Birthday Boys

Whoa!  It was a mostly pokemon birthday (gifts, that is.)

Jordan's lemon cake

and pumpkin

Jordan loves to read everything now! 

and chocolate!  whew.  Now all we need is some more sweets.  Time for Halloween candy? 

Fall Festival

Ever since the amazing farms and orchards of Michigan, we can't pass up our annual family trip to a fall festival.  (Although Florida was the exception.)
Here are my favorite photos of the visit in no particular order.

second or third time around...

a pumpkin treat = smile

a fun, bumpy hayride

trying a hand with the lasso

getting found in a cornmaze

the resident goat!

Fall is wonderful!  We love apple cider, donuts, cooler weather, playing in the leaves, and decorating with pumpkins.  Do you have a favorite tradition to share?

Birthday girls

1st Birthday!

    This girl loves food. :)  I had to take a million photos as her breakfast cake disappeared.

 Grandma made her birthday really special with chocolate cupcakes with cherries on top and a cupcake princess dress!  Maybe next year I'll coordinate a cute theme.  Thank goodness for Grandma!

The cutest thing of all was how special Leisel felt. 

And Tessa too!  I love birthdays.  We celebrated Tessa a few weeks after Leisel's day.

Our good friend Inez knows how to make Tess's day special!

Renee made this party a hit.  She came, brought all the fun cousins, and planned the fun activity for the girls.  Whew.  Easiest birthdays yet.  How did I get so lucky.

Then we got to celebrate with the Clark's too!  Spending time with family makes birthdays special.

ice cream happiness

and fun chaos of  presents

Yea for cousins

Still not sure if this was a present for me or for the girls.  Thanks!  Wagons are my favorite...

a birthday parade

Back to School

In late August and early September we started gung-ho into our homeschool plans for the year.  Michael had a lego robotics class with our online charter school.  He is posing here with his first project.  And Jordan jumped into an engineering type class with simple machines. 

Tessa loves to learn and is becoming more interested in figuring out letters and numbers.

She is my #1 helper now because our school plans have changed quite a bit. 

We were offered a place at a nearby charter school and made the decision as a family to have the boys enroll.  Jordan loved the habitat diorama project in his science class.

Somehow this picture was unavoidable fuzzy.  Michael is in the front second from the right.  He loves to sing in a choir now!  Both boys think their experience at school is awesome.  They are working hard and are learning some great things. 

Fall

 

Here are a few fall-ish photos.  Our Stake Harvest Fair is a fun annual activity.  Kind of like a county fair the adults and kids can bring things they have grown or created to be judged.  Then we eat hot dogs and cotton candy....

Fun times in the backyard with the Swing Swaddle

Concord grape juice!

Jordan was a champion baseball player in Riverton City Fall Baseball!