Savannah's Birthday

My Fancy Savannah loves Fancy Nancy and decided to have a Fancy Nancy party. She asked all of the children to come in their "fancy or dapper attire."

We read the first Fancy Nancy book so that everyone would understand the concept of being fancy rather than plain. Then we played Fancy Freeze Tag.

We had a fancy lunch with fancy toothpicks and remembered to eat "with pinkies up!" Nathan helped by serving petite fours. (That is a fancy word for little cakes.)

The children got even fancier with boas and jewls. The boys look so cute! After opening a present Savannah would hug the girl and shake the hand of the boy who gave her the gift. I love the expression on this little guy's face as he shakes her hand! "Cooties!"

Savannh has such wonderful friends. She planned out the party with lots of amazing games. We couldn't do them all becuase there were so many. Next time I'll have to make the party last longer!

Poet's Tea

Each year at the kids' school the third through fifth graders participate in Poet's Tea. This is one of my favorite events at school. They write or memorize poems and then recite them to the adoring parents. Then we all eat delicious treats; cookies, tea sandwiches, cookies, vegetable spreads, cookies, crackers, cookies, you get the idea.

This year was the first year it rained on us! Savannah recited a poem about rain, and five minutes later it started raining! We still had a great time.

Nighttime Visitor

This little lovely thing was waiting for us when we got home tonight.

Thank goodness it was outside!

First Day of School 2010

First day of kindergarten for Alanna. She is already sitting in the teacher's chair!

Walking into school. I think Savannah is tired of photos.

I LOVE taking pictures of their shoes each year. Can you guess whose is whose?

Beach Days

Good Friends

Bike ride alone the beach sidewalks.

Alanna "Surfin' the USA" as she says.

Lots and lots of jellyfish!!
Total Cuteness.

Poor Doggy!

This is a photo of the kids playing 'Poor Doggy" at our pioneer day celebration. Arya is hidden under the hat. She was so good at this game! The goal of the game is to make someone smile. There is a 'doggy' in the middle of the circle and he/she had to try to make each player smile. If the person smiles, they are out. The winner is the one who stays in the longest. No one could make Arya smile. She took this game very seriously. We told her not to smile and she didn't!! It helped that she could pull her bonnet over her eyes so she didn't have to look at the 'doggy!'

Family Reunion

In July we had a family reunion with my dad's side of the family. These have been going on since before I was born! This year since it was my dad's turn to plan the reunion, (which I ended up doing!), we had it close to home in beautiful Lake Arrowhead. I have missed so many of these reunions over the years; it was so nice to come to this one and to see my cousins, aunts, uncles, and siblings!!

My Dad, two of my siblings and our children.

My family (Jared was working and couldn't be here).

Cute Cousins! Ernest kept moving everyone's shoes. Arya and Alanna, posing, second cousins on the swing.

Cooking in the kitchen, kids playing a game, Dad and Craig on the computers.

The second cousins made a cool fort out in the woods by the house. They made brooms and swept it all out, made a fire ring, made seats, and they would have meetings out here. They were here for hours and hours. Reminds me of when I was a kid. Such fun!

The water in the lake was REALLY cold, but some braved it. Arya just liked to pose. Arya LOVES the camera!

We had so much fun at this reunion. I had forgotten how great these are for me, but especially for my children to get to know their relatives. I am looking forward to the next reunion in two years up at Bear Lake!!