My Cup Overflows: October 2016

Sleeping Beauty.

Sara has been so excited for Kayte's birthday, I don't think she's been getting any sleep! She finally conked out yesterday in my bed after school.

Such a pretty girl!

Football!!!

It's trying to start but it has been the rainiest October in recent memory. Ben is having the time of his life, he's such a social animal!!

Kayte turned 14 this week. I have yet to wrap my mind around that. But the truth is she is getting older and her legs are getting longer and her face is getting to look more like a grown up face all pretty!

We started the celebrating a couple days early at Grandma Annie's, she definitely goes all out!

Sara made brownies for her candles :)

Finally the big day had arrived! We had spent the Saturday before, cleaning out her room and her closet getting it all ready. We packed up her old notes and cards and some of her toys. We were re-doing her room for her birthday and it was all going to be grown-up. It wasn't yet time to throw out all her girly stuff, but it was time to pack it away in the attic and make room for new grown-up stuff.

I shopped for weeks buying everything and then Monday night, Kelly and I brought it all out and picked out our favorite stuff to keep and put out. We had so much fun!

We locked the door until morning...and then we did all the presents there first thing!

Kayte had worked hard to get ready for her hookie day!

We got all pretty, picked up some drinks downtown and walked around until the shops opened.

Kayte has just barely started fitting into women's sized shoes, which means there were a ton of summer leftovers in her size! What a steal!

Lunch we had at Bloom and it was still a little chilly to sit outside, but we found a good view. We ate until we were blind, but then they brought us the most divine donut holes that tasted like fall. So we ate those too.

We went home and made cookie dough and ate it in front of a movie. I love just hanging with this girl!

We went to watch the cousins play some VB, and then Kayte and Ava and Madison headed to Maialina to have a great big grown-up dinner out on the town all by themselves.

And, because they are still girls, they came back and did a little Just Dance, and then we shared the most monstrous chocolate cake ever.

Such pretty grown-up girls!

My Kayte is such a treasure. She is sweet and helpful and happy and the perfect little first-born leader. She works harder at school than anyone I know. She's always game for adventure and she is becoming one of my very best friends. She is loyal and tender-hearted. She is getting so tall and learning to be stylish, and I have serious hair-envy any time she lets me play with her hair.

God's given her so many amazing gifs, and she is a thankful and generous soul. She loves chocolate and books and music and being alone or hanging with one friend at a time.

She is so loved.

Fishing with Joe.

Sometimes fishing is about the fish. Sometimes, when it is windy and rainy, it's just a good time to hang out together under a bridge with some cold pizza and chat and relax and realize there's nowhere else we'd really rather be.

But it would be nice if the wind stopped and the fish started biting. Oh well.

More XC fun

We had eight meets on the schedule this year and the kids are doing awesome and I like to watch them make so many awesome memories.

The weather is not what it has been in the last couple of year. Even if they predict no rain, the rain comes anyway.

Such a cool group of kids.

Bookstore Sleepover

We won a sleepover at the downtown bookstore at the school auction this year.

Honestly, it was a little strange to sleep on the floor of a bookstore in the middle of town, but the girls had a great time. We got mud masks and watched chick flicks and ate loads of junk food.

These girls are so fun!

Celebrating the Land

It's hard to believe that an actual school will be in this field someday...but these things do happen!

Braces for Will

Will's been dying to get his braces going and we finally did! The first week was so brutal - he's got a lot going on in there and food is an essential part of his day. But we've hit our stride and he's on his way!

A Day with Just Joe.

One beautiful fall day, Ann and Dave took all the kids to Silverwood and left Joe and I all by ourselves to enjoy a lazy Sunday.

We went to church all by ourselves!! We ate and cooked and ate amazing food. We fell asleep watching football. And then we wiped down the seats in the jeep and headed for the mountains. It was the most stunning day and I took a lot of photographs that will never even give a glimpse of how magnificently brilliant that day was. But I tried.

Literally standing on the edge of the earth, throwing rocks. Cause he's just a boy, after all.

Popped the window shield down for a proper footrest for my favorite Chucks.

Crawled out on the hood for this one :)

My favorite boy in my favorite jeep driving through my favorite country in my favorite season of the year. Good. day.

Our first plaques!

Both our girls' and our boys' teams managed to win meets big enough to warrant an actual plaque!

I was so excited!!!

Most of the girls had taken off by this time...

...but this one we waited for!

Woohoo!!! Go Knights!

The first fire of fall.

Greek myths.

Fifth grade plays mean togas and we had so much fun with this one! My little greek goddess:

....and her buddy, Jack. :)

The Fair!

What an epic fair this turned out to be!

Sara entered four items: a monstrous luxury lego ship, a picture, some zucchini bread muffins, and an embroidery exhibit that she had worked on with a small class that Connie Lucas was doing for her and some friends. Ben entered a picture as well, and Kayte did some work on Sara's ship.

We were pretty excited to see how it all turned out.

Sara got a best-in-class and best-in-show ribbon for her lego ship. It was certainly an impressive work of art!

More ribbons!!

And elephant ears, of course!

So good!

Poor Will missed out as he was heading into a massive week of homework :( He made up for it on the weekend and headed out with friends and cousins for some of the late night fun! Haha!

The last violinist.

My little serious Sara is working hard on her violin! She is the last of the kids to still be taking lessons (although we never did start Ben....) And she auditioned to play at the assemblies and scored two fantastic spots! I love to hear her play!

A little apple-picking

One of our favoritest days of the fall! Apple picking and cider making!

We hang with cousins and hang from trees and then we go back to Grandma's house for her famous chili and cinnamon rolls and we eat so much we are still sorry the next day. It's the best!

Such a cutie!

Palouse Youth Tri

These littles love the Palouse Youth Triathlon!! Every year we have a couple of challenges. First. We don't spend a whole lotta time biking...or swimming laps. These are not our strengths. And as country kids on a crazy skinny fast road, we don't even try very hard to keep our bikes in good condition. Or really even have bikes. So it is a scramble every year to find a working bike (we usually borrow from the cousins) and we are a little timid about the swimming leg.

But we do love to run, and that is where we shine!