It has been a year since our last post, but it could become an annual tradition!

We recently celebrated Evelyn's 6th birthday!  Her Little House on the Prairie Party is this weekend.  It should be fun!

Ewan enjoy one of Evelyn's birthday cookies.

Our annual pumpkin carving tradition - a rose for Evelyn, fairy for Marianne and a dog for Ewan.

Mary and Laura Ingalls!

The Ingalls Family - Ma, Pa, Laura and Mary and Jack their dog.

What a cute puppy!

Evelyn's 5th Birthday Party

Evelyn's 5th Birthday Party was this morning at Baxter Park.  We asked a college student to come and paint faces for us, and she did a great job!  Brian created an elaborate scavenger hunt for the kids to find their lunch baskets, and they had a good time! Evelyn is certainly blessed with good friends!

Evelyn the Cat

Evelyn and Her Friends

Being silly...

Evelyn requested a butterfly cake this year...

Marianne was also a cat!

The girls!

Happy Halloween!

Today was a really fun day, the girls enjoyed morning school at home, picnic and playtime at the park with friends, and then trick or treating on campus!

Carving pumpkins together since 1998...
Cookie Monster fro Marianne, Yoda for Ewan, and Tinkerbell for Evelyn.

Marianne was quite determined to be a monster this year.  I sewed polka dots on an outfit and we purchased crazy monster hat, socks and gloves.  She asked me, "When will it turn blue?  Monsters are blue."  I did not know that monsters were blue, but she was happy to wear it anyway.  She was pretty cute...and asked each house if they had a lollipop for her.

With her monster pumpkin

Little Bo Peep, looking beautiful.  The bonnet was mine as a little girl...

Little Bo Peep with her sheep!  We borrowed this great costume for Ewan from the Fitzpatricks...

Is there a baby under that sheep costume?

Beautiful blue eyes...

Ewan the sheep. 

Evelyn and her friend Bailey

Marianne was ready to skip trick or treating to play in the little tykes car with Pablo, but we talked her into going around with us...

The Fisher kids with the Fitzpatrick girls!

Ewan's First Trip to Catalina Island

We traveled with Pepperdine to Catalina Island on Saturday as part of their "Sophomore Experience" for the students who do not go abroad their sophomore year.  Pepperdine paid for everything, and it was a delightful day.  The girls loved everything - riding the bus to Long Beach to take the ferry, the ferry ride, watching the scuba divers on the island, the old Casino, riding a glass bottom boat, and a huge pelican who came to visit.  We had a golden day.  Ewan was golden too, full of smiles.  I won't count his four dirty diapers against his behavior record, for he was a very happy camper!

Here he is full of smiles and wonder the day before we left...he always gives the sweetest smiles after you change his diaper!

He really enjoys his jungle gym...and can play in it for a long time while Mommy is busy cooking dinner..

On our Catalina Day, full of smiles in his stroller.

Pepperdine had catered lunch in the 100 year old Casino on the island.  The ballroom was beautiful, and so was the view!

The cove full of sail boats

Still smiling in his stroller!

Classic pick from Marianne, with the view of the round historic Casino ballroom in the background

The girls really enjoyed the glass bottom boat.  We also saw cormorant birds diving from the surface (we have read several books that talk about these black birds, so it was neat to see them)

The smiling, laughing face Ewan often sees from his carseat as sister leans in to get a smile!

This pelican seemed so huge close up!

And Ewan, today before Bible study.  This is a six month outfit from Titi Esti and Uncle Scott.  His hair certainly seems red in these pictures!