Sunday, October 14, 2012

Fall for Some Fun

Well it’s been a while since I’ve blogged. Sorry about that! I can’t seem to remember to get the camera out! Here are a few highlights from the past couple of months when I actually remembered to get the darn camera out!

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Lori started cheering for Upward again. This time she is cheering for flag football. John and I decided this will be our first and last fall outdoor sport the kids do. The games started out warm but got really cold by early October. It’s a miserable hour for those of us sitting on the sidelines. The picture above was from Lori’s first game on September 1.

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After Lori’s game we headed to hang out with our friends who happen to live across the street from some way cool people who let the girls and I ride their lovely horse Norah.

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One weekend this September, Audrey came home from spending the night at Grandpa and Grandma’s to announce that she no longer needed training wheels on her bike. Grandpa had taught her how to ride without them. And she has been riding without them ever since.

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This past weekend our family went to our favorite local pumpkin patch/apple orchard. Our realtor has a client appreciation day out there every year so we get in for free! Here are our favorite things to do there:

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Play in the giant Corn Pool;

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Jump on the giant jumping pillow,

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Ride the pedal tractors (these were new this year, big enough for adults to ride too!)

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Slide on the big slide,

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Pretend to be a fireman (the other two refused to do this),

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And pick out pumpkins to bring home and paint!

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Here we are making applesauce from the apples we bought at the orchard.

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Lots of Fall Fun!

Saturday, August 18, 2012

Fun at the Iowa State Fair

The state fair is a bittersweet time for us. Sweet in that we have lots o fun there, but bitter in knowing that the fair means summer is almost over.

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We always begin our time at Little Hands on the Farm. The girls enjoy pretending to be farmers, mostly because they know they get to pick a treat at the end.

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In front of the largest pumpkin.

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Cotton candy fun!

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I think the cotton candy was the highlight.

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Natalie’s got a bigger beard than Grandpa!

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Can’t forget the big slide. The girls had so much fun they rode it twice!

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Last but not least, the girls had some fun on the rides.

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Fun times at the fair!

 

Sewing Project #1

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Lori couldn’t wait to get started on a sewing project when we got her book Sewing School in the mail. She of course chose one of the hardest projects in the book, an apron. Doing this project together taught us both diligence and patience. Lori did very well at cutting out the pattern. Next came the sewing.

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The trickiest part of sewing for Lori is how to hold the fabric while it goes through the machine. She has a tendency to tug or push on it causing the sewing machine to knot up. This is where the patience came in. I was about ready to pull my hair out after the tenth time of rethreading the machine.

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We made it through though, and the final project is a well put together apron. Lori uses her apron to play waitress, hairdresser, store, and hotel. It was a fun project for us both, and I’m looking forward to the next one!

Thursday, July 26, 2012

Summer Highlights

We have had a fun filled summer so far. Can’t believe we start school again in 4 weeks! Here are some pictures of what we’ve been up to.

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Audrey, our gymnast wanna be, practiced doing front flips in our pool. She did this over and over.

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Lori made her own puppet theater and put on a puppet show for my family. She is quite the story teller!

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Here is Natalie modeling her button she made at the Des Moines Art Festival.

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It was a very hot day for a July 4 parade, but we went anyways. We drank lots of ice water!

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We had the privilege of seeing my good friend Anissa, her husband Mark and their adorable son Nolan. The girls had a blast playing with and entertaining Nolan.

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Audrey and Lori took semi private swimming lessons this year. They had a blast and learned how to tread water, jump in deep water and come back up, back float, and various other swim strokes. Now they are swimming machines!

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And last, but not least, Lori has been wanting to learn how to sew on my sewing machine. Since it has been so darn hot here, I decided there was no better time than the present. Lori made a few pillows for their dolls and stuffed animals. We ordered a book called Sewing School and Lori is excited to learn how to make her own skirt as well as one for her doll.

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We’ve had a great summer! We hope you are enjoying yours too!

Friday, June 1, 2012

Happy Birthday Audrey!!

Yesterday, May 31, was Audrey’s 6th Birthday. We celebrated her big day by going to Reiman Gardens with Grandpa and Grandma Philpott. Before we left for the gardens, Audrey got to open one of her gifts. A new scooter!

Audrey had been anxiously awaiting this new scooter for some time now.

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Reiman Gardens is a delightful garden display in Ames, Iowa right next to Hilton Coliseum where the Cyclones play.

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We began at the butterfly garden exhibit where you can interact with all the different butterflies.Sometimes they even land on you to say hello.

This Blue Morpho landed on my dad to say, “Hello.”

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A Wood Nymph landed on my mom. Apparently he/she was looking for food because he/she was tickling my mom with its proboscis.

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Here are a few other butterflies we saw there.

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After the butterfly exhibit we attempted to walk around the gardens in the rain and 60 degree weather. We all got cold quickly so we didn’t last long, but we did manage to see a couple of the Lego exhibits they had around the gardens.

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There are several thousand Legos in each of these creatures.

The girls got to try their hand at making their own Lego displays.

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We ended our trip to Ames with a stop at Hickory Park for a yummy lunch and of course dessert.

It was a fun birthday celebration!

 

 

 

 

Lori’s Debut

 

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On May 1, 2012, Lori made her debut as an actress. Our homeschool group’s drama class put on a play called Good Manners. A wicked sorceress cast a spell on good manners and two noble knights were on a quest to take manners back. Lori played a scientist who advised people to please not pick their noses and wash their hands before touching tableware.

She preformed her lines beautifully as well as the song she and her fellow scientist sang together.

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During intermission, Lori and her fellow thespians served us hors d'oeuvres, and after the play they served us dessert.

It was a wonderful night and we cant’ wait to see Lori in her next play this coming fall!