Halloween can be so much fun. This year was extra special because this year I made my girls costumes. Not something I always have time or energy for, but this year with the help of my friend Jennifer, I was motivated to make these costumes. Olivia’s hat was lost by these pictures but you get the idea.
Here is Rapunzel, AKA Tabatha.
Then Pippi Longstocking, AKA Alicia (using one of Grandma High’s dress up dresses).
And last, but not least, Belle, AKA Olivia.
Living in a city, we sometimes forget where our food comes from. This year we have made a point of getting food from organic, local sources, and extended that to picking out a cow to eat for the next year. Our kids took this seriously. When the farmer called his cows over, they seriously looked them over to choose the one they thought would make the best meat.
Personally, I don’t want to see the picture of the cow they picked her on my blog each day, so here are just all of them together. It was wet, but the kids loved being out at the farm.
After picking out our cow (Alicia picked the one on the left so that is ours) we headed over to the pumpkin patch with the High’s, Marriot’s, and DeCremer’s.
It was still wet, so the kids started under the umbrella, but it didn’t last long. Soon they didn’t care that they were wet.
On the hay ride.
Tabatha and Isaac milking the cow.
The Marriot’s.
Racing the rubber ducks using the water pumps.
Tabatha and Isaac tried to wrangle some cows.
Alicia, Olivia and Audra decided to join Tabatha. They look professional.
We went into the barns to dry off the kids. The got to roll around in the large piles of corn and ride the tricycles and climb all over the hay maze.
All the kids are getting so big. Here they are, from left to right, Olivia, Katie, Alicia, Audra and Tabatha.
And in the end, they got their pumpkins from the patch.
This year, right after school started, I got a phone call asking me to chair the Book Fair this year. The women who did it last year has also done it the last eight years. She left pretty big shoes to fill, but Ken encouraged me, and I decided to do it. It is only two weeks in the fall and two weeks in the spring, right?
Well this was a huge undertaking, and I learned a lot. I made my school close to $6000 which is what was made last year, so I was able to amaze myself. Thank you family who came and supported me, my next book fair is March 16-19 so if you are available, feel free to come help volunteer, browse the books, and support Endeavour Intermediate School.
Here is a little of my advertising I did.
Olivia was my big helper through all of my decorating, setting up, and being at the school for hours at a time. She came a lot, but I also had my friend Jennifer watch her when she got really overwhelmed.
So here is to my heroes who help me each day, especially when it came to the Book Fair.
I am so grateful that my sister Christina was able to come up and visit. I had a girls night at the glass museum with her while my parents watched her girls and my husband watched mine. It was a lot of fun, I have never seen glass made in front of me before, and the hot shop was worth the trip.
These professionals were amazing, I kept thinking they would get burned, but after 30 minutes they made an amazing piece of glass without a scratch on any of them.
Here are just a few of the pieces made her at the museum.
A few days later we got Grandma High and all of our children together to see the World Championship of Sand Castles.
These sculptures were tall, intricate, detailed, unique, and wet because of the rain. A few had toppled, but most were still incredible.
The kids liked the sculptures, but our kiddos were more interested in making their own masterpieces.
But a few castles caught their attention.
Audra and Olivia are only 13 days apart, they could be twins with the way they interact, it was so cute to see.
I am not sure who these crazy guys are, but they were interesting.
Thank you mom for such a wonderful day seeing these works of art that didn’t last very long.
Every year we try to make it to the Western Washington Fairgrounds for the Puyallup Fair. This year I had the chance to go twice. The first time I went with my friend Jessie with her son Vinnie on the first Friday when it was free admittance. They had a blast together, and I think we did every free thing they had.
Here are the two bananas together.
Yes, I am a banana too.
We met sponge bob, but Olivia was very wary of him.
And Olivia got to milk Mabel the cow. Vinnie didn’t want to milk even a pretend cow, but Olivia loved the idea of it. She was rewarded with chocolate milk once she was done!
The next day, September 11, we went again, but this time Ken, Alicia and Tabatha and my in-laws joined us.
This time the kids found the music garden and made lots of noise.
Alicia loved the cat exhibit, this was one of her favorites.
Then all three girls went down the Super Slide. This was the best picture I had. Doesn’t Tabatha look happy. I couldn’t get all three at the same time, but I can guarantee you they liked it. Ken even went down with Olivia so she could enjoy a ride too.
Now with the rides, eating ribs, milking Mabel, getting books in the book mobile, and doing interactive farming, seeing all the horses, cows and other animals, and even watching the diving pirates jumping into a small pool, you would think they would be done.
Well, we forgot the most important thing. Alicia reminded us that we couldn’t leave without dressing up like a banana. Chiquita’s booth was the highlight, it was their favorite event of the night.
So here is to our Banana family.
Tabatha and Alicia begin another year of school. Tabatha is now in third grade with Ms. Haines. Alicia is in 1st grade with Ms. Matson who used to be Tabatha’s first grade teacher. They look ready for another year, and they are so excited.
Olivia on the other hand doesn’t know what she’ll do without her sisters all day. Daddy helped comfort her.
The main reason we went to Southern California was because of the San Diego Zoo. I have always wanted to go, and Ken has great memories of going there as a kid. Plus, they have Panda’s, and Tabatha loves Panda’s.
As you walk in you see this huge elephant bush. It was just the beginning of a long day of amazing animal sightings.
The kids didn’t want to just see animals, they wanted to be animals, and they had a lot of interactive activities. Tabatha loved being a butterfly.
On the Skyfari, we soared above the zoo and pretended to be birds as we looked down on all the animals from the air.
The Polar Bear was very friendly. He was right next to us.
So the kids decided to be a Polar Bear and climbed through the ice tunnels made for kids.
Here is the cute baby panda with her mother. She is almost 18 months here.
The girls had to wear shades in order to deal with the sun. If we hadn’t gone to California, we would have missed it this summer.
