HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Pumpkin Spice Waffles for Breakfast....

(My sad attempt to make a jackolantern out of them 

the kids didn't care they weren't perfect

I had em at waffles and chocolate chips.)

 For 13 years I have dodged the bullet 

on having to do 

major face painting...

(Thank you Billie for thinking enough to grab the camera and get some progress shots!)

 Pretty Tabby Cat

 Stealthy Ninja

Zombie Skateboarder

(aka candy passer outer)

 

2011 Halloween

We had a terrific night.  We have such a fun active neighborhood.

And I guess now that Halloween is over, 

winter can officially start!  

Quiet Moments

 James was having a friend sleep over last weekend.  

The scheduled time was 4:00pm.  At 3:55 James started watching patiently.

(he only asked me every 5 minutes what time it was, that's pretty patient for a 9 year old.)

Then Grant joined in the wait for a little while.  

I love that my boys can be 13 and 9

and still be friends

and still have lots to talk about.  

First Day of Middle School

Today was the first day of middle school.

I don't know if I was more excited or Grant. ;-)

Billie has a great fashion sense.

She has picked out some really cute clothes for this school year.

We are still wearing some pants and shorts from last year.

I told her we need to save the rest of her school clothes budget for her next growth spurt.

(We did the "no heat headband curls" and I love the way it turned out.

I embedded the link below for the tutorial.

She showered yesterday morning and

then sported a "70's roller blade babe" all day

and slept in it last night.

Her hair was still curly when she got home from school.)

Grant has the fashion sense of a 7th grade boy.

Pick it up off the floor and smell it to see how smelly it is.

Camo pants are a staple in his closet.

It matches everything. :-)

******

On a side note and basically for my memory:

*Car pool fiasco: I ended up doing two drop offs.

The boys and then driving back to get the girls.

Got home

*burned mine and James pancakes

*the strawberry syrup exploded in the microwave

*my shin fought the dishwasher door

and the dishwasher door won

leaving a nice big scratch

and one hell of a bruise

*opened a can of soup while putting together

a crockpot dinner and sliced my pinkie finger

all of that between 8 and 12.

*Billie forgot which door i was picking her up at

so 25 minutes after school was over we finally connected

and were on our way home.

I think I'll sit on the couch the rest of the day and read a book.

;-)

End of the summer....

First things first, the VERDICT is in:

NO SURGERY

but this will be our view for the next 6 weeks

while we are best friends with the boot

*****

My tomato plants:

They are producing slowly

Perfect amount to eat on a salad

or to slice and eat alone for a snack

I got some sort of pest on one of my 4 plants.

It pretty much killed half of it before I noticed

(even though I water them daily).

*****

Last weekend we hit up a Food Truck Gathering.

It was fab and fun and just a tad warm out.

Some of us had biscuits,

some of us had tacos

and some of us had the most delish cupcakes

*****

This "ugly bug" had a mock day today.

Nothing like practicing for 6th grade.

But who ever came up with it was

PURE GENIUS!

All of our little butterfly's are gone.

And we even have a new BFF

(her 5th grade BFF moved to another school)

Traditional Front Door Picture.

We'll have another photo shoot Monday

when the Granster joins her at school.

*****

Summer has been great but

I am ready for winter.

but I love my fireplace,

my double ovens,

my scarfs,

my boots

and

school time.

Aspen in the summer.

We took an early anniversary trip and drove up to beautiful Aspen.

I mean, what says I love you for 16 years more than a trip with your children. ;)

We picked Bill up from work in Downtown,

armed with an iced venti white chocolate mocha

I took on the mountain with my little nissan

It was a "fun" little drive up to Independence Pass.

The Colorado Department of Transportation

must have decided it was easier to leave the guard rails off

the twisty, turny, windy road

than to have to replace them.

It was a beautiful afternoon at 12,095 feet.

The kids (and I) thought it was so cool

that there was still snow on the ground

at the end of July.

Aspen is an amazingly gorgeous mountain town.

The kiddos got a kick out of the winding stream through the middle of downtown.

The dogs kepts jumping all the way in to cool off.

We road the gondola up to Apen Mountain.

F-A-N-T-A-S-T-C

Nothing says summer vacation

like an ice cream bar on the top of a mountain.

Bungee Jumping for the kids.

James flipping out. :-)

Chair lifts in the summer.

Bill drove down the mountain, and thank goodness he did.

We were stuck in traffic for an hour and a half.

And if you are going to be "stuck" you might as well be coming down the mountain.

*Grant was with G&G Daniel this weekend

so we can't wait to be able to take him back to Aspen.

Summer Art Festivals

Bill has a childhood friend who is an amazing artist.

(You can check him out here)

He came and did several shows here in CO

So we took the kids for some culture.

This guy *below* was amazing.

He is covered all in mirror.

He had an assistant that was

armed with a windex bottle

keeping him shiny and clean.

Grant loved this target. *grin*

Billie loved everything.

(a girl after her mom's heart)

James really "really" wanted

to bring this guy home.

It is amazing to see lots of talented people in one place.

Just goes to show that you can really do anything you put your mind to.

Highlights of June

*Both Billie and James won their classroom award for

Wise Choices

at the end of the year assembly

*Afternoon Sonic happy hour.

*Family Cultural Project

*5th grade continuation...bring on middle school.

*Father's Day cinnamon rolls and chocolate milk

*Please, please, please mommy...aren't I so cute!

*Hanging out in the corner on his ipod with a blanket.

I guess this is what teenagers do.

*Evenings with the fire pit, smores, and our awesome neighbors

*Stylish pre-teen vacuuming with our slippers on

Etc, etc, etc....

These last two months have been such a whirlwind of activities. The month of May I spent three out of the four weekends in the car between Colorado, Wyoming, South Dakota and Utah.

So here are the highlights:

My friend Pam had an amazing spread at the "Wedding Viewing Party." We had a great time looking at all the hats, trying to figure out who all the British upity ups were and brunching on cucumber sandwiches, tartlets, croissants, champagne cupcakes and more.

We celebrated Grant's entrance into Teenager-hood with a fine meal at our local Japanese Habatchi Grill. (I can't believe that I am young enough to have a teenager!)

Trying out his new fly fishing rod. Better learn how to cook other-than-salmon fish!

He asked for a marble chocolate chip bundt cake.

And see how well I plan ahead for candles!

We took off for a week at Grandma & Grandpa's early morning on his birthday.

As part of his gift he got to choose our fast food lunch destination. Plenty to choose from when you hit a KFC/AW/Long John Silvers joint.

More birthday sweets that we shared with the whole extended family.

Grant asked for something with strawberries in it.

Playing outside in the beautiful spring weather.

My mom got a new bike for her birthday and she rides around town for the mail and such.

Couldn't resist this picturesque view of small town living at its finest!

We celebrated Mother's Day Brunch with grammie and mom's siblings.

The next week we drove to Wheatland to exchange Billie

for her week at G&G Daniel's place.

The boys were thrilled!

(But James missed her dearly by the end of the week)

We took the opportunity to drive up to Keystone SD on our way to pick up sister. It was only 30 minutes longer out of the way, and we got to stay at the most quaint lodge that our friends just acquired. Keystone is beautiful in the spring and we can't wait to go back for another visit.

The 4 cousins together at dinner with Bill's family.

We stayed at a nearby hotel so the kiddos could have some swim time.

James missed his sister and they went right back to their

fun,

imaginative

play time.

They are shown here sporting their sticker masks.