Happy Birthday Mara!

Mara had a great birthday weekend! First, her fun birthday party on Saturday. She invited friends, and we decided to buck the traditional party, and went rock climbing instead! It was great. BGSU has a fantastic climbing wall that is open for parties as well. She loved having her friends share in her special day. Carson came and tried the climbing as well. ( I was really proud of him, since he is a little scared of height) He did great.

Kale of course could not be left out. I was amazed how good he was for only being 4 years old!

Carson already harnessed up and ready to go!

Look how cute he is in his little harness. :)

Mara was fantastic at this. She has never been before, and as we know she has no fear.:) She is very talented in this, and was able to climb to the top several times. I think she is going to want to keep doing this. She loved it!

She really wanted to try all the most difficult routes. She is definitely an adventurer.

Monday morning was her actual birthday, and finally was able to open her presents from Mom and Dad, and her Grandparents. She was over the moon excited with everything she was given.

She was happy to get her own guitar. Now she won't have to borrow the big ones.:) Of course we had to get her a pink and purple one. Those are her favorite colors!

I took treats into her classroom, and she was excited to share them with her class. This is her teacher, Mrs. Lincoln (on the right), and the student teacher Ms. Garchar.

We are so blessed to have Mara in our family. She turned 8 on the 8th! She will be baptised in a couple of weeks, so she is very excited about that as well.

Eight things that I love about Mara:

--She loves to sing, even first thing in the morning

--She is a fantastic artist

--She is willing to try so many new things

--She is a great friend, and very friendly

--She has great curly hair

--She has beautiful blue eyes

--She actually likes to play with her brothers

--She is a great student, and loves to read

We love you Mara!

Halloween 2010

We had the missionaries over for Halloween. We tried to make a Halloween dinner, and I think it turned out pretty good. We made soup and put in in hollowed out pumpkins. (We cooked the pumpkins as well.) We had orange rolls, and pumpkin cheesecake. Yummy! It was fun to have them over.

The kids always have fun deciding on a costume. This year Daddy helped them with costumes. Carson was a robot. He really had fun making it out of a cardboard box, and one trip to Home Depot to get the arms, and he was set. Mara love being pretty, so she chose to be a fairy this year. She loved her wings. Kale was able to a a scary ghost, and liked having his face painted. Lee was a middle-aged man past his prime. :)

We went up to Haskins to Trick 0r Treat, since they were doing it on Saturday. Our town was having it on Sunday, and we really didn't want to do that. It worked out great!

This is Mara decorating her pumpkin this year.

Kale and Carson getting into the fun. They really don't like getting the pumpkin guts out, but they still endured to have a great pumpkin.

Preschool Fall Program

Kale had his Fall program last week. They all did a great job! It was fun to see all the cute costumes, and listen to their songs. Kale was a dinosaur for the program. He really wanted to be a ghost, but they didn't want the kids to dress up like anything "scary". He was OK with it. He knew he would be able to be the ghost for everything else that week.:) They all had to look at Mrs. K for the songs :)

They did a great job, and had so much fun.

Corn Maze

We visited the local corn maze this past weekend, and had a great time! First we had to get pictures of our "butterflies":) Next, after given instructions, and our punch cards we were off! We really didn't think we would do the entire thing, but the kids loved it, and we were pretty good at finding our way. It was 7 miles long on 16 acres. This is at the beginning.

Lee and I trying to take a picture while keeping up with the children.

We had to find 24 signs, and punch our cards. Each punch hole was a different shape.

One of the lookouts that we could use, if needed, to keep our bearings. Our great seekers! We finished, and because we found all the signs, we could enter in a free Christmas tree give-away. I know not much of a prize, but we had so much fun together, that really was the prize :)

The sky was gorgeous. I don't think the picture does it justice.

The sunset was incredible. One nice thing living where it is flat, you can see the sunset better.

Our new addition!

This is our new kitten, Lucy Furr. :) She has joined our family as of yesterday! She is very cute, and feisty. She is completely black, and very fuzzy. So far she and our other cat, Naomi, are trying to be friends. They have had some disagreements, but are trying work it out. Carson has really wanted a cat of his own, and we felt like he was ready and willing to try. Welcome Lucy!

Preschool!

Kale started preschool last week, and I am now finally bloggging about it!:) He loves school, and is so excited to be like his older brother and sister. He told me the only thing he doesn't like about school, is that he can't go everyday! I myself find it quiet around the house for 2 1/2 hours, but I do like getting so much done! I actually get to go to the grocery store alone, and I can go meet friends for breakfast and such. Wow! First time in 9 years by myself, it is hard to think how quick the time goes. He will always be my baby! I love this adorable face.:)