Guess where I am...

i hope i don't have to dress up like this every time i go to nashville...
but it was fun :)

Children's Musical

The girls were in the musical at church :)

This is rehearsal on Saturday morning.

Lillian was an angel...

well, she's an angel when she sleeps...

;)

clearly, we are quite excited about thanksgiving :)

in other news, kaely won the school spelling bee and will compete against other elementary and middle school children in our area next month. the winning word was "tundra" :)

kaely will be singing a solo in the church christmas musical. i'm sure i will cry again, but hopefully will get better video. she also has an important speaking part now. elise has a speaking part in the school christmas musical. lilli is lilli, and quite happy to be so :)

i don't have a problem

i can quit whenever i want!

hey guys...tomorrow's a full moon.

fall festival

wooooo! i am a bit behind...
so here are pictures from the fall festival at the church :)

intense cotton candy negotiations:

games and prizes:

a bouncy version of twister?

this is sass right here...

picture it

rainy day+worn out kids+a bag of candy corn=a very long ride home.

love ya jules

mr blisters is not my friend

this year, our church held it's own crop walk, rather than everyone heading downtown. we met at the ball fields and had some lunch. i was totally pumped that mr blisters was there. i had wanted to get my picture at church this morning, but that pesky choir thing got in the way.

we signed in and turned in our donations and then lilli froze. she saw mr blisters and freaked. she had to sit with ms elinor while kaely, elise, and i did the photo op game.

so then we had a spot of lunch and lined up for the group photo. lilli was doing really well, until mr. blisters joined in. i held her for the photo and, i thought, long enough for us to walk away from the friendly mascot. he joined the walk. so, for the first half mile, lilli piggy-backed and updated me, loudly, on the location of "the shoe". poor little girl...

and who am i to fuss, really...there are plenty of women who have to walk long distances and carry their children every day. i only did it for a short time and then got to go home to my comfortable house.
elise "caught" a snail. she was quite proud of herself and disgruntled with me that i wouldn't let her keep it. kaely took a picture for her and then she puti t back in the "forest".
it was about 3 miles of walking and we raised about $3000. not bad i think...

yippee!

who doesn't like flowers? :)



i kinda like this whole being spoiled and honored thing.

not cool

it's just not as funny when it's your door...

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Nature in my van! Gah...the things I do to make my teachers happy :)

today julie and i went "grocery shopping" for her frogs. we stopped at the bait shop that has the juiciest crickets in town. i refused to stand near the open cricket corral. the lady behind the counter gave me a look and said "you don't like crickets?" and i said "no" and did the wiggly heebee jeebee dance (because i could not help myself). she gave me such a disgusted look. sorry...i can't help being a city girl! we also got some minnows (because the snails or pond scum or whatever is lonely). the cricket queen called them crappies. i resisted the urge to thank her for the "crappie" little fish.

i really don't like the scratching noise of crickets in a paper bag...aaahhhh. heebee jeebees

*sniff*

today was lillian's first day of kindergarten.

she was so excited!

but she told me as we were driving to school that she was "a little nervous". i walked her in and dropped her off. almost cried as i was leaving the school, but i kept it together :)

she had a great day!

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Lost a tooth!

first day of school!

the second grader

the fourth grader

whoa! it's like they like each other or something!

here's a conversation bewteen them:
kaely: "do you know what a feeding frenzy is?"
elise: "who is frinzy?"
it reads like the jokes from the joke books that anne used to love to read...out loud ;) thanne!

pictures from the san franne trip are up and the link is over there ---> somewhere. great fun! can't wait to see anne again.

i left charlotte at 6 am, praying that that screaming baby i had seen/heard near my gate wasn't on my actual plane. sigh...she was, and she was sitting right behind me. are you kidding me? thankfully, she was precious for real :)

got on a bigger plane in atlanta

this plane was huuuge and came with the neat little screens at each seat. flight of the conchords was the only thing i was interested in watching (and i knew i would look ridiculous watching that by myself) so i opted to play games...for like 5 hours with no interruptions. it was cool.

when i got to the san francisco airport, i followed the signs and the "purpladora" trail to the "escaladora" to the train only to discover that anne and i were going in circles trying to find each other :) but i had fun making up spanish words. i think the dramamine does odd things to my brain.

berkeley is a neat place. we went to a pharmacy that was "earth friendly". if i remember correctly, the "testers" were called "experienced" or something like that. we also went to trader joe's...there is one at home too and i was curious to see what they were like. i'm a little fuzzy on the details though... we also went to a mexican restaurant...amigos or compadres...something like that. we had talked about going to see pinepple express as well, but i was tired.

on saturday, we went to monterey to "sea" the aquarium and uh stuff. we saw a lot of stuff during the mile and something walk from the parking garage to the aquarium! shops and the ocean and seals. it was weird heading south with the ocean on my right. the aquarium was a bit crowded but had a great selection of critters. anne was disappointed that the really big sunfish had died, but the little one was cute. it was feeding time for the giant octopus...it's fascinating to watch them move. stopped for coffee and then hiked back to the car. we left monterey in time to get to oakland to see anne's friend max in an improv show. "the emergency is in my pants..."

on sunday it was lazy morning, brunch, and pedicures. then we went to the mall and wandered until it was time to see pinepple express. i don't smoke pot, so i probably missed some of the humor, but i still thought it was funny. a bit violent, but funny (in that silly way). zachary's pizza for dinner.

on monday, watched idiocracy and did some baking (chocolate bread from boston and chocolate chip cookies with dried cherries). snuggled with penny :) then we drove in to the city to walk the golden gate bridge. it was very windy and chilly, but it was a gorgeous day. we parked at the north end and then walked across (found a gift shop...heck yes) and then walked back. about 3 miles i think? drove to sausalito and walked around...found a neat little jewelry store that i know anne will go back to visit. dinner at alex's house! he grilled steak and we sat on the patio and ate and talked. it was nice to meet him. dessert was the cookies and bread, which was served with pears and brie (yum). watched a bit of the movie brazil, but then it was time to go. early flight home...

the trip home was pretty uneventful...just long. i was so excited to see the girls! it's always good to have a break from being mom, but it's just as good to be home again :) thanks anne...thanne!

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Whatever happened to predictability...

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Is that for me?!

the ocean has been calling me. i decided that, with the girls gone this weekend, i would drive out to the beach. there were no catastrophes or other activities planned, so i went today. yes, it's a bit of a hike for a day trip, but it was so worth it...sat for about three hours and listened to the waves and the birds and felt the wind and smelled the salty air. i found peace.

ok, so it's probably not the best idea to take photos while driving down the road at 70 mph, but this was too cool :)

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Small towns are so friendly

88 woohoo!!