Trick or Treat

Each year the kids get more excited for Halloween. Cameron knew right away that he was going to be a character from Star Wars, going on 4 years in a row. Morgan on the other hand kept changing her mind. She finally decided on a Witch, so Rich took her last week to buy her costume and they bought a cute little witch costume with a broom. But at the last minute she refused to be a witch and so we put together a princess, fairy, ballerina look, which she loved. Good thing she has lots of dress up clothes to choose from !!!!

There was one house that we went to and they gave Morgan some spiderman crayons, Morgans response to the lady "A boy thing, really" the lady felt bad and gave her an extra sucker and it was yellow so that made up for it. I wasn't sure how to respond to that one...

Rich stayed home and handed out candy while me and one of the other parents took the kids around the neighborhood. Our kids made it around the block and they were ready to come home. Cameron enjoys handing out the candy more than anything.

A Day of Fishing

One of the things that Cameron and Rich love to do together for some bonding time is to go fishing. Cameron is getting at the good age where he loves to go and does not mind sitting and waiting for the fish to bite. They went a few weeks ago and caught one fish but Rich forgot the camera.

Cameron was itching to go again today when we got home from the pumpkin patch. Him and Rich headed out and Cameron was pretty excited because he finally got a "big" fishing pole. He loves to play with the worms as well, must be a boy thing :)

When they returned home Cameron was proud to announce that they caught 3 fish this trip. Not sure who was more proud him or Rich.

Fall Ball is Under Way

Today Cameron had his first game of the season. Not only the first game of the season but his first time to play kid pitch. We finally get to play with regular rules, and catchers. It is nice to be done with Coach Pitch. Cameron is on an awesome team with some great kids, and the Coach is awesome as well. Cameron is the only 7 year old on his team, all the other boys are 9 years old.

He did pretty well today. Didn't get any balls hit to him, but he did get on base once and stole second. The other two times he struck out. He was a little nervous about which pitches to swing out. The umpire was not the greatest around. He was calling strikes if it was over their head and if the ball hit the plate he called it a strike. Rich had to remind me that he signed a Code of Conduct for the both of us. I guess I should probably keep my mouth shut :)

We are looking forward to a great season and lots of fun!!! One of the cool things about this team is that the players all go by nicknames and they are on the back of their jerseys. Cameron thought long and hard about his nickname and he chose "Boston". I think he forgets who they are talking to when they yell out his name.

Cameron loves to "stack"

Last year at school Cameron belonged to a club called Stacking Cups. Cameron fell in love with it right away. So of course he had to have his own set of cups, mat and timer. Believe it or not they have actual competitions with stacking. Cameron has become very good at it, and could do all 12 cups in about 1.5 seconds. I tried to get a video of him but he refused so some pictures will have to do :)

Happy Birthday Rusty!!!!

Today is a special day at our house. It is Rusty's 13th Birthday in people years and 91 in dog years. Needless to say he is an old dog. We forgot to buy him some cupcakes so we made a piece of toast and cut it up and put some peanut butter on it for him. He was happy that we just remembered his special day!!!!

Summer has come to an end

In most places the weather has cooled and the trees are starting to turn colors. But for us here in AZ we are still loving the 110 heat and monsoons. The weather will cool down in about 2 months or so. But even though we still have the heat summer has come to an end. The pools and water parks are closed, and they have winter coats hanging in the stores.

We had a pretty uneventful summer but still managed to have some fun. We started the summer off by going on a camping trip, being outdoors just does amazing things to you. Sitting around the campfire, taking hikes and just watching the kids play and run wild. This was our first camping trip in 13 years that we did not take Rusty (the dog). Rusty is getting up there in age and we didn't think he would enjoy it much anymore, so off to his little vacationing spot for a few days.

We did lots of swimming and playing at the splash parks. Saw movies, went bowling, played with our friends. We celebrated Morgan's 3rd birthday in July. And the chance we did get away for a few days we did a Staycation and spent 4 days at a local resort, it was rated in the top 10 on the travel channel for resorts with Water Parks. We all had a blast, Cameron's favorite was the lazy river and Morgan loved the wave pool. We will be going back shortly for another little get away. This was Morgan's first real memory of staying in a hotel, and she loved every minute of it. I think her favorite part was that her and Cameron had their own area and they got to sleep in the same room.

We ended the summer with a great Labor Day Weekend. We spent some time with Jim and Gaby and they were so kind to cook us a delicious steak dinner and we enjoyed a swim as well. On Monday we went to the zoo and of course no animals were out because it was 108 degrees outside but they played at the splash park and we had a fun little picnic.

2nd Grade.....A new adventure

Summer has officially come to an end when school starts. It is now time to get back to our schedules, setting the alarm clock, homework each evening and activities during the week. We were ready for Cameron to go back to school but Cameron definitely has his reservations. He was excited but also very nervous to go back.

We started are day off with some good waffles and orange juice for breakfast. We talked about how the new school year was going to go this year. Once we got to school Cameron did not want me to walk him to his class. So I dropped him off in the normal spot and off went my confident little second grader.

Cameron had a great day and was so proud for not getting in trouble. I asked him what his favorite part of his day was and he said "the whole day". So Day 1 was a success and we can only hope for many more to come.

Happy School Year

Christmas In July

Most children see snow in the winter and have to bundle up head to toe, but not our kids. We prefer to have snow in 110 degree weather, makes it more fun. Today at the zoo they brought in snow for the kids to play in. Cameron has seen snow before but this was a first for Morgan.

At first she was not very impressed but soon caught on to throwing snow balls at brother and mom. Cameron had a blast. He caught me off guard more than once, which means I was hit by more snowballs then I would have liked. There were tons of kids there so the snow soon turned to slush then mud. So we continued on to see some animals and hit the water of course. But here are a few things we did before playing in the water.

The petting zoo is always a big hit :)

The bears had a special treat today frozen buckets of ice with fruits and veggies on the inside. Here is Morgan watching the bear, so serious!!!

Took some fun poses whle playing around on some statued nimals. I think I have millions of pictures with the kids in the shell and on the alligator, so here are a few more to add to our collection.

As we were wondering around looking at animals, they brought a fire truck in to give the elephant a bath with the fire hose. There was such a large crowd we couldn't see so we moved on. Because it was one of the most miserable hot humid days in AZ that I can remember not many animals were out and about. So we spent a majority of the time at the water area and having a snow cone. After being there for 6 hours the kids were ready to leave.

4th of July

We started this fine holiday off by sleeping in until around 9:45 this morning, I know jealous. Jim and Gaby were so kind to take the kids last night so we could have a date night and some much needed alone time. After we picked up the kids we came home and I cleaned out both cars, Rich and the kids had a water fight.

















Once the cars were all cleaned it was time to head out to see the fireworks. Our church was displaying fireworks so we went there along with about 1000 other people. Very crowded but we still had fun. The kids enjoyed bomber pops

The kids ran around and chased each other. They had lots of fun music playing and the temps were pretty low, for AZ anyway (103).

Morgan was scared at the first sounds of the fireworks but soon started oohing and ahhing.

We had a very nice relaxing, low key kind of day.

Happy 4th of July!!!!

Being So Serious!!!

Our Little Gymnast

It is time for Morgan to shine in her athletic abilities. She started taking gymnastics about 3 months ago and for the most part enjoys herself. But tonight she was so different from the rest of the weeks. She actually was participating in the different stations. She usually runs around and does opposite of what the coach is asking.

Tonight they practiced jumping to the lower uneven bar, they had to jump a good distance to reach the bar. They jumped off a block and then swung back and forth on the bars. Morgan took to this like a monkey.

Morgan proceeded to jump like this about 15 times in a row and finally her arms started to tire out and she jumped 3 X's in a row and missing the bar each time but was persistent on getting up and trying again. Here is Morgan in action!!!

The Jump

The Swing

She was also very daring tonight on the Rings, I guess you could say she really enjoys the events where you get to swing :)

Her most favorite thing to do each week is play in the pit. They get to do this for about 10 minutes at the end of each class. It is a pit full of foam blocks, and they use the trampolines and then dive into the pit. As you can see Morgan always finds her own way to enter the pit.

Cameron joined us tonight as well and had fun bouncing around on the trampoline track.

Fun times with the kids

Saturday turned out to be a day of fun adventures and trying new things. Rich went on an overnight fishing trip with some friends so that meant the kids and I were on our own

Saturday afternoon we ran some errands, had tons of items to return :) Somehow I still managed to spend more than I returned :(.

In the afternoon we decided to make some stepping stones, they did not turn out as we had hoped but we still had fun making them.

Cameron's stone turned out pretty good, but after he was all done decorating it I moved it and it broke :( He was a little excited because that means he gets to make another one.

Morgan had a little too much fun making her stone. When she was putting her hand in there she insisted on putting both hands and then squishing the mix between her fingers. So we started over with hers and finally got her hand in there within reason but the print didn't turn out to well, but the other side turned out real nice. Morgan still needs to put her finishing touch on it.

Later that evening I decided to take the kids to play miniature golf. Not only did we get to play miniature golf but they had a little playground for the kids to play on, and misters were coming down on them so they thought that was fun. But unfortunately Morgan got stuck inside and I had to squeeze my way through a maze that is for very small people, their were spots that I myself thougth I might be stuck.

We eventually made it to the golf course and there were tons of people so we had to wait along time for our turn, it turned out to be a good thing because that meant we could take our time putting the ball and we definetly needed some extra time :)

In the middle of golfing Morgan had to take a potty break, which meant we had to stop for a snack and the kids enjoyed an icee. Then off to finish the our golf game. The kids played well and can't wait to go back.

After our golf game we headed home but not without a stop at the Dairy Queen for some ice cream, it is now 9:00 and I am feeding my kids ice cream. They definetly know this is a one time thing.

The kids stayed up super late, and finally made it to bed around 10:30 and then we decided to have a sleep over in mommies bed so all the pillows, blankies and stuffed animals soon arrived and everyone was soon snuggled in and off to sleep....

Pretty much a perfect day!!!