School Pictures: I'm in Love!

I love that my neighbors take school pictures for us. Then it turns out for I can get pictures of all of my kids for the same price of just one at the school. And they still have that iconic school picture look.

I cannot get over how much Isaiah has grown and changed in the last year! He's a fourth grader.

Charlotte has grown so much too. I tell my kids to stop growing in the night and they just laugh. She's in first grade.

Elijah, little whirlwind devil is three.

And happy Teddy is all smiles at one.

Water Blob Party

When I needed to plan a summer water party for my Activity Day girls, I turned to that old wishy-washy standby Pinterest. Now sometimes Pinterest is a huge letdown. And other times it's a veritable genius. This time=genius!

While looking for water games, I came across the idea to make a "water blob" out of painters plastic. First, you seal the edges with an iron (genius!) and then fill it with the hose outside and it becomes a giant waterbed on your lawn (genius!). It was so awesome.

The boys got to crawl around and jump on it until the girl party started. Then we had fun with water balloons, playing limbo, and running water relay races.

It ended up a little chilly in the shade for ice cream treats, but the girls were still reluctant to leave it. Super fun!

Projects with Grandma

It's always fun when Grandma comes because she brings creative (and festive!) projects.

Last weekend the children made little scarecrows. Eli's scarecrow boasted life-size hands and feet. Isaiah's scarecrow is fanatically scary.

Charlotte went the extra mile and added an entire body to hers, including blue pants. Oh what fun!

Grandma also helped them make pumpkin-inspired lanterns.

Jack-o-lantern lanterns. Pretty clever!

Grandpa's Pumpkin Patch

Every year my Dad grows a garden overflowing with pumpkins. This year we visited in time to pick some for carving.

With glee they ran through the vines and selected bright, round, orange pumpkins.

Charlotte chose the biggest one she could carry.

Elijah found one with a twisty stem.

And Teddy played in the dirt. Now we need to get carving!

Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone

The children kept asking, "Why is it called Yellowstone?" And I was happy we could show them. They loved seeing the impressive Grand Canyon with the yellow stone walls. I'm glad God threw in a waterfall, too, for an extra dose of beauty.

Oh my it was windy!

Isaiah was in his element, since he loves hiking, the outdoors, and extreme rocky ledges.

We were happy to have our new jackets at this point to keep us snug and toasty.

Elijah got the easy end of the hiking by riding on Seth's shoulders.

We hiked into the canyon at the South Rim for a close-up look at the canyon.

The stairs were SO STEEP! And the signs said there were about 300 of them. My calves hurt for a good week.

Eli got so many smiles for his adorable moose jacket.

The beautiful falls.

A friendly woman took a family picture for us.

My darling miss. She of course brought her hat.

The moose liked to climb around in the forest. How he still had the energy after that hike is anyone's guess.

Old Faithful; Bison by Yellowstone Lake

Ridiculously darling moose sweater at the gift shop, check.

Old Faithful. It was worth the wait (of only about 10 minutes!). The kids loved seeing it erupt.

Eli and Isaiah found a place at the edge of the boardwalk for a good view.

Eli chose this postcard. He cracks me up.

Isaiah loved this giant bear sculpture in the lodge.

We drove the lower loop which passes along Yellowstone Lake. It such a pretty place! Someday we have to come back when we have more time for exploring.

Ah, it had been so much driving that both Eli and Charlotte konked out.

Just as we saw buffalo! Right by our car!

And they completely missed seeing them. (Because no one in their right mind wakes a sleeping child on a 6-hr driving day.)

Lovely views all around. We'll definitely make a return trip in the future.

Driving to Yellowstone; Hot Pots

We made it to Yellowstone this year! I've been wanting to take the children for a long time. It was a big day of driving so we left Teddy with Grandma. The kids were pretty good for the long car rides.

Once we started exploring, we quickly realized that it was freezing cold and we forgot sweaters.

Charlotte kept asking why it was so cold, and I said because we were in the mountains. She said,"But I thought the mountains were closer to the sun. So it should be warmer!" Very clever logic!

Oh well. We looked at awesome hot pots and steam vents and geysers and promised to buy them sweaters at the gift shop.

I finally bought a cowgirl hat! I figured what better place to wear it than seeing the sights "out west" at Yellowstone.

We told the kids this one had a fire-breathing dragon deep in side the cave. Eli was mesmerized!

And it was nice scooting him around in the stroller. He was happy for the ride!

We had described hot pots to our kids as looking like lava. Charlotte looked around and said, "This is not like in my imagination."

Ah, but it's such a unique and beautiful place!