Monday, October 24, 2011

Shasta's Harvest Festival

 On Saturday we took the kids to the Harvest Festival at Shasta.  John dressed up like a train conductor.  It took some effort to get him to dress up, so I'm really glad we went with simple!
 Mac and Maddie are wearing their costumes too, but they are hidden!
 Wang Lu came along and had lots of fun.  She said that this type of event doesn't happen in China and that she really enjoyed the community event. 

Mac's First Salmon!

Kelly Carr took Mac and Spencer fishing last weekend.  I couldn't believe my eyes when I got this photo!!  Holy smokes!  His first time fishing and he snags this!  He fought with it for over 20 minutes and then Spencer jumped on it and got it onto the land.  Mac was so happy.  He now LOVES fishing.  I think I would love fishing too if I caught a fish like this even once!  They have plans to go again this weekend.  Hopefully they'll have just as much fun. 

Ryan's Pumpkin

 Ryan entered the pumpkin decorating contest in his school again this year.  He decided to do an alien pumpkin.  He worked very hard and came up with quite the creation!
 The pipe cleaners are arms.  The fluff on top is its hair. 
 It's hard to tell in the pictures, but this pumpkin glows in the dark and is covered with sparkles.
 He got one vote from a nice sixth grader.  He was very disappointed not to win, but he had so much fun creating!

Field Trip to Gateway Museum

 One very cool thing about homeschooling is the field trips.  We took one to the Gateway Museum.  The exhibits were not that great, honestly.  The kids had the most fun in the hands on lab.  Katie and Macky looked all around, while John stayed in the same spot watching Emily.  He adores Emily.  Thankfully, Emily is starting to like John. 





Thursday, October 6, 2011

Catch Up on Ryan

 Ryan cut his own hair at school.  I guess it's a a rite of passage...
When Maddie was able to ride her bike, she wanted to go to the taco truck to eat dinner.  Well, Ryan wanted to do the same.  He made it!!

General Conference

We had a crazy weekend.  I had a class on Saturday and John had the flu.  But, we still managed to watch Conference.  Okay, not all, but much.  A tradition around here is for Spencer to make sticky buns.  Oh my are they yummy!

We watched Conference on the computer in the office this time.  Emma helped the kids set up a "nest' the night before.  The room was filled with pillows and comfy blankets.  And legos, lots of legos.  We are pulling together some fun traditions for conference.  If you're interested in watching any of the talks, go here: http://lds.org/general-conference/sessions/2011/10?lang=eng

Stapfs Visit

I think this is my first post about Delayne coming to visit.  Boo.  Well, she did come - yeah! - and the little girls got to stay for a bit while she shopped.  While Delayne was out, I witnessed a miracle.  Eliza sat on the couch with a book.  John got up next to her and asked her to read him a book.  (Notice: no screaming or biting involved, he was just nice to her!!)  Eliza said that she doesn't know how to read.  John said that was okay and they started to look at the pictures.  Next thing you know, Lily climbs up and wants in on the action.  So, Eliza goes to the book shelf and picks out a stack of books.  She piled them up next to John and told him he was in charge of handing her books when she asked.  He took his job very seriously.  They sat there for over an hour.  Incredible!!  Love those kids.  :)

Laps for Learning at Parkview

 Maddie's school had their big fundraiser!  The kids run laps around the field to earn money.  Maddie had so much fun with her friends.  It was a great day for a run!
 Ty did a fantastic job of jogging at a good pace. 
 Maddie would run and then walk and then run.  She had lots of fun talking with everyone around the track.
 The girl in purple is Maddie's buddy Madeline.  She worked very hard to beat her record last year.  I think she went around 34 times.  Most kids went about 20.  She was a rock star!
 This is Maddie's friend Kiran.  She worked hard and reached her goal.  Yeah!
After we finished running, we went over to see Shelby.  She showed us a spider.  John was very interested.  He just loves bugs and Shelby!! 

The Backpack

John loves his backpack.  He now carries it with him everywhere.  It has his "job" in it.  Sometimes his job is building a new house for me and Daddy.  Last week, I took him to the park.  He had to wear his backpack, that is until I had to carry it for him.  When we got to the park, he busted out his "glass."  He used the magnifying glass to inspect everything.  It was so funny and cute.  He inspected the park cat, even.  He tried to catch some birds, but they would not cooperate.  Here he's looking at a leaf.  We collected leaves on the way home. 

Blue Oak Harvest Festival

Every year Blue Oak Charter School has a Harvest Festival to bring their community together and raise some money.  We were lucky enough to go this year.  Ryan LOVED bobbing for apples.  We got to see Aidan and Eliza's classrooms.  We also got to see Aidan's class put on a play.  He was a dragon.  It was a seriously awesome dragon.  Someone put some time into making it.  Ryan was so impressed!  The kids all liked the treats from the bake sale.  Where else could you buy homemade fruit popsicles? - not juice, fruit! 

Grandpa Retires!

 In the beginning of September, Grandpa retired.  The guys down at his office threw him quite a party!  They invited us to go to the yard and eat lunch with everyone.  It was awesome to meet all the people that Gary has been working with all these years. 
 The kids really liked getting into the big trucks that are parked at the yard. 
 This is Grandpa's office.
 This is John standing next to a scoop.  He isn't even as tall as a tire!
 For lunch they had a nice buffet.  There was chicken, rice, and a whole bunch of other goodies.  I can't believe all the food!!
 So far Gary hasn't been relaxing on a chair for his retirement, it's just not his style.  But, we appreciate the thought!!

 John enjoyed the chocolate cake!!
Uncle Jeff helped John work up the courage to sit inside one of the big trucks.  It was a great day!  After the party, I took the kids to Rick's, which is now called Jeff's, in Colusa.  I used to love going there when I was a kid.  We showed them where Grandpa went to high school.  Colusa is a lovely town.