Mary's first school portrait

Mary saw me posting this picture and said, "I got a picture taken.  I look beautiful!"  She certainly does.

Anna's portraits

Isn't she a doll?  We love this little angel!

 

 

 

 

 

Lagoon and Kmart

In August, we canceled our Disneyland trip and had a "Disney day at Lagoon" instead.  The kids had a blast.  Someday we'll make it to Disneyland, but Lagoon was more than enough fun for this summer.

 

 

 

Austin's favorite part was riding the zoo train, which he called "Thomas." 

 

Mary was very proud of herself because she rode a "scary ride" with Daddy.  She loved it.  I didn't get a picture of her and Dad, but this is the Ladybug Bop ride:

Epilogue

Here's a recent conversation we had at our house:

Anna: How come we never go to that one place we were going to go?

Mom: Disneyland?

Anna: No!!

Mom: Which place?

Anna, annoyed: It wasn’t a place we were going to today!

Mary, very serious: Anna, think about it.  Was it Kmart?

Anna, giving up: I forgot.

November

Mary and Anna got new beds from a furniture store with a giant chair.

Mary got to be the VIP for a week at school.  She got to make a poster describing herself.  She picked the pictures and wrote the captions.

I got to go to school with Mary on the last day of her VIP week.  She described her poster for her classmates, and they all raised their hands to give her compliments like, "I like how you color," and, "I like how you play with me."  Mary called on the children and, after each compliment, she very politely said, "Thank you."  We brought a sewing-card activity for all the kids to do.  I am amazed at how much Mary has already matured in school.  She loves everything about kindergarten and has gained a lot of self-confidence.

Anna is modeling Mary's Native American costume from school, complete with papoose.  Mary's Indian name was "Morning Star."

 Austin potty trained himself.  He is such an amazing little guy.  After I told him how proud I was of him one morning, he told me to get the camera.  "Take a picture mine!" he said.

Then he said, "Take a picture my toilet!"  He was even fully clothed for the shot.

 

 We enjoyed some backyard sledding after a winter storm.

We went down to my parents' after Thanksgiving.  Austin was fascinated by the plane my dad is building.  He kept telling me, "Want to see the airplane again!"

 

We took the kids to the movies for the first time with Grandma Joy.  "Tangled" turned out to be a great choice, since the moments of peril and villainy were much milder than I expected.

 We also visited with Great Grandpa Erickson.  It was nice to see him.

On the way home, we got caught in a snowstorm and had to stay the night in a hotel.  The kids were absolutely delighted.  When we got home, Mary said, "I want to do the whole thing over again!"

October

 We visited the local pumpkin patch.

We stuffed our baby pumpkins with cinnamon and applesauce and baked them for a family home evening treat.

 

  Mary "carved" a pumpkin at school.

 The kindergarten Halloween parade was a hit.

 Austin found a train book at the library's Halloween story time.

 Anna had a Halloween party for Joy School.

"Tanner Trick or Treat!" at Daddy's new office.

 

 

 

We had a "trunk or treat" in the church parking lot.  My sister Mindi and her family came by on their way through town and got their picture taken with Darth Vader.

And... we finally got a swing set!

Chickery Chick

My grandma used to sing me a song from 1946 called "Chickery Chick."  I sang it for the kids one day, and they thought it was hilarious.  Here's the song (the lyrics start at about 1:06):

Anna decided that she and I are "chickery chicks."  She even asked me, very indignantly, why I didn't call her Chickery Chick when she was a baby.  She sang the song for me on camera a couple months ago.  (Note the marker on her legs.)

Going Private

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