Sunday, October 25, 2009

A new week

I am excited that a new week is starting. I am also excited that this new week ends with lots and lots of candy.

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

It's a park kind-of day!

How perfect is the Arizona fall weather? Pretty darn perfect, if you ask me. The mornings are crisp and fresh, the midday is ever so calm, afternoons are cool and evenings are relaxing. Yep. Nice. Ahh.
Since the weather is do dang perfect, I am taking the younger 3 to the park today and who knows when I'll come back. Last week, we were there for more than 3 hours, enjoying every minute of it. We only came home because it was just about dinner time and we had eaten all of our lunch leftovers.

Sunday, October 18, 2009

First Family Camping Trip

We managed to survive our first family camping trip. We didn't plan this trip, we happily (maybe not Mike) participated in the Souther Estates Ward Family Camping Trip - and it was sooooo fun. It was only one night and there were bathrooms with running water and flushing toilets but we did sleep in a tent on the hard hard ground. Oh, and it was a bit chilly at night.
We had a great time visiting with ward members, playing games, hiking, eating, putting more wood on the fire, roasting marshmallows, singing songs and enjoying the cooler weather. I wish I had pictures to show you. They would have been neat to look at. They probably would have made you wish that you were there with us. Unfortunately, both of my cameras are broken and I didn't even consider taking pictures with my cell phone. Sorry. Maybe next time. And, yes, there will be a next time.

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Happy Birthday Sarah!


Sarah is officially a 6 year-old. She woke up to find presents wrapped and tagged bearing her name. She politely asked if she could open them. I was still in bed, it wasn't even 6:00am. She opened her presents with her siblings looking on...she got just what she wanted. A new outfit to wear to school, some decorations for her room and something else (I can't remember at the moment).
She wanted other things, too. Lucky her, she got them later on in the afternoon from her friends who came to her party bearing gifts galore. It was a mixed party - boys and girls her age from school and church. Oh, and cousins. What a great bunch of kids, all were well behaved and polite.
Her party started off with coloring Halloween pictures (while the pizza cooked). After they ate pizza it was time to decorate cupcakes. Each kid did a fabulous job frosting their cupcake and decorating it with colored sugar, sugar shapes and other confection decorations. YUM! You know what I'm talking about! Sarah got the biggest cupcake to decorate, of course. Then, we all moved over to the patio where we watched Sarah open her bounty. Oh boy, what a bounty. Finally, the party ended with a bang and a pow and a whack - a pinata. (How do I put one of those ~ things over the 'n'?) Anyways...all the kids got a hit, some kids got two hits. Xave, my 15 year-old nephew, put more muscle in his swing than any of us could and knocked the pinata right off of the rope. It hit the ground and lost its bottom. In the end, the kids got enough candy to last them 'til Halloween. What a great day for me and everyone who got to celebrate Sarah's special day with her.