27 October 2013

Sofi's school celebrated Homecoming this week.  Lucky Sofi-- she got to dress up every day!  On Monday she helped out during an assembly lip sync to "What Does a Fox Say."  

 Tuesday was punk rocker day.

 Wednesday was animal print day.  Sofi doesn't have many animal prints, only a couple of scarves, so she wore Helen's cheetah princess costume from Halloween in 2009.  That's right, Helen wore this dress when she was 4!  Sofi wore it as a skirt.

 Thursday was decades day.  Sofi dressed as a hippie and carried Abe's ukulele around all day.

 Friday was the day to wear pink.  The school devoted their homecoming week to breast cancer awareness (we promise we are not making this up.)  The opposing team's mascot at the homecoming game was a panther, so the school used a pink panther motif in their homecoming decorations.  Sofi wore Becky's Halloween costume.

 Gib's class went to a farm on Friday and he got to pick out a pumpkin.  The farm had run out of the pumpkins they give away to school groups, so they were giving away their sugar pie pumpkins instead.  Becky got one of her own since Gib wants to make his into a jack-o-lantern, not a pie.

 Gib came home sick from school on Friday, so he missed the school carnival.  Kind friends took Abe and Helen with them.  Abe dressed up as a zombie (his costume from 2009 still fits!) and Helen went as a pirate.

 Sofi's friend, Joey, turned 16 a few weeks before Sofi.  Joey's mom, Andrea, and Becky planned a joint surprise birthday party for the girls.  It was both of our first try at a surprise party.  Andrea was in charge of keeping the girls away until time for the party and bringing them home at 8 pm.  Becky called the neighbors over to help yell surprise.  She didn't know they had about 15 other kids over at the time. The more the merrier!  Sofi and Joey came home to a dark house.  Abe started giggling which started lots of other giggles, then a big "SURPRISE!"

Sofi and Joey both love the TV show "Dr. Who" so we had a few Dr. Who themed treats and decorations.  Andrea made the cupcakes with adorable TARDISes on top.  Becky made TARDIS and dalek sugar cookies.  The TARDIS is the time machine Dr. Who travels in.  Daleks are robots that are the Doctor's worst enemies.

 We also had bow ties for party favors.  Bow ties are another Dr. Who item.  In the photo are (back row) Carson, Hunter, Joey, Ireland, (front row) Sofi and Jessica. The girls could all tie the bow ties, the boys could not and Jessica was the bow tie master!

 Gib wore a leftover bow tie to church today.  Abe, Helen and Gib participated in the Primary Sacrament Meeting program today and they all did a great job!

20 October 2013

Here's a little family togetherness from Wednesday night.  Sofi was working on a lab report for school on our Mac, Brandan was doing paperwork on his laptop and Becky was proofreading Ruth's novel on our netbook. 

Brandan and Becky went to their favorite couples' Halloween party on Friday night as the Pink Panther and Inspector Clousseau.

Here's a photo of Inspector Clousseau in action.  Helen did Brandan's makeup and Sofi did Becky's.  We're lucky to have such talented kids!

Sofi is taking drivers' training this fall.  In Oregon, drivers training is not available at school, but is offered privately and through community colleges.  Sofi has been a reluctant driver and we're hoping the class will give her more confidence.



Helen and Gibson enjoyed a tea party outside on a gorgeous afternoon.

Our big event this week was Sofi's 16th birthday!  Sixteen candles made Sofi feel old so she grabbed an old granny wig to wear while we sang Happy Birthday to her.

She blew all the candles out in one go! Sofi is a delight and treasure.  She is kind, thoughtful, creative and crazy smart.  Sofi loves music, is known throughout our neighborhood as the girl who reads while she walks (some of the neighbors truly worry for her safety), makes delicious treats for all occasions and generally spreads joy liberally wherever she is. We've been blessed to watch her grow into a beautiful 16 year old and look forward to her bright future.

13 October 2013

Gibson just needs help threading a needle and he can sew his koala up by himself.  Koala needs stitches regularly.  It could be time for a skin graft.

 We decorated mini pumpkins to look like bats for a family night activity.

 Our friends, Delia and Felipe, joined us.

 Helen taped some fall color onto one of our evergreens.

 Brandan and Abe cleaned our wood stove to get it ready for fire season.

 Our friends' son had a birthday party at a railroad park.  The park is run by a bunch of model train enthusiasts.  The main attraction is a 1 1/2" scale model train ride.  Passengers sit on top of the cars instead of inside them.  

 Here's a photo of Sofi, Abe and Gibson on top of the train.

Here's a photo of Gib looking back just before the train went through a tunnel.  The kids loved to yell inside the tunnels.

 This is a photo of Sofi finishing up her Halloween costume before the stake dance.  She got her vintage wedding dress from Goodwill.

 Sofi went as Miss Havisham from Charles Dickens' book, Great Expectations.  Miss Havisham was left at the altar as a young woman and never changes out of her wedding dress.

A few friends came to our house to get ready for the dance.  Destiny went as a vampire, Ireland said she was Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz, and Joey was an Indian.  Helen put some face paint on and jumped in the photo.

6 October 2013

A local pizza place has a great deal for students: if you are studying at their restaurant, you can buy a slice of pizza and a drink for 50 cents each.  They also have free wireless which makes it easier to study.  Sofi has met friends there a couple of times after school.  We can have some confidence that they're not just goofing off-- the workers check on the kids to make sure they're studying and not just getting cheap pizza! 

 Abe gave a short talk at his school assembly on Friday.  He was one of seven students who talked about Battle of the Books for the new school year.  The competition starts in the Spring, but kids can start reading now.  They have 16 books to master.  Abe talked about the book Kenny and the Dragon.

We celebrated conference weekend together.  The kids were excited to see the return of the Conference Concession stand.  Gib was the shopkeeper on Saturday.  The kids earned conference coins by listening to general conference which they used to buy treats and crafts at the store.

 We had raspberry filled french toast for breakfast.  Abe wasn't satisfied with simply having the sweet raspberry filling.  He opened his french toast up to add filling and cool whip, slathered his french toast with more filling and cool whip and sprinkled sugar over the top.  

This is a photo of Abe painting a bird house he got at the concession stand.

 Helen and Sofi made glitter T-shirts.  They made them using freezer paper for a stencil, coating the design with fabric glue and then covering the glue with glitter.

 Here is Sofi with her finished T-shirt.