A Super Fun Weekend

This is Sofia just before Martin took her to school for her first ever field trip. All the kids got to ride on a buss to Greenbluff! She was so excited.....but because it was a bit rainy and cold, she had to wear her sweats (of course with a skirt over them!).
Here is Sofia as she is getting off the buss with her little pumpkin in hand! (she's on the top stair, above Miss Kawabata).

A bit tired after her long journey today, but so proud of the pumpkin that she got to pick out and bring home!

Saturday Oct 3rd was Micah's 2nd birthday! Lisa, Scott and the boys were in town this weekend, so we celebrated his birthday at Round Table Pizza on the South hill for lunch. Mom and Jay joined us too, as well as Kristi, LaNae, and Sharen, Scott's Mom. We had pizza, salad bar, and then cake and ice cream. As soon as Micah opened up his gifts, we all raced over to Moran Praire school for Audriana's soccer game.

This year she is on an all-girls team and they are called the "Red Tigers"! They are very good an have won their first 3 games (including an all boys team!). Audriana told her coach today that she had to make a lot of goals today because her Grandma and Grandpa, and Aunt Kristi, and friend Maria, and her cousins Ryan and Noah were all going to be here watching her! Well, she didn't dissappoint because the Red Tigers walked away winning the game -- with Audriana scoring 8 of their 13 goals today!!!! Good job, babe!!!

Since the Sandberg's were staying at the hotel, I brought the girls down around 5pm so they could go swimming with their cousins. They had a blast and ended up swimming for about 4 hours. Since they hadn't eaten since noon that day (pizza at Micah's party), I finally went out and brought them back kids meals from McDonalds. This is a big treat for the girls and they thought it was so cool that they got to eat their dinner with the boys in the pool room. They all inhaled their food, as it was about 8pm by the time they finally got dinner!

Yeah....it's Sunday now and time for Sunday School!

Sunday afternoon now and we enjoyed a wonderful few hours carving pumpkins at with Justin and Jake Meadows! We ate warm soup and relaxed the day away. So fun! Here are our finished pumpkins.....

Pumkin carving at the Meadows!

What a fun Sunday afternoon! Matt and Angie invited all of us over for a little Fall fun -- yummy soup, hot apple cider, pumpkin carving, and relaxing with our good friends. Kristi made chili and Angie made African Peanut soup -- both were so good! The kids were very excited to see all the big pumpkins on the table and they each picked the perfect one out for carving. Matt cut off the tops and then we let the kids scoop out all the guts -- they loved it! They lasted for a while, but soon got tired of it and took off to play outside while all the adults finished the carving. We all had a good time letting our creative juices flow!!!

We seperated the seeds from the gunk and Angie washed them up and baked them for us to snack on later. They were so good! I love pumpkin seeds.

Sofia getting down and dirty!!

Oohhhh......so scary!

Audriana digging out the gunk....Justin and Matt in the background.

Aunt Kristi with the kids.

Kristi and Ang........

Our finished products.............

Melanie & Sean Reynolds Wedding 9/19/09

Can you believe I FORGOT my camera?!?! That just doesn't happen to me -- but it did -- and we were all the way up on Schweitzer Mountain and there was nothing I could do about it. Luckily, Sarah had her camera and took a few pictures that she is going to share with me. But, all I can say is that Mel and Sean's wedding was amazing. Such a beautiful place to hold their very special celebration. Lots of people, lots of fun, and Mel could not have looked more beautiful. I hate that I forgot my camera. I'll post more pics when I get them.

The Frog-O-Sphere is here!

Well, we finally caved in and got the girls a pet. 2 pets, actually. 2 little frogs. They are so cute! I saw these frogs this past summer on one of my trips over to Bellevue for a work meeting. Brookstone was selling these aquariams, complete with 2 frogs, a snail (to eat up the ickies), the frog food, the rocks and the cute little base that it sits on. Get this -- you only need to change the water twice a year and feed them only twice a week! This is my kind of pet! When I originally saw this at Brookstone, I had flown over, so I was not able to buy it and get it home. I made the mistake of telling the girls about these sweet little frogs (that I could not bring home) and they have not let me forget about them. Audriana kept wishing for me to "go to Seattle for a meeting" so that I could drive over and bring them home. They've been wanting a cat or a dog -- which are both out of the question with our very busy lives. But these little guys seem just perfect -- it satisfies the girls' desire for a pet and it satisifies my desire for no pets! They just sit on the counter! We have decided that Sofia will feed them on Monday's and Audriana will feed them on Thursdays. So easy!!!! The girls have spent so much time watching the swim and chase each other. By the way, I told them that they could each pick out a name -- Sofia named one of them "Flower" and Audriana named the other one "Transformer"! LOL! Isn't that just perfect?! The problem is that these frogs look identical and their is absolutely no way to tell them apart. The girls think they have it figured out....but I don't think they do....:-)

The Spokane Fair and Rodeo 2009!

Sofia, 3 1/2, Audriana, 6 1/2 and Maria, 7. Aren't they beautiful?!?!

These girls are ready for a day of fun at the fair! So many things to see......

First stop.....the Ag barns -- big pumpkins (actually, huge pumpkins!), tall sunflowers (actually, extremely tall sunflowers), bees making honey, fruits and vegetables.....oh my!

Artisty by the 4H clubs -- all made out of beans and dried fruits and veggies!

Next stop......the animals! This was the girls' favorite part!

Those are mules behind Audriana, Sofia and Maria!

This little dude was only 7 years old and was manning his family's booth. They owned these amazing little ducks that walked upright on their back 2 legs -- sorry, I can't remember their formal name! Audriana got to "pet" it....

A beautiful pheasant -- did you know that they were not native to North America? They came to us from Europe.....

Ready for lunch.........and ready for ice cream!

Ok......so we went home and the girls napped for a couple of hours so that we could all come back refreshed and ready for the rodeo! Notice that Audriana wanted to wear her Hannah Montana cowboy boots and a hat! So cute..... Notice that Sofia kept on her pink skirt and pink shirt, but added her sparkly gold princess shoes. God, I love them!


At the rodeo with Daddy, Grandma, Grandpa, Mommy and Aunt Kristi...

......hard to see, but that is 2 buffalo on top of that trailer, as well as a 1-armed rider on his horse!

We had such a fun time this year. It's been a tradition for as long as I can remember, and now it has certainly turned into a tradition that my girls have come to love.

Labor Day Weekend 2009!

THANK YOU MOM AND JAY FOR ANOTHER VERY SPECIAL WEEKEND!

Our annual trip up to Jay's cabin on Lake Pend O'Reille was great -- but definitly not the same without the Sandberg's. Scott, Lisa, Ryan, Noah, and Micah were missed so much by all of us. They just moved into their beautiful new house and really needed the long weekend to get organized and unpacked. We completely understood -- but we still missed them. We love our traditions, and it just wasn't the same without them. The girls had a fun time, but spoke often of wishing the "boys" were there.....

The weather wasn't so great -- we got a big rain storm that produced hail and thunder on Saturday afternoon. We happened to be up at Priest Lake visiting LaNae and John at their cabin. Just before the huge storm (that knocked out their electicity for 7 hours!), the girls had fun playing in the sand and with the hose that John had hooked up to warm water! Sofia even went in swimming, while Audriana opted for a leisurly canoe ride with Grandpa. We had a nice dinner with their family, then drove back down to Jay's cabin on Pend O'Reille lake (after the storm passed). Sunday and Monday were quite cold, so we filled some of our "indoor" time playing dominos. This was a great game for us because it was easy, fun, and even the girls could play. Audriana turned out to be an awesome player, and by the end of the weekend, little Sofia almost needed no help at all! Kristi said she could have stayed another day just to keep playing! It was a lot of fun. Here's a cute video of Sofia showing us that she can swim -- Priest Lake at John and LaNae's cabin on Cavanaugh Bay.......

It happened to be Cameron and Care Bear's birthday, so we helped the girls celebrate up at the cabin. Aunt Kristi even brought the Easy Bake Oven so she could bake a cake with the girls. She also brought a gift for the girls to open up for their bears. She's the best Aunt!