Reflections Art Award

 

Leila entered the National Reflections Art Program through her school. Each year, the program chooses a theme and all submitted artwork has to relate to the theme. This year's theme is "The World Would Be a Better Place If...". I don't have a picture of Leila's artwork, but she drew a fish in a yucky, polluted sea on the left side of the page and then drew the same fish in clean, colorful water. Her artwork placed 2nd of all first grade entries and will be advancing to the next level (districts) of judging. Yay! We are so proud of our artist! Currently, she hopes to grow up to be either an artist, a professional soccer player or a ride operator for the Haunted Mansion at Disneyland. Oh, the possibilities! 

Halloween 2014

 We started Halloween night be trick-or-treating downtown Puyallup. Gramma joined us this year and we walked around a bit. We ran into two of the girls from our soccer team too! 

Alexis ~ Leila ~ Ella

Leila looked adorable in her Laura Ingalls costume! With her freckles and brown braids she looked just like the Halfpint I grew up watching every afternoon! 

Carving Time

 Leila and I carved our pumpkins the night before Halloween. That is the latest we have ever been! It's our tradition to watch It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown while we carve our pumpkins. So that is what we did once again. It was especially fun for us this year because we carved a pumpkin that we grew in our own garden! That's a first! 

14 months old ~ 7-years-old 

WOW Award

Leila received a WOW (wolf of wonder) Award at school for being an EXTREME LEADER! She was chosen because she is kind to others, helpful in the classroom and always leads by example. We could not have been more proud of her! 

PS - Wednesdays at our school are College Wednesdays. Staff and students wear college gear of their choice every Wednesday. This particular Wednesday Leila was so excited to wear her brand new K State shirt from Granddad! 

Disney's Beauty and the Beast

At the end of October, Chris and I surprised Leila with an afternoon at the theatre! We purchased tickets to see Disney's Beauty and the Beast at the Paramount Theatre in Seattle. We didn't tell Leila where we were going, we simply got fancied up and hit the road. The funny thing is she didn't even ask until we were just about to Seattle. We told her and then she started crying! Not kidding. She didn't want to go. We should know by now that she needs processing time. After the she calmed down she got really excited to see it. It was a great time and we ended the night with dinner at the Cheesecake Factory. Yum!

Soccer and Cookies

 After our game one Saturday morning in October, Leila and I hosted a cookie party for a small group of friends. It was a lot of fun to have the kids over and spend some time decorating cookies for Halloween. 

Emerson, Cameron, Wyatt, Cody and Leila 

Harvest Carnival

  Our school hosted a Harvest Carnival for Halloween. We met up with the Mellicks and Gramma and Papa. We spent the evening crafting, playing games, eating candy and having fun. Leila said to me right before we went inside, "Mom, I'm going to enter the costume contest, but I don't think anyone will know who Laura Ingalls is." Oh kiddo, it's hard to be unique! 

Chambers Bay Locks

As I mentioned before, Chambers Bay Park is a great place to spend a morning. The views are amazing and walking along the Sound is so peaceful. We purchased three locks to take with us when we went back in October. The park officials are allowing folks to leave padlocks attached to the bridge that looks out on the Puget Sound. It reminded Chris and me of our time in Europe when we walked the Ponte Vecchio in Florence, Italy. So, when we returned to Chambers Bay this time, we each made a wish and locked our locks together on the bridge. 

Blasters...Again

Our first rainy game of the season. Luckily, it wasn't that heavy of a rain and the girls were thrilled to play on a slightly muddy pitch. 

School Fundraiser

 Leila's school did the coolest fundraiser this year! Instead of selling wrapping paper, cookie dough or magazine subscriptions, students raised money by gathering sponsors for a fun run. Apex Fun Run folks came to school for the two weeks leading up to the run, held assemblies, visited classrooms daily to teach about leadership characteristics and played games at recesses with the kids. Our school raised quite a bit of money and had a blast doing it! The fun run was so exciting! Leila completed 29 laps and was so proud of herself. 

Pumpkin Patch 2014

 I love the pumpkin patch! This year, we were only able to visit one time. With our soccer season lasting into November, we just ran out of time. Oh well, we made the most of our single visit for sure!

 I so remember when this munchkin fit inside the wheelbarrow! 

Duck racing is serious business!

And of course Leila wants a pony now!

Happy Halloween from the Taverns! 

Seattle Weekend

Christopher and I had a date night in October. We headed to Seattle to see our favorite band, Carbon Leaf. We have seen this band in concert about 11 times over the years and each time we walk away just as pleased as the first time we saw them. Their music holds a special place in our hearts and the lyrics really resonate with us. Hopefully, we won't have to wait another year to see them again. 

The Carbon Leaf concert was Friday night and then Saturday we found ourselves in Seattle again to see the musical Kinky Boots. Oh my goodness! What a show! If you have the chance to see this, don't let it pass you by. It has great music and is super fun, but most of all it has a very important message of tolerance and open-mindedness.