Little Minnions

Christmas

Frost

 We've had heavy fog the last few nights, so this is what we wake up to each morning!

Family Party

Festival of Trees

I haven't been to the Festival of Trees in years, but since Josh, Hailey and I are off track we had time to go with some friends.  The Festival of Trees is an annual fundraiser for Primary Children's Hospital.

We loved the Monster's University Tree.  The librarian's eyes move!

 The Ratatouille Tree reminded us of Tom.  He loves "watching" this movie on Sunday afternoons.

 The gingerbread houses were amazing!

 Got to love the Tardis gingerbread house!

This is a "Weeping Angel" from the Doctor Who mini tree.  This tree was popular with all of the Doctor Who fans.

Happy Birthday Julie!

Julie is amazing! She's a student body officer, plays the piano in Jazz Band, plays the flute and guitar and is a great student.  She's definitely kept us busy this school year.  Now that she's 15, she's planned on getting all of her driving hours done before she starts Driver's Ed next school year.

Happy Halloween

Hailey loves the movie "Hotel Transylvania" so she decided to be Mavis (teenage vampire).  Of course everyone really thought she was a witch.

Josh was anti-Halloween.  We couldn't get him to tell us what he wanted to be, so in the end he just put on a black-hooded cape and looked unhappy.

 Megan threw a Halloween party for some friends.  She's little Red Riding Hood.

Julie and her friend Allie were genies.  They love the jingly belts so much, I think they're going to wear them to school on Monday.

We almost didn't carve pumpkins this year.  I've not felt well most of the week.  But I couldn't disappoint Josh.  So after work today I frantically gutted 5 pumpkins and carved faces into 3 of them.  Not bad for a worn out mom!

Pumpkins

We normally get pumpkins at the end of September, but this year our favorite farm was slow on the pumpkin harvest.  Then I had to go back to work and stay extra late for parent teacher conferences.  So it's the middle of October before we picked out our pumpkins this year.

Tom's disappointed I said no to a straw bale and corn stalk this year.  (I had just vacuumed out the van and didn't want my efforts to go to waste!)

Julie

Hailey's smile might be inspiration for some jack-o-lanterns this year!  She still hasn't had those top front teeth come in yet!

 Cutest kids in the patch!

Everyone decided to choose smaller pumpkins this year.  I guess the kids finally realized bigger pumpkins equal more goop to scoop.

Homecoming Dance

Homecoming was last Saturday.  Meg's cute date, Brandon, asked her with confetti filled balloons tied to a teddy bear.  Inside one of the balloons was his name.

Meg looked beautiful in red.  A sweet neighbor came over to help with her hair.

 Since Homecoming is such a big deal, Tom had to be extra intimidating!  Here he is pushing his way into the first photo I tried to take of Megan and Brandon.

Megan said one of her favorite parts of the night was the yummy dinner at the home of one of the guy's in the group.  Another favorite memory was being serenaded to at a frozen yogurt store at the dance.

 

Back to School Part 2

Since Megan and Julie are on a traditional school schedule, they had a full month from the time the rest of us started to school to enjoy their summer.  They got really bored and spent MANY hours volunteering in my classroom.  They were thrilled when they got to start school.  Above is our traditional spot to take a picture... the bricks help us measure changes in height.  Yes, Julie is taller than Megan!

Julie's going to be really busy 9th grader this year!  She's a student body officer, pianist in the Jazz Band, starting up piano lessons again, and still playing the guitar and flute.  Add homework on top and she will be a very busy girl.

Megan's a junior in high school. Megan packed her schedule again this year, but made room for French and a concurrent enrollment class in Marketing. Megan is still playing the violin in the orchestra and hoping her parents will let her go on a trip to California with the music department again this year.

Young Woman Recognition

Megan earned her Young Woman Recognition today.  She shared her testimony of the Book of Mormon and her experiences through Personal Progress.  She earned her final ribbon, Divine Nature.  Now she's busy working on earning her Honor Bee.

Back To School

Our elementary school is overcrowded with close to 1100 kids, so this year we moved to a year round schedule.  Josh, Hailey and I are on B track so today was our first day back to school.  Megan and Julie start in a month.

Locks of Love

Since it's back to school haircut time, Hailey decided to make a big change and donate her hair to Locks of Love.  This is the 2nd time she's donated her hair.  She looks so cute!

Disneyland Characters

 Here's just a few of the characters we met in Disneyland. 

 Minnie is Hailey's new favorite character. 

 Red in Radiator Springs.  Love this place!

 Sulley, getting ready for Monster's University

Rapunzel and Flynn Rider.  Flynn is really tall... who knew?

Field Day

As the school year comes to a close, our fabulous PTA sponsor a school-wide Field Day event.  With a student body near 1100 kids, this is a huge undertaking!  Since Hailey's in my class, I got to enjoy watching her  participate in all of the events.

Soccer

Although Hailey's a really good soccer player, she has a love-hate relationship with soccer.  She loves playing.  She loves being a forward.  She hates practicing.  She hates being late to practices or games.  So when she decided to not play next year, we didn't try and dissuade her.  Today was her last game.  Hailey ended her soccer career by scoring a goal and receiving a trophy.

Tying a Tie

Learning the art of tying a tie.

Egg Drop

Each year the 5th graders and their dads design a container to protect an egg from being broken when dropped from a height of 30 feet.  Containers are weighed and must follow certain guidelines.  Tom wasn't able to attend the event, but did help Josh design an "egg sandwich" container. 

Unfortunately, the egg did not survive.  I think the bread dried out too much.  May be plastic wrap around the egg instead of rubber bands would have helped too.

Kent's egg survived in his Styrofoam container survived.  It was also the 4th lightest design.