Weekend

Here are some pics from the past few days -- soccer, zoo, my birthday, and painting pumpkins with some families from church.

 I haven't taken many pictures of Ben playing soccer.  Thursday night I was sitting in a position that I could get some pics.  Ben's in yellow dribbling the ball.

Ben is near the middle of this pic.

 This is how Ben's sisters support him during the game.

 Crazy, sweaty hair after the game.

 On Friday we went to the zoo.  We've been wanting to feed the giraffes but had missed feeding time the last couple of times we were at the zoo.

Notice Annie is not in any of the giraffe pics.  She's behind me screaming, "No giraffe!  No giraffe!"

 Ben ate his sandwich into the shape of a giraffe face.

 Ben is reading Annie one of her favorite books The Little Engine that Could while keeping the electric train running around the track.

 Saturday was my birthday and Ben and Mollie Grace had all types of plans to celebrate.  Ben taped birthday signs onto Annie's car and then raced her around the living room at break neck speed.

 Mollie danced for me.

 Mollie Grace, Annie and I made my customary no bake Oreo cake.  Annie was so excited to get the beater.  Normally Ben and Mollie Grace get them, but Ben was outside playing football with Cole so Annie finally got one.

 Turns out we didn't move the candles.  After much digging around we used a tea light.

 We made three attempts to get a picture of me blowing out the candle.

 Ben played a song for me on his guitar.

Mollie Grace organized a musical parade with maracas, a train whistle and a tambourine.

 This afternoon we were invited to the home of a family from church for dessert and pumpkin painting.

 There were four families there, although this is only about half the kids.  Two families of three, one of five, and the other of six.

Annie says, "Hands dirty."

Another Week, Another Month

 Mollie Grace and Annie are mixing up biscuits for breakfast.

 Ben heard me say, "Now comes the messy part" and decided he wanted to help too.

 Ben got an autographed picture of the #18 in the mail in response to a letter he sent Kyle.

 The temp dropped below 80 one afternoon and Mollie got out her winter coat and hat.  We actually had pretty cool weather over the weekend in the mid-50s.

 On Thursday, we went to the Children's Museum.  There were very few people there and we had a great time.  This was the first time Annie really got to play.  She is still talking about driving the FedEx airplane.  She loves the FedEx airplanes that fly over our house.  When she would see FedEx on something of John's (He has FedEx all over the place.  Hats, shirts, bags, etc) she would say "airplane."  John taught her to say "FedEx."

Ben took this picture of the Kroger pretend grocery store from the top of a slide.

The cash register and barcode scanner really work so you can ring up your items and print a receipt.

 Annie LOVED the seesaw.  She could have seesawed all day.  My legs could not!

 Annie's first ride on the zip line.  She was ready to try everything!

 This cool machine that shows veins.

 Ben had his third soccer game Thursday night.  It's been a hard season so far with two losses and a tie.  He's on a team with a new coach and only four players have played before.

 This is what Mollie Grace and Annie did while I watched Ben play soccer -- fill my shoes with grass clippings.

 Today was favorite character dress up at school today.  Snoopy and two My Little Ponies, Rarity and Pinkie Pie.

 Lucy and Snoopy

 Mollie Grace and another Pony friend, Fluttershy (aka Lucy Kate).

 We began tin whistles today at CC.  See the kid in the middle with his fingers in his ears.  That's how we all felt.

Group pic Mollie's teacher took of her class.  The two little ones on front are little sisters that participate but aren't really part of the class.

 Presentation on the Hanging Gardens of Babylon.

 You can see Ben's new smile in this close up.

 Examining the parts of a crawfish in science.

 Tin whistles in Mollie Grace's class.

Can you see what Mollie Grace thought of the crawfish.  What was so funny was that the little boy beside her loved it.  He was picking it up and flipping it around and checking out every detail.

No pic to go along with this story about Annie but I want to write it down.  I've been teaching Annie that her name is Annie Elder and she's realized that we are all Elders.  This morning as I was making coffee, I heard a little voice calling me from her room, "Mama Elder.  Mama Elder."

A Few Days

 Ben had a mainly liquid diet for the first day after his teeth were pulled.  You can't see his missing teeth in this pic, just his amazingly green popsicle tongue.

 Ben had his second soccer game on Saturday.  His team played much better tying 2-2.  After the soccer game we decided on a whim to drive to Tunica to check out a big car show.  This was Ben's favorite car.

 This classic car hauler, matching Corvette, and awesome Cadillac are all owned by someone who works with John.

 Ben bought a Snoopy snowcone maker.

Today was "team day" at CC.

 For presentation, they shared about a work of art.  Mollie brought something she had drawn and a library book with paintings by Andy Warhol.  She thought it was hilarious that he painted a can of Campbell's Tomato Soup (which is one of her favorite foods).

 Today's science experiment involved eating a piece of apple while holding a cotton ball with vanilla on it to your nose.

I looked in my backyard and saw three Bulldogs and a Rebel playing football.