even
though I had his paper all ready to go! Let the learning begin!

The last leg of the journey

We visited with Matt's Aunt and Uncle in DC and toured some museums. Chase and Delainey LOVE otters so this picture was a must!



From DC we traveled down to Charleston to visit briefly with my brother and his wife. We found this saying on a gate in downtown Charleston. It took us a bit to figure it out, but thought it was cool.



Delainey hanging out with Uncle Neal



The kids after a nice warm walk, getting some energy out before the last 7 hours of the trip.



The night before we had a fun dinner at Yokoso's and the kids loved to watch things being cooked in front of them!

And the most important thing we did on our trip!

Chase turned 8 and was baptized! Since we were up in Palmyra, so close to Boston, we decided to have a joint
baptism with his cousin Caleb who turned 8 six days after Chase.

Chase and Mom



The family



The two baptism boys



The proud dads