Lily at 8 months

The Kindergartner

Hunter's school pictures didn't turn out great this year, since he fell the day before and had a huge goose egg on his forehead. I had Penny's take this one and it turned out much better.

What is Cuter than a Lobster in a Pot?

A lobster in a pot with the chef.

These two were so cute, I had to get their pictures taken. for more pictures, go to https://www.smilesbywire.com/home.asp?AC=LTPP0100113998JCP and enter Jennifer Wright under the name.

What do you do with those pesky pumpkins that are too small to carve?

Spooner Farms

We visited Spooner Farms in Puyallup on Saturday and discovered the answer to that burning question.

The answer is, of course, to fling then with a giant slingshot and try to hit a target a football field away at which point a huge loud horn sounds and you win a giant pumpkin. All this only costs you 50 cents a shot. The folks at Spooner Farms are brilliant.

The Corn Maze

They also created the most amazing corn maze. 5 acres large--I kid you not. There theme was Chronicles of Narnia and according to the boys it was impressive. (I didn't want to spring for the extra $8 to get in, so I waited outside. Told you those folks at Spooner were brilliant business people.) Here are some pics of the maze.

Hunter walking through the coats in the wardrobe to enter the maze.

Dylan in the maze.

Hunter visiting at Mr. Tumnus' house.

The Beavers' home

The mighty Aslan and the white witch. There was much more, but they didn't even have time to finish it all. It was over 2 miles long.

Some more cute pictures from the farm.

My little pumpkins

Big spider

Dylan with a snake gourd.

Who does she look like?

I was inspired by a friend who posted photos of her two girls at the same age. I've also been asked by a lot of people who I think Lily looks like. Here are the photos and you can make your own decision. I have added a poll at the right, so you can voice your opinion. What do I think? I'll let you know at the end.

On the left is a picture I took of Lily this morning. On the right is Hunter at about the same age.

Here is Lily at 8 months on left and Megan at 8 months on the right.

Dylan at 9 months and Hunter at 9 months.

What rhymes with t-rex?

As "star of the week" Hunter had to put something in the rhyming bag. I suggested things such as balls, or blocks, or cars. You know, something that would be easy to rhyme. The object is to guess what is in the rhyming bag. Hunter insisted on putting a T-Rex in there. We could not think of a thing to rhyme with it. Finally we decided it was a dinosaur. We wrote on the outside of the bag, "rhymes with rhino-roar." Sounds like something Scooby Doo would say. I asked him if the kids had a hard time figuring it out. Not really.

A Cultural Weekend

BYU Ballroom Dancers
This weekend Megan and I went to see the BYU Ballroom Dancers perform in Auburn. The fun thing was that 3 of the members on the touring team are from Federal Way or Bainbridge. A couple are former members of Megan's dance team, the Pacific Ballroom Dancers.
The next morning Megan had breakfast with the team and they gave them some pointers on the Lindy Hop. It was really a fun event. Megan's team had a block of tickets for the balcony (really the best place to watch a formation team). They were certainly a lively and appreciative audience. Below is a picture of the end of their Pirates of the Carribbean dance. After this, they pull a red cloth across the stage and all the dancers disappear. Pretty cool.

Gladys Knight and the Saints Unified Voices
Saturday afternoon, Alex and I were able to go to the Seattle Stake Center and see Gladys Knight and the Saints Unified Voices perform. It was absolutely spellbounding. I have never heard hymns sung like that. We were able to take John with us. He's a new convert who is also black. He said he wanted to marry Gladys when he was 10. He had such a good time, he is going back tonight and taking his family with him.

Gladys was so humble and funny. She bore her testimony and sang a few songs, but mostly she showcased her choir. According to the website, they don't use sheet music. She has taught them all the songs and how to sing them in the southern gospel style. There are some pretty incredible singers in the choir. I went right home to check out the album One Voice on iTunes. It had some of the songs, but they sang some other songs in the fireside that weren't on the album. Hopefully they'll put them on a future album. It was an awesome experience. I'm really glad I got to see them.

Reflections of Christ

Megan introduced me to an incredible fine art photography exhibit that is touring now. It's called Reflections of Christ. It is currently on display at the Mesa Temple Visitor's Center and Deseret Book is producing a book of the images. There is a wonderful website that even has videos of the making of some of the images. I think they are producing a documentary too. There is also a slideshow with music and all the images. Hunter and I watched it together and we were able to have a pretty neat discussion of Jesus together. Below are a few of the images, but check out the website for more.

Go ahead jump.

Lily is exhibiting her appreciation for VanHalen. Notice how she waits for the intro to start jumping.

Kubota Gardens

Hunter and all his preschool friends got the same schedule--All day Monday, Wednesday, and every other Friday. Since they all have the same Fridays off, we decided to make those Fridays our fieldtrip days. For our first North Hill Coop Alum fieldtrip, we visited Kubota Gardens in Seattle. It's this enchanting Japanese garden. Absolutely gorgeous. We need to go back and take family pictures before winter. The boys had a blast. There are all kinds of secret paths through the trees--not conducive to stroller travel. . . I learned . . . the hard way. They had a good time until Kaden fell (or was pushed) into the not-too-fresh pond water. He ended up in about 6 inches of scummy water bawling his head out over his new shoes--which were literally hours old. Kaden's mom wasn't with us, so we deposited him with his mom stripped down in a pair of Hunter's extra pants and 5 bags of scummy wet clothes and shoes. Ah well, what is a field trip without a little adventure. Next time: no water traps.

Blending into the scenery.

Hanging out with the guys and his new stick friend.

The infamous scummy pond.

Becoming a Man ceremony

Dylan earned his Webelos and his Arrow of Light last week. He was so thrilled.

He loves his Webelos leader, Sis Stockton. She and Alex collaborated on a special ceremony to celebrate his arrow of light. Alex played the old indian (dressed in a wizard's cloak. Hey, we have a limited wardrobe.) He took something special from Dylan--his webelos scarf (I had to run and buy a new one because he lost his other one and he needed it for the ceremony.) Anyway his "special" item he dipped in the special water and if he was worthy, the item would burn, but not be consumed. We were sure praying it would work. Otherwise our son would end up with an unworthiness complex for life.

It actually did work. Our photographer was so fascinated (as was everyone else) that she forgot to take a picture. I suppose I could photoshop the flames, but you get the idea. The scarf was not even singed. Now Hunter has a hardly used Webelos scarf.

This is Dylan running the gauntlet over to the boy scout side. He is so thrilled to be a boy scout. He supervised me sewing on his patches and made sure they were totally correct. I love how Dylan gets excited about things. This has been really good for him and Alex too. They have already been on 2 campouts together.