The Lythgoe Ledger: October 2008

Overheard at breakfast

Brynn: There's one thing I don't understand about the school party yesterday.
Callie: What?
Brynn: That thing they set up in the gym with the brains and eyeballs we had to touch, why did they name it after you? What's a "spoo"?
Callie: What?
Brynn: I thought you were gonna be in there since it was called a "Spoo Callie" but you weren't even there!

Don't You Know....

.....it's the time of year when witches and ghosts appear?
Today was the day for Halloween parties at the elementary school. Brynn was a panda:

And Callie was a bat:

I'll have to post a picture of Kyra later, she wore her costume yesterday and I was too sleepy to take a picture when she left at 6:30 am. And forgot when she finally got home at 9:15 pm. Yes, she's a crazy busy teenager!
Tonight we carved our pumpkins, too.
Brynn's: (and unofficially mine, too)

Callie's: (She did all the carving herself!)

Kyra's

And Darrin's. Usually he goes with a Boston sports team theme, but in light of the Red Sox loss and Brady being out for the season, he went political this year. There has been a major debate around here about whether this pumpkin should be read with a long or short "o" sound. Feel free to weigh in on this. He got the template from this site. They have lots of templates for various "BarackO'Lanterns"

Fall Foliage

Some pictures from a hike Darrin & I took up Bell's Canyon last weekend:

We saw a natural dam made from falling trees, and in it -- ICE!

And of course, it wouldn't be a set of hiking pictures without the requisite shot of Darrin trying to find a GPS signal:

Way to go, Idaho!

(Quick, name that movie!)
A few weekends ago, I took the girls and drove up to Idaho to visit my sister and see her new house. It was a fun, relaxing weekend with lots of time for:
Playing with cousins

And their new puppy, Ripken:

Exploring the Snake River, right across the street from their house:

Climb trees:

Catch critters:

Ride the 4 Wheeler around the backyard:

Do crafts:

Visit the Idaho Potato Museum:

(Well, the outdoor exhibits anyway - it was closed!)
Do sparklers:

And stay up late watching movies:

(or at least TRY to stay up late!)
We had a wonderful time and my kids can't stop talking about how much fun it was to play with cousins. Sarah's new home is beautiful and we had a great visit. THANK YOU SARAH!
PS In case you're wondering where Darrin was, he was home, doing this:

Before & after pics of Callie's room will be coming, as soon as we finish getting her settled.

Busy! Busy! Busy!

Today I:
Taught a class at the hospital
Scanned about 40 slides and created a powerpoint presentation from them
Washed, dried and folded TEN loads of laundry
Graded 6 papers
Unloaded, reloaded and ran the dishwasher 3 times
Canned a batch of "pearsauce" (like applesauce but with pears. Tastes like baby food but Callie LOVES it.)
Made 2 trips to Kinko's to get some files printed into a book
Gave Brynn a bath and made sure Callie got a shower without using ALL the hot water in the house
Dried 2 batches of apples dipped in cinnamon sugar (yes, my house smells GOOD)
Helped Kyra throw together a costume for tonight's stake dance

But you know what I forgot to do?
Call Brittany and wish her a HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

So sorry, Brittany, hope you had a good one!

Catching up

Sooooo I finally have a new computer that will save files and photos and upload at a decent speed. So I have a lot of blogging to catch up on!
So I'll start with the most ancient pf the photos I need to blog. This one was taken back in July while I was in Vancouver. The kids went to Liberty Park with a friend for an Animal Planet channel activity and got the coolest face paint EVER!

And then there was the squatter that took up residence in our backyard:

And the first day of school! Believe it or not (I know I'm having a hard time believing it!) Kyra started high school this year!

ANd Callie is in 5th grade, but she says it still feels like 4th grade. Same teacher, same classroom and many of the same classmates.

And Brynn started FIRST GRADE! Yes that means I have no kids at home for most of the day. Brynn is loving going to school all day, especially lunch and TWO recesses.

Darrin just got back from a business trip to Boston, Kyra just got back from a school trip to the Utah Shakespearean Festival in Cedar City, and last, but certainly not least, Charlie got married! His wife Dara has 2 cute little girls so now my kids have 2 new cousins.