Croppin' With Katie

And The Little One Has a Birthday, too

Just 18 days after one daughter has her birthday, it's time for the next one! One advantage to having their birthdays so close together is that we have the parties and then it's a good 11-1/2 months before we get to do it again! Here's some pictures from my baby's 7th birthday!

She found the dress my mom made me for my 8th birthday (she's quite a bit taller than I was) and absolutely LOVED it, saying it was the dress she had been wishing for. Who would have thought this 30-year old dress would get some more wear? Well, it was MY favorite dress, too - that's why I kept it.

She had a birthday party watching Ratatouille on the big screen in our bonus room. A bunch of 1st graders together watching a long movie started well, but they really lost focus after about an hour. A short intermission to open presents and all was well again!

A sleepover with one of her best buddies after the party made the day perfect! These girls are two peas in a pod...

And today, celebrating at school. Here's her teacher singing the Happy Birthday "cha-cha-cha" version.

I love the birthday season in our household, but am tired. I've got 11 months to recover.

A great week for a 3rd grade girl looks like this...

What a busy week for my 9-year old! I thought by the end of the week she'd be crabby and exhausted... but I think it was all so wonderful for her that she was nothing but joyful!

And to think I didn't want her born on Halloween... she loves having her birthday on this holiday! Here's the "good witch", complete with her black cat:

She's all about all-things-Hannah Montana and so what a treat to go to the concert the day before her birthday. We even had our view from a suite at the Rose Garden - a perfect venue!

A birthday party at the bowling alley with a bunch of 3rd graders. Too fun!

And then, tonight... her soccer party to celebrate the season. She loves playing soccer, especially since she's on a team with 8 of her best buddies!

Getting her trophy from coach:

One of the best weeks ever!

These are a few of my favorite things...

Things in the new season are going well, we're all settling into our new routines. We continue to stay busy, with school, dance & exercise classes, soccer games and other activities. Like so many other people, fall is increasingly my favorite time of year. I don't know if I can pinpoint why... some ideas off the top of my head:
Foliage - Such a dramatic and beautiful change of the weather (yes, even the rain).
Beginnings - a new school year, new football season and even some new clothes and blankets to keep me warm.
Food - my favorite foods are soups, holiday turkeys and pumpkin pie.
Holidays/Birthdays - it's crazy at our house this season... between Halloween and Christmas we have all the holidays as well as the girls' birthdays. Chaotic but wonderful!

So here are some highlights as my favorite season begins:

The girls always start off the school year at the annual school jog-a-thon

My cousin got married for the first time at age 38 - since their ceremony was in Bora Bora, and he lives in California, there was a reception here, given by my aunt and uncle. I was able to meet his wife and see him for the first time in about seven years. Here he is with his bride:

Here are my siblings and cousins, striking the same pose (by age) that we have since we were babies:

This last weekend was my 20-year high school reunion. Wow, that makes me sound old! I didn't want to go, but was glad I did. It's funny how my memories of high school tend to center around 5-6 mean girls, instead of the other 500 really nice people I went to school with for so many years! Here's just one picture with a few good friends that I haven't seen for a while:

Coming up in the next few weeks, we'll have the aforementioned birthday celebrations, more soccer games, holidays and, of course, Croptoberfest in Sunriver. Another reason why fall is one of my favorite seasons!

Somethin' to do Today

So today was the first day of school for my kids - couldn't have come too soon. They have been at eachother's throats lately... despite being busy this summer, they needed to be around different kids and have different distractions. Having said that, today I experienced something new to me - both kids gone all day. Exciting and scary all at the same time.

My friend Sandra forbid me to do housework on the first day of school (yeah! thank you friend!) but I do have a gigantic list of projects to do and today I thought I'd work on an easy one. I uploaded 300 pictures to the Creative Memories photo center to be printed. That's right, I haven't printed pictures since Christmas. Even your friendly neighborhood consultant is behind on her scrapbooking! I've had enough pictures to keep me busy with projects, so I haven't needed to print anything out, but today I worked on this (and some laundry... sorry Sandra!)

So here's what's been going on with me lately:

Heading off to school today, my youngest was hoping her teacher would call her "Jungle Girl". Maybe it would have helped if she had actually taken the cat to school.

What a big girl - a 1st Grader now!

My 3rd grader has one of her best friends in class - poor teacher!

I spent last weekend on the set of a movie, in which my husband is assistant director and co-producer. Some of my friends got to join in on the fun of being "extras"! I played a "mom" (big stretch)... Here are some photos from Saturday:

The director, Devon, setting up the scene for my friend Julie (who played a doctor) and Jen (who was a detective... check out the heat she's carrying!)

Cousin Jodi played a nurse:

My oldest daughter had a sad week last month - her Betta fish died. Here's our burial of "Sparkle" (she just couldn't flush him). My youngest is giving some type of euology, I think:

The girls and I spent 5 days at the Oregon Coast - was originally to be a family vacation, but above-mentioned film resulted in absent daddy. No worries, it was a great, relaxing time for me and the girls, a nice way to end the summer:

The Truth About Being the Family Historian

Has it really been more than a month since I posted? This "myth" that you have more time in the summer is just that - mostly I just don't have time to myself like I might during the school year.

So, it having been so long, you'd think I'd have many pictures to post, but I really haven't been taking pictures. I'm not sure why... It could be that a lot of the events we do every year are the same year after year - I get tired of taking the same pictures. Or, truthfully, sometimes I'm just tired of taking pictures in general. Or, maybe it's the fact that I already have a stack of pictures on my project table and I don't want to add to it. Sound familiar?

However, I did want to tell you about our great trip to the coast. Five of us croppers had a wonderful time beach combing, eating and scrapbooking. And we even got TONS of pages done - all of us either finished an album, or completed about 30 pages. Once again, I didn't take pictures, but thanks to Jen, we have some anyway!

Marcy working hard! (in her usual cropping attire...)

Julie E. and me making sense of everything on the table!

Julie C. - seems like there's a theme at these copping events... see previous event here:

I'll snap back into picture taking mode - first day of school is right around the corner. But I'm also giving myself permission to take a little vacation from thinking about the perfect shot.

Has Summer Started Yet?

The week after school gets out is no vacation for our family - it's recital week and my busiest week of the year... sort of like an accountant around April 15. This year was no different, I worked many hours for 7-days straight, but the end-result was totally worth it. The recital was fun, my classes danced great and my own kids were beautiful. Our videographer's husband takes pictures during the performance... I can't wait to see those and print out a few. In the meantime, here are a few pictures shot before and after the show... (My oldest had three costumes - two ballet and one jazz - and these pictures show her two ballet costumes)

So, this week was our first week "off", but I spent so much time putting back together the house that I neglected during recital week - as well as some general errand running, chores and projects that I missed out on - that our week was super busy. One highlight, though, was my youngest daughter donating her hair to Locks of Love. She had 10" cut and looks like such a big girl, now.
Before:

During:

After:

Another fun event this week was a "bedtime story reading" that we purchased at the school auction for the girls, given by the kindergarten teacher they both had. She came to our house in pajamas, read a story, gave them little doggie toys to go with the story, gave them "dog bone" cookies and tucked them in. Too fun. One of their little friends came over, too...

Next up, a REAL vacation for the 4th of July holiday - NOW it's officially summer "break"!

School's Out for Summer!

The end of the school year was a long time coming - yet it hit me like a ton of bricks! There were so many activities and my baby finishing kindergarten affected me more than I thought. I've got big girls now!

Here are some of the end of the year highlights:

The Second Grade Poetry Reading for Mothers

The Kindergarteners performed at the Volunteer Appreciation Brunch (BTW, my kindergartener is standing by her boyfriend)

Field Day activities, including tug-of-war and soccer relay

Above is a picture of the Kindergarten Fishing Trip - after this field trip two years ago, I realized it's one daddy needs to attend. He had as much fun as the 6-year olds!
Below is actually her smaller fish, she caught a 14" rainbow trout later in the day... Daddy was so proud!

The 2nd graders had an ice cream sundae party - complete in a 6' trough! They put on their own toppings, including various syrups, fruit and whip cream and OF COURSE, oreo cookie pieces, butterfingers, M&Ms, whole peanut butter cups, whole chocolate chip cookies, sweet tarts, bubblegum... oh and so much more.

I passed on a sundae, but all the kids indulged - even little sister!

My Boys

Being surrounded by females all day is something that my husband has become accustomed to. In a house with a wife, two daughters and a female cat, my husband's only male-counterpart is our dog - and he's starting to get senile. (The dog, not the human.) My husband jokes often about when the girls are scary teenagers, that he's going to buy the house next door and live there. Not an absent father or husband... just OUT of the house. He never had a brother, and has two sisters himself, so I suppose he's used to the estrogen.

Fortunately, we have LOTS of nephews. In fact, on my side of the family, that's all we have. It's my girls, then my brother and sister each have two boys. For Christmas, my husband gave Seattle Mariners tickets to three of them (the other is too young) and last week they ventured up to the Emerald City to watch a game - with my brother and father in tow.

So, here are my boys - absent my husband, who was taking the picture. My dad, my brother and three of my nephews. As the oldest one said later, "It was one of the best days of my life." For my husband, it was, too.

Our Weekend in Pictures

Here's how we enjoyed our long, holiday weekend. Our friends from Yakima spent the weekend with us and:

...we enjoyed the Brad Paisley concert at the Amphitheatre

...ladies scored manis and pedis

...daddies took girls to the zoo

... men went fishing - no pics, but got one of the other "little man".

Also, lots of yummy food, movie nights and great conversation. Oh, and scrapbooking, of course! Summer has officially begun!

Just Another Day

My day yesterday...
Woke up to my youngest daughter saying Happy Birthday at 6:30 am - and then telling me that she wet the bed.
Stripping the bed and starting laundry
Getting girls ready for school
Doing some "homework" for my boss from the dance studio related to recital next month
Getting a call at 10:29am from my mom to mark the time of my birth
Putting things away in my youngest daughter's room (after painting this weekend)
Feeding the dog and cat
Getting a call from my husband to say happy birthday again
Getting Kindergarten daughter off the bus and fixing her lunch
Taking said-6-year-old to gymnastics class
(reading a book during gymnastics)
Stopping at Safeway to pick up a prescription
Doing dishes and preparing meat for dinner
Letting dog out and getting scratched by said-dog
Going to work - teaching 3 classes with a cold
Coming home to empty house and no dinner
Putting away grocery delivery
Fixing dinner and setting off smoke alarm from using the broiler in the oven
Calming children after the loud smoke alarm
Having a little pity party
Opening presents
Eating dinner
Savoring dessert
Watching New Adventures of Old Christine on Tivo (LOVE IT!)
Falling asleep on couch

Just another day - but with extra phone calls, emails and hugs and kisses thrown in.

Sorry, no pictures to commemorate the (lack-of) event, but am looking forward to mother's day Sunday. Usually get some good pictures for my family album, then!

Happy Anniversary

Today, my husband and I celebrate 11 years of marriage. (...I find myself reflecting much more on our awesome trip to Italy that we took last year in honor of our 10th, than I am on our wedding ceremony)

He asked me today - if I had it to do over again, would I? The fact that I can't imagine life without him, that he's the father of my beautiful children, that we have enough money to live in a home we love and pay the bills, that we share values and interesting conversation, that we agree on parenting, volunteering, and going green (or trying to)...

... the answer is yes (as he said when he answered the same question - "and twice on Sundays".)