Locks of Love

Sophie has been growing her hair out for a couple of years and decided it was time to go shorter. She donated her hair to Locks of Love.

Before: Going...
Going....
GONE!!!!

After!

Halloween '10

So, I am a little late...please forgive me!! Here is Allison all decked out for her class Fall Party...All of the kiddos, er Hannah Montana, Minnie Mouse, and Darth Vader, anxiously waiting to go...
And they're off.....
Our friendly ghost...
And at last --- sorting the stash!!!

Orange It Is!!

Had to happen sooner or later...right?

Jason took a fall yesterday. Nothing exciting...just started to run, lost his footing, and fell. The scream was awful, but arm didn't look to bad and he was able to move it, so we decided to wait and see.

He was pretty tired when we put him to bed and he fell asleep okay. But, a while later he was awake complaining of arm pain again. After the second wake up, we gave him some Motrin.

This morning he was up and around okay, but the arm was still hurting and he was not too excited about going to school and someone bumping into the arm. So, he stayed home and we call the pediatrician. Several hours later and after an additional visit to the pediatric orthopedist, here it is.....the right arm with TWO broken bones just below the elbow!!!

Here he is enjoying his treat for being such a big boy at the doctor! He's in a temporary cast for about a week. Then he gets a hard cast to wear for about 4 weeks? Any guesses as to the color of the next cast?????

Allison Jumps

Allison likes to jump!

EGGS-periment

Sophie's 'I Wonder' project for school was to test whether different drinks stain teeth. So, we hard boiled some eggs yesterday to use as teeth doubles. Then Sophie was up and dressed at 6:02 AM this morning!!! Here are the pictures from the day:

Supplies ready...
Dropping eggs in different types of drinks...

From left to right in the pic below, the liquids are water, tea (which she brewed herself this morning -- extra dark), Orange Crush soda, chocolate milk, grape juice, Cherry 7UP, Fruit Punch KoolAid, Dr Pepper, V8 Spicy Hot. Sophie's guess was that Dr. Pepper, tea and grape juice would be the leading offenders. The older kids had an Early Release day today, so school got out at noon. After 6 hours of soaking, Sophie took the eggs out...

She really didn't like the V8!!

After taking notes about what they looked like right out of the liquid, Sophie then tested the benefit of brushing!! You can even see the white spots on a couple of the eggs that she had already brushed.

Turned out that grape juice cleaned up OK, but tea and Dr. Pepper drinkers ........BEWARE!!

Summer Sketches 2010

Sophie, Jason, and Allison love to draw. Many summer afternoons were spent coloring in the game room. Here is a sample of their sketches from this past summer.

Allison mainly likes to color rather than draw.




Jason sometimes draws things like these butterflies.....

But he more likes to color a patch completely. This is an often rendered portrait of Daddy (or it might be a self portrait).

Rockets were a main topic this summer for Sophie.

This was actually from back in the spring. I couldn't believe Sophie drew this one because it looks so good, but then I saw the humor and sure enough, it's Sophie's.

Demo by Kids

Well, John and I decided to rework our closet. After several weeks of trying to design what we wanted, our simple little closet reshelving turned into a not-so-simple master closet/master bathroom remodel.....and the official demolition starts tomorrow morning!!!!

So, in order to get ready for the demo crew, we had to clean out the closet (and the bathroom and most of the master bedroom). We have officially moved upstairs for the foreseeable future. The kids got a real kick out of how "clean" our closet was.... And then they got to decorate it.......

Daddy also got in on the fun....

Here's Sophie with her selfportrait to her right and Jason did a drawing of himself to Sophie's left. Markers didn't quite accomplish the look, so they had to break out the glue, yarn, glitter, and whatever other crafty things they could get their hands on.

Now at this point in the evening, mommy had to go to church for a meeting.....SOOOOOOO, Daddy broke out the HAMMERS!!!

......and let them go at it!!!

Where's Allison during the banging???? Somewhere quiet!!!

Thanks Aunt Crystal...

We had a great snack time today!!!

Yummy!!! Happy Birthday to ME!!

Allison's 1st Day of School 2010

So, she had to wait an extra week after big sister and big brother started, but she finally got her day!!The backpack is almost as big as her...

She has Mrs. Susan this year (who was also Jason 3's teacher)...

And all that she had been talking about for days was wanting to paint at school....Here she is all smocked up and ready to go!!!

Pruney Feet

This picture was taken about 20 minutes after Allison took her longest bath ever. We were amazed how pruney her feet still were.

Allison likes to play during her baths. She scoops and dumps water in her cup, she squirts water from the crab, Snoopy, and fish toys, and she general splashes. But on this day, she got especially giddy playing with the cup (for a looong time). She would hold it upside down under water then watch it fly as she let it go. I wish I could have got a picture of the 1st time she caught it in the air!

Here is her pruney face to go with the pruney feet.

Two Coats in Summer

Sophie took two coats to school this Wed in a Texas August summer! One was a rain coat to stay dry going into school. The 2nd was a sweater to stay warm in the cafeteria. So it makes some sense, but still.... Two coats during the middle of August?!? She must be related to Uncle David.

Bon Appetit

Sophie's first try at cooking us dinner (mostly) by herself. I precooked the chicken just a bit.It was pretty tasty and we'll try it again!

First Day of School 2010 (Part II)

Meet the Teacher Night was last Friday night. Here's Jason with Mrs. Wirstrom -- the same teacher that Sophie had (and loved) for kindergarten. Here's Sophie with her 2nd grade teacher, Mrs. Blakey.

These two were up and ready to go ..... about half an hour tooooo early!! (I shouldn't be complaining!)

Mom was walking too slow for Jason!

Is it a rule to give the shorter kids the top lockers???

Jason --- ready for the parents to leave so they could get the fun started.

Sophie found her locker and then got settled in her classroom.

Jason...after school...he survived, had some fun, but was a wee bit pooped!

Are you wondering 'Where is Sophie?' Well, she informed us that she really didn't need me to pick her up at school!! So she rode the bus home with friends and we picked her up at the bus stop....and then went for ice cream!!!