Griffin is ten!

The slide on our new play set has a water slide extention/set-up, and G spent some of his very happy birthday breaking it in!

The Griffinator

LOL!

Summer!

Well, I last posted here in February, and may or may not end up filling the gaps. Time for blogging seems to be eluding me. But, the kids both had haircuts last night, and thought I would snap and post a few pics.

Norah proves that it is not only little boys who get thick eyelashes.

Kitties!

I certainly have some catching up to do! On December 19th our HS group took a tour of Second Chance Animal Rescue Center. The kids were extremely excited, and after the tour, we stuck around with a couple of other families in the cat room.

Here is Griffin, checking out the cat that my mom would later adopt!

Norah and Ebony.

G with a cat named Shake 'n Bake. :)

I don't remember this kitten's name, but he was my bud, and I spent a considerable amount of time snuggling with him. It is pretty obvious that N liked holding him, too.

The kids were in heaven, and the people at the shelter love for people to come and give affection to and socialize with the animals, so we have been back twice since! We will definitely continue to visit.

The Outdoor Campus

On November 2, I was crazy enough to, once again, suggest that we get out of the house and enjoy the nice weather. I wanted to check out the walking trails behind The Outdoor Campus. We had been on them twice before, but in the dark, as we were attending their annual Halloween Hike (we have gone the last two years). After this year's hike, I got kind of curious about seeing it in daylight. My suggestion was met with a little resistance, but I somehow managed to get everyone on board.

We found some milkweed on the trail, and enjoyed checking it out.

Now we know where to go in the summer to get some monarch eggs and/or caterpillars.

"Okay, I'm smiling -- now can we go home and watch a movie?"

I was surprised at the number of trees that still had yet to turn.

My lovely family.

Sitting here on a cold December night, I am particularly glad that we made this little outing. At this hour, the trails are covered in snow, and we are awaiting a blizzard that is to be followed by a couple of days of sub-zero temps. Brrrr...

Halloween!

I know I am a little late in posting these, and so I may be forgetting some of the details, but looking back, I think Halloween '08 was pretty much perfect; it was a really great day.

We started out by going to the HS group's Halloween party, where the kids played games, got tattoos...

...and decorated their own cupcakes. Here's G getting his cupcake all sprinkled up.

The kids were sent home with two goody bags a piece. Here's Norah with one of her goody bag treasures. There was just enough down time to get nice and recharged for trick-or-treating that evening.

We started out with dinner at Qdoba (mmmmmmm...) then took off into the neighborhood right at dusk. The weather was great -- in the 50s.

As is obvious, Norah was a bat (she said her name was Noraluna), and Griffin was Mike from Monsters Inc. Thanks again to Diana -- those Monsters Inc. costumes are the gift that keeps on giving!

Noraluna spreads her wings.

Leaves!

On October 30, we had a high temp around 70 -- perfect weather for making leaf piles! Of course, jumping, leaf-throwing, and other hijinx followed...