Veteran's Day 08

Madelyn's class spent the morning at our city cemetery. I volunteered to go with them. We sat on blankets and I read a story about the The Wall in Washington D.C. that honors soldiers who died or are missing in action. Then each student made rubbings of veteran headstones in the cemetery. The headstones were designated by a small U.S. flag. At the city Veteran's Day Memorial Services they sang. My eyes got a little wet. The song has beautiful words. I am only sharing a small clip of the song. I so appreciate our nation's veterans and those serving now to keep freedom in our land and in other parts of the world. I love this nation! Thank you, military.

Eleven is Heaven

Our wonderful Madelyn turned eleven. Even though I thought I had until say 13 yrs. old to feel like I had a young woman in the home, it happened earlier than expected. You see a similar transformation between a baby and toddler and a toddler and child. She is absolutely beautiful to me. I'm grateful for her and enjoy our talks and the closeness we share. We got balloons in her favorite red, green, blue colors (and a happy face one for fun.) We had her favorite German puff pancake for breakfast (and remembered to take a picture of it after it was almost devoured.)

I took a red rose to her classroom and powered donuts holes to pass out to her class. For dinner we had chinese stir-fry, another favorite.

She received two beautiful dresses for her birthday. She wore the red one the next day when her class went to the symphony.

Madelyn, we love you!

Halloween In All Its Glory

The back of our Sacajawea, complete with babe in papoose (that was actually a birch sled I decorate with at Christmas time and we gave it a new purpose for the day!)

A lovely Vampiress (she has usually been a princess or fairy of some sort, so this year she said she wanted to be something more Halloweeny, she still has that regal look)

A very striking Batman (couldn't wear the mask to school, so we used the awesome tatoos Grandma gave us)

Our Cinderella Princess
(she loved wearing her "pretty dress")

This is Josh and two of his friends, Whitney and Coleman, ready to go to school.

The kids wore their costumes to school and each had a fun Halloween party. I helped with Alyssa's class party this year and led the kids in GHOST bingo (thanks Mom for buying me the Halloween bingo set last year.) I also cut up lots of apples and provided caramel dip. We had meatballs, cheese and crackers, and apple juice with gummi worms, too. I took Josie up to the school for the fun and she hung out with the other toddlers there.


It was my turn to walk with the kids this year and Mike did the candy at the door. I borrowed my Mom's witch costume, but added the broom. I especially liked my witch feet. It was a particularly pleasant evening for the festivities.

Grandma Judy visited Halloween weekend and went to our friends' annual Halloween bash. We eat our fill of chili, clam chowder, rolls, and donuts with apple cider, rootbeer and/or hot cocoa. We always have a great time visiting with our friends from our old neighborhood. Here is a shot of me with Kathy (she's my ER nurse friend) and Kara (one of my past young women, now married. Sigh, time flies.)

It was a GLORIOUS Halloween!

Spooky Food

We had several meals at home this year that were Halloween-themed. Also as extended family we gathered for a spooky feast together during October. Here is what we made and ate.Yummy Mummy cookies
Gummi Worm Fruit JelloPowered Donut eyeballs
Breadstick BroomsticksHot Dog Mummies and Troll Toes

Mummy calzones with dipping saucePurple moon and orange pumpkin Jigglers
Spiderweb pizza

Black spaghetti (way cool) and manicotti eyeballs

At the Village

The kids really enjoyed hunting for witches last year. So this year I took the kids again and we invited our cousins to come along. They had a great time and got a chocolate chip cookie. They loved riding the ponies and the petting zoo.

Josie cheers for BYU

I took this quick clip before the game against TCU on Oct. 16th. Too bad BYU lost like silly. We all enjoyed the Octoberfest food at Colby and Jamie's, though (and Happy Birthday, Bro!) Luckily BYU has won the last two games, barely, but at least they were wins---that's something to cheer about, right Josie?