Hannah

So this post is all about the Hannah girl.  JCPenney offered free haircuts for back to school, so we took Hannah in.  She has super thick hair but she is getting to where she wants to comb it herself.  They cut it and then they did some layers and thinned it a little bit.  This was to make it easy for her to comb which makes it easier for us all.
 

 

Then of course she wanted her picture taken.  Isn't she so cute!  She told us we had to take her picture because the one on the wall is too old.  It's true, it's about two years old.

She is in first grade and was very excited about it.  And then just a couple of days before school started she fell and broke her arm.  So yes, she could comb her hair, not so much now.  She had just learned to tie her shoes so she could wear her new ones to school, not so much now (yeah for sandals!).  And of course, what is the first thing they work on in first grade?  Penmanship of the alphabet.  And yes, that would be her right arm that is in the cast.  Her biggest bummer was when they put the cast on they didn't give her a choice in the color, she wanted green.

I had wanted to include one other picture in this post, but couldn't find it on the computer.  This is not her first cast, she had one when she was one also! 

Lagoon Fun

Sam and Hannah got to experience Lagoon.  From what I have heard they loved it.  Hannah is our thrill lover and Sam won't be outdone by his sister so he is game to try things.  I didn't go, I only have vague memories of going to Lagoon on senior day so I don't have any comments to add. 

 

 

Goshen Days

Here are some belated pictures of our trip to Goshen this summer.  They hold Goshen days to coincide with my sisters birthday.  Convenient for her, she gets fireworks and a parade!  We camped in her front yard.  The kids had a good time.  It was fun to get out and see her and of course there was AMAZING food!  My personal favorite, a grilled corn guacamole.  That was so good, thanks for the leftovers, I loved them!

Ben and Martin had fun playing in the dirt together.  Martin didn't even mind that Ben was pouring sand on him.  They were both covered in dirt. 

Here is Ben chilling out, waiting for the parade to come.  You can see Sam at the edge of the picture, somewhat patiently waiting for the parade to start.  The first thing in the parade, after the flag and possibly fire marshal (I can't remember for sure) was the only real float: the Santaquin royalty (apparantly Goshen doesn't have it's own royalty, or float).  When they came by, happily waving, Sam asked why they weren't throwing candy.  Then you can hear these girls comment to each other, they don't like us because we don't have any candy to give out.  My thought was, you would have had better luck if the primary hadn't been marching later in the parade.  That's where all the little girls of our group were at, the ones who would have appreciated the pretty dresses.

And here would be the primary contingent.  Michelle decided that once she reached us, she was done marching in the parade and watched the rest with his.  Here you can see Katryn in blue and Hannah behind her.  We went back to my sisters house after this and divided up all the candy among the kids.  In cleaning the kitchen today we found we still have quite a bit of it.  Stale taffy anyone?

Other fun things from this trip, there were sheep wondering the street.  It was awesome.  The kids loved that aspect. Thanks for letting us come and play!  Maybe we will come next year as well. 

Sam the Fork

We convinced Sam to participate in a theater program this summer, and by convinced I mean bribed with a new video game.  He wasn't too sure about it but he has several friends doing it also.  When he went to audition he was convinced that he would not be able to do this and that the video game was not worth being in the production.  Well, three and a half weeks later and he is loving it.  He even said he might consider doing it again, depending on what play they do next year.

This year it is Beauty and the Beast Jr.  Sam is a fork and a villager.  We have pictures of the fork costume because he likes this costume the best.  I went and saw the play, it was awesome.  Nicely done, especially when you consider it is 67 kids age 8-18 doing the whole thing.  The funniest thing to me is that the fight scene with Gaston and the Beast is incredibly short, ending with the Beast telling Gaston to leave and never come back, and that is just what Gaston does.  Oh and Gaston wears a muscle suit.  Sam loves playing tag during the production (how else do you get a dozen or so boys to run around on the stage in a somewhat organized way) and there is a ladder in the back that he gets to climb up and down.
 

Isn't that a great costume?  If anyone is interested in going, they are preforming every Mon, Fri, and Sat at 7:30 pm until Sept 15th.  You can contact me for more info. 

Happy Birthday Justin

When you are the Dad, you don't get to blow out your own candles or open your own presents.  You always have helpers.
 

Happy Birthday Justin! 

Happy Birthday Michelle

Last month we celebrated Michelle's birthday, and since it is almost Ben's birthday I thought I better put up pictures from her party.  We had a princess party with two of her friends.  We were going to do a more generic knights/princesses but the boy she invited couldn't come so we went all girly.  She loved it of course.  Here is a shot of the princesses being flown around with Ben along for the ride. 

We had all the girls put on princess dresses and then headed out for the obstacle course.  Jump over the barrel:
 

joust the dragon (Hannah helping here)
 

and then they threw beanbags at a tower of boxes to knock down the castle walls and rescue a pony.  Then we headed back inside to decorate wands.  These were dowels wrapped with ribbon and foam stars glued around.  They added stickers, jewels, etc.
 

We also searched for jewels.  They enjoyed this because there were a ton of jewels in there and to add to the difficulty we had them where fancy gloves.
 

Here are the princesses with their wands and bag of goodies (pony, jewels and stickers).
All in all, a good time was had by all.  We love our Michelle!  She is such a cutie.  She's a very determined little girl and very smart (sometimes, not such a good combination).  Happy Birthday Michelle!

Random Park in Colorado

We stopped at some little park somewhere along highway 40 to eat some lunch and let the kids run.  It was random that's for sure.  The play structure was cracked and way to hot for the kids to play on but there were swings and space to run.  There are also some really random sculptures:
 

 

 

 

Like I said, really weird and the spider one, that's just creepy!