Wordless Wednesday....

Okay...wordless until later. :)

A Baby No More....

We celebrated Keira's birthday with a family dinner tonight. Grammi, Papa, Uncle Ruben and Auntie ReeRee joined us for pizza, salad, and cupcakes from Indulge (which just moved to Sumner, yay!). Tomorrow we are having a party at daycare with her friends there, and on Saturday we will host our friends and some of their kids here. Wow...that's three days of celebrating. What a lucky little girl:)

The birthday girl with a pizza face:)

Mmmmm...cupcakes:)

Blowin' out the candle (the assist from Daddy isn't on camera)

Can you guess what Grammi and Papa call her?

Christa says this was the best money she ever spent.

She's officially a toddler folks...I don't know if I can take it. All around me people are popping out babies again, and Tom says...NO MORE! Don't get me wrong, in my head I know we're done, but in my heart I'm ready for another. My baby turned two today:( I need another cupcake.

Halloween

We had an interesting evening on Halloween this year. We actually didn't make it home until after 11pm on Saturday. "Why?" you ask. Well, we decided to run all over Western Washington this year, and consequently were caught in traffic from two car accidents. Needless to say we were exhausted the next morning. Plus, Keira got sick in the night. My mom is giving me a hard time about the junk she ate...but I'm not feeling very well myself right now, so I choose to believe she had a little bug:) Besides three suckers and one piece of candy isn't that much, right?! I guess if you top that with Sonic for dinner...I STILL choose to say bug:P The trouble is that she's too dang cute, and everyone wants to give her what she wants! Tom is adamant that we won't be doing so much "visiting" next year. But, it was sure fun to see everyone's face when they saw the kids in their costumes! Here are the pictures for you to enjoy.

Jackson's grumpy "don't take my pic" face...while the other two say, "Cheese."

The "other" local high school (Bonney Lake) had a great event put on by a local church. Lots of games, candy, bounce houses, and even pony rides. We stayed nice and dry:)

Keira plays "putt putt" for candy.

Tall Mom on the Run's Giveaway!!!

Our good friend Melanie is hosting a giveaway on her running blog this week...Please be sure to check it out. It's an amazing prize, and she's an amazing person! Here's the info:

BROOKS FOR HER GIVEAWAY:

Brooks created the Brooks For Her (BFH) collection to help support the fight against breast cancer. For each BFH piece purchased from March through December 2009, Brooks will donate 6.25% of the suggested retail price to three organizations that research and support those affected by breast cancer: The Young Survival Coalition, Making Memories Breast Cancer Foundation, and Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, earmarked for breast cancer research. Your vote, between March 1, and December 31, 2009, determines how much of the total donation each group gets. No purchase necessary to vote. Learn more about the three selected charities Learn more about how BFH works See the Brooks For Her collection


To introduce you to the Brooks for Her Collection the wonderful people at Brooks are hosting this amazing Giveaway. THANK YOU BROOKS!!!

WHAT WILL YOU WIN???

Brooks for her Jacket

(Chose your size S, M, L, or XL)

• Function: Pink-and-white technical zip-up with brushed interior and retro track-jacket style will likely become your favorite performance "sweatshirt." Even better, your purchase of this item helps support those affected by breast cancer.


• Fabric: Equilibrium Knit: 100% polyester


• Fit: Semi-Fitted


• Features & Benefits:
  Zippered side pockets store essentials
  Ready to carry your MP3 player
  Embroidered pink emblem on front; white star on back
  

HOW DO YOU ENTER:

1. (Required Please) Visit the Brooks for Her Collection website HERE tell me, and Brooks, which products you are interested in and/or what you would like to see in the future. Leave a comment.

2. (Required) Contest open to Tall Mom Bloggy Pack Members only.. If you are a Follower, you are in luck, if not click to Follow. If you do not have a Blog please email me and I will comment on your behalf. I realize there are many readers who do not have Blogs and I do not want to leave you out. (tallmomontherun at hotmail dot com)..

BONUS ENTRIES:

3. You can earn 10 entries if you purchase an item in the the Brooks For Her Collection. If you buy more than one item, you get 10 points for each. This is on your honor, please let me know what you bought in a comment and I will credit the POINTS.

4. If you have run/walked/sponsored/donated/volunteered at a Race for the Cure event, or any event supporting Breast Cancer Awareness, please let me know which event Name, Date, State, etc. You will receive 3 points for each event.

5. SHARE: Post a link to this Giveaway including the pictures and details about the Brooks for Her Collection and you will get 3 points. Leave a Comment with the link. (If you post on more than one Blog you will get points for each and if you mention the Giveaway in more than one post on your Blog, you will get 3 points for each mention. Add up your points and let me know.)

6. Tell me about how you plan to Go Pink in the year to come. Leave a comment 1 point.

• CONTEST ENDS ON Sunday November 1st at 3:33PM. Winner will be announced on Monday November 2nd.

Many will enter one will WIN.. Happy Commenting..

The Pumpkin Palace

Yesterday we made our annual pilgrimage to Scholtz Farm's Pumpkin Palace in Orting, WA. We've been going here as long as I can remember. We often visit other patches with friends, but keep coming back. It's not the fanciest patch, with special themes every year. It's also not the patch with the most stuff to do. But it's the patch that we feel comfortable letting the kids run wild at, never have to worry about pumpkins in standing water, and don't have to pay a fortune just to GET IN! Hope you enjoy the pictures of our visit this year:)

Jackson thinks he's cool :)

Little Logan and Big Logan as they are known

Keira hitches a ride

Pretty pumpkins!

Preschoolers and Science

So for those of you who don't know, I teach preschool two days a week. Now, it's only four kids...and it's at our daycare...but it's great. One of the nice things is that since I actually have the kids all day, five days a week, we can start things in class that might take us longer than actual "class time." Most of these things involve our science experiments. Here is one that I thought I'd share with you all. We are learning about farm animals, and this ties in great with conversations about where food comes from. It is very easy, but super fun for the kids.

To start you will need:

whipping cream, a jar or container with lid, spoon, bread or crackers

Next:

add cream (we only used about half the carton) and spoon

Then:

Have kids shake-a shake-a (put back in fridge when gets warm)

And:

Repeat!! Do this until it becomes fairly solid (it won't be solid like you usually see...and it won't be yellow).

Finally:

Enjoy!!!

We tied this in by talking about how cows eat grass and hay, from this they make milk, from milk we get cream, and we made butter from that cream today!!! They were super excited, and everyone got a chance to shake the container. Here is one of the crafts we accompanied the "experiment" with:



Now try this with your kids:) I promise, they'll love it...and the butter's pretty good! (And isn't that craft cute?!)

My handiwork...and a beautiful surprise!

So for fun, and to earn a little money, I make cards. My aunt has a flower shop on Whidbey Island and she sells them in her shop. I also make them for friends and family when they ask. I had been getting a lot of requests for Autumn and Halloween cards, so instead of taking orders this time, I made up about 50 cards. I sent around 20 cards to my aunt for her shop, and the others are "hanging out" in the entry of my mom's house. They are a hit, and are going fast:) I took a couple of pictures of them to share with you all. I have been thinking about starting a shop on ETSY to sell them, so let me know what you think.

Halloween...Please excuse the pictures, I know the quality isn't great.

Autumn...Again, please excuse the fuzziness.

I am currently selling them for $3.50 each or 5 for $15. I have been charging $4 for special orders. What do you all think?

What a BEAUTIFUL surprise!

For the last week, one of our daycare families has been telling us with a sly smile on their faces, that they have a surprise for us. Imagine our faces when the grandma walked in today with two of these:

Isn't it beautiful?!

Can you tell from the picture that it's handblown glass? Look at the craftsmanship! We are blown away...Here is another view.

AWESOME!

Apparently little Jaiden's Uncle does this as a HOBBY!? He rents out the studio and does as many as he can of whatever he is making. He gives them away as gifts or sells them. His pieces range in price from $60 - $100. If you have ever looked at glass, you know what a STEAL that is. I have ALWAYS wanted to own some glass pieces, but the cost is prohibitive. Now I have the most AMAZING piece, from some AMAZING people. How blessed am I?!