Halloween

We had a great Halloween this year.  It was on a weekend so we went to Miller and Mason's for a party and then trick or treating with a group of kids from their neighborhood.

Snaggletooth (I mean Rylee) was Jasmine.  Jace was Bumblebee.  He's carrying a cool weapon here that he borrowed from Miller (handmade by Ryan if I remember correctly).

Adults were supposed to dress up as well.  

To Jon that meant adding a sombrero to his regular persona (Juan Cinco). 

I didn't try much harder.  I recycled my 

Pink Lady look from a couple of years ago.

Here's a group shot of all? (most of) the kiddos.  

They had a blast!  Jace probably the most - this was the first Halloween where he really got into Trick or Treating.  He LOVED going up to all the houses.  We went all over their neighborhood until it was way dark, way late, and the kids were way exhausted.  Rylee didn't even bother going up to the last several houses.  To Jace's credit, he was still going right up to the last house.  I should have dressed him as the Energizer Bunny!

Snow Day

Jace's school had a snow day the same day of the fun run, so Jon cleaned up and headed over there afterward.  For us Minnesotans it was a pathetic pile of snow, but to these Floridians (my kids are Floridians?!), it was awesome!

King of the hill!

Nothing like wearing snow gear in the 90 degree heat.

Cutie!

Snowball fight!

Cooling down with a different kind of snow.  :)

Rylee jumped in on the action after school.

Fun Run

Rylee ran her first race this fall.  It was a mile run to raise money for her school.  Jon ran with her, but I got to cheer her on with my second graders.  (Like how I made it sound like I couldn't run with her because I had to work, and not because I couldn't run around the block?)

She finished easily and had a fun time, though she expressed some interest 

in running the race by herself next year.  I think she felt that Jon held her back.  Lol!

Fall Fotos

Miscellaneous Fall Pics...

Rylee doing the Pledge on her school's daily news program

Sibling pic at Jace's school

Rylee after her first Girl Scout meeting

Jace in his new big boy bed!

Rylee sewing at Gaga's.  She made me a Christmas throw pillow - 

so cute (I wish I had a pic of the finished product).

Snaggletooth

Snaggletooth is a nickname usually reserved for our dog, Rio, but this fall it fit Rylee too.  In less than two months time, she lost 4 teeth (not her first go round, she lost two last fall).

Here's the night she lost the first one - aww so cute!

What I didn't realize is that as she got ready to lose the rest, 

they were going to space out, rotate, and basically gross everyone out! 

Here she is pushing two loose teeth at the same time - classy!

Then she finally lost the top one...

and eventually the bottom one.  Then the other top one twisted and she looked exactly like Nanny McPhee.  We actually found a photo of Nanny McPhee and recreated it with Rylee, but for some reason I can't get them to upload to Blogger.  Probably better anyway - they weren't attractive!  Finally when we couldn't take it any longer, Jon said the tooth had to go.  Rylee was excited to try the kicking the door trick...

...but after a few failed attempts, the operation started to fall apart.  I came in right about the time she was crying and he was losing his patience.  She refused to let him pull it so I asked her if I could get a look at it just about time that Jon returned with our four foot bolt cutters.  As he was threatening to use his device and she was screaming in terror, I calmly informed them that the tooth was out.  I don't remember pulling it, I think it came out when she jerked away from Jon in fear!  

After that, we started calling her toothless.  :)

Rylee: Dress Up Days

Now that I finally have some time to blog, I thought I'd look back at a few of the photos I took this year (and I do mean few).  Rylee attends a uniform school, but they have special dress up days on Fridays.  Here are just a few...

 Disco Day 

Storybook Character Day (as Fancy Nancy)

with Jace (as Transformer Bumblebee)

Pajama Day

Sunglasses Day

Career Day (Vet)

Pink and White Day (Valentine's Day)

Imitate a Staff Member Day

(dressed as her teacher)

Tacky Tourist Day

MN Trip - Week 1 (Part 1)

It was an interesting trip to get here.  Bad weather in Mpls lead to two unsuccessful landing attempts (and many barf bags being passed around the plane) before a diversion to LaCrosse.  Meanwhile, Mom (the undercover FBI agent packing heat - who knew?!) got diverted to Sioux Falls.  Neither airport can accommodate larger airplanes so we just chilled on the planes waiting for Mpls to reopen.
Unsure of whether or not we would make the puddle jumper to Brd, Papa hopped in the car and drove to Mpls to pick us up.  In fact, he actually beat us to the airport.  I think driving home worked out better for the kids and the dog.  We had already been on the plane for over 8 hours.  Driving meant they could eat and sleep in the car.  :)

The last few days have been busy!  Rylee had vacation bible school (Wed-Fri).  Mom and I unpacked on Wed, spent Thurs in Brd running errands, and Fri was cooking/baking day for the big planting on Sat.  We managed to have some fun on Friday too.  Megan spent the day with Rylee (they had fun doing crafts and watching movies while we were busy).  Heather and Vern came to pick Meg up and Sara came to visit so we had an impromptu dinner party!

Yesterday was the planting (my family is part of a grant for a restoration project on the lake).  For our property, it entailed two large wetland areas down by the lake, a woodland area at the bottom of the hill, and two rain gardens on the hill.  In total, it was 3700 plants!  Luckily, we had 28 people helping so we were done in a little over 4 hours.  Mom recruited some Boy Scouts (with some camping at the lake thrown in as a bonus), Girl Scouts, and roped the Erickson's and Sara into helping too.  :)

I officially did more gardening in one day than I have done in my whole life.  (P.S. Don't tell Jon I am capable of such labors.)  Jace and Rylee were great helpers too.  Jon would have been proud of his little gardeners.

Here are some after photos (the boat landing got a face lift too):

Since the scouts were playing the water, my kids got brave and went swimming too.

All in all, it was a fun day!