Happy 15th Anniversary

For our 15th anniversary we left our kids for the 1st time and went on a cruise.

This is what we look like without 5 kids hanging off of us.

We visited sunny Bahamas, Brian even went snorkeling.

Meanwhile back at home, Grandma Stott wrangled the rowdies.

We were so glad she could come and spend sometime with the kids. 

                                                                 Grandma Stott and Merry.

Eliza became great friends with her and was sad to see her go.

Halloween

 

I love when Halloween is on Saturday so we have time to carve pumpkins and such.

Adam planned one of the pumpkins to carve.

Eliza ate some blue candy that matches her shirt.

Her teeth are sort of grossing me out.

I had to stop at Walmart on the way home from trick or treating and buy everyone new toothbrushes.

Adam's pumpkin.

Merry and Grace carved the other pumpkin.

Grace was unimpressed by the slimy stuff.

Neither was Merry.

Be careful she knows how to wield a knife.

Merry and Grace's finished pumpkin, notice the eyelashes.

 For costumes we had Adam and Eliza as a couple of polar bear cubs.

  Grace as a skeleton with a baby skeleton.

She has been planning this costume for months, she actually wanted to push the little glow in the dark skeleton in a baby carriage.  I pointed out that she might get sick of pushing it so she opted for wrapping it in a baby blanket.  She only wanted glow in the dark legs but most of the skeleton costumes do not glow so we had to duct tape and paint some leggings for her.

 

Merry was going to be a seventies dancer but then she saw how cool Grace's face was so she wanted a sugar skull too.  Now she is a skeleton seventies dancer.

The girls close up.

Yoda made an appearance for trick or treating but could not be bothered to carve pumpkins.

School Character Parade

 Adam was a polar bear from the book "On the Night You Were Born."  Unfortunately it was like 90 degrees outside so he was a little bit sweaty.

 Grace was Fern from "Charlotte's Web."  This was more labor intensive for me as I had to sew a red dress.  Fortunately it can be used for Olivia and little orphan Annie costumes as well.

Merry was DeeDee from "Sideways stories from Wayside School." She is the girl who likes to play sports but only gets a yellow kickball that is flat.

Later that night was the school trunk or treat.  Adam and Grace opted to keep the same costumes from earlier in the day but Merry changed into a pegacorn (a unicorn and Pegasus hybrid).  

Field Trip

Adam's first field trip was to the pumpkin patch. Eliza and I joined him to learn the life cycle of a pumpkin.

 

 Adam was excited to pick a giant.  

I wasn't so excited because then I had to carry a giant pumpkin.

 Posing as the farm people.

 Adam and Eliza, in the pumpkins

 

Still very excited about the giant pumpkin.

 Pretty Eliza.

Eliza picked a perfect sized pumpkin for her to carry.

Cousins come to visit

We had a partial family reunion over the weekend with brother John and sister Ann.

They both came with 5 kids so our house was a little crazy. 

To keep the monkeys entertained

we visited a ropes course with all the cousins. 

 All the climbing cousins.

 The 11 eleven year old cousins, Jacob, Ava and Paul 

The 9 year old cousins, Merry, Nathan and Joseph.

The 7 year old cousins, Izzy, Grace and Eli.  

 

The 5 year old cousins, Adam and Becca. John and Lynnie dropped out this round so Mando had to fill the 3rd photo slot. 

I went up to on one of the higher courses with the 11 year olds.  Paul was pretty sure I was going to push him off the platforms.  At the very end was a 40 ft drop he had to jump off.  He was a little nervous so he sat down on the platform and said "you are just going to have to push me off."  We all survived.

 We also took all 15 kids to Legoland and we didn't loose anybody.
Everything is awesome!
There really is 15 kids in the picture, Eli is hiding behind Adam or Adam grew an extra foot.
 

Back to school

 Hard to believe Jacob is going to middle school this year.  His school starts a couple of hours before the elementary school, so it was nice to just talk to him in the morning.

As you can see, he is taking this very seriously.

 He even wore deodorant.

 This is drop off round 2 and 3. 

 Merry is starting 4th grade this year.  She also got glasses over the summer and is finally getting used to wearing them.  She has the same teacher Jacob had for 4th and 5th so she was excited to go to school.

Grace is starting 2nd grade and has the teacher that both Jacob and Merry had. She was quite devastated to learn that one of her friends moved to a different school. After the initial trauma she played with some other kids.  

Eliza was ready for her picture to be taken and would not let Adam pose alone. Adam is starting kindergarten this year. He is excited about some of his friends being in his class but is dreading homework. 

Eliza moved up to the 3 year old class a couple of months before her birthday.  She was glad she was not separated from her best friend Fiona.

Best buddies, they play ninjas together all the time.

The younger crew.

Happy first day of school.

Summer fun

 A super hero ninja, armed with football power.

 A fierce karate chop.

 A butterfly ballerina with monkey slippers.

 Trying out her wings, unfortunately she was going to jump.

Fortunately I caught her.

 A ninja owl, stealthy and fast.

Karate chops are also part of her arsenal. 

I am sad school is starting again.