Audriana turns 6!

What a birthday! What a weekend! The festivities began Friday night at the Old Spaghetti Factory for her special family birthday dinner. It's a tradition that we have done every single year. Mom, Jay, Aunt Tonn, Aunt Kristi, Joye and Maria joined us for a fun and yummy dinner. The girls had -- guess what -- Macaronni and Cheese. No surprise at all. After dinner Audriana opened up her presents from everyone and really enjoyed this little kick-off to turning 6.

Sofia gave Audriana a singing birthday card that sang the song "You've got a Friend in Me" from the movie Toy Story. They just discovered this movie (Martin rented it from the library) and they both just love it. I need to find it on DVD for Christmas...... Anyway, Audriana carried this card around all night opening and closing it to hear the song. Very cute.

Audriana and the sweet and wonderful Maria.

"Happy Birthday to You!"

ROCKSTAR AUDRIANA

with her new Hannah Montana Guitar!

It was the year of legos......

This picture was taken at 8:35am on Oct 11th -- the minute she turned 6!

Grandma's love

THE PARTY -- JUMP AND BOUNCE!

There is a very cool little place in the Spokane Valley (well, it's not that little) that we discovered last Spring. It's a huge warehouse full of huge jumping castles and slides. They even have a velcro wall that the kids can jump on and get themselves "stuck". There main business is birthday parties and you can book a 2 hour slot of time (the whole place is yours for those 2 hours) and can invite up to 12 kids. I knew that it would be a big hit for Audriana and all her friends, so I booked it a few months ago, knowing that her birthday was on a Saturday and the time slots would go fast. It was a good decision -- everyone had a blast, even the adults! The kids played for an hour and 15 minutes, then spent the next 45 minutes in the party room where they ate pizza, then cake, and then opened presents. By the time 2 hours was up, every kid had a bit of a glazed look on their faces from pure exhaustion. I'm sure they all slept well that night!

Audriana's friend, Cheyenne, traveled all the way from Bonney Lake with her Mom, Eileen, for the party. Eileen is a friend of Kristi's and the girls have been friends for most of Audriana's life. Audriana traveled over to Bonney Lake last May with Kristi to go to Cheyenn's 8th b-day party. They have a good time together.

One of the best memories of the party was watching Jay and Kristi get into spirit of the party by going down a slide together -- holding hands the whole way down until they crashed at the bottom. The picture says it all........they were good sports! I think they secretly wanted to go on a few more slides, but didn't want to throw their backs out!

Here's the wall of velcro -- the kids put on the velcro suites and then throw themselves (or get thrown) against the wall. It was hysterical and a big hit with all the kids! Alfred and Audriana spent a lot of time on this wall.

Natalie Wells-Dutton having fun!

Audriana and her school friends -- Ainsley, Alfred and Carson.

Natalie and Sofia

Audriana and Ryan

Audriana and Sebastian

The Motorcycle cake -- chocolate with bavarrian cream filling. Yummy!

The entire group --I've come to realize that it is not possible to get a group picture with everyone looking in the right direction at the right time. This picture is great because no one was ready. It's a "in the moment" kind of picture. Friends: Alfred, Sebastion, Cheyenne, Ainsley, Natalie, Carson, Ryan, Maria, Noah and Sofia.

A fall trip to Greenbluff!

Our Fall Angels

It may have been our last semi-nice, semi-warm, weekend day, so we decided to get the kids in the car and drive up to our favorite local orchards and have some fun. Greenbluff was having their annual Fall festival -- we like to go up for all the festivals, strawberry, cherry, peach, apple, pumpkin etc. It's become a tradition. The girls had a lot of fun in the maze. But I think they would tell you that their favorite part was getting to eat a fresh, warm, pumpkin donut! It tasted so good -- it was Martin's favorite part of the trip, too. That's my family -- it's all about the yummy things. Oh boy.....

I love fall -- especially having 2 fall babies, it is a special time of year for us.

The donuts are out of this world! Martin always sneeks some home so we can have one with our coffee the next morning.

Audriana "leading" Sofia through the maze. I was yelling from the sidelines "stay with your sister" and "don't loose her"! She did a great job taking care of her little sister in there!

Finally coming out of the maze -- thank goodness, together!

Jump!

Sofia gets a ride on the the kiddy train (she's still talking about it!)

Our own little pumpkin.

Soccer Season starts up again!

Soccer season is here -- which means that our Saturdays are booked with games, and our Mondays and Wednesday afternoons are booked with practice. It keeps us busy, but Audriana loves it. She is so proud of the fact that she is on a team with boys! She is learning alot this year (trying to keep up with them) -- and she is really getting good! We see such a difference between last year (when she really didn't know anything about the game), to this year where she is learning concepts of the game (although passing the ball is still very hard for a 5 year old). Like most of her other teammates, they get the ball and go for broke! Strainght down the field to make a goal -- there's no passing the ball when they have their eyes on the goal! It's so funny. We were so proud of her when she made the first goal of the first game -- the smile on her face was priceless. Here's some photos from the start of the season.

Meet THE SILVER STREAKS of Spokane!

Audriana and her friends -- Eric, Logan, and Preston

Some serious game playing........

Friends and team mates....

A birthday party for Logan!

Mobius Kids was the venue for a very fun 6 year old's birthday party today. For those of you who don't know, Logan is one of "the kids" from next door. He was very sweet to invite Audriana (Sofia got to come, too). He told his mom that he was only inviting boys to his party and when she asked him "what about Audriana?", he said that it was allright for her to come because she was a "Tomboy". He got that right! It was a fun time for all!

Here's Audriana and Logan!

Cameron and Sofia riding the bikes! Click the arrow in the bottom left hand corner......

Cameron and Sofia

Logan and Audriana sailing away together.

At the Fair with the Bennett's

We finally got to see everything we wanted to see at the Spokane Fair -- just in time on the last day! We like to go with the Bennett's because the girls love to explore everything together. They love the animals, the rides, and the ice cream (in their words). My tradition has been to go each year with my Mom and sister -- in fact, when Kristi still lived in Bellevue, she would come over for it. I have also taken Audriana every year of her life - and the same with Sofia. I just love it. Yes, there is too many people, it's usually unbearable hot, too expensive, and its the same stuff every year......but, I just love it! I love tradition and this is a good one. One that I hope my girls remember forever. Here are some special pictures for you all to enjoy!

Our Neighborhood picnic

We had a lot of fun this past Sunday at our little neighborhood picnic. It was a warm day and the kids found lots to do together that seemed to entertain the whole group. It's funny, because when I first moved into this neighborhood, by myself, back in 1999, there were no kids here at all. The neighborhood is so much more "alive" now and we just love living here. You will see many pictures of "The Kids" from next door. Brooklyn, Madison, Logan, Cameron and Corbin are all so dear to us. One of our neighbors brought out his snow cone machine for the kids, so you can imagine the looks of glory that were in their eyes as they waited in line for their first snow cone. I say their first snow cone because I think everyone had at least 2! After that they were allowed to have more ice, but no more flavoring. They still loved it. What a fun afternoon together. It just reminds me that summer is just about over.......

Cam and Sofia -- so cute!

Audriana, Madison and Brooklyn

Brooklyn running the Shave Ice station.











Getting ready for the relay races!









Yah! We won!

The Rodeo!

Our yearly tradition of coming out to the Spokane Fair and watching the rodeo is alive and well. The girls loved the rodeo -- especially Sofia! She watched the entire thing and did not want to leave when it was over at 10pm (even though she was so tired!). Audriana fell asleep in her seat half way through the show -- I guess all the days activities leading up to the rodeo just tuckered her out! Of course Aunt Kristi was with us -- that's part of our tradition. We also got to see a bit of the fair and have some dinner. We will go back to the fair next weekend because we really didn't get enough time to see any of the things that we like to -- the animals, the craft booths, the trains, the produce etc.

Wow! Audriana is a Kindergartner!

Audriana will return to Montessori Central this year for her Kindergarten year. This will be her last year here (she will attend Mullan Road Elementary next year for 1st grade). She was very excited to get back to her school - and of course, to be one of the oldest kids there. She knows she has a big responsibility this year, as the older kids in a Montessori environment help the smaller kids with their lessons. She will be 6 in a month or so, so she is already one of the oldest in her class. Isn't she gorgeous!!!!! With her very proud mom.......
With her very proud Dad....

With her very proud sister......

With her best friend, Carson, and her teachers Mrs. Medina (on far left) and Mrs. Pipella.

Click on the arrow below the video to play......