Grammie & Grampa's Visit to CO

The 1st of October, 2008, Grammie and Grampa Parlin came to visit. All of the kids were so excited for their arrival. They flew to CO from Maine where they had been all summer. They will return to Florida after this visit. It was nice that my sister lives here now so that they could visit with both of us on this trip. Jonah could hardly wait to read Green Eggs & Ham to them - here they are on the first day listening to Jonah.

Debbie's Birthday

Today was a wonderful day and family and friends helped make it really special. I got to start my day with a bubble bath (first one in 5 years) and was treated to some Panera bagels. I went to my Beth Moore bible study where they sang Happy Birthday to me and another friend who shares the same birthday. My sister took me to lunch at Panera too - awesome! I ran some errands all by myself in the afternoon. Then we all went to Old Chicago's for dinner - delicious pizza! Here's some pictures from the restaurant:

We returned home after the pizza to have cupcakes for dessert - yum!! We all wore fun party hats and I opened presents after.
Here's Catherine doing one of her famous poses with her hat and her socks on her hands!
For those of you not from Maine, you may not be familiar with the delicious dessert called Whoopie Pies. They're awesome! My parents found these ENORMOUS ones - the biggest any of us has ever seen - and sent a few in my gift box - awesome! Thank you to everyone who helped make this day special from well wishes to presents and treats - great day!

AIES Field Day

The boys had field day today at their school - a fun day with lots of games outside. Here they are at the start of the day. Adam & Jonah played their games in the morning and Jack helped run one of the games. Then Jack was able to go play the games in the afternoon. I was there in the morning and able to get some photos of the boys having fun.

Jonah's entire kindergarten class with their teacher, Mrs. Simmons - she's outstanding! Adam had her for kindergarten last year.
Jonah with a few of his classmates.
Jonah doing the sac race.
Jonah & his class listening to the rules for a game.
Adam with some of his classmates and his teacher, Mrs. Klenke - she's awesome too! They were playing frisbee golf here.
Adam's class on a water break.
Jack was helping run one of the games - their school and playground are in the background with the beautiful Rocky Mountains behind them.
It was a very fun day for all of the boys and I had fun helping and seeing them have fun with the games.

Catherine's Poses

Somehow Catherine started this really funny thing where if you want to take her picture, she poses by turning to the side or lifting up her arms. It's hilarious! Here are some examples we took today in her really cute church dress. Note the funny arm positions!

Doc Sue's Birthday

Friday, September 12 was Doc Sue's Birthday, so we went to Red Lobster to eat dinner. The 35 min promised wait time turned into a 1hour 15 minute wait time, so we didn't start eating until around 7pm. The kids did pretty well for having to wait so long and eat so late. Doc Sue was able to enjoy a complimentary lobster as compensation for the wait! A friend from church, Lindsay, joined us for the dinner.

After dinner, we returned to our house for cake (since it was past the kids bedtime, they watched the candles get blown out and sang Happy Birthday to Doc Sue, then went to bed and had cake the next day).

Church Picnic

Last night Tom & I enjoyed a wonderful date night where Doc Sue had all 4 kids sleep over at her apartment - woohoo! We visited with some different friends, then went out for a late dinner and were able to wake up and relax to get ready for church this morning. It was a wonderful time for us - we really enjoyed it!

This morning church was later than normal followed by our annual Labor Day Weekend Church family picnic across the street from the church. It was very fun - all of the kids ate and played and all of the adults were able to eat and visit. Here are a few photos to commemorate the event (only the first one is actually at the picnic - the rest were taken once we were back at home).

Catherine & Mommy at the picnic

All of the boys in "party shirts" for the picnic.
Daddy giving Catherine kisses.
Catherine and Daddy
Catherine being mischievous again unloading Mommy's purse after the picnic.

Mischief!

Catherine has entered the mischievous stage! She's in to EVERYTHING!! She's always trying to find unsecured makeup, medicine, markers, etc. She also likes to be a "helper". Today while I was loading the dryer with wet clothes, she was taking them out again. When I stopped her and was finishing the clothes, she went downstairs and decided to climb on a chair in the living room to play with the light switches. As she was doing this, she looked up and saw the alarm keypad and pushed the "fire" button setting off the very loud alarm. Thankfully ADT called before sending anyone and I was able to say that it was a false alarm. This is the face of mischief:

She's a tutti fruity cutie alright that gets into lots of trouble! We're looking forward to a night with just Tom and I tomorrow as the kids spend the night with Doc Sue - Thank you, Doc Sue & beware!