Edward's birthday

Edward had a nice birthday this week. He turned six.

 He wanted a cake in the shape of a dragon. He got a cake with a dragon on top instead. He was still very happy, especially since he could then play with the dragon (and the other figures he received for his present).

This is a photo I found on the camera, courtesy of Edward.

November events

Here are some of the events in our family from November.
First, we had my birthday. Kirk made a nice Boston cream pie, which is actually a cake, despite the name.

Henry turned 1 year old! He had a smiley-faced sun cake since he is our merry sunshine.

 

 Before he started eating cake:

 

 After he ate cake:

For Thanksgiving, we traveled to Arizona. We enjoyed seeing family and managed to hike or take long walks almost every day. Kirk did 25-30 mile bike rides.
We went to the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum and loved the animals.

 We hiked Fat Man's pass in the South Mountains.

We even walked around Gilbert's riparian reserve on Thanksgiving morning.

 We went to the children's favorite spot, the Desert Botanical Gardens.

All of this made it possible for us to eat a very nice Thanksgiving dinner with lots of pie and cheesecake.

Cheesecake, chocolate-pecan pie, chocolate mousse pie, berry pie (only one not completely homemade), coconut cream pie, and pumpkin pie.

 It was a nice November.

Halloween

Continuing the tradition of posting children's photos in their costumes, here they are:

Before Trick-or-Treating

Becky suggested, a few years ago, that an easy pattern to adapt for costumes is a pajama pattern. So here we have Lucy in her pink princess pajamas (and jewels).

Andrew in his cheetah pajamas with hat (ears) and tail.

 And Edward in his dragon pajamas, with dragon crest and tail.

 Edward actually chose the cloth and the idea and told me how the costume should look.

 He also chose the cloth and ideas for Andrew and Lucy as well. He can have strong opinions on some things. The children loved their Halloween and ate all their candy (except for the half of it I took away without them knowing it and sent to Kirk's classes) in about two days.

October events

Here are a few photos from recent events in our family. Kirk went to Berlin, Germany, this week. This is the Social Science center where he was attending an academic conference.

 He did get to see some places in the city, including the place where the Berlin Wall used to be.

Dividing Line: West/East

 A few weeks ago, I finally got around to sewing a new skirt for myself; I used the leftover material to make a dress for Lucy.

 Henry started to stand up. You might be able to see the four cute (sharp) teeth he is now proudly showing.

 And continuing this random assortment of photos, we finally dumped the chair that had been in the boys' room for about 6 years. It broke and was dangerous, but they had many nice memories of it.

 On Friday, Andrew found a common gartersnake in our carport. We all got to touch it before he released it back into our yard. I didn't know we had snakes in our yard, but I guess we do. Andrew scared Edward with the snake.

 Saturday, Henry started climbing the stairs. He is very pleased with himself.

 Lucy wanted to wear a "new" dress on Sunday. This is the dress Grandma Wessman made for Marie and then they sent it to me. I wore it when I was in kindergarten. Lucy is taller than I am, obviously.

Before and after

Before
After

*The bags have peach pie filling in them that I froze.

School and various events

Andrew started second grade. He is happy to be at school.
Edward started kindergarten. He is thrilled to be at school.
We went to Temple Square and saw a few of the sites.
After I found this zucchini, I pulled up the plants and threw them away.
Here are a few photos of the rock wall and patio/walkway areas.
Rather, they are photos of the construction sites.
Henry is crawling now. He is very cute.
One Sunday Edward constructed an amazing island out of rocks from the boys' rock collection. Then he populated it with all the animals.
We went on a picnic up the canyon.
And for General Conference, we had "bunny buns" again.

Our Summer

Here is a brief review of our summer, mostly in photos with a few notes. We started off with Father's Day and Kirk's birthday.
He enjoyed his cakes (and ate them, too).
We saw family and spent time with them.
We celebrated the 4th of July with even more family. We hiked the Y. Even Lucy walked all the way up.
We attended the parade--a highlight for the kids and sort of a tedious, stressful event for the adults.
The children loved spending time with their father.
Then Lucy cut and broke her toe.
We planted and grew a garden.
I just bottled 7 quarts of tomatoes from the 6-foot-high tomato bushes in our backyard. The yard encourages all kinds of nasty creepy things, like this large slug.
We try to get rid of them, of course.
We took a family trip to Washington state, stopping at Mount Rainier National Park. We went on some hikes, with Kirk carrying Lucy in the backpack (remember the broken toe?) and I had Henry in a backpack.
We saw big trees and neat scenery.
Henry was almost always happy.
Half of the trails were closed because there was about 8 feet of snow.
We spent the week in Sequim at a Hawkins family reunion. Notice the coats we are wearing at the end of July. We all agreed this is a great place to visit in the summer.
We spent some time sightseeing.
Of course we went to the rain forest, the beach, and the tide pools.
We all love the tide pools.
The creatures are amazing.
We gently touch and hold some of them.
Even Lucy agreed to hold a tiny starfish.
Kirk's father made treasure boxes for each of the children. Kirk sanded, stained, and finished them while we were in Washington.
We thought it was a neat family project.
The children spent lots of time playing with cousins and were sad to leave.
Later in the summer we got to see my parents, Marcelaine, and Heidi at various times.
And, just before school started, Andrew lost his first tooth of natural causes.
Andrew started school this past week and Edward starts kindergarten this coming week. Maybe we will get into a better routine.