Pigtails, Cheetos and Princesses

Emily snapped these pictures of the girls while she was here this weekend.

Ouch!

I was scheduled for oral surgery this morning. I had a tooth extracted, and bone and connective tissue grafting done--not fun!

I'm so thankful for family and friends who helped take care of me, Phil and the kids. My sister Emily drove over from Seattle to watch the kids for us. Lizzie sent a package with with these beautifully wrapped canisters of tea.

My friend Brooke brought dinner. Here's a picture of her delicious streusel-topped pumpkin bread.

I had ordered these for school and they came in the mail today. What could be more comforting than pumpkin bread, spiced tea and reading Little House picture books while one recovers?

Last, but not least, here's the culprit. This tooth has been impacted, hiding up in my nasal cavity since childhood.

A Visit from Auntie Emy

Here are a few pictures of our visit with Emily, taken off of her blog. We enjoyed barbecuing and playing in the backyard on Saturday night.


Emily's friend Arthur came to visit, as well. He's been a good sport about pushing the kids on the swings.


Emily brought the kids Mickey and Minnie Mouse hats from Disneyland...

...and bags of Cheetos!

Right Place, Right Time

We had an eventful evening last night. We decided to take Emily and Arthur to one of our favorite places in Spokane...Bowl and Pitcher State Park along the river. As soon as we got there, we started to walk over the suspension bridge and Phil and Arthur yelled out, "Whoa! Whoa! Whoa!" and then they took off running, full speed ahead, across the bridge. Emily and I had not seen this, but a young man who was climbing a rock above the river fell about 40 feet and landed on the rocks below. Phil and Arthur witnessed the fall, and ran to help him. They were able to stabilize him, keep him warm, check his pulse and make sure he stayed coherent until the paramedics arrived, about 20 minutes later. Emy and I kept the kids distracted, but watched from a distance. It was quite an event, with several ambulances, fire engines and a news camera involved.

Earlier in the evening, we had a hard time deciding on a park to visit after dinner. We have so many beautiful parks here in Spokane, but it is apparent to us now that the Lord wanted us there last night at that very moment.

You'll have to click on the picture to see more detail.

Happy Autumn from Spokane!

I can't wait to put pumpkins out on my front porch! I love to watch my kids pick out their pumpkins every year. The pictures are always so breathtaking! There's just something about bright orange pumpkins and a gorgeous blue sky in the background. Blue and orange are complimentary colors on the color wheel, you know. Just ask Caleb.

Autumn has definitely arrived here in Spokane! The weather is cooler (just this week, in fact), and the leaves are starting to turn; however, we have more dead pine needles than brightly colored leaves to rake in our yard. Phil and Jared started school on Monday. Things are going well for both of them. I took all 4 kids to Jared's dentist appointment this morning. They all did quite well. Caleb, Grace and Lily read books and played video games for almost 2 hours while I wrote lesson plans for next week.

Tomorrow morning we'll have our preschool friends over for Pancake Day, and then my sister Emily and her friend Arthur will visit us this weekend! I'm off to get the kitchen set up for Lily. She wants to bake oatmeal cookies after her nap. Yum!

Mullet Madness

Still playing around with Yearbook Yourself. This one's for you, Emy and Liz.

Trouble with Twinkies

I never buy Twinkies, but I did 2 weeks ago when they were on sale. I thought the kids would enjoy trying them. When I opened the box, wouldn't you know it? There were only 8 inside, instead of 10! I emailed the company last week and received a very nice letter in the mail from them today. They included 2 coupons for any of their products up to $5.00 ($10 total--I only spent $1.50 on the box in the first place!).

Way to go, Hostess!

Yearbook Yourself!

Try out yearbook yourself for a good laugh!

1964

1966

1968

1972

1990
1994

Let me know if you try this. I'd love to see yours.

Prairie Days

We drove up to Five Mile Prairie this morning for their 10th annual Prairie Days. Since we've been reading Little House on the Prairie, the kids have asked me on several occasions, "What's a prairie?" It was much easier for them to relate to the previous book, Little House in the Big Woods, since we have 8 very tall pine trees in our backyard!

We had a great morning at Prairie Days. Some of the activities included tours of this old schoolhouse (very fun for me!)...

games...



tumbling...

prizes...

cupcakes (won at the cakewalk)...

(this is serious business here!)...

a hot dog, soda and chips picnic...


(they all chose Cheetos)...


and live music.

And these berries will be perfect in our Sunday morning muffins!

Guess Who!

Can you guess who these rascals are?

Friday Fun...Continued

We decided to camp one last time before summer's end--in the backyard.


Phil and the kids put the tent up while I was inside the house and on the phone with my sister. Now that's my kind of camp out!


Phil led the camp sing-along.


I roasted mini marshmallows on toothpicks over candlelight.

Then the kids were off to bed with a chapter read from Little House on the Prairie.

Friday Fun

The boys talked me into making Bob the Builder's Dirt Cookies this afternoon.

Surprisingly enough, they were actually very yummy!

We had all of our friends over this morning for school. Our theme today was leaves.

One of the moms came prepared with great crafts! The kids painted leaves on sheets of paper. Once the paint dried, we cut out the leaves and made mobiles, attaching them to sticks with twine.

Here's the finished product.

Then they made these great fall window decorations by placing fall-colored bits of paper and dried leaves between two pieces of contact paper.

Another mom came prepared to read these great books. Next week's theme is pancakes...yum!