Classwork

Sometimes it's an adventure opening the kids' backpacks to see what treasures have come home with them. Robbie had this gem in his classwork folder the other day:

In case it's too hard to see... Question 2 asks, "How do you know?" And Robbie answered, "Be cus I am cmart."

Rob and I about died laughing! I see Mrs. Jones got a kick out of it, too. And she even gave him full credit!

The Rest of 2011

So, we've been busy with everyday life. Nothing very exciting to blog about, but I'll at least post the last few pictures from 2011.

We rarely get photos with the whole family, so here's one from November - just hanging out at home.


Christmas was a lot of fun, as usual! With Christmas falling on a Sunday, we weren't sure how we wanted to plan everything around church. Church was only an hour that day, but it was a little tricky since it started at 11:00. We didn't want the kids to open everything beforehand and then have the fun part of Christmas be pretty much over when we came home from church.

We're lucky that the kids don't wake up in the pre-dawn hours and come get us on Christmas. Rob and I got up and got dressed/ready first and then the kids got up and came out to check everything out. There were way more presents under the tree than when they went to bed, and they had to see Santa's leftovers from his cinnamon rolls & milk:


The poor kids got to open one present each in the morning, and those presents were church clothes. Bummer. But they were actually pretty happy with their clothes and excited to get dressed! They knew they'd open everything else after church and they were OK with that. They do look pretty cute...

Also behind the kids, you can see the giant box of Nerds & huge roll of SweeTarts that Santa brought!

After church, we changed into comfy clothes and got to talk to Papa Bob and Nana Sandy in Illinois for a little bit. My parents came over right after that, and we opened presents.

The biggest deal for the kids this year was the Wii. We might be the last people on the plantet to have one, so they were pretty excited!


Rob and I cooked our first Turkey that day, and it was pretty good! No major disasters. Mom and Dad stayed for dinner and visited for a while. After they left, we cleaned up the present aftermath and played with everything late into the night. It was a good day!

The next day, Rob's family all came over for snacks/appetizers and we exchanged a few gifts and visited for a while. It was a nice, relaxing weekend.

We didn't do anything for New Year's Eve, although that day we all went to the driving range. The weather was awesome and it was nice to be out there.


You won't see me or the kids playing golf on TV anytime soon, that's for sure!

ASU Homecoming

In October, we went to the ASU homecoming parade. While we were waiting for the parade, Rob walked down to the box office to price some tickets... he came back with four tickets, so we went to the game, too!


There's always lots of stuff to see and do during homecoming. It felt a little crowded to us this year, so we didn't really stop to see the booths.

The parade was nice. The kids were happy to see a few Angry Birds-themed floats. And Frank Kush handed Robbie a little football. He was the grand marshall of the parade, so he was riding in a car with Sparky. Reached down and handed a football right to Robbie!

After the parade, we found a pizza joint and had lunch. It was all maroon & gold and sun devilly in there, so we had one of the workers take our picture.


The game was fun, too. Especially since this was one of the games we actually won this year! Here we are with the new pitchfork logo on the field.

We love our Sun Devils, even the seasons they stink!

Softball in Cottonwood

Last weekend, Rob played in a softball tournament in Cottonwood, so the kids and I tagged along. I spent a lot of time in the Verde Valley when I was a kid, but I haven't been there in years, so it was fun to go back. Plus, the weather was much nicer then Phoenix!

Robbie made friends with this little boy right away. We have no idea what his name is. But that's how kids make friends - they just play and have fun. These little guys ran around with sticks as lightsabers, shared candy, colored, played with trucks... they kept busy!



This was an all-day tournament, so we had lots of time to explore. The park was right next to the Verde River, so the kids and I went for a few walks along the banks. It was really pretty.

Erin got to play a little bit of catch between games. Here she is with Rob on one of the fields. You can see the town of Jerome on the hills in the background.

It felt good to be outside all day! There was a breeze and it was overcast off and on, and it was just really nice out. The kids took full advantage. There was a playground, plenty of room to run around, june bugs to check out, dirt to play in...

We had a little down time thanks to electronics. I did finally figure out how to French braid Erin's hair, so that was an accomplishment. I've tried before with disasterous results - much wailing and gnashing of teeth (and Erin didn't enjoy it either). But I can cross that off my list now.

Toward the end of the day, we were all getting pretty tired - and we weren't the ones running around playing softball! The team Rob played on hit lots of home runs, and in te last couple of games, we learned that if kids bring a home run ball in to the scoring table, they get a Tootsie Pop! This brought a new level of excitement. I'm not sure how many home run balls they got all together, but we had plenty of Tootsie Pops that afternoon!

Rob's team was undefeated and they won the tournament. Rob didn't hit as well as he would've liked, but he made some good plays and it was a good day.

We drove up to Jerome afterward, just to take a look around. We didn't really stay, since it was Saturday night and the hipster artsy scene was making it a little crowded. The kids were impressed with the roads and the precarious houses on stilts.

We were amused that Cottonwood has a Sizzler, so we ate there for the novelty of it. And no, it hasn't improved since the last time I ate at one 15-20 years ago. But at that point we were all starving, and mediocre was pretty good. Top that off with a dessert bar and things were great!

Fourth Grade & Kindergarten

School started on Tuesday!



This one was very excited to start kindergarten!

This one feels like a pretty big kid because she's halfway through elementary school!


Robbie wasn't sad in this picture - he was head-over-heels elated all day, but the sun was too bright for him. It's the only close-up picture I got, though.


Robbie and I hung out til the bell rang, and then he ran to get in line. They went straight to their "Monday morning assembly" (which was held on Tuesday this week) for the pledge and the national anthem. Since Robbie was first in line, he got to hold Mrs. Jones's hand. She is such a good teacher! She was Erin's kindergarten teacher and we like her so much we requested her for Robbie.


After the assembly, they got in line again outside their classroom...


...And went to class!


I only got a little choked up and was able to hold myself together! Both kids had a good day at school, and that night Robbie told us, "I can't wait for school tomorrow!"

Other stuff we did in July

Bleached stars on some shirts for the kids for 4th of July and spent the day at my parents' house swimming and eating and visiting with them, my sister, and one of my brothers and his family.

I made freezer paper stencils like the ones here - they're kind of fun!

Every July, Chik-Fil-A has "Cow Appreciation Day". If you dress up like a cow, you get a free meal! Even if you just wear one cow item, you at least get a free entree. We've gone the last few years, and it's worth looking ridiculous for an hour or so. I should have taken a picture of our tails. Next year I think we'll wear white shirts. If you've never done it, you should next year!

Our second camping trip was also nice. We weren't sure we were going because the whole state was under fire restrictions due to all the forest fires. But two days before we were hoping to go, they lifted the restrictions.

The lake was a little warmer than it was in June. We like to hike down to one of the legs of the lake, where it's pretty narrow and there are fewer people. We liked this family of ducks:

Last time, Robbie found a caterpillar that he played with for a while. This time while we were setting up, he found a buttterfly and was SURE it was his caterpillar. "Mom, my caterpillar turned into a butterfly!"

There were lots of butterflies, and he kept thinking it was all the same one. He named it Pickles. No matter where we were, Pickles showed up (he didn't know there were hundreds of Pickles look-alikes all over the campground). They were very friendly. Erin got them to land on her hands several times - never when my camera was handy, though. Here is Pickles sitting on Robbie's lap while he ate a Pop Tart.

We've had a good summer! Only two weeks til school starts. I'm not super-thrilled about homework and busy weeknights, but I'll be kind of glad to get back into more of a routine/schedule.

Erin's 9th Birthday

Erin turned 9 last week! These kids are growing up!

We kept it low-key like we did for Robbie's birthday. She got to invite two friends to Big Surf. We had lunch at Red Robin and then stopped at home to change before picking up the other girls. Of course Erin got a birthday sundae and an embarrassing song at Red Robin!

I didn't want to deal with my camera at the water park, so the only picture I got of Erin and her friends was in the car on the way over. Erin has been friends with these lovely twins for as long as they could all talk. And boy can they talk - these three are little chatterboxes! Robbie had to get in on the action - or he tried, anyway... their chatting skills are superhuman.

(As a side note, Robbie may or may not have a little crush on one of the girls - the suspicion has yet to be confirmed)

Big Surf isn't a huge waterparks, so we spent four hours there and had time to do everything a few times. We even ran into a couple of girls from church, so they all played together for a while in the wave pool.

After we got home, Erin opened her presents and got to play with all her new stuff.

We're so lucky to have Erin in our family! She's a good example to her little brother and to her mom and dad. She's very smart, and she's a nice kid. It's a little hard to belive she'll be starting fourth grade in just a couple of weeks.

We love you, Erin!