Harry Potter Clan

Introducing our cast of characters. (Drum roll, please.)
Ron Weasley, played by Isaac.
Ron with Scabbers, his pet rat.
"Expecto Patronum!" says Harry Potter, played by Lucas.
Head of her class, Hermoine Granger, played by Ariel.
Hedwig, Harry's pet Snowy Owl and magical familiar, played by Elsie.
Albus Dumbledore, played by Michael, and Professor McGonagall, played by Lisa.
The entire cast and crew on their magical mystery tour.A mysterious dementor joined our group. Who is that masked man?

Jackpot Boy

While Trick or Treating last night, we came to a home/business with a large window display with many different size decorative spiders. It was the 4th annual "Guess How Many Spiders" contest. The prize was a 5 pound Hersey's chocolate bar. We got a phone call at 9 pm and were told Isaac was the winner out of over 300 guesses. The correct number of spiders was 312, and Isaac guessed 312 exactly. They delivered the candy bar today after school. Isaac's expression here is to let you know it is a very heavy candy bar.

Another one bites the dust

Last week both computers crashed. Mike and I were asked to speak in church. It was looking like we were going to have to prepare the old fashioned way, using books that are within our reach and writing our talks out by hand. Luckily, by the end of the week we borrowed a laptop from our friend. I have a camera loaded with pictures that I cannot download yet.

I entered a contest that ended last week to be a Snowmama at Park City Ski Resort, which required I write blog posts and give tips on taking a family skiing/boarding. The winner gets a week's paid vacation at the resort and a family season pass. My kids might be even more excited than I am about the prospect of winning. Everyday Lucas or Isaac asks me if I have won.

There was a spot on the application for your blog address. I was planning on doing lots of great blog posts to increase my chances of getting picked. That did not happen because our computers are out of commission. I even had to ask Haley to help me fill out my online application. Bless her heart. She was able to cut and paste my essays into the application by logging into my email account. The essays were so long we stayed on the phone for about two hours as I bossed her around, having her fix problems. I didn't have access to my photos to submit with my application so Haley had to find photos to use off my blog. It was a very kind thing for my high school senior sister to do on a weekend evening.

The boys are acting like they are in a read-a-thon. This month Isaac has read the complete Harry Potter series and Lucas read the Ready Freddy series. Isaac stays up until the crack of dawn reading. I am up early this morning on the first day of fall break because the sound of Lucas rustling pages was too much for me to sleep through.

Ariel has learned to write her name and loves practicing writing letters. Her teachers at preschool have taught her how to hold her pencil correctly and she takes it very serious.

Elsie is growing many teeth right now. Her top and bottom gums are both totally swollen. She is climbing up and down on everything -- a very dangerous hobby. She climbed up on a stepping stool and was almost on the counter when I grabbed her. She is fast and there have been several falls. Oh, I gave her a haircut yesterday. I lopped off her mullet into somewhat of a bob.

I pulled out the sewing machine Monday and started to sew our Halloween costumes. For the first time we recycled costumes from previous years. Everyone has grown so I still needed to make three new ones. Photos to be uploaded soon, I hope. Keeping my computer fingers crossed.

Mike did his first cleft lip/palate repair yesterday.

The weather here has been absolutely gorgeous.

This week

This week I was able to spend a few days helping out in Isaac's and Lucas' classrooms. They attend school with some great kids so that makes it a lot of fun. I am decorating Lucas' teacher's bulletin boards. This is the one in the main hall. As kids read a book, they will write the name of the book, author and their name on a leaf and those will be the leaves that are falling.

For another bulletin board, I am putting together all his classmates' photos. I took this one of Luke. He loves me helping out, which makes it that much more fun.

I was playing football outside with these rascals yesterday and broke the little finger on my left hand. It is making things rather difficult because I am left handed. Diaper changing and fastening car seats is especially hard. I'm kinda bummed that I broke a bone. It is my first.

A Sunday afternoon stroll

September 23rd was Mike's birthday. We invited our friends, the Parker family, to come and celebrate with cake and ice cream. I tried a chocolate cake recipe that I have been dying to try for a few years. It required a lot of butter--9 sticks. That alone should have made it moist and delicious. The recipe called for the cake flour to be sifted in with cocoa in small increments. Once it was baked and put together, it was to be refrigerated for 3 to 4 days. The chocolate cake did not live up to my expectations. I did enjoy the frosting though.

I like to take pictures of my kids after church on Sundays. Unfortunately, Mike is usually not with us. I guess I do this to document our life in somewhat of a consistent manner. Ariel and Elsie's hot pink outfits were fun to photograph.

We do not own a dog but I think every one of our neighbors do. They vary greatly in breed. Elsie is especially fond of the the two little pugs, Gertie and Millie, who live across from us.

The Park

After the boys go to school in the morning, I like to take the girls in the bike carriage for a ride. We live near so many awesome fountains, playgrounds, parks and ponds. I keep meaning to take pictures of all the gorgeous fountains. Anyway, we found this way cool amphitheatre near our home. We took Ike and Luke on a Saturday morning to show them.

Ariel's first day of school

riel started preschool a couple of weeks ago. Here she is before school on her first day. She loves to pose. Whenever she is describing someone to me such as a teacher, schoolmate, neighbor or someone in passing, it is all about what their hair and jewelry looked like. She loves getting dressed and looking feminine.

Harvesting Apples (& eating a few)

We had a fun time.

Elsie and the Monarchs

Our neighbor planted milkweeds in her yard which attract Monarch catepillars.
She lets us know when it is time to watch them form a crysalis and emerge as butterflies.
They are on a tight time schedule and we have learned what signs to watch for.
It is such a miracle and so much fun to see.

GEOCACHING

We have a pretty killer new family hobby called geocaching. You can go to http://www.geocaching.com/ to learn more about it. We have been doing it for a few weeks and are all totally into it. We are always looking to recruit new friends & neighbors to play along.

neighborhood

We live in a great neighborhood with wonderful kids and parents. Last week our neighbor, Anna, turned six. A couple of moms got together and threw a little party for her outside as the kids got off the bus. It was darling. It was a surprise for all the kids and they had a blast.