Attack of the Zombie

Thursday night was our school carnival. Hannah was a zombie in the spook alley. Before we left home, we thought she should practice her scare skills.

Brad walked in the front door in the middle of this. I asked him last night if he thought it was a weird scene. He said, "Nothing really surprises me around here anymore."

They are a pretty dramatic bunch.

Santo no more!

This is what Kerrie looked like the first time we saw her in May. She was adorable and santo (bald). Every time we have done something with Susanna's hair she always asks me to "do my head mommy". Not much you can do with no hair. Well, she has been working hard to grow her hair. Last week, after I washed her hair, I decided to comb it out to see how big we could get her tiny 'fro. It was longer than I thought, and we spent the next hour putting little pigtails all over her head. She was thrilled with herself!

We have to fix them every morning. A lot of the elastics break during the night. Susanna was used to getting her hair done at Eban House. She is patient and never complains when someone works on her hair. Kerrie moves her head all over the place and complains that I am hurting her. Yesterday she said I was making her head cry. She does love the results though. We all think it makes her look older and more feminine.

Kerrie before preschool last week. Is she a cute kid or what?

Too cute to walk. Riding in Grandma and Grandpa Dildine's wagon on a walk through the park with all the Dildine side of the family.

Ready for church last Sunday.

Sunday Chow Down

Sunday dinner with all these girls is one of my favorite times of the week. It is noisy and messy. Last week Brad smoked ribs and the girls devoured them. Messy but delicious!

Kiley was not this proper when the camera was not out.

Preschool

We made it through our first full week of preschool. Yay! The picture above is of Susanna and Kerrie on the first day last week. The pictures below are of my preschool. This room used to be our playroom. Last year we converted it into Holly Mountain Preschool.

I teach a class T/Th morning, T/Th afternoon and M/W morning.

I love teaching preschoolers! I have darling students.

Susanna and Kerrie are doing great in school. They love the kids and the structure in their day.

I feel lucky to spend my days in this room. It is a happy place.

Tiny Dancer

Monday afternoon Susanna had her first dance class. I have never seen someone so excited. She carried her dance bag around all day. She keeps asking when she gets to go to a class again. She has really been motivated to show us "big girl" behaviors. What a cutie. I can't wait to see her in a recital along with all her big sisters.

Last Hurrah Part 2

We started the second day of our Labor Day Weekend mini-vacation at the Pancake House. Kerrie wasn't very hungry, so she just ordered a little cinnamon roll.( This was actually shared by three girls.)

Kiley went to Girls' Camp near McCall in June. She loved the hike they went on to Blue Lake. We like to take the girls hiking, so we thought we would give Blue Lake a try. It was awesome! We drove to the top of some mountain (maybe Snow Mountain) and then hiked a mile down to the lake. I pulled my camera out to take some beautiful pictures and found a dead battery! I was so mad. Luckily we were able to get some good pictures with Brad's phone.

The girls were great hikers on the way down. There were more complaints on the way up.

What a great weekend. We are all sad to see summer go.

Last Hurrah

We took the girls up to McCall for a couple of days over Labor Day weekend. We got up there late in the afternoon on Friday. All the girls, except Kiley, threw on their suits and ran down to play in the lake.

I am glad they did because Saturday was not a good day to play in the water. It was windy and much colder. We took the boat out for about one hour and it rained on us most of the time.

Paige was the first off the end of the dock.

Hannah and Paige.

Brad thought they might like to go out in the wilderness where nobody would care how loud they get. We found a nice campsite and roasted (cheap and not very popular) hotdogs and made s'mores.

The bigger girls enjoyed the roasting.

The little girls enjoyed the eating.

We all had a great night together.