Excessive

Seth got a laptop of his own for Christmas. He likes to play Minecraft. He was up playing late tonight while David and I were watching TV. We were getting ready to head to bed and told him to put it away when we found he'd fallen asleep while playing. Maybe it's time to stage an intervention?

Sledding

Our Arizona cousins came for a visit this week. All the kids went sledding, even Evona. Pyper had a hard time staying on her sled. It was fun! 

The End.

Silly puppy...

Evona makes me laugh. Sometimes she decides she needs to be tucked in a blanket but no one will tuck her in, so she does it herself!

For Grandma Schaneveldt...

Last night, the kiddos decided that they wanted to use their gift certificates to the Jump Zone. We had never been before, so none of us knew what they were in for. As per their request, I took some videos of them and am posting them here specifically so Grandma-Great can see how much fun they had! They also say "Thanks Grandma, we love you!"

I mashed all the video's into one...

 

 

 

A little election humor

Yesterday I decided to go vote when my younger girls left for school. Since the polling location was just across the street at the City Office building, I walked over with Lyra and Pyper on their way to school.

It's been kind of fun this election year. Since my kids are older, we've talked a lot more about politics than we have in the past. It's been fun to watch them form their opinions of the candidates and ask questions about how the whole election process works.

Pyper asked me as I kissed her goodbye in front of the City Office if she could vote. I told her she could when she got home from school, thinking that she meant on a kids site online that we had talked about the night before. She and Lyra went off to school and I voted and went about my day.

Fast forward a few hours...Pyper came home from school, and the first thing she said to me was "Mom, can I go vote now?" I told her sure, we'd look up a site and she could vote. That wasn't what she wanted. "No mom, I want to go to the building you did this morning and push the buttons like you did before when I got to vote." The last time we had an election, she was 3 and came with me while I voted. Apparently, she felt that she needed to "vote" again, and she was not very happy when I explained that she wasn't old enough to vote!

I gave her my "I Voted" sticker and that made it a little better!  Then we got chatting about school. I asked if they had a vote at school today. She told me that her teacher had them put their heads on their desks and then raise their hands for either Romney or Obama.

We talked about who had won in her class vote, and we would have to see if her class prediction was right or not. She asked me if she had to tell me who she voted for. We talked about how in the United States we have a secret ballot, so she doesn't have to tell anyone who she voted for unless she wants to and that was probably why her teacher had them put their heads on their desks when they voted at school.

She then informed me that she didn't care if I knew that she voted for Romney. I asked if she had any particular reason that she had chosen Romney over Obama, curious as to what she would say. (I'll admit that sometimes I like to encourage her along just to see what she'll say cause it's usually pretty funny. This time was no exception!)

Her reply? "Well mom, if Obama gets to be the president again, then his wife isn't going to let us have pizza at school lunch anymore!"  Ah, the stresses of second grade politics!

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween! This year we have...

Sally, from Nightmare Before Christmas...

SplendorMan (he tells me he is from a video game)...

 Flo, from the Progressive commercials...

and Mary Poppins in her Jolly Holiday finery!

We also had a yummy dinner of witches brew, brain matter, baked intestines, giants' eyes, and worm sandwiches!

I was kind of hoping for a repeat of last year when all my costume making was finished a few days before Halloween. But alas, I was finishing up last night. I can't decide which costume is my favorite this year. I was really excited about how the Mary Poppins costume turned out (and Pyper LOVES it!), Hannah makes a really great Sally, I don't think there is a more perfect "Flo" than my Bug, and Seth looked really awesome and the costume looks just like SplendorMan!

Baby you can drive my car...

Monday Hannah went on her last "drive" for Driver's Ed. She was pretty nervous! This was THE drive that would decide if she was a good enough driver to be able to get her license. Sunday night, Grandma Charlene came and took her to practice her skills (thanks Grandma! You're a brave soul!)    Grandma must have done a good job, Hannah's teacher told her he was having a Proud Teacher's Moment. Apparently she has some mad parallel parking skills, he told her it was the best he's ever seen. 

She had to wait until the 19th to actually get her license (you know, that whole "having a permit for 6 months" rule), so yesterday we went to the DLD and she's now completely legal! To celebrate, she and Seth drove to Logan last night, ALONE, to get pizza for dinner.

Congrats my Hannah! I'm so proud of you!