Cameron's Holly Ball Cotillion

For the ending of the Cotillion season they hold a Holly Ball, where your parents are invited to chaperone - and basically see what you have learned. This is me pinning Cameron with his boutonniere.

This in itself is a funny story. One of the parents of the boys Cameron has been going to after Cotillion events with offered to do one large order for all the kids boutonnieres and corsages. Since I took a floral design class - and enjoy doing this sort of thing, I opted not to get one - and instead planned on making him one. And what do you know - I ALMOST forgot. So, this is the last minute purchase/throw together I could manage!!!

Father and son!
Me and Cam. My sweet little baby is growing up so quick.

Me and Eric. You know I HATE being in pictures - but Eric and Glenda both insisted.

And here we all are. Too bad we had already dropped Kiana off with the Peschels - it would have been nice to get us all.

It was hard to get pictures in the gym - as the lighting was not very good. Every week 2 sets of couples lead the march at the beginning to get your partner. It is hard to see - but this week Cameron was one of the leaders - he is in the back - you can make out his blond head - but mostly just see his dancing partner.

Here he is dancing with his first partner of the night. I think they were doing the Foxtrot right here.

What I learned from attending is that they don't learn entire dances when they are in the 6th grade. They learn some of the key steps - which they must build upon over the next 3 years. Most of the kids did an awesome job. There are over 80 kids in his 6th grade group! And luckily he does want to sign up again next year. The further he progresses, not only will he learn more of the dances, but additional social etiquette as well.

Around the middle of the dance - they had some of the helpers perform a routine - which was awesome.

We had a great night.

Thanks to Robert and Cassidie for watching Kiana while we were out.

Thanks to Glenda for dropping us off/picking us up from the dance.

Kiana's New Haircut

Last week at daycare Kiana decided to cut her hair. Even though I couldn't tell she had cut it - she decided that she wanted to get her hair cut short again.

If you don't know the story, here goes. I always intended to let her hair grow until at least Kindergarten. Her hair was about an inch long when she was born - which was shocking because Cameron was practically bald - and what little hair he did have you could barely see because it was so blond. Kiana's was a light brown when she was born.

Well her hair continued to grown - and the hair she was born with turned blond - it never fell out. So when she was 3 1/2 it was halfway down her back.

That day at daycare - 1 1/2 years ago - I got a call that a girl in class had cut Kiana's hair. I was furious. Why were the kids using scissors and not being supervised closely enough? I had a heated discussion with the daycare owner - and she basically could have cared less about my concerns. My hands were tied. We did look for other daycares at the time - but no one had openings!!!! So - we had to go get her hair cut in a similar bob to the new cut now - but the cut was better the first time.

As if that weren't bad enough - about a month later I got a phone call from daycare AGAIN. The same child that had cut Kiana's hair the first time - had snuck a pair of scissors from her house - and when they went out on the playground - she cut Kiana's hair AGAIN. This time there was no fixing the damage. She cut on the right side about to inches from the part - a huge chunk out.

Mind you - that hair has just now grown out well enough to blend in and not be noticed - when Kiana decides she wants it cut now!!! So much for pretty long blond hair in Kindergarten!! It is still cute - but I 100% prefer it longer.

More pictures of the kids

Why do I always have so many pictures of my kids to post you ask? Because we like to dabble in some amateur photography. This started out as a hobby for Eric a few years ago - and since then we have taken pictures for people we know. Some have turned out great - others just OK. I absolutely love all of these pictures, and just got a lot of them printed last week to fill up a bunch of empty frames we have.

Obviously, since you don't see me in this picture - I took it. It didn't turn out perfectly -but not too bad either.I am quite proud of the next 2 pics. Cam and I got to the photo spot before Eric and Kiana, and since the sun was going down quickly, I started snapping pictures of Cameron myself. I LOVE these 2 pics of him. They really show his personality and his beautiful eyes.

The happy brother and sister together. For the last couple of years we have had a really hard time getting pics of Cam, because the sun makes him squint like crazy. So this time of day was perfect, and we really got good shots. Hope you have enjoyed our blue eyed beauties!!

Jungle Jack Hanna at the Walton Art Center

November 1st we went to see Jack Hanna - you have probably seen him on the late night talk shows - he is on David Letterman a lot. The pictures are fuzzy because I was taking these from the balcony - with no flash - and just our little camera. But there are few that are alright. Most of the animals they brought out were rare. I don't remember the names or stories - but enjoy.
He told a story about this little armadillo's conception. I guess a while back on the David Letterman show he brought 2 armadillos - one for Dave to race against his armadillo. And as they were racing - they started mating right on Dave's desk. Supposedly, this little rare breed of armadillo is the love child of the racing armadillos.

This fox has ears that look like bat wings. Again some rare species of fox.

This lady came from the audience. And they put these huge bugs on her. As if that weren't bad enough they brought out this huge python while she wasn't looking. If that would have been me - I am sure that snake would have struck out to kill me, because if I would have turned around and saw that huge snake that close to me I would have FREAKED OUT. That is my biggest fear! I don't have a problem looking at them through the glass at the zoo - but no way am I being even around an earth worm size snake otherwise!!

Halloween Pics

Finally - at long last pics of the kids in one of their multiple Halloween costumes. Here we are at the mall - even though it was pretty lame. Kiana ran into a girl from her gymanstics class - so they talked for a couple of minutes, which was quite cute. And we stopped and got Cameron a new phone (which he had to pay for since we are now on our third phone!!!!)

Kiana at home posing in her Tinkerbell costume. She was ready to go out Trick or Treating this year for the first time - however, by the time we got back from the mall she had changed her mind and just wanted to stay home.
The weekend before Halloween we carved pumpkins with the Peschels. The first one is Cameron's and I have no idea what it is. The second one is Kiana's, it is a winking bear head.

Here is Toby in his super cute Pig costume. He was a pretty good sport for about an hour in this costume, and then we freed him!!

Niagara Falls Pics

These Pics are not very good - because we were at the Falls on a horribly cold day. It was freezing rain/snowing, and it is at least 1/4 mile walk. Normally that wouldn't be a problem, but in major freezing wind gusts it wasn't so great.

More Pictures from last weekend at the pumpkin patch

I think these turned out pretty well. We are going out today to take more pictures of the kids.
Enjoy!

Last Weekend Halloween Fun!

So - I am late at posting as usual. Last Thursday night (10/23) - we watched the Peschel kids while the parents went out on a short date night.

To keep everyone occupied we created these haunted houses. We had a really good time - and everyone was happy the entire time - with four kids that isn't always easy to do!!