Randomnes - for memories sake

School Pictures - Fall 2013

 Aliza - 1st Grader

 Carmen - 3rd Grade

 This boy is a bottomless pit!! He's always searching for something to eat.

 For some reason the kids were all enthralled in Carmen's math homework she does online....

 My buddies during the day while big sisters are at school.

 This tape measure was Dallin's favorite "toy" of choice for several days.

 Watch out world - this Diva is all Spunk!

 Story time - I love this boy and how he loves to curl up on my lap with a book.

 Dallin discovered our little dust buster. I think sometimes he makes messes on purpose just so he can vacuum it up.

He loves taking "Selfies".

This day Dallin was so tired and cranky. Finally Carmen just rocked him on her lap while doing homework and he fell right asleep. She's a mommy in the making, muti-tasking already!

 Lastly, we had Thanksgiving at our house this year. We had all of my family including Sarah's new fiance Francis. Plus we had Becky and Joe McIntyre and Dan and Jenny Whiting with their 4 kids. That made 10 adults and 10 children! Sadly this was the only picture I took the whole day - Dallin sitting on Poppy's lap.

SURPRISE!!!

Oh what a fun surprise this party was!! Aliza had been saying for several months that she wanted a surprise party this year for her birthday. Well, several year ago I implemented the rule that you only have a "friends party" on your even year birthday. Since she was turning 7 I had been telling her that she wasn't going to have a friend party this year. She dropped the subject and we all kind of forgot about her desire for a surprise party. 

Fast forward a few weeks and David and I attend the "Critter Ball", a swanky fundraiser for the local SPCA that all the Who's Who's of Charlottesville attend. (I'm still not sure how we got invited, but it was fun nonetheless!).  Well, there was a silent auction there and one of the things was a birthday party at the SPCA with a magician and ice cream cake included. WE WON IT! We knew right away that we would use it to surprise Aliza. It was such a hard secret to keep because I was so excited about it.

Finally, the few hours before the party we let Carmen in on the secret. She became Daddy's helper as they rushed off to get the party ready and welcome the guests. Meanwhile, I told Aliza and the other kids that we were going to meet Daddy and Carmen for ice cream at Sweet Frogs, but we first had to stop at the SPCA because David had some scouting things to talk with them about. This wasn't so far fetched for them because the scouts had done some work for the SPCA for few months back. It all seemed completely normal to everyone.

Once we arrived and the cat was out of the bag (pun intended) I've never seen Aliza so speechless and shocked before!! It was so wonderful to finally see it all happen after months of waiting. The SPCA did all the work, which was great! We've never done the sort of party where it's held somewhere else besides our home. The magician did a show for nearly 45 minutes and hilarious! Then he made everyone some amazing balloon creations. Afterwards, we got to take a tour around the SPCA and see a lot of animals. This part was tricky because we were herding around 17 kids who all wanted to see the animals. But it was still wonderful. Then ice cream and presents followed. What a fun day! And hopefully we haven't set the bar too high for future parties...

Aliza's Birthday

Aliza turned 7! She has had a fun packed birthday week. On her birthday we started out with a very early morning "hopefully last round of de-lousing". So she looks nice and freshly clean in the picture because she was! She also lost a tooth that morning!

The two of us started a tradition last year that I would come get her out of school for birthday lunch together. So here she is with her toothless smile.

 Of course Dallin joined us.

 We went to Red Robin with Oma and Poppy for her birthday dinner. Then finally got to open presents.

 The got a panda bear mood ring, a stuffed panda (which she never let go of), journal and gel pens, clothes and a scooter.

She got this fun craft kit from Oma.

 As you can see in this picture, Pink Bunny is still holding on after 7 years, but not strongly holding on... I would feel pretty confident in saying that I'm sure Pink Bunny will not make it to her 8th birthday.

This picture was taken the next day. She wore one of her new dresses, had a play date with a friend and made her craft kit. This is what she said about her new craft "I just love this so much because it is so so so pretty!". I'm glad she was happy about it. I love this girl and her constant optimism. She is so smart and I expect great accomplishments from her in the future. Now, she's snug in her bed resting up for a fun afternoon of shopping with Oma.