Last year for Christmas, Bugga got an American Girl doll. Pyper loved it and asked Santa for one this year. He delivered. They have had lots of fun playing "American Girls" together. Mrs. Claus made sure there were lots of clothes for both dolls this year, but must have ran out of time to make them a little jacket. It's been quite chilly here, so I rummaged through my fabric stash ad found some fleece and whipped up some jackets for the dolls yesterday. Bugga got an Air Swimmer for Christmas this year (it's pretty cool), and it came with a helium tank to fill it. She decided to fill up a balloon for her and Pyper (because floaty balloons are COOL!). Then they decided that it would be very nifty if their dolls could have a balloon too. Being the resourceful mom that I am, I pulled out the smallest balloons I could find, filled them up, tied on a string, and VOILA!
I was "the bomb diggity"...at least that's what Bugga told me. Pyper said I was "the best mom EH-VA!" Who knew a couple of balloons would make me so awesome!
At the elementary school, the 4th and 5th graders can take an after school orchestra class. It is sponsored by the Mountain West String Academy, and there are 16 elementary schools throughout the valley that participate. Lyra thought that it sounded like a lot of fun, and decided to play the violin. After a few "concerts" at home and many days practicing (I'm happy to report that no earplugs have been involved!) she had her very first performances this past weekend. On Friday, her class performed at school. They did a great job! I am a great mom and there were no batteries in my camera, so there are just phone pictures of that one.
She's the second from the left on the back row. The one with her music stand so high that you can't see her face!
Then On Monday night, she had another concert. Only this time it was at the Kent Concert Hall and all of the students from all of the schools were there! This time I made sure the camera batteries were fresh! First, Bugga was pulling some pretty silly faces. She said she was looking for us and had decided we weren't there! Guess we just dropped her off and decided to go home! That girl, she makes me laugh!
The first song they played was called Largo. I think they did a pretty great job! I must say, I was very surprised! All of the kids on the stage are first year students. The ones down in the orchestra pit were the second year students, but I don't think I got a good shot of them.
Then they played Hot Cross Buns and then Lullaby. Lullaby is Lyra's very favorite song they play. She plays it for us often at home.
The conductor and the kids thought that maybe if they played Lullaby again, they might get more applause. So they did! And they did indeed get more applause!
After the first year students showed off their skills, it was the second year students turn. Sorry, I didn't record them, I don't know any of them! You'll have to wait until next year to see that! BUT, the end of the concert was both the first year and second year students playing Here We Come A Caroling.
We made sure she got some flowers, since all great musicians get flowers at their concerts!
Then we all stuffed ourselves at the Pizza Pie Cafe with Grandma and Grandpa. Lyra even said it was ALMOST as good as Golden Corral, which her very most favorite place to eat! I think the Oreo pizza may have had something to do with that!
Way to go Buggy! We are very proud of you and love the sounds of beautiful violin music you play for us!
Tonight was our Ward Christmas Party. It was a "Night in Bethlehem" and you could dress up if you wanted to. My kids dressed up as shepherds (in other words, they wore their bathrobes!). None of the other kids would let me take a picture, but I got a cute one of the Pyper-shepherd with Santa!
Do you think that shepherds had Hannah Montana Snuggies?
We had a ton of fun for Halloween this year. I sewed and sewed and am proud to say that I finished all four costumes with a whole day to spare! That is a record for me, I'm usually frantically sewing at 2 am on Halloween. It was so nice to get a full night's sleep that I may try it again next year! The kids all got to wear their costumes to school, which they thought was awesome. And, once again it made for an easier Halloween. We got them all ready for school in their costumes and then when it came time to Trick or Treat, we just had to touch up their makeup! WHOOT!
Last year we found an edited version of "Rocky Horror Picture Show" on television. Ever since then, Hannah has wanted to dress up as Magenta. Surprisingly, quite a few kids at school knew who she was.
Seth was Harry Potter. I even crocheted his scarf! It's a step up from the dishrags I normally do! His favorite part of his costume was the wand that actually lit up. He had fun casting a "Lumous" spell!
The front of Bug's skeleton...
...and the back. This was my favorite costume of the year. We just used a freezer paper stencil and dobbed white paint onto a long-sleeved black t shirt and black leggings. Then we dobbed on some glow in the dark paint. The back of her costume was the best I think!
Once again, Pyper was a fairy tale character, Belle from Beauty and the Beast. She was pretty excited to get to wear makeup to school!
And for our disgusting Halloween dinner we had...
flesh worms (pork loin wrapped in bacon and baked), bloody monster eyes (stuffed shells in marinara sauce), severed fingers (lil smokies with onion fingernails attached with ketchup "blood"), witches brew (apple juice with a few drops of green food coloring and some dry ice for a spooky effect), and a kitty litter cake. The cake was so gross looking. We had a couple of friends join us for dinner, and as David was scooping some cake out for one of them, he about puked. Which means that my gross dinner was a success!
Then we did some Trick or Treating and watched some TV while in our sugar comas! It was a great Halloween!
One of the fairs we go to is next to a really fun lake. We have all sorts of fun there! We spent one day catching crawdads and then we had a crawdad feast. The last time we went, we didn't catch many, but this year they were plentiful! The kids all decided though that catching them was WAY more fun than eating them!
One of David's favorite movies is Close Encounters Of The Third Kind. While in Wyoming, we were only a few miles away from Devil's Tower, so we went to see what it was all about. It was pretty neat to see how it had formed.
You are able to walk around the entire thing, it's a nice easy hike along a paved trail. We stopped along the way up to take a few pictures. Dogs aren't allowed on the trails, and since Hannah had brought Evona along, she stayed back in the parking lot with her.
(Look at Seth's muscles!)
The formation changes along each side. It's also considered a sacred place to many of the Native Americans. There were trees full of little prayer bags and prayer cloths.
It's a popular place for rock climbing. We were able to see quite a few climbers, and a large group who had actually made it clear to the top! (Quite a feat since it's about 1300 feet to the top of the tower.) One of the most interesting parts was this old wooden ladder that was constructed in the 1890's to help people climb the Tower. You can still see part of it if you look closely (and have a good zoom on the camera!).
At the end of our hike, we took some pictures in the tee-pee next to the parking lot.
We crossed over the Continental Divide via Hoosier Pass on our travels this summer and decided to stop and see what it was all about. Basically it is a ridge that divides the watersheds of Northern America. It starts in Alaska and runs down the entire continent through Mexico, Panama, and down to the southern tip of South America. The water that falls on one side of the Divide eventually ends up in the Atlantic Ocean, water that falls on the other side ends up in the Pacific Ocean. Hoosier Pass is the highest point on the Transcontinental Trail, which is a bike route that spans...you guessed it, the entire continent-from Oregon to Virginia.
All 4 of the awesome-est kids around!
The ever spastic Bugga!
Seth is a pretty cool dude.
Pyper was very patriotic! I think she carried this flag around for days before and after this!
There was a scuba diving booth in Eagle this year. Seth and Lyra were dying to try it out! They had so much fun! Pyper was so sad that she wasn't old enough to try...maybe in a few years! I think the funniest part was trying to watch them walk in the fins after they got into the pool. There was also a cool underwater camera, but none of the pictures I took worked out, dang!
While everything is getting torn down, Buggy, Pyper and I have to amuse ourselves. ( I honestly don't know where Seth was, but I think he was watching TV!) We decided to enjoy the sunshine and test out Pyper's birthday presents from Aunt Ree and Uncle Buzz. I got a HUGE laugh out of watching Pyper jump rope! Buggy is a fairly decent jump roper and can even do a few tricks! I took some pictures and a few videos of them.
Pyper would kick her leg out really far to get the skip it thing to spin. Mostly it just tripped her on it's way around!
Buggy was pretty good at it!
Hannah even tried it. (Don't tell, she was supposed to be working!)
And just to give an idea of how greasy she really was...
Don't worry, she came clean and is back to her normal girly self!
And so you can laugh too, here is a video of them jump roping and playing with the Skip It (I put them all together into one video).
On our way to Colorado, we stopped in Scipio to get fuel and stretch our legs a bit. Just across the street from the gas station was a big sign that said PETTING ZOO. We strolled over to check it out. We were very bummed to find it closed! But there was a girl there feeding all the animals who let my kids help her feed the lambs. They were so cute, and my kids had a blast! So, if you are ever down that way, make sure to stop...just not on a Monday or Tuesday! And a big thanks to the nice lady for making my kiddos happy even though they didn't get to see all the animals!
Dave and Tonya have been married for 20 years. Tonya is a Pepsi-drinking, chocoholic, stay at home mom, Dave is a Coca Cola-addicted small carnival owner. We have 4 AMAZING kids and a dog who thinks she is human. Hannah is 18, Seth is 15, Lyra (Bug) is 13, and Pyper is 10. Evona is our cute little four-legged family member.
