Another winged friend. 

Gretchen (jake's best friend) was a cowgirl, it was a fun surprise  

Maddie was belle too 

Happy Halloween 

Emily was Belle from Beauty and the beast. 

Jake was a cowboy. 

Tara was a "royal" butterfly 

Tara's butterfly wings, a better view. 

Oct.29, 2006

Monday was a good day. Jake went to his speech class. He's doing a great job on the "ts" ending. He is enthusiastic and happy to go. He had a surprise, a firedrill during his class time and basically "freaked" out. They all had to go out side and I had his coat....I walked around the school looking for him, by the time I got to where he was, they had gone inside. He was not a happy boy. Emily and I prepared treat bags and games for Tara's Halloween party. She loves a little time with me while Jake's at speech. We work on her writing. Monday night was Tara's last football game to cheer at. It was so cold and muddy. She said she had fun but, she doesn't want to do that anymore. Maybe piano lessons and swimming next. That's ok....it's fun to try things out first. Tuesday Emily went to preschool and brought home lots of fun "seasonal" animals...bats...lots of rainbow colored bats. We have made alot of crafts : tissue paper ghosts, scratch ornaments of black cats, tissue pumpkins, popcorn hands (with candy corn fingertips). We didn't have enough places to put everything. So,w e decided to make a Halloween tree. It was the branch that fell from our tree out front. Tara tore off the remaining leaves, and voila! Weds. was the trunk or treat at church. The kids had a great time. Jake missed it last year. We lost him right at the beginning and found him about 7 cars up going"Mom! Everybody's mommy is giving me candy!!" He couldn't believe it. It was great except the winning prize for the cake walk was 2 stale donut holes. Yuck. Thurs. it was hard to get up. Everyone was exhausted. Tara had a great party. I'm room mom and did a fun "pin the nose on the pumpkin", scratch ornaments, halloween bingo, popcorn hands and pumpkin toss. The kids said it was alot of fun. Tara just started on the accelerated reader program. She reads a book, then takes a test and there is a running tally of points. Now she can read the night time story books to Emily while I put Jake to sleep. Thurs. night was the primary pres. leadership training. Friday was finally a day I could put away the laundry I washed Mon. It's been a crazy week. Last night Emily had a birthday party for Ben and then we all headed to the Little Gym Halloween bash. We have enough candy now to hand out on Halloween. The kids are on "high" mode. All is well. Have a fun Halloween. Congrats to Tyler,a nd Happy Birthday to Jonathan too.

The finished butterfly garden 

Emily painting her garden 

A finished butterfly rainbow 

Tara painting her wall 

The chucky cheese photo booth shot 

A happy bowler. 

He had a ball! 

Everyone in their bowling shoes. 

Oct. 20, 2006

Ugh! Everyone has been sick for a week....except me(small hip hip). Tara started last Thurs. with a high fever for 2 days and then a barking cough and congestion followed. One by one they all got it..Emily then Jake then Gene. So, it has been a cold, rainy, sickly fall holiday. We have managed to do a few fun things. We went bowling and entered the Chucky-Cheese Zone of craziness. It was actually fun. Jake has been taking 2-3 hour naps every day and I must say he is much more delightful a child. We got a medicated humidifier for his room and he sleeps like a dream. We painted the girls room, what was supposed to be lavendar, turned out to be a brighter pink/purple color. We let them choose and they love it. We painted 2 bathrooms and i must say a coat of paint makes all the difference in the world. Mr. Clean erasers can only do so much, ya know? It's been nice to get photos of some of you lately. Best wishes for a happy halloween, incase I don't get back here til then.

It's October at the pumpkin patch, none as big as grandmas 

The see-saw kick 

Jake  

Emily on slide 

Tara's first grade teacher 

Emily's choice for school, it's all about fashion 

Oct. 6, 2006

Finally we have a front room back. The guys finally came yesterday morning to clean the carpets...we put back alot of the furniture, built shelves in one closet and put pretreated lumber down in the closet just in case this happens again. Outside we got a guy to estimate digging down to the cement slab and building a retaining wall in the back yard. Depending on the estimate, we will get started soon so rain will no longer haunt our house.
We had window replacements estimated too....the back rooms are so cold during the winter months...I'd like to avoid having a space heater in every room this year.
Ah! the joy's of homeownership. Tara had a field trip down town this week. They visited the sunsphere...went all the way to the top in an elevator. Went in the locker room and ran on the field of the stadium, went to a park downtown and somewhere else, I forgot. She had a great time and is feeling much better. Her school had openhouse so, we met her teacher and saw where all her classes are. Seems like a good learning environment.
We've been out to the park almost everyday this week. Thought we would enjoy the weather while we had it. I met with Jake's speech teacher and set up the dates he will go. Mon . and Weds. Everything else is good. Here are some recent photos.