Fall Festivities...

The entire family (well, those of us that live under the same roof) was home on Friday night, so we decided to make it a family night by carving pumpkins. Jaelyn chose a cat, while Kaia went with a dolphin. What says Halloween better than a marine mammal??? Oh well, I never liked scary growing up either.  I was never very creative when carving pumpkins as a kid either. That's why I love the convenience of printing pumpkin stencils off the computer! We googled what each girl wanted, printed them off, and taped the pictures onto the pumpkins so they could use a pushpin to poke holes as guidelines to cut along. Mike helped with the cutting part, and walaaa, wonderful jack-o-lanterns!

Joshua has always been creative with his pumpkins, so he went with an original on his albino pumpkin. Unfortunately we didn't get his on camera, but he said it was a self-portrait, with pumpkin guts trailing out the mouth. Nice touch Josh!

To finish it all off, that's where I come in. I love baked pumpkin seeds! Although Kaia selected a gigantic pumpkin to carve, I didn't harvest as many seeds as I hoped. Jaelyn's pumpkin was completely rotten inside. Strange, because it looked great on the outside. The seeds I did bake turned out delicious though.

Photo courtesy of Kaia:)

On Saturday my volleyball season came to an end after a hard fight to the end. We had 3 matches for a total of 12 games, and lost the final one by just two points to stop us from moving on to tri-districts. As always, the silver lining is I now get two weeks with my family before wrestling begins! Our girls also had their final game on Saturday, and this week Josh's football team begins their playoffs. Now let's hope this miserable weather dies down for tomorrow's trunk or treat...

The Clock Struck Midnight...

The girls got to play Cinderella the past couple of days, as they were on the homecoming royalty court for Oak Harbor High School. They practiced their princess waves from the back of a convertible in Thursday's parade...

Takes after his dad...

escorted the king and queen at an assembly, where they had to speak in front of a packed gymnasium ("Kaia, what's your favorite TV Show?"...."iCarly."  "Jaelyn, what's your favorite Disney princess?"...."Cinderella.")...

and escorted the royalty again at halftime...

Josh's date was sophomore princess

Love this photo. Doesn't Jaelyn look like Shirley Temple?

I would've never thought that Kaia could sit still for nearly an hour to get her hair done, nor did I think my two Chinese girls could have such curly hair. But then the clock struck midnight, and it was back to regular ole' Cinderella. Actually it was the 9:00 am soccer game in the rain that washed the last remnants of curls away!

The events of the last two days over shadowed my birthday on Thursday. Actually, the whole experience was a delightful birthday to me, as their enthusiasm brought many smiles to my face. I took Friday, the day after my birthday, off, to go along with them to their hair appt., photo shoot, etc., as did Mike, so family time was a great gift. Kellen came to my game Thursday night (we won), and Josh's game Friday night (they won 69-0), so it truly was quality family time.

Josh is at homecoming as I am typing. Unfortunately his date had a volleyball tournament all day, so he didn't have extra time for me to get photos of the two of them together. Her mom was supposed to take some when he picked her up, so hopefully I will be able to post some at a later date. In the meantime, here's my handsome boy (we thought the orange and black was in honor of today's OSU game vs. WSU, but he says his date's wearing orange).

Sports, Smiles, and Selebrations...

Yeah, I know that I misspelled celebration, but I wanted the alliteration, and couldn't think of another "s" word that fit. Oh well.

This week was full of sports and celebrations. It began by an amazing volleyball game Thursday night against our rivals. After losing the first two games, my team fought their way back in to win the match 3-2. The crowd was over the top, and I was so proud of my team. To top it off my family was their to witness it all, including my parents. The photographer from the paper snapped a picture of us following the game and sent it to me. Thanks John!

Friday we did not travel to Josh's football game, and instead, played a family duel of Uno. Josh's team won again, and their team is now ranked 7th in state! This week is homecoming, and the following week pits them against the other undefeated team in the league, the playoffs, so football will be on our schedule for a few more weekends.

Saturday started with an early, chilly soccer game, but the Crebbin girls played hard regardless. Besides Grandma and Papa cheering them on, Kellen and his girlfriend rooted them on too.

The day turned into a beautiful afternoon, so we headed to the pumpkin patch. Of course, to the girls, the bigger the better, so we had to do a lot of searching to find just the right one (not quite as challenging as our Christmas Tree searches, but almost). We continued the celebratory feeling by Mike and I celebrating the weekend between our birthdays, which seems to have turned into a tradition! We don't have much time midweek, so the weekend between our birthdays is usually the perfect time.

Pre-Birthday Celebration

Since Mike will be traveling to Josh's away football game tomorrow, and Kellen had today off, we decided to celebrate Mike's birthday a day early. Among his favorite gifts from the kids was the Spider Catcher, which he had asked for after seeing the commercial on TV.  If you didn't know, he is terribly afraid of spiders, and we have had a lot around here this fall. Unfortunately the gift did not arrive in the mail on time, so he opened this printout of his gift:)

Today was an amazingly beautiful fall day, so the entire family headed out for an afternoon of frisbee golf at Ft. Nugent Park. Even our dog Romeo played! Eighteen holes can be a long time for 7 year olds, but they did great and have fairly decent throwing skills. Of course, since it was Mike's pre-birthday celebration, we decided to let him win! Notice each person's unique throwing style:

While Mike and Josh headed out on a run, Kellen and I prepared one of Mike's favorite dishes together, Chipotle Macaroni & Cheese. Kellen did not enjoy cooking when he was a young kid, but now that he is out and on his own, he is wanting to learn more, so we had a good time fixing dinner together.  For dessert we chose a  Kahlua cream pie instead of a cake, so it cooled off the spiciness of the chipotle, and slid down into our already quite full tummies a bit easier.  The number "7" flashed on and off the candle, so we let the girls practice their math skills by adding the missing 40 years.

 

Happy Birthday to my wonderful husband!

Hanging On...

To say this has been a tough school year so far is an understatement. At times I have felt overwhelmed, as if I am a first year teacher again (despite being in my 20th year)!  On top of being in a new position, the little time I do get for planning is spent in meetings and paperwork.

I am so thankful for a supportive husband and family. The song below has been very uplifting to me lately, so I thought I would share it here in case you needed something to hang on to also....




Verse 1:
I need you to soften my heart
To break me apart
I need you to open my eyes
To see that You’re shaping my life
Pre-Chorus:
All I am, I surrender
Chorus:
Give me faith to trust what you say
That you’re good and your love is great
I’m broken inside, I give you my life
Verse 2:
I need you to soften my heart
To break me apart
I need you pierce through the dark
And cleanse every part of me
Bridge:
I may be weak
But your Spirit’s strong in me
My flesh may fail
My God you never will