Elise's Holiday Show 2010

The 2nd Graders put on a Holiday Show - this year it was all about Bears. I've been hearing the music for weeks now - it was fun to finally see the songs put together with the whole group (and the piano accompaniment!)
Elise was a Black Bear:

The cute ears were made by the music teacher's mother :-). I don't know the names of the songs, but I think you can get a good idea!
(Camera quality isn't as good as usual - borrowed camera ;-)














And all of the kids had speaking parts - Here was Elise's group- she is near the end:

Thanksgiving.

Story.

Centerpiece.Feast.

Dragon Party

Elise really wanted tohave a Dragon Parade on her birthday. We found colorful fabrics, Owen designed and built the dragon's head, and here it is:



The kids also planned, designed, and executed their own version of "pin the Fire on the Dragon". I almost missed it - they even did the game on their own without us!



BUT - the highlight of this party was the CAKE. This might be John's crowning glory, the best yet.

Very impressive. ANd yummy too.

The detail was amazing.

He airbrushed on the color.

And, as always, dress up happens at some point.

Ended her wonderful and crazy birthday weekend with a dinner at The Melting Pot. We all loved it - yummy and very special. We got to watch the sunset from our picture window overlooking the mountains.....

Zolo update

Zolo has gone from sweet super tiny cuddly kitten TO small, energetic, rambunctious, annoying, feet attacking, table crawling beautiful kitten.
His eyes are now a beautiful yellow color leaning towards green or grey depending on the light. Big yawn!!!!
He also loves shoes:

Visitor in our yard

Rather, maybe not a visitor but a resident. This fox spent about 30 minutes sniffing around and eating a squirrel in our backyard, then proceeded to wash.

This is why the chickens are always under lockdown, and Zo will NOT being going outside unsupervised any time soon, if ever.

Birthday Girl

School always celebrates with the kids :-)

Elise is ever the ballerina. And so cute in her favorite outfit.

A note she wrote for me this afternoon:
We waited until after dinner to open gifts - a longtime to wait!

On the phone with Grandma, Grandpa and Great Grandma:

A pile of gifts from mom and dad:

Headbands are always a hit!

SHe has been wanting an umbrella for a while now - so much rain in Colorado, you know ;-p

Elise and Zolo playing with her new lizard/salamander:

Alarm clock! Now, if she would only wake up in her own bed....

Socks!!!!!!!!!

Fantasy Paper Dolls from Grandma Bertie:

Owen made Elise a cute turtle too:

Elise is planning to have a few friends over tomorrow, to have Chinese/Japanese dragon Celebration. Owen is busy making dragon puppets and a dragon head, John is working on a world-famous cake, and Loelle is sewing together beautiful fabric to be a dragon's body.

Ahhh, a good end to a good day.

Halloween 2010

Our Halloween season started out with a full moon Haunted Halloween hike at Bear Creek Lake Park. Our real costumes weren't ready yet, so the kids improvised from the dress up room.
We got to show off these costumes to Grandma Bertie and Great Grandma Welty.

Most of the costumes didn't stay on long. Too much baggage.

Friends A and S were there!

At school Friday we had the Costume Parade. owen wore his amazingly creative skier costume. He won the battle over the glidable skis. (See video!)

Elise was an Irish Bagpiper.


Trick or Treating at home with friends!

Mission Control for all of John's Halloween creations outside:

We did not get many good photos of his creations - but just imagine how this looked - we got lots of comments!

Latecomers and sharp dressers:

And finally, the trading!!!!!