My Fall wreath

I had to share - I'm so proud of myself.

I was inspired to make my Fall wreath by this blog over here - Write it Down. She created this Halloween wreath. Feel free to go check it out. But here's a picture of hers anyway - in case you don't want to leave:)

So gathering inspiration from hers - here's what I came up with for fall.

I am in love. I've already made my Halloween wreath and it will go up in October - but I'm thinking this one may make an re-appearace in November.

Go here....

I visit a blog a lot that is all about sewing called Grosgrain Fabulous. She has a wonderful feature called Technique Tuesdays that I just love. But the reason I'm blogging about it today is because she's giving away some CUTE CUTE CUTE little girl patterns. So go check it out and enter to win. If you don't want the patterns, enter to win anyway and give them to me if you do:)

First day of school - 2010

Hillary Tinka - Kindergarten

Connor - 6th grade

Breanna - 10th grade
I'm back to being a mom whose kids are all school age. Sigh.

Our annual trek to the zoo

It kind of makes me sad that we live an hour away from the closest zoo and that it costs so much to get in. We only manage to get up there once a year. We went while my parents were in town.
Looking at these pictures I realize I take the same ones each year. Someday maybe I'll put them all together. I think the progresssion of kids age in the same picture would be pretty cool. But that's for another day I guess. Today is just this years pictures.

These first ones are especially for Tasman and Benjamin. Look at the alligator eating Breanna!!!

Connor as a gopher.

Gopher as a Connor.

The kids on the giant elephant. This elephant makes noise and blows air out it's trunk. This is the first year Hillary would come within 20 feet of the thing.

Yes, he's weird.

Baby Zuri. She's one year old now. Still cute though.

Zuri and Mommy.

We had a blast. I'm not sure how I managed to not get one picture of either of my parents. I need to be better.

Hillary turned 5 in August....

I did a birthday post for her - but here are some pictures from the actual day.

We waited for Grandma Tinka and Grandpa Ralph to get here to have her party. I'm glad we did as they were able to be in charge of the cupcakes. Plus my mom came up with the idea for the cutest invitations and favor bags. We went to Jumpin Jacks. It's basically a building full of bounce houses and slides. The kids had a BLAST!.
Sierra, Sydney & Kyrsten

Kowen and Nando

The castle party room.

The great cupcakes made by Grandma and Grandpa. The girls got a Fairy and the boys got Buzz or Woody.

All the kids ready for pizza.

Hillary blowing out the candles.

Opening presents.

Kowen with cupcake all over his face.

More presents.

Mega slide.

Sydney being crazy.

Crazy Nando.

All three girls.

Nando on the slide. He was fearless and would jump and bounce down that slide that was as tall as the building.

The kids on the little rides.

Hillary had a great time. I'm glad we chose to do it at Jumpin Jacks. Five is the perfect age for it and they're totally reasonably priced.

Brrrrr!

I was so cold on the way to work this morning I had to turn on the heat in my car. Sad I know. It's time to get my jacket out again I guess. I also saw the bright colors of fall peeking through on the mountain yesterday too. So I changed my blog layout to match the fall leaves. Pretty huh? Anyway - today's post is all about what happens when you leave your kids in the van with a camera.

I have hundreds of these kinds of pictures from over the years. Sometimes it's just nice to see that they can get along so well when I'm not there.

Is it already September?

I feel like I've been super busy this last month and a half. Too busy to post apparently. So I have a ton of catching up to do. So I think I'll just start at the beginning and work my way to the present.

The last week of July was rough. My Brother-in-Law Bill lost his battle with cancer and passed away. I rushed off to be with my sister on the other side of the country for a week. It was a sad trip - but I had fun seeing my nephews and neice I rarely get to see.

This picture is at the luncheon after the funeral.

There was time for a quick trip to my sister Alicia's house in Pinehurst. We got the pool out for Mom, Tasman and Ben to play in. The rest of us mostly watched. I filled water balloons.

This is a little toad in my brothers driveway the day I left. He gets them a lot I think. They drive the dogs nuts. But I thought he was cute.

Stay tuned for the first day of school, Hillary's birthday and party and lot of pictures from my parent's visit.