Other Stuff in St. George

Since it was so nice (and maybe a little cramped in the house), we spent some time wandering as well.  We went out to breakfast, found a new favorite store (Urban Renewal) and enjoyed some time sitting at the park.  I think we made a stop at Swig, as well.

The kids just chillin' with Brigham.

The boys waited very patiently while the girls perused and shopped at the silver store.

We spent lots of time wandering in Urban Renewal, it just had so much cool stuff to see.

Shawn and Jonas in their Napolean Dynamite poses.

The whole fam at the park.

I've got to admit, it was a little hard to head back home and face the upcoming Christmas season.  The little break was so nice.

Thanksgiving

It was a Cunningham year for Thanksgiving, and it was at Marci's house in St. George.  We ended up staying in SunRiver with my family, so the kids had a little time with their Marsh Family cousins, too.

The weather was absolutely beautiful!

Marci had all sorts of fun things for the kids.  They all took turns with the photo props.

After dinner, there were some rousing games of bingo that kept everyone entertained.

It was a wonderful day spent with family!

Colonial Day and Kindergarten Thanksgiving Feast

Peter got to enjoy a Thanksgiving feast at kindergarten today.  All the kids were either Indians or pilgrims.

The 5th grade also had colonial day, so we had two Indians here today.  Amelia was begging and begging to be a pilgrim, but I finally bribed her to be an Indian since we already had that costume and I just wasn't up for creating a new one.) Amelia got to dip candles, make tin art, button games and feast a little bit, too.  They were also dressed as either Indians or pilgrims.

Fun day for all.  Now we're ready to celebrate real Thanksgiving.  The holiday break has started!

Another surprise selfie. (I swear I'm going to ban her from touching my phone at all!)

Something Curious Playing at Wingers

Jonas' band got a chance to play at Winger's tonight.  This is partially a new band.  Three of them played in the old band (The Understatements) and were joined by three new band members and are now known as "Something Curious".

They did great.  As always, I just love watching this super reserved and quiet kid perform and play music.

The best part was, he actually made a little (very little) cash.  You know, when you have to divide it up between all of your bandmates...  But $55 in tips isn't bad.  Yep, he made a whole $9 on the gig.  The cost of lessons is now totally worth it.  (ha ha ha)

Already?

I can't believe how fast this year has gone.  It may have to do with how extremely busy we have been, or just the fact that I feel like my kids are growing up way too fast, but either way, we've ended up here with only a few weeks left in the year, and I am having some anxiety.  Christmas is in 33 days!!

My kids have been asking about Fred the Elf for the past few weeks, wondering when he would get here.  I finally told Peter we could make a countdown chain so they wouldn't have to keep asking me how many days.

Now I guess I've got to get going on this Christmas stuff.

Fast and Fun Fabulous 50's Meet

Our swim club decided to create a little series of swim meets to hold on the days of high school meets since meet stuff is already set up and club practice is cancelled.  Shawn is calling them "fast and fun meets" and the first one was a huge success.

They each have a theme and include a little swag to go along with the theme. 

(Megan is not crying here because of the meet, but because we had to miss Robbie getting his eagle.  We were all a little upset.  Maybe certain of us mostly wanted some of the brownies...)

But please notice her fantastic 50's outfit to go along with our Fabulous 50's theme.

All the kids got sunglasses and there was 50's music playing through the whole meet.  The distances were all 50's, so the meet went really fast.  That, of course, was the general idea. (One of the biggest drawbacks to swimming is the long meets.)

There were some fun events thrown in as well, such as this t-shirt relay.  Having to swim in a big wet t-shirt, peel it off, hand it to the next swimmer to put on, etc, tends to slow things down a bit, but the kids had so much fun.

Our meet officials and volunteers were awesome too - even dressing up.  At the break, there was a dance off between the timers and the officials.  Good stuff.

I think everyone is looking forward to the next one just to see what it will be...

Amelia's New Eyes

I have to admit I was really disappointed when I got the letter in the mail telling me that Amelia hadn't passed her vision screening at school.  I hate that I have to wear glasses and can't function without glasses on or contacts in my eyes very first thing in the morning.

But Amelia was absolutely thrilled to find out she might need glasses.

She tried on several pairs, finally picking this one.  Then she could hardly wait the few days for them to be ready.

Poor girl.  I also got glasses in 5th grade.  (January, I believe.)  I remember being shocked at the fact that I could see individual leaves on the trees and the individual bricks on the buildings as we were driving home.  (You just don't realize what you can't see when you first start losing that good eyesight.)

Amelia was commenting on that as well.  "Wow! I can see things so clearly." I hope she is on a slower track than I am and that her eyes don't get too much worse, but reality probably won't go that way.  Not if she has my eyes.

But this was one excited girl when she got those glasses!

Fall Leaves

We haven't spent much time on yard work this fall because we have been so busy.  We had just a few open hours this weekend, so we raked as much as we could.

Fall just wouldn't be complete without a pile of leaves to jump in!

Class of 2027

Peter, along with all of the other kindergarteners that will feed into Olympus High School, went to a little high school orientation at Olympus.  I was blown away when he came home with this shirt.

Class of 2027?!!!  That just sounds so futuristic!  I can't believe he will graduate from high school in 2027.  Even weirder, is the realization that we will have a child at Olympus every year from now until then. That's 13 straight years of high school.

Wow.

All I can say is Go Titans!

Random Fun at Home

Honestly, my phone has more random selfies than anyone I know.

This one is probably a little sacrilegious, but it shows the sense of humor of some of the little people who live here with me.  I think this one is on Peter.

The Toy Story guys had been wreaking havoc all week - Emperor Zurg in particular.  Looks like they finally caught him.

Halloween 2014

Since there was no school on Halloween for us, the kids got to celebrate a day early. (I love no school on Halloween!)

The school parade.

My storm trooper.

My 80's girl.

And little Alice in Wonderland.

Of course, there were class parties, too.  Duffy in Senorita Graham's class.

Amelia

Peter getting ready to have some fun.

 

On Halloween, we stopped in at the pool to do some set up for a meet the next day.  Not everyone gets to have Mr. Incredible at swim team practice.

Getting ready to head out for some trick or treating.

I almost never get in on this Halloween stuff, but somehow Shawn convinced me to join him since Mr. Incredible needs a Mrs. Incredible.  So far out of my comfort zone!  It turned out that our neighbor was being Violet, so we had her come over for some "family pictures" before she went trick or treating.

Samantha decided to squeeze in one more year of trick or treating.  She dressed as Piper from the Heroes of Olympus series. (Costume complete with dagger - Katropris - and her handcrafted cornucopia.

Her friend Maren went as her co-hort, Annabeth.

The neighborhood crew getting ready to go.

Stringham children. (Minus Jonas who wanted no part of dressing up - he probably gets that from me- but he did go to a party.)

The stormtrooper was not super fond of his mask,

so it was awesome that Shawn found this storm trooper hat to complete the outfit.

As Mrs. Incredible, I had to be flexible.  Let's just say that doing cartwheels in high heel boots is much harder than it seems.