Visit to Papa in Gainesville

We went to visit Papa in Gainesville during Thanksgiving break.

We went to the natural history museum to see the butterfly exhibit.

 It was very cool, we even saw butterflies hatching.

 Every one was duly impressed.

They had some awesome poinsettias as well.

Happy Thanksgiving

         For Thanksgiving this year we visited Brother Dave and Sister Leslie with our crazy clan plus Papa.  We only talked 9 out of the 10 double cousins into posing with Papa. 

 They live in the house I grew up in so it was fun to go and visit.

 This about looks like what we did growing up.

 We visited the woods climbed the trees and swung on the vines.

Jacob survived a collapsing vine.  He was very disappointed that I didn't catch it on film.

 Eliza loved climbing the trees, visiting the cows

and being driven around by her cousin.

 Merry looks so grown up all of the sudden.

 Eliza and her Papa

The Stott grandkids and Papa.

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.