November 21st weekend

Not a very exciting weekend.
It was mostly rainy and chilly outside all weekend long. Kids had their last swimming class.
Gabe successfully passed his test and will be going to the next level class next ((Lobster). He got to jump off a diving board (which scares me...), but he was too fast for me to get a good photo:

Larissa Had great success in her class and went from Electric Eel right into Hammerhead (skipping Frog & Goldfish)! She is a water baby for sure:

Jon, on the other hand is taking it easy in his swimming classes. This was his second time taking Catfish 3 and he will be taking the same class next term... again.

Jon also got to go to a Children's Museum with his class and had a blast.

After the swimming class, on Saturday we met up with the old friends from Colorado Springs, Mark (and his Mom and Dad, Sharon & Brad) at Chuck E Cheese'. All the kids had great time being kids. I, however totally forgot to take any pictures...

We then stopped by a Smithberry Barn store hear some mandolin music (courtesy of Tim's guitar teacher) and for some wine and food sampling. Too crowded, we soon decided, and went home.

Miranda went for a sleepover to her friend's house, which made her a very happy teenager.

Tim and I got to pick up our "special order" side entrance garage door, and other then getting soaking wet in the rain in the process, it made us very happy too.

November 14th weekend

We were thrilled to have Tim's sister visit us for a week. She arrived with a tiny little dog, which made our cat very mad. But as the week came to an end, we actually spotted our cat casually laying next to the dog and not freaking out. Big change from the day one.

hile here "aunt" Sarah got to see our crazy weekly schedule and even sat through a piano lesson and a boxing class.

At the end of her stay Tim took Sarah, Miranda & Jon to the Tillamook Cheese factory and to see the ocean. It was a bit chilly, so the ocean part didn't last very long.

and look at this cheese selection! Tim didn't get any, but who can consume 5 lb of cheese before it expires anyway?..

There is hardly anything worse than getting a headache that lasts through the weekend. I feel like the weekend could have been more productive.

On Saturday Larissa had a sleepover at her friend's house. She was so excited that I think it might have played an effect on her blood glucose levels. That, or eating extra snacks and not bolusing... She ended up waking on Sunday morning in mid-400's!! So, we basically spent all day Sunday chasing her numbers.

I had my second Glass Fusing class, where I got to pick up my last week's finished product and make another piece, which I will get back in a few days (they have to be baked).

Here is what it looked like before the bake:

and here is the finished product (with the a wire and ribbons):

Happy 9th Birthday Larissa, etc. weekend

Our family is not too much into throwing big parties for the special events. We give our kids an option to choose between a party and a bigger/better present. They always choose the latter.

This year Larissa's birthday fell on a Friday. Coincidentally, the same day aunt Sarah arrived for a visit. Obviously, we didn't have much time for a "formal" celebration, so Larissa's birthday kind of went on through the weekend.

Friday night I baked some cupcakes for decorating the next day.

On Saturday we had another great swimming session, came home and got to working on our special cupcakes.

I put a light layer of icing, gave kids some decorating tools and they went to town:

Right after that we went out on a "girls + Jon" day out. First stop was at a Thai Food restaurant for lunch. Everyone, but Jon, enjoyed their meals. He only wanted every one's shrimp and nothing else (that and a snack size bag of M&M's he found in his jacket pocket)...

Next stop was a Shopping Mall. As promised, Larissa was going to choose her Build-a-Bear toy and accessories. It took quite a while, and who can make a quick selection when there are SO many choices?..

A few more Mall stops and we headed back home. As per some one's request the rain stopped and a giant rainbow was greeting us outside.

Before Larissa's new puppy went to bed he was changed into pajamas (Thank you Mary!) and suddenly it was a girl ;-) Oh, kids' imagination!

On Sunday the whole family went swimming, and had a blast. Then, we took aunt Sarah to the Trader Joe's store, since there aren't any in Michigan where she lives.

At the store Larissa made a sad face and told me she didn't get a birthday cake with candles this year and "really, really wanted it"... pointing to a chocolate cake. Who can resist that?..

So, her birthday celebration continued on:

On, and here is a picture of Jon's way of eating an apple. He eats it like a cartoon bunny eating a carrot. In Circles, until there is nothing but the core left.

November 2nd show

Today was Larissa's first onstage performance.

Her class has about 20 kids, they were broken into four groups, each group had to come up with a new spin on an old tale.

Larissa's group did a trial of a Goldilocks, after she did all that damage to the Three Bear's property. It was short, but funny.

We were all so proud if Larissa and Jon found most of the show to be absolutely hilarious and laughed the whole time.

I didn't take any good pictures, but managed to capture it all on video. I think it will be fun watching it later on.

Halloween 2009

We survived another Halloween!

OK, my week didn't start off too well. On Thursday I found out that my car's windshield was leaking rain into my truck and flooding the floors on the passenger's side. It was probably going on for a while, I just didn't notice it. So, if inside of your window looks like the picture above, run to your car dealer and have them look at it!!
I ended up getting a rental for the weekend to drive around...

On Friday we all went to Tim's work Halloween party. On a much smaller scale than the one at my work, but much easier to get around. Unfortunately, I think Larissa ate something there that made her sick and she ended up throwing up all night long. We now had Gabe and Larissa both get sick on Halloween. At least I will be prepared for Jon next year ;-)

I think having costumes' choices makes it more difficult, because everyone decided to change from the character they were earlier in the week...

On Saturday, the actual Halloween, we started off by going to the shopping center by our house. They had a 3-5pm scheduled event. I think I would rather call it a "3-5pm disaster"!
Not only it was packed, candy were pretty lousy, half the stores did not participate, I couldn't get out of my parking spot at the end! If we do it next year, we will walk there!

At 6pm Gabe, Larissa, Jon and I went around the neighborhood. Tim and Miranda stayed home to give candy away. By 6:30pm it was dark. By 7pm we were "done" and ready to go back. I do wish our neighborhood was more into GIVING candy... for the distance we covered, we should have had a lot more candy.

Oh, an yes, once again, costumes changed right before we left...