Guess Who's 8!

Our sweet, lovable, darling daughters are now only ten years away from adulthood!  That's right, they are 8 years old and cute as can be.  I really can't handle that in ten years they'll be 18.  That's just plan crazy!

Haley, our darling first-born, is very artistic, faithful, imaginative and bright.  She loves her friends, dancing, reading, Banjo (our dog) and fairies.  Haley likes to have lots of alone time, creating little worlds for her dolls or fairies or roly-poly bugs.  She doles out affection with scarcity, so hugs and heartfelt smiles from her are treasures that melt our hearts. 

Abby is funny, creative, such a sweet sister, tender-hearted and honest.  She loves spending time with people, "chatting", singing, creating things, soccer and playing outside.  Abby surprises us all the time with the clever things she comes up with and how resourceful she is.  Plus, she makes us laugh all the time.

For their 8th birthday the girls had a pool party at a local indoor pool.  It was the first time we've ever done a party somewhere other than our house, and it was really fun.  We got there about 15 minutes before the guests were scheduled to arrive, and then the kids just played and played and played in the pool.  Abby and Haley had a great time, and I'm pretty sure all their friends did too!

Abby had a little bit of fun!

Haley and some buddies taking a little snack break!

We always sing to Haley first, since she was the first one born.

And then it's Abby's turn!

On the night of their real birthday we had ice cream sundaes to celebrate.  Here's what happened:

Halloween In Pictures

scooping the guts out of pumpkins

happy pumpkin carver

all ready for the day!

Abby and her friend in the parade at school.

Seth getting ready to trick-or-treat at preschool.

Our mob of trick-or-treaters!

Seth is 5!

A week ago Seth turned 5!  How in the world can that be true?  He has gotten so big so fast...I know everyone always says that, but goodness is it ever true!  Five year old Seth loves Legos, super-heros, playing with Abby, drawing, board games, swimming and dancing.  We call him "all or nothing" because he is either SO SO SO fun and silly, dancing around talking in a southern accent, or he is adamantly against whatever is happening!

For his birthday Seth had a Spiderman party and invited a few of his favorite friends.  I had a lot of fun planning his party (he and I even made the pinata) and my sister helped out a lot with decor (thank you Melissa).  Seth was very specific about who he wanted to invite and what he wanted to eat and drink at the party (he told me he wanted lemonade "and you can have beer and wine"!)  The party was really fun, with just the right number of kids.  They all had a great time, playing with "green goblin goo" (aka Gak), shooting the Green Goblin (Carey) with web-shooters (silly string), going on a spider hunt and breaking open the pinata!

Happy birthday!

These super-heros took out the Green Goblins!

Firsts...Quite a Few of Them!

The Wee Webbers have been very busy lately, hence the lack of blogging.  I've been wanting to post, since there's been plenty to post about, just not plenty of time (sidenote: it's amazing how much less time it feels like I have once the kids are in school.  I guess it's just having to be somewhere twice a day, the endless papers to fill out and send back, the homework, the volunteering, and the packing and unpacking of lunches!)

Of course, the most obvious first is that the girls had their first day of 2nd grade.  If you don't know, I was so back and forth at the end of the year last year, trying to figure out if they were going to go to school or do home school.  My thoughts and plans changed over and over again.  Finally, though, one morning in May I felt a very clear leading from God that they should both go to school this year.  We are about three weeks in and definitely off to a better start than last year.  They are both really liking their teachers and coming home WAY more regulated than in the past.  Abby's been struggling with the transition of a new teacher, but she's starting to realize that this happens every year and that she will feel comfortable soon! 

Not only did the girls start school, but all three kids dove into after-school activities, which we've never done in the fall before.  In the past I have used the fall as time to get adjusted to going to school again (after the glorious free time of summer!), but Abby and Seth really wanted to do soccer, and Haley didn't want to take a break from dance.  So, we went from basically nothing all summer long to school, soccer and dance.  The first week was REALLY tough, since I hadn't worked out any carpools and the kids were spending so much time in the car and just hanging around at each others' activities.  At the end of the first week I felt like I had made the biggest mistake.  We were WAY too scheduled.  I love schedules, but a couple of my kids really need their "down time" at home.  So, we were having meltdowns galore!  Finally I realized, duh, pray about how it could work.  Now we've got it all worked out and flowing easily (well, as easily as anything will ever be when siblings are involved!) with plenty of time at home for my introverts...and for me to make dinner!  Hip, hip, hooray! (Let me tell you, trying to prep and make as much of dinner as possible at 5:30 in the morning is just kind of crazy!)

Seth's first soccer practice.  He's on the Blue Sharks.

Abby's first soccer practice with her team, the Neon Cheetahs!

Haley started a ballet class and a jazz class and Seth started a tap/hip hop class, which for whatever reason I didn't take any picture of.  

The most recent first for the Wee Webbers is that they did their first race with me.  We did a 5K (3 miles) called Color Me Rad.  Everyone starts off wearing white and as you run you have colored liquid and powder thrown at/on you.  It was one of my favorite things that we've ever done!  It was so much fun.  The kids were ROCKSTARS, completing all three miles without ever fussing!  I'm pretty sure they are all ready and wanting to do another race soon!

Bass Lake

For the 3rd summer in a row we had a fantastic weekend camping at Bass Lake.  We camped with Carey's family and got to celebrate Grandpa Steve's retirement (hooray) and our nephew, Brannon's, 18th birthday:) The drive there was so quick and easy (unlike our last camping trip) and it was so gloriously hot when we go there that we parked on the side of the road and played in the lake before we went to find our campsite and get set up!  Haley had been really anxious about playing in the lake (a newly developed fear that caused a lot of meltdowns in the days leading up to the trip) and was so thrilled that she was playing in the lake with no fear!  Carey threw the kids as they did cannonballs and I threw a stick for Banjo, who loved retrieving it out of the water.

Hanging out with Grandma Jackie

Keeping busy while we set up the camp site.

  We played at the lake all day on Saturday.  Haley and Abby's half sister Hannah lives near where we were camping, so she came up and spent the day with us.  It was really hot outside and the lake felt so good.   There is a rock across the cove we were at that the kids loved to swim over to and jump off of, which they did over and over and over!

Ready to play at the lake:)

Seth jumping off the rock!

Haley jumping!

Abby jumping!

Banjo loved the lake:)

Ummmm...heaven!

Our kids had so much fun with Brannon.

We all had a great time having Hannah spend the day with us.

On Sunday Grandpa Steve rented a party boat so we got up and moving early and headed over to the marina.  Everyone had a great time on the boat for a while, then Seth decided he was done and really wanted to go back to the campsite with me.  The bbq on our boat wasn't working, so when we went to switch boats, Seth and I hopped off and walked back to the campsite.  On the walk back to camp he told me he was "peopled out" and he just needed some down time!

Breakfast with their favorite (and only) cousin!

Haley loves her auntie Kelly!

Seth, Abby and Brannon on the tube:)

Haley relaxing on the boat!

The biggest excitement we had was a black and white visitor that kept wandering through our campsite in the late afternoon/early evening.  It happened the 2nd and 3rd nights that we were there.  We were all just sitting around and someone (I think it was Abby) spotted a skunk walking into our site.  We all jumped up, grabbed the dogs (Kelly and Rick had their dog there as well) and moved up the road a little.  We waited there until he wandered away.  This happened multiple times!

Sitting around, just before our friend the skunk showed up.

This guy didn't know he was nocturnal!

The self-proclaimed "meerkats" on the lookout for the skunk!

We had such a great time.  I sure am glad my kids love camping!

One of my all time favorite pictures.