Pumpkin Carving

We went to Uncle Scott & Aunt Beka's annual pumpkin carving party this past weekend and had a good time. Can you tell which pumpkin Joel carved? (It's a little hard to see in the first picture.)

This is a Citation 10. It's one of the planes he's helping with right now. It even has winglets!

Caleb enjoys climbing their tree since we don't have any that he's able to climb.

They had "Scooby" to bounce in. Here's Caleb, Joanna, Cousin Sam & Eliana.

Joanna, Caleb & Joel in "Scooby"

Eliana still loves "Scooby"

Eliana hard at work.

Joanna getting started.

What concentration - Caleb picked a hard pattern this year.

Caleb's pirate is done.

Western Movie Night Under the Stars

Tonight one of Joel's coworkers invited a bunch of people to their family ranch for hayrack rides, grass snake rides, cider & smores 'round the campfire and then a movie on the big screen (a big piece of canvas rigged up on a trailer-It worked really nice). A good time had by all and a beautiful sunset too.

What does a kitty cat say?

Check out Karis' tongue.

Trying to work

It's hard to get my work done these days - Karis wants to be in the middle of what I'm doing as soon as I sit down.

She even wants my pen.

Alright, time to find something for her to do.

Yay for playdough!

A toddler & blocks

Karis likes to build towers!

She built this one herself and was very proud.

Look at those eyes - I bet you know what she's thinking.

Watch out. Here she comes!

And again, and again...

Squish face

Karis having fun with the magnifying glass.

Happy Birthday Eliana!

Happy Birthday to Eliana!! We celebrated this weekend, and she had some friends over for a jewelry-themed party.

Her cake was a jewelry box filled with rings and yummy candy necklaces.

She's 5!

The girls made bead bracelets and also played pin the jewelry on the doll.

Eliana got some fun gifts and quite a few were crafts! She started painting her little piggy bank right away.

She also worked on her stained glass paintings and some more bracelets and necklaces of course!

Karis' favorite joke

Karis loves to laugh at the kids and they found a joke that she loves!!

Check out her wrinkled up nose and head nodding when she laughs. She definitely approves!

Pump it up - Library days

The kids got to go to Pump-It-Up with their reading rewards again this summer. What a great prize - The kids just love going!

Eliana on the slide

Caleb ready to race

Caleb flying down the slide!

Joanna, our neighbor, and Eliana

Gourmet Lunch

Here's an email I got from Joel yesterday which had "I must be tired" in the subject line.

He said:

"I just nuked my peanut butter sandwich. I forgot that it wasn’t pizza. I packed some pizza for snack, but forgot that I had made PB for lunch. Duh. Nothing like a piping hot peanut butter sandwich."

Big Brother

Ok, so Caleb is a great big brother and just loves Karis. He gives her tons of kisses every day.

But now I know why the youngest child sometimes needs their own space.

Aww, so cute!

Ok, that's good.

Let me out of here!

Now!

Piano man

He just looked so serious - I had to take a picture.

Playdough flowers & cousins

We recently "dissected" a couple of flowers to learn about all the different parts. In the pictures below, we made playdough flowers with all the different parts like the sepals, petals, stamen, carpel and ovule. The playdough I made was a bit too sticky, but it worked okay. We also used q-tips and construction paper for different parts. We were watching the cousins that day, too, so Samantha got to try one.

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Caleb

Eliana

Joanna

Cousin Sam

Cousin Chloe and Karis. Karis likes to help feed the baby.

Bedtime delays

Kids always seem to have another reason to delay going to bed or something that gets them out of bed. Here's one excuse that we found while reading "Peter Pan" that Eliana has in common with the lost boys from the Neverland.

"Every boy had adventures to tell; but perhaps the biggest adventure of all was that they were several hours late for bed. This so inflated them that they did various dodgy things to get staying up still longer, such as demanding bandages...."

Eliana is the queen of needing another bandaid. She can always find a spot that needs one and it seems to be when she is supposed to be in bed! She laughed when Joel pointed this out in the story - She knew!!

She's got a belly button

Want to see my belly button?

I'm looking...

Still looking...

See!

Joanna's back

My sister e-mailed today asking if Joanna was still at camp =) Guess I haven't posted in a while!!

Joanna's at camp

I dropped Joanna off at camp today - She was very excited. As we got close to the camp, Joanna said that she had good butterflies in her stomach and they were getting bigger.

Joanna is on the far right. Looks like a fun bunch of girls!!

Caleb says he misses Joanna already, cause there's nothing to do without her. We'll see how the week goes!

Karis & Grandfather

Karis thought it was so fun to spray Grandfather with the fountain!

Fun on the Mississippi River

We went out on the boat a couple of times this past weekend. The kids had a great time in the water and on the tubes.

Joanna & Jordan

Caleb & Ian

Caleb

Gretchen & Eliana in BIG BERTHA

Out on the water.

Yes, Joanna & Jordan are out there. BIG BERTHA is so BIG, they had a hard time staying up.

Ok, they're up again.

Ian & Caleb warming up.

The next day they tried the "hot dog" tube. It was a little easier for them to manage.

Cousin Mischief

Gretchen & Eliana found some markers. Need I say more?