Halloween 2011

One pirate and two little ballerinas

Mark's Surprise 40th Birthday Party

Homecoming 2011

Irelynn (18 months) waiting to leave for the parade to cheer for her big sisters...

Ella before I dropped her off for the parade. Dressed as a munchkin from The Wizard of Oz...

Waiting for the parade to start. Brrrrr...baby it's cold outside!

Marching band...

King and Queen...

Gracie's 1st grade class. They did Jack and the Beanstalk. Fi! Fi! Fo! Fum! Avon wins another one! Gracie is carrying the sign in front on the right...

Ella's pre-school class was pulled in wagons by the 4th graders, who were doing the Wizard of Oz. The pre-schoolers dressed up like their munchkins. Ella is in the striped hat...

Our church float we helped decorate...

The girls with Ella's pre-school teacher, Mrs. I...

And Gracie's 1st grade teacher, Mrs. Kuhlman...

2 of my beauties...

Ready for the big game. Go Pirates!!!

Ella's First Day

This morning was Ella's first morning of preschool. It's actually her second year of preschool, but her first morning going to the "big" school, as she calls it. If she looks a little hesitant, it's because she was. There were tears when I left, but I'm hoping when I pick her up she'll have had a great day.

Our First Grader

Black Hills Trip July 2011

We spent most of last week out in the hills. Our first night at the cabin we spent visiting with my college roommate whose parents live in the Rapid area. We're so glad she happened to be home while we were there! Thanks, Trina, for coming to see us!

Everyone agrees that the most fun thing we did this trip was Rushmore Cave. We had never been to one of the caves before. We planned to do Jewel cave, but decided this one was more family friendly.

We also did the new zip-line they have there...

At Bear Country...

Ella turned 4 while we were in the hills. She opened presents and we had a Dora cake for her...

This was also our first time on the 1880 Train...

The night of Ella's birthday we went to a chuck wagon dinner. We had been to this same one two years ago and the girls loved the cowboy who sang for us. So we had to go back and visit him!

Here's Ire dancing and clapping...

The girls with Paul...

Our server at Olive Garden gave Ella a to-go box full of mints with a pink candle on the top...

And of course, you can't go to the Black Hills with out going to Mt. Rushmore, well, I'm sure you can, but WE can't. Ire was sick this day with an almost 104 temp, so she was sleeping in the stroller...

There you have it, a brief summary of our Black Hills 2011 trip!