Candle Making

On Saturday we decided to make the Autumn Candle Holders that my sister jenny posted on her blog. They were very fun to make and turned out very pretty.

I also had a larger fishbowl shaped candle holder that we decided to make a spooky halloween scene on. We followed the same directions as the above craft. We cut the ghosts and spiders and such out of construction paper and covered it with grey tissue paper. Thanks for the idea Jenny!

Daddy's Home!

Paul got home last night around 10:30. Ava wanted to stay up to wait for him, but she had to go to bed so that she wasn't tired for school this morning. She and Brendan were very happy to see him this morning and he walked her to school. He has only been gone for five days, but Brendan was staring to call the phone DaDa, so it was good that he came home when he did. Yesterday, Ava and I made him this banner. (don't mind the water stain- I believe that was Brendan's contribution from his sippy cup).

Kindergarten Sorting and Graphs

When Ava starts a new chapter in math, the teacher sends home a workesheet explaining what they will be learning and some activities that we can do at home to reinforce the learning. Yesterday Ava stayed home from school because she has been sick with a cold and minor stomach bug, but by the afternoon she was feeling a lot better so I put her to work sorting things out and making graphs. She made a bar graph showing all the differant colors in the living room. She first collected her data (things that are red, blue and green) on a chart and then she made her graph. Then I gave her about 20 articles of her clothing to sort into shirts, pants and dresses, which she then drew onto a picture graph. She really had a fun afternoon. When she was done with these two activities, she went on to make many more of her own graphs. Today she is feeling better and back in school.

Our News.

Here is this morning eating a banana while waiting to go for our morning walk. We always go for a walk after we drop Ava off at school. Ava is really doing well in school. She seems to really like it. They have "show and tell" every week and I think that this is her favorite part of school so far. She does come home very tired, so I think that they keep the kids very busy. On Friday she brought home chapter one of her math book all completed. She was very proud to explain each and every page to me in detail. It was a lot of patterns and sorting and matching.

"Let's get moving Mom!"
Here is Brendan doing some "thinking".

Paul has a new job at Frito Lay and he has to spend this week in Boston for training. He left on Sunday and will be back on Friday or Saturday, and I'll tell you they way that everybody has been acting around here, you would think that he went to the other side of the world and that he is going to be gone a year as opposed to a week. Ava really misses him. She cried for two days before he left and she has cried the past two nights that he has been gone. I don't think that she understands fully that five days really isn't that long. I guess that to her it feels a lot longer. She has also been very worried about him as well. She is worried about him getting lost. She was worried about him having food, she had to make sure that his hotel room had a TV and blankets. As he was walking out the door on Sunday she yelled to him, "Dad don't forget to take your bags out of the car and bring them into the hotel!" Even Brendan has been crawling around the house looking for Daddy from time to time. Ava calls him every night to wish him goodnight and last night she almost had him in tears! I think that it is funny but at the same time it is great to see your child so full of love. She is a Daddy's girl! Anyhow, it will be great to have him home on Friday!

Tunnel Time

With Ava in school all day long, Brendan and I have to find ways to keep ourselves busy. We go on many walks, spend a lot of time swinging and reading and playing and watching the clock waiting to go pick up Ava. Friday, we took out Ava's old toy tunnel and Brendan crawled through it for the first time. He was hesitant at first.
He braved his way through the opening.
Once he got in he thought it was pretty cool.

He didn't even want to crawl out. He just sat inside for awhile.

The Countdown Begins

In one more month, (October 17) this little guy turns the big one year old!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!

Happy Birthday Dad! We hope you had a great day!
Ava and Georgia are trying really hard to move this heavy chair to the table.
Here comes Grandpa Smith to the rescue!

Russell's Football Game

Saturday we went to Russell's first football game. We were so proud of him, he looked so good out there and we will definately have to see him play again.

Here's our future football star.

The girls held up signs to cheer Russell and his team on.
Unfortunately my photos came out blurry, but you can get an idea of how Russell looks like he is made for a football uniform. We'll have to get better pictures of him at his next game.

Gooooooooooo Russell!!!

Photo Contest

I entered four photo's in the "Focus on the Cape" photo contest, and I just found out today that this one won 2nd place. It is titled Winded at Wilson's Bay. I won $50.00 and a plaque and the chamber of commerce has the right to use any of the photos from the contest for promotional books and brochures.

First Day of School!!

Wed. was Ava's first day of kindergarten. She really loves it so far! I think it was harder for me than it was for her. I got a little tear in my eye as I left the building. These are her 1st day of school photos. We walked to school with our neighbor who was walking the kids she babysits to school. (I mentioned LaLa on an earlier post) the kids weren't really wearing disguises. I put them on using a photo editor because although their parents probably wouldn't mind, I didn't want to put the kids on the blog without their permission. I wanted to put this picture up because it shows Ava's jitters as we got closer to school. We took this photo right before we got to the school and if you look at Ava you can see that she looks a little bit nervous as she approaches school.

More Backyard Camping Pictures

Here are some more photos from the camp out. Brendan is deciding whether or not he wants to go down that slide.
He doesn't look that enthused in this picture, but he really does love the slide. Maybe his stomach is growling as he smells the bacon and eggs cooking on the fire, or maybe he is feeling a bit tired after spending the night in a tent for the forst time. The kids having fun.
The swing got a big smile out of Brendan. Thank you Grandma for the fun campout!

(Now I must go to bed because Ava starts kindergarten in the morning!)

Campout at Grandma's

At the start of Ausust Mom and Rick and the Barton's went camping at Cranberry Lake. We were supposed to go as well, but we couldn't at the last minutes because Ava, Paul and Brendan were sick with a summer virus. Ava was a bit disappointed so Grandma Gifford had the idea of having a campout at her house last Saturday night. Ava had a wonderful time! The sign says, Welcome to Sunflower Seed Campground.
Here is Ava in the Sunflower seeds.
A honey bee takes a drink.
Brendan had a ball with Emmy.
In the morning Grandma cooked everybody a delicios breakfast over the fire.