Joel's Birthday

Ok - I know Joel was not born in November, but somehow I did not post any pictures from his special day. Above you can see Joel in his special Incredible Pizza hat!  He took a few friends to celebrate with him.  We had a great pizza buffet and then played games and did rides after.  A good time was had by all!

Halloween in review

Clearly no family theme this year!

Matthew was "Mine-craft guy".  He made the costume himself.  He did a great job, Google "Mine-craft guy" and he looks just like this.  (Mind-craft is a computer game that has low pixels I guess, that's why Mine-craft guy looks so boxy.)  If you want a better explanation you will have to ask a teen-ager.

Matthew went trick or treating for canned goods with the Youth Ministry again.  Carolyn can't wait to join him next year when she ages out of "normal" trick-or-treating.

 Anna clearly is a sailor.  We found the costume last year when shopping the day after Halloween!  She won runner up at the YMCA Halloween party.

 Joel is a race car driver.  He wanted to be something scary, but I told him we don't do scary at our house.  He seemed to really like this costume, thank goodness, since we really only started thinking about it a couple days before Halloween and I had this stored away from last year or the year before when I bought it after Halloween at a deep discount :-)    See a pattern?  Spoiler alert - next year he will be a Ninja that I got after Halloween this year.  I decided being a Ninja isn't too scary :0)

 Carolyn changed her mind about 5 times re: her Halloween costume.  In the end she decided to wear the dress I wore last year to help with Trick-or-treat for canned goods (with the Youth Ministry at church).  She was another runner up at the YMCA party.  You might think everyone was a runner-up, but there were only 3 girls - 2 just happened to have my last name :0)  When I wore this, I thought it "Juliet"-ish.  I am not sure what Carolyn called herself.  Will have to ask when she returns from basketball practice.  (Guess what - we got this costume 90% off a few years ago - I know you are shocked!)

Although I couldn't help with the Youth Ministry this year (I had class), I did dress up to go to get frozen Yogurt at Cherry Berry and to walk around the block with the kids.  I am holding the Halloween book we left outside full of candy while we were gone trick or treating.

Climbing Camp-out

Matthew went on a climbing camp-out a few weeks ago and had a great time.  (and came home completely exhausted - both from climbing and lack of sleep)

If I ever thought my camera took good pictures, I realized it was untrue when I saw these great photos.  They were taken by a parent in his troop who takes hundreds a pictures at every event.  He has a GREAT camera and I love the shots he took at this event.  I normally don't do an entire scrapbook page on one event, but might have to for this one.  (and for Maria......I mean theoretically because I haven't scrapbooked since I started school.)

Soccer Season

Soccer season is over. I think everyone had a great season and all will return next year.  They will be joined by Anna who for the first time clearly realized that "everyone else is playing but me".  I should have signed her up, but she will be joining the ranks of participation with Swimming lessons next week and basketball in January!

 Carolyn played on a team with 5th -7th grade girls.  That is quite a range of ages (and sizes), but it worked out ok!

Joel played with 3rd and 4th grade boys and several had quite a bit of experience.  Quite a change from last year when he was the only 2nd grader on a 1st and 2nd grade team and the only kid who had played before!  It was fun this year, because a boy from my religious education class was on Joel's team, so it was fun to cheer on another player I knew well.

Matthew has been on the same team since we moved here. His coach is great and during one of the first games he scored his first goal in a couple of years.  It was awesome!  Last year they were the "young" team in the league and this year they were better placed with some older boys on their team and more equally aged competition.

Storybook pumpkin

At our elementary school kids can bring storybook pumpkins to display in the library.  Of course some of our favorite characters of all time are from Cynthia Rylant books.  I almost cried when we read the last in the series of Henry and Mudge (when Matthew was 5ish) and so we sang for joy when she started to write about Annie and Snowball.  My Anna's pumpkin is Snowball.  We made it the day after we bought the pumpkins and she could hardly wait that long.  (ie. I heard, "I don't think we will ever paint my pumpkin", etc. the first day and early on the 2nd day when I realized - it would't take any longer to create Snowball that day than it will if we waited, but I wouldn't have to listen to Anna's longing for a painted pumpkin.