Happy Fall!

 

The latest and greatest family picture courtesy of Misty Alger and her canned food drive!  We bring 2 cans of food per person in our family, and she takes a FABULOUS Picture!  THANKS Misty!! Best Service Project Ever!

Happy Halloween!!!

(Once again I apologize for the low-quality pics!...I gotta start using the real camera again!!)

 The kids got a couple Halloween packages from Nana- the first one included these lovely teeth-suckers...mmm...

 

 And no Halloween is complete without Mama May cookies!! and a whole family night devoted to decorating said cookies!

 YUMMY!

 We also whipped up some spider-web cookies for the Harvest Party at school!

 

 For the big night Hailey was a princess (surprise!), Laynie was "Pocahontas",

 Addison was Harry Potter in the awesome robe that Nana MADE him for Christmas!

 

 And Maren was the cutest little elephant you have ever seen!

 

 Good thing we have cousins that live in cute (and generous) neighborhood!!

Quite the loot was made, especially by the boys who ran from house to house!!

 



Possibly the MESSIEST baby E.V.E.R.

Maren Bo Baren...could there be a messier baby? I think not...You put your food in your mouth, take it out, rub it on your face, and then the person sitting next to you! You dump toy boxes, empty wipes containers, write with marker on EVERYTHING, eat sand, slather your body with mud, etc. and

WE LOVE YOU!!

 MY PLAY DATE BUDDIES

 

How Could I not post these little gems? Here are my hang-out-all-day buddies. and I LOVE THEM! They play very well together and keep me laughing (and busy!) all day!! 

Happy Happy Birthday Kelly Dear!!

 First I need to apologize- COULD THERE BE WORSE PICTURES??!!  These are iphone pictures, also edited on the iphone- not the best combination!  But, in order to document that Kelly McCann Ditto did, in fact, turn 32- I use the lame quality pictures...

 This is actually the day BEFORE Kelly's birthday when his brothers came over to celebrate the occasion!!  He got a few small things and then...

He found his wake board which I had hidden at Logan's house...which Logan thought best to give it a spin (just to make sure it worked!!!) the day before the party.  Coincidentally, Kelly's birthday was the last nice day of the year...and he still hasn't been able to try out his wake board!  SORRY BABE! But Happy Birthday Anyway!  I sure love you!!

X Country!!

 

 Laynie was thrilled to join Addison this year in after school cross country! She took it very seriously and was a good little runner!!

 Here she is about to cross the finish line at her first meet...

 

 Addison, on the other hand, may have done cross country more for the social aspect- note the 'posey' smile on his face in the picture above, not quite as serious as Laynie perhaps...

 Another posing picture with his two good friends and his teacher Ms C!  What a great teacher to come and cheer her students on!!

Laynie finished 6th at her second meet, which qualified her for the "All City Meet"- I don't know how many girls ran with her at that meet (see picture below) but she finished 20th! It was a cold, rainy day- but we were happy to be there to cheer on Laynie!!

First Day of SCHOOL!!!

 

I could have shouted with Joy to send the kids back to school this year!!  I love them so much, and I love that they get to go to school to learn and share their 'awesomeness' with others for a portion of their day. This year was particularly exciting because the kids were accepted into the APPLE (alternative parent participation learning environment) program.  This program requires parents to give 90 hrs of volunteer work each year- so the caliber of families in the program is a little different compared to our old elementary school where the demographic was rough.  The kids were nervous to start at a new school, but LOVED it after the first day!

 

 Hailey was also counting down the days until she got to go back to school- Her teacher this year for preschool is the same one Laynie had for 4-yr-old preschool, and we LOVE her!!

 

No school for Maren of course, but I'm sure she loves all the extra mommy-one-on-one time!!

Family Pictures!

 My dad was in town for a few minutes (okay, a few hours...)so we took advantage of him and got some new family pictures! We went to the very beautiful (and very unoriginal) Manito Park. The gardens are A-MAZ-ING and remind me of Europe!! 

 Dad probably shot 400+ pictures, and about 6 of them worked out where everyone was looking/smiling...of course 4 out of the 6 only had one person in it :)

Ah miss Maren, full of personality!!

 Notice how she is NOT kissing me back!  The only way I could get a smooch out of her was to make a fishy face...for some reason she'll kiss me only when making a fool out of myself...

 But Kelly will kiss me WHENEVER! :)

 

 My Girlies!

 LOVE this one too!

 Only a week after pictures all of the kids got their hair cut...so we're gonna have to do these again when they all look a little less rag-a-muffin-y.

 But they're still pretty cute-

 Maren would NOT hold still for a picture of her own- so Dad caught her off guard...(as if you couldn't tell!)

We are a Ditto Family!! (I hope you sung that to the tune of "we are a happy family"-we're that too)

 

Some Summer Random-ness...

 The 'first-of-August' trip to Seattle was SUPER fun- we saw ALL my siblings, some cousins, grandparent, etc.  We spent time at the cabin...(those pictures should be around here somewhere)...and watched the Olympics!!  We LOVED it, and wished Daddy could've been there with us!

 Here are some pose-y pictures taken by Papa...

 Hailey's turned out super cute...

 On the walk home from the beach one night, we spotted a 'fighting crime carnival!' They had face painting, hot dogs, bouncy houses, and balloons- ALL FOR FREE! That might have been the kids' favorite part of the whole trip!

 This was NOT Laynie's favorite part, she was running down the hill with uncle Casey, and she tripped and fell on her face! She had an AWESOME black eye to show for it!

Here is more evidence of my crazy baby- she is into EVERYTHING! This might be her favorite game: empty out mom's purse.She is a handful, but we LOVE this girl!!

The REAL Birthday...

 

 Apparently Addison keeps score on his birthdays...a fact I never knew until this year...he informed us all the last year his birthday scored 500 points after going to scout day camp, getting froyo with mom, going to Wendy's for dinner, then to Sky High with cousins, and AGAIN to Froyo that night...Sheesh! How do you beat that??! let me show you...

 I drove the kids all by my lonesome to Seattle so we could have some fun while daddy was being scoutmaster at the scout encampment.  Mary, Emily, Nana, and Papa woke up with us to catch the 7:30am ferry and drive to Port Angeles...more accurately, Crescent Beach for the low, very low tide.

...the ferry ride was 200 points alone!

 The tide pools were awesome! We found crabs, urchins, anemones, starfish! and a few random fish...

...that was worth another 100

 Then lunch on the beach with lots of yummy-ness.  Perhaps not worth any points all by itself, but then out of no where a bald Eagle swooped down only a few feet from us!! That was AMAZING and Addison gave it...200 points!

 This girl may have eaten her weight in sand...

 The birthday kids enjoying their perfect day!

 Squirt gun fight with Nana- another 100 points!

 Seriously, so wild, and so adorable...

 ANGRY BIRD CUPCAKES!! made fresh by mom and Nana- another 100 at least!

 So happy!

A few more point-winning items from the day...a new skateboard!, a stop for ice cream on the way home, and movie night with favorite aunt Mimi...

This folks was a 1000 point birthday!! (oh man, what ever will we do next year??)