Clara Colors

Clara has many interests....The Wiggles, Mickey Mouse, her Baby Doll (that she carries around with her everywhere and sleeps with) playdates, and her sisters.  But she has really taken to coloring lately.  She loves Mickey Mouse so she has a couple of Mickey Mouse coloring books and a bag of colored pencils (because sometimes she likes to eat crayons).  She tells me she wants to color and then she runs to her room and drags out her Fairy table with a couple of chairs so she can sit down and concentrate.

She has such a fun time doing it and her art work is gradually getting better....at least for a two year old.

Now if only we can teach her to pick up after she is done!

Fall Concert

Childrens' Choir started up again in September.  Emma opted to take a break this semester but Samantha was eager to join up again.  They have learned lots of fun songs from all over the world and she has had a great time doing it.  She had her fall concert on Thursday evening where choirs from all over the valley came to perform.  Their first song each child was able to play an African drum with a drum teacher that taught them some beats from West Africa.  Then they sang a beautiful song called "Liberty."

Clara thoroughly enjoyed herself but mostly wanted her picture taken.

She lasted through about half of the program and then it was time to take this stinker home!  We are really grateful that our girls love to share their talents!

School Programs

Within the last week the girls have had special events at their elementary school which have been wonderful to participate in!  The first event was the annual Veterans Day Assembly.  Apparently this is a long standing tradition within this school to invite all the veterans in the area to come and watch a patriotic program put on by the students.  It started with the Boy Scouts displaying the colors and everyone saying the Pledge of Allegiance.  Then the children started singing and it was beautiful!

They did some songs where everyone sang, including the audience.  Then they did the anthems of the five branches of the military.  Sam's grade sang about the Navy and Emma's grade sang for the Coast Guard.  The principal said that it was usually an emotional and touching program and it certainly didn't disappoint!  As a parent, I am thrilled that our children are learning about the meaning of Veterans Day and what it represents.

On Friday the school had an awards assembly which they hold every nine weeks (for each quarter).  This is a time when they honor the childrens' accomplishments and the parents are invited to attend.  Each class chose three students who excelled in reading and three students who excelled in math.  Then they were announced in the front of the school and given a certificate.  Samantha received an award for her excellence in reading!

Here is the certificate she was given:

She also had an award for 100% attendance so far this year!  She loves to be at school!

Emma's name was called for her reading achievements as well.  Here she is coming up to the front to accept her award.

These were the rest of the fifth graders....

And her special award....

Then the principal recognized everyone who participated in intramural volleyball.  Each student received an award and had their picture taken with their team.

 Here is her certificate....

Emma had an award for her attendance as well: 98%

I love that these kids at this school are being recognized for their hard work.  It is motivating for them and you can see how excited they all were to have wonderful things said about them.  Kudos to the staff at the elementary for making it such a great place to learn!

Raspberries

One of the things that we love about our home is our raspberry patch.  However, we only had a slight harvest with them this summer - mostly because they hadn't been watered for a while during the moving transition and also because they weren't being taken care of as they should have been.  Mark did a lot of research and we knew we had to change things up.  This is a picture from about a month ago of our raspberries.  They were very overgrown.

Now this is how they look.  Last weekend Mark spent almost an entire day trimming and transplanting.  He cut them down to a good height, spread them out, and added some wire fencing to contain them and keep them upright.  We went from having 20 feet of overgrown raspberries to now having 40 feet!  It is so much more spacious on that side of the house and the berries look much healthier!

We have to do a few more thing to brighten up the area but we are really pleased with how well it looks now.

Cross your fingers with us that we will have an abundant harvest next summer!

Halloween Festivities!

Happy Halloween!  We've had a fun Halloween week here.  The girls only had school on Monday and Tuesday so we've been playing all week and getting into the Halloween Spirit.  They had class parties on Tuesday that were lots of fun and had a ward party on Wednesday night.  We had a chili cookoff and Mark's chili won the prize for best sweet chili.  His prize was an oven mitt filled with candy!  This picture is of Clara holding the big prize!

Thursday we went downtown to trick or treat in the afternoon.  The girls scored lots of candy!  Then we came home and had pizza and then did a little more trick-or-treating.  Clara's costume this year was a fairy - she was adorable but the wings didn't last too long.

Samantha went as a gypsy!

Emma dressed up as a nerd.  She was so cute!

It was a fun day and we have so much candy in the house.  We are definitely ready to move on to Thanksgiving!  We hope your Halloween was filled with fun!

Pretty Girls

I love the fall season.  I love the changing colors and the mountains here in La Grande are full of bright colors this time of year.  We have a really large bush/hedge in our front yard that has turned the most gorgeous shade of red so I thought I would take a few snapshots of my pretty girls in front of it.  They are growing too quickly and I feel like I have to capture every moment!

They are probably so tired of me taking their picture but look at those faces!!!  I am one proud mama!

We hope you are enjoying this season as well!