Bugga's newest "business"

A couple of summers ago, Bugga made her first lemonade stand. She has actually made at least one each summer since then, I just haven't blogged about them. She usually ends up with a few bucks and has a blast.

It's not exactly "lemonade weather" outside right now, so she got a little creative...

This was after her little stand had been open for a while. She made it herself, all except for the orange sign. The business next door to our house is a printing business, the owner's name is Jim. I think he kept Lyra in business all day. He came over and bought a cup of cocoa, and ten minutes later, came back with that orange sign for her. It must have worked, she made $8! She was pretty genius! She charged 50 cents for the cocoa, and then an extra quarter for "add ins"...leftover candy cane stirrers and marshmallows!

Her are a few shots of her in action--

And one of her sidekick...

...whose main job was to run the thermos back in the house for a refill!

Look what Pyper can do!

This little gal is pretty proud of her newly acquired skill...I'm pretty proud of her too!

Arrow Of Light...

Seth's Cub Scouting days have come to an end. With him turning 11 (how did THAT happen?) next month, tonight was his last pack meeting. He worked really hard and earned his Arrow of Light badge, Cub Scouting's equivalent of an Eagle. I'm very proud of him! Here are some highlights from our night. It was really fun, a couple of his friends, Johnny and Byron, also got theirs tonight as well.

One of the "Order of the Arrow" came. He had an authentic costume and did a Native American dance portraying the Cub Scouts journey to get their Arrow of Light.

His Cubmaster awarded each boy their badge, certificate, and an arrow as a keepsake.


There was also the mother's pin. We had lots of fun doing science experiments, I think that was my favorite!

Fireman Seth

Last night at Pack Meeting the firefighters came and told us about their job. Seth got to try on their fire gear, and we got to see the inside of the firetruck. It was fun!

The End

It's been a while

...since I've posted a Pyperism. I think that sometimes, as much as I love that gal, her mouth just makes me crazy. It goes NONSTOP! (She has rechargeable batteries, remember.)

But this one was too funny, and I wanted to remember it! A little background info...

Pyper loved being three. I don't know why. If you ask her what her favorite age is, she will tell you "Thwee!" I also just found out about Freecycle, a great way to get rid of junk treasures I will never use again. I found someone who needed a jogger stroller, and I just happened to have one laying around that my FIVE YEAR OLD hasn't used in a while! We arranged a time to meet and her to get it from me, then I loaded it in the back of my truck so I didn't forget it.

While I was dusting it off, Pyper says, "I weally like my stroller." I explained that she was too big for it, and that we were going to give it to another mommy to use for her baby.

She replied, "I wish I was thwee, I could still ride in my stroller when I was thwee." (I'm almost certain she hasn't ridden in the stroller for longer than that, but we'll go with it!) Once again, I explained she was too big now, but three was a fun age for her.

Next came, "I wish I didn't have my birtdays. Then I could still be thwee. If I just give all my presents back, then I won't have anymore birtdays and I will still be thwee!"

...*sigh*...If only it were that easy...I could be 25 again...

Fannie

When Pyper was very small, just a few weeks old, Aunt Cami gave her "Fannie" the elephant. She is Pyper's very best friend in the whole world. They have had many adventures together, and Pyper sleeps with her every single night. Fannie has went to numerous doctors and dentist appointments with Pyper, and she even went to "Bring a Friend to School" day at preschool last year.

Well, this summer, while we were on vacation, Fannie got left behind at the mall. I called the lost and found several times to see if she had been found, but no one had turned her in. Pyper was devastated. This isn't the first time that Fannie had been lost. She got left behind at the soccer field once, but eventually made her way back home (of course it was AFTER I found a replacement Fannie on Ebay! We had 2 for a while and one just mysteriously disappeared, more on that in a bit**.). Fannie is a Boyde's plush animal and was retired in 2004, so I knew this time my chances of finding another on Ebay were slim.

We went to Build A Bear and Pyper made a soft fuzzy bear, but it just wasn't the same as Fannie. I checked Ebay periodically, hoping I would be lucky enough to find another one.

One day, a package came in the mail for Pyper...

684 hours searching Ebay for "Fannie the elephant"+ $49.95 plus shipping+ seeing this smile = PRICELESS!!

**Not long after the "new" Fannie arrived in the mail, Hannah was at Grandma Charlene's house helping her change some sheets on the downstairs beds to get ready for some company. As she was tucking the blankets back down between the wall and the bed, she found the Fannie that had gotten lost mysteriously! And just for the record, Grandma Charlene DOES change the sheets on those beds, Fannie was just crammed REALLY far down between the wall and the bed!

Time flies...

It wasn't long ago that this gal was heading off to preschool. Today she is 14. I can't believe how fast it happened. I blinked and here is this wonderful, kind, funny young lady. Hannah, I love you so much and am so glad you are my daughter. You keep life interesting and make sure we keep on laughing! Life is never boring with you around.

Here is a little video from her party tonight. We just had a few family members over for cake and ice cream. Grandma and Grandpa Webb send each of us the funnest candles for our birthday. I decided this time to record what it does. Well, lets just say, Hannah had an "issue" lighting it!

Don't worry, we checked out her hair and it wasn't singed!

Another DI treasure

I had been on the lookout for a "new" dining room table and chairs for a while. I was browsing at my new favorite store last fall, and found this beauty.

I loved the chairs, well apart from the awesome blue cushions! But I knew they could be fixed! It was sturdy and just funky enough! I went on a search for the perfect fabric for the cushions to start my inspiration. Then I had to wait for warmer weather, and so the table sat...like this...until last weekend. I decided it was the perfect weekend project (it took about 8 days longer than a weekend!). I pulled it all outside and primed and spray painted my fingers sore. Leslie and Laura both came over to help me out, I think they felt bad for my poor fingers. I cut fabric, stapled seats, antiqued, spray varnished (the chairs and my nostrils...FYI, do not spray varnish on a breezy day...I'm not the most patient person in the world.), varnished, sanded, varnished, sanded, and varnished some more. FINALLY, I have this...
...and oh my gosh, I am in love! It is always a good project when you impress yourself!

Crazy Hair Day for Hannah

Since I'm always wanting to increase my talents, and we all know I can do 80's hair...

...a couple of bottles of Elmer's Glue, a bit of blow drying, and some very sticky hands later, Hannah was ready for Crazy Hair Day! I sure hope it comes out!

Kindergarten...

...sure can wear a girl out.

80's Day 2011

I put my mad skills to good use again this year and this is what we came up with for 80's day!
I'm also having the urge to sing "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun!"

Just to make my mom jealous...

Lately I have discovered the fine art of "thrifting". I have found some pretty awesome things--canisters for my kitchen, a ruffler foot for my sewing machine (for $2 might I add! It's a $65 part!), DVDs, ice cream dishes, and stuff to make a cake stand--just to name a few. My mom gets jealous when I tell her about all my finds. In my defense, I DID call and tell her about the ruffler so she could go get one too! I've wanted some apothecary jars for a while now, but I am way to cheap to pay at least fifteen bucks each for them. So I started collecting each time I went to the DI, glass candlesticks and jars. A few minutes and a little epoxy later and I had these beauties...
They are all mine for the low price of $6! Oh, plus a few pennies for the epoxy! Now I just have to decide where to put them!

First Day of School 2010-2011

Hannah went to a new school this year. She is in 8th grade, and was a little nervous for her first day! It was a much bigger school and she was afraid she might get lost! Not to worry, she survived and had no major battle wounds!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This year Seth is in 5th grade. It's his last year in elementary school. He decided last night that he wanted his hair cut--short--so, I took advantage of it! He now has one kickin' fauxhawk!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Lyra is in third grade. In fact, her third grade teacher was MY third grade teacher! She is very excited to go back to school!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This is Pyper's "day before the first day of school picture." She didn't start until the day after everyone else. And this is my cute little Kindergartener on her very first day of school! She had so much fun!

Vacation Time

We needed a vacation and decided that it would be fun to take a jaunt to Denver and see some of the things the area had to offer. We left Uncle Dustin in charge of the carnival and found a KOA (it's the kiddie's favorite campground, they LOVE the funky bikes!). We spent some time swimming in the pool and just hanging out on Thursday. Friday night we decided to try out Chuck E. Cheese. None of us had been there before, except Hannah. We ordered pizza, got some tokens, and let loose. Some of us had to really concentrate while playing the games!
On Saturday we went to the Denver Zoo. We saw lots of animals and even came away with all the kids! We were worried that the zoo would think we were trying to smuggle monkeys out of the exhibit. Can't you see the resemblance...?
Some of our other favorites were penguins~

elephants~

and seeing how we measured up to the polar bear~

Sunday we spent the day at Elitch Gardens.We started the day on the carousel.

Then David, Hannah, and Seth took off for some roller coaster action. So Bugga, Pyper and I headed on over to Startoon Studios where they rode the balloon ride and a bunch of others...

Then I got sick of taking pictures. But there were LOTS more roller coasters, some water slides, a couple runs through the haunted house, and a laser light show to top off the night! We had a blast!

South Park City

In the town of Fairplay Colorado there is a museum of sorts. It is actually a replica of an olden days mining town and is called South Park City. Many of the buildings were purchased and moved in from neighboring areas. Mining was, and still is, a major part of the economics in the area, so South Park City has a lot of mining memorabilia. We took the evening and wandered through the little town. It was pretty neat to be able to see all the old toys, machines, and furniture and to learn a little more about the mining boom of the area!

The smokehouse~

A mining shaft pulley. They backed the carts in and filled them with the pulley, then they used the carts to fill the railroad cars.~
Mining carts~

A great "navigator"

Hannah is my navigator while I drive. She tells the other kids that she has to sit in the front so she can help me find the way. It's a good thing she does, I don't know if I could navigate without her. Evona usually sits up in front with her. Here is a picture of them doing their job...

Oh gee, whatever would I do if I had to navigate alone?

It's July...

...and yes, this is SNOW!! I guess that it can snow any time of year if when the elevation is 10,000 feet or above! This was taken just outside of Frisco, Colorado.

Sliding

At the event we are at there is a little park right behind the camper. Pyper loved that she could just go out and play since I could see and hear her through the window. She needed a "friend" to play with, so she took Evona out with her. She came running in and told me I needed to come see what her and Evona could do. Evona must have liked it, she ran around and waited to do it again, but I don't think I'd like to be pulled up the stairs like that!

Some Scenery on the Drive

We get to se some pretty country in all of our travels. The drive out to Colorado to meet David is no exception. These mountians were Hannah's favorite. Don't ask me where they were...all I can tell you is that they are somewhere on the Western Slope of Colorado!

Pyper's TALL Birthday cake

Pyper wanted a "tall cake" for her birthday. I found a fun idea and asked her what she thought. It was awesome! It had 6 layers, and each was a different color of the rainbow. I also used Em's trick with the instant pudding mix in the cake mix, and it was YUMMY! I should have taken a picture after we cut it, but my hands were goopy!