Mike's 11th Birthday

Michael just had a birthday! 

His Nana was in town on his birthday, so we went to the Health and Sciences Museum.  The museum is really small, but all the exhibits were fun and interesting, so we enjoyed ourselves.

Mike got a new bike on his birthday.  We went and picked it up,  and then he was so excited to ride it, that when we went to the Olive Garden for dinner- he wanted to get it out and ride it around for a while. That was really fun for him.

Michael just earned his Super achiever badge at Webelos, and now he is in11 year old scouts.  11 year olds scouts is a lot more fun because the kids can go on camp outs, and do more interesting Boy Scout things.

 

 

Mike is in 5th grade this year.  He is in a new school- an intermediate school.  At this new school, he has 5 different teachers, a locker, and gets to do band.  He has chosen to do drums in band.   He likes playing the drums, but he HATES practicing.  He loves to learn, and has really been embracing that part of him.  He is in the Readers are Leaders club, the Science Club, doing math contests, and trying to get the most points for reading the most books in his grade.  He is great with computers- we often ask him o fix things when we get confused or something gets stuck.  He is working on designing a website for his Nana's business.  He is growing really tall. He still hasn't caught up to Adam, but he is getting close.  He is currently 58 1/2"tall.   We sure are lucky to have Michael as part of our family!

Ellie's 9th Birthday

Ellie recently had her 9th birthday!  It was on a Monday so she was busy with school all day and gymnastics all evening.  I gave her the option of going out to eat or cooking something for her, and she opted for staying home and eating tortilla soup.  One of the things we do in our house, is get up first thing and open presents.  Ellie was very excited to open presents.  She got new earrings and some clothes and hair bows, and then she wanted Polly Pocket shoes.  We happened to have a ton of shoes from the Polly Pocket clothes that she has been getting for years, we just never gave her the shoes so they wouldn't get lost.  She got about 25 pairs of Polly Pocket shoes, and then she felt well provided for in shoes.

 

That day, she got zebra cakes at school, rice crispies at gymnastics and then ice cream at home!  She was overwhelmed with the sugar!

Since it is an odd year, she didn't get a party, instead she got to pick one friend and an activity to do with them.  She picked Sydney (of course....she LOVES Sydney) and they got manicures and pedicures!

Ellie is super busy right now with gymnastics- she spends 9 hours a week at classes, and if she has a meet, she will also spend a few hours on Saturday at the meet.  She loves it though.  She also does piano, which she is doing really well with, but she doesn't love to practice.  In fact, she often blames piano as the cause for her not being able to play with friends as often as she would like.  (Personally, I think the 9 hours a week of gymnastics is probably the more likely culprit).  She loves to give big hugs and sit next to you.  She LOVES friends.  She would rather spend time with friends than any other thing in this world.  She will read if there is nothing else to do and likes the Babysitters Club.  She likes to cook, and is getting really good at baking.  The other day, Joe let her make chocolate chip cookies by herself and she did the whole thing...all by herself, and they turned out great.  She is super smart, always getting good grades in school. She says she likes math best because it is so easy.  She is currently 53" tall and 56.8 pounds.  We love our Ellie!

Halloween

This year for Halloween, Adam was a pilot, Ellie was a dancing princess, Michael was Will from Ranger's Apprentice and Nate was a pirate.  The week before Halloween, there was a neighborhood dress up party back to back with the ward's Trunk or Treat party, and so the kids got dressed up and went to both. 

 Ellie had her friend Alexa go with her too.

I even dressed up as a go go girl.  Although, someone at church asked if I was Pocahontas.  Gogo girl is very similar to Pocahontas so I can see how she got confused. I'm not sure what I was thinking in this picture. 

 On Halloween, Nate got invited to a party and Adam went off with his friends, so only Ellie and Michael went trick or treating with me.  Nana was in town, so she walked around with me, and she was totally in her element.  Ellie decided to be the black swan for Halloween, but Mike stuck with Will from the Ranger's Apprentice.

A few days later, we finally got around to carving pumpkins.  Michael was too busy with homework to help, but the others got to.  It was Nate (left, Ellie and Adam).

 The week before Halloween, the kids had their storybook parade.  Nate was a pirate with the book, How I Became a Pirate,

 Close up of that darling mustache-

 

It was even a little creepy when he didn't have the eyepatch on. 

 Ellie was McKenna, the American girl doll that did gymnastics.

Ellie's Gymnastics Level 3

Last May, Ellie's class in gymnastics got promoted to level 3 gymnastics team. They started working really hard in the gym for 9 hours a week.  Then they started the competition season.  They have gone to 6 meets this year, including a "mock meet" that they put on for parents with only their team (but with real judges) at our gym.  Ellie competes in 4 areas- floor, beam, bars and vault.  Each area has a routine that has been designed by USAG that all girls in the same level do at meets.  When they get into the higher levels, then they start having choreographed routines.  At Ellie's gym you start competing in what they call achievement.  In achievement you get scored, but you don't get placed and there are no medals.  In order to move up to placement, you have to get 2 overall scores of 36.  They get a score of up to 10 in each level, above a 9 is a really good score, above a 9.5 is pretty rare.  Ellie still has not gotten her 36's so she is still doing achievement. 

Ellie's favorite areas are floor and bars, and her greatest strength is bars. 

Beam is scary for her.

It's been fun to watch her compete this year, she has a great time interacting with her friends on her team. I get SO nervous for her, hoping she does well (even though somewhere deep inside I know it doesn't matter).  She has 2 more meets this season, one in Dallas and one in San Antonio.  She will probably compete at the same level next year, but just do it for placement so she gets the experience of competing against other girls.  She is learning the skills for the  next level, and doing well at that though. Just this week, she got her kip!

Nate's 5th Birthday

 I know this is about 6 months too late, but I need todo a little catch up.  We were in North Carolina with Joe's family so although we ate cupcakes, I didn't get any pictures.  When we got home, we opened Nate's presents.

 

 For his party, we went to Chuck E Cheese. 

 His favorite thing to do was to go in the super wind tunnel and collect tickets.

Nate is quite a joy to be around.  He is very diligent about getting his homework done right as soon as he gets home.  He likes to be read to, and is starting to be able to read short books.
He LOVES electronics- especially the Ipad and Ipad mini.  He constantly plays games on them and is always asking to get a new game.  He also loves to play the computer and the wii.  He loves Legos- he is getting good at building complex sets by himself, but he will also put together creations of his old Legos when he gets a chance. He likes to play with friends and is constantly begging to play with one of his friends.  He does jiu jitsu, and if he would take it seriously, he would do amazing at it because he has great skills for it.  He is very strong willed and has no problem whining until you get super frustrated or he gets his way.  He is almost always happy and smiling-well unless he is whining.

We are glad to have him in our family!

Galveston

My good friend, Sharon, invited us out to spend a couple of days with her in Galveston again this summer.  We had a great time.  This year, for some reason, the seaweed was out of control. 

 

 It was thigh high for quite a long while that you had to walk through in the water to get to the ocean.  Then it was floating around once you got in the water.  You were up to about chest high before it wasn't noticeable.

 The second day we were there they were moving some of the seaweed to piles along the sea wall.  It was a good start, but there was still a lot of seaweed there.  When you got about halfway through the pile, it was a gooey mess to step in, and the whole thing didn't smell all too pleasant.

 We went to Galveston in August and we found that most of the seaweed was gone.  It was much better!

Redneck Twins

Joe and Nate lost the same tooth within a few days of each other.

This is the Place/ Welfare Square

On our second day in Salt Lake City, we went to This is the Place State Park and Welfare Square.  This is the Place is a state park in which they have moved or rebuilt a lot of homes from the pioneer settlements or homes around the state of Utah.  They have volunteers and workers that are dressed up like pioneers that talk to you about the different buildings and tell you about what life was like for the pioneers.  The kids got to see what laundry was like.

They panned for gold. 

 They rode a tiny train.

 

 

They went to a lesson at school where they learned about the lessons they would learn and discipline at school and how they would have to stand and hold their hands just so to answer any question.  I asked the kids if they would rather go to school now or back then, and they said now, but just barely. 

 

 They also got ice cream, of course.

 They learned about printing back then.

 There was an indian dance, that was very well done.

 They also got to ride ponies- and we went in a blacksmith shop and a chair makers.

We saw this donkey that had 5 legs!

 That same day, we went to Welfare Square.  I had heard about it, but never been there before.

We saw the bakery, the cheese factory, and where they process nutritional powders.

 At the end, we had yummy chocolate milk and cheese samples.