November 2010

I am all finished breast-feeding Reagan, so she is learning to use the bottle again.

Kathryn at her Veteran's Day Assembly. Their music teacher taught them a Military song medley that they performed for the veterans and parents. It was very fun to hear her singing them and to learn them better ourselves! Sydney picked them up quickly, too.

The girls in their pretty pillow-case dresses from Grandma Dean, ready for church.

The girls did a round of swim lessons this fall. Sydney is in Level 1 and Kathryn is in Level 3. Kathryn learned how to side-breath and is really improving on her crawl stroke. Sydney's teacher said she just became a fish over the course of her lessons. She loved jumping out into the water and swimming with her face in.

BMX (how old is my husband?)

So...Mike has started riding his BMX bike again...after 15 years! Oddly enough, his current boss also races BMX! He couldn't help but help Mike find a good deal on a new bike and invite him out to the track! He's only been out twice, but has really enjoyed it. (And of course, he's still pretty good!) The girls loved watching him ride. They also loved watching that little boy that is on the far right of the pic. Kathryn really wanted to get out there and ride her Barbie bike around.

This is Mike's new helmet. Reagan is deathly afraid of it...on someone's head, or just sitting on the counter. The other girls aren't afraid though!

Halloween!

We had fun celebrating Halloween all month long! We decorated our house and ate lots of candy! We attended our ward's Trunk or Treat on Saturday morning. Here are all of us girls! Kathryn the doctor, Sydney the bride, Reagan the ladybug, and Emily the majorette!

I had a lot of fun getting their costumes together. For Kathryn I found an adult size pair of scrub pants and a white coat and sewed them down to her size. I made her cap out of the material I cut off the pants. I made her hospital badge and her pager is a pedometer! For Sydney we found her dress at the thrift store and I only had to hem it up a little. I also made her veil and bouquet!

On Sunday evening we visited the nursing home that's just down the street from us. We paraded around the dining room and wished the residents a happy halloween! Then we had dinner with our friends, the Fowlers. After dinner and dessert, we trick-or-treated for about an hour. The girls had a lot of fun running up to the houses, while we stayed on the sidewalk and waited. Luckily, they live just down the street from us, so we were able to get home quickly and get the girls to bed around 8:15! Double luckily, our Nonnie is here visiting, so she took Reagan home after dinner so that she could go to sleep!

Reagan is almost cruising!

Shaw Park Tree Top Playground Opening

On Saturday we attended the opening of Shaw Park's Tree Top Playground opening. This is another accessible playground that our friends (the Blakemores/Unlimited Play) helped to create. They gave out those cute stuffed monkeys, had free food, a balloon man, and lots of snacks.

Kathryn's Fall Party

Friday was Kathryn's Fall Party in Miss Reside's class. We had pizza, played games, made ghost suckers, and gave the kids a fun goody bag.

Kathryn at the ghost-sucker making station.

Kathryn making her witches brew. This was the game that I was in charge of. The kids had to use the straw to suck up the paper cut-outs and drop them in the cauldron.

Kathryn getting ready to play hot pumpkin!

Mikus Family Farm

Thursday was an early release day for Kathryn, so we went to Mikus Family Farm to enjoy their fall activities. The girls played in pools of corn, wheat, and soybeans. Reagan loved wiggling her fingers in it! The girls also had fun in the hay bale maze. It is one you have to crawl through and has a roof on it. They were afraid of it last year, but they really had fun in it this year. Kathryn had me time her, and she made it through in 24 seconds! We bought some mini-pumpkins and a beautiful mum for our front porch.

Kathryn's 6th Birthday party

We had Kathryn's 6th birthday party on Saturday. It was rainbow-themed with a rainbow balloon arch, rainbow cupcakes, and a rainbow crown.

Her birthday posse. We had 6 friends from school, 3 friends from church, 1 neighbor, and 1 sister attend. We played penny drop, hula-hoop toss, and had a treasure hunt to find a pinata in the shape of a pot of gold!

Awww...such a sweet girl.

Modeling one of her favorite presents. (Thanks Gaby!) The hair dryer really blows air! I also completed her name tag with her name and picture, so she'd be official.

Puerto Rico - 4

On Saturday we got up and went back to El Yunque National Park to hike down to La Mina Falls. Luckily, we beat the crowd and were able to enjoy the falls with only a few other people. The water was super chilly, but I did get in! As we were leaving, a big group of teenagers and a wedding party were on their way down. We saw 5 or 6 people slip on the steps and on the rocks as we were packing up to leave.

Puerto Rico - 3

Friday was kind of a rainy day, so we took the back road all the way to Old San Juan. It took us about an hour, but we enjoyed driving along the coast and through small towns. We visited the Castillo San Felipe del Morro and enjoyed imagingin what like was like when it was occupied. After that we walked around Old San Juan, did a little shopping, and ate dinner at a sandwich shop called El Meson.

Puerto Rico - 2

On Thursday we took the ferry out to an island named Culebra, to spend the day on Playa Flamenco. The ferry is only $4.50 roundtrip and took about an hour each way!

Isn't it beautiful!? We stopped and bought lunch in town before we took a taxi to the north side of the island. We ate, then snorkeled a little bit. The water was so nice and clear. The beach was pretty empty also, so it was nice to not be crowded.

Here I am feaux-snorkeling for the benefit of my kids. I thought they'd think it was funny. I'm probably in 1 foot of water!

Puerto Rico - 1

For our 10th wedding anniversary, we took a vacation to Puerto Rico! Luckily, Mike's mom (Karen) volunteers once a year to come and watch our girls so that we can get away by ourselves.

This is the view from our hotel balcony. We arrived on Tuesday (9/28) and spent the afternoon checking in and driving around the local area to see what we could see. We ate dinner at Richie's and shared a chicken mofongo with garlic sauce. We enjoyed it a lot. Since plantains look kind of like bananas, I really expected it to taste a little bit like a banana, but it actually tasted more like a potato to me.

On Wednesday, we hiked all the way to the top of the mountain in El Yunque National Forest. We hiked for about 3 hours. Here I am being silly on the top of one of the peaks.

That is the Eastern coast of Puerto Rico in the background.

We hiked to the top of the peak on the left.