Halloween and the Sunday before...

A little surprise...

Our new school is .7 miles away but we are still "walkers" not "busers." Even though its a little far, I like to walk to pick them up rather than drive. The weather's been beautiful here too! Anyways today, shortly after we left school, it started to literally pour down rain. Usually you can feel if its going to rain--the air gets really heavy. But today I just didn't think it was going to rain. We walked the whole way home in a torrential downpour! We laughed and had fun but I'll definitely be taking my umbrella with me the next time it looks like rain.

An update

FYI school is going better for Christian and Claire. The second day of school, Christian had talked to some girls he sits with and he felt much better about the day. The third day of school, he played soccer at recess with some boys. I think he'll be fine. Claire is doing OK still as well. They had school off for Rosh Hashanah Thursday and Friday.

Joseph gave his first talk in Primary today. He told the story of Ammon. I purposely picked that story because I knew that as long as he could say the phrase "chopped off their arms" in his talk, he would be OK with it. He did a really great job.

Gracie made it out of our bench and almost started climbing the steps to the stand in Sacrament Meeting. She is very busy and loves being able to walk.

We spent all day yesterday trying to organize our garage. And its still not done. But we are slowly getting the house put together.

First day of school

Well, yesterday was the first day of a new school for the kids. Claire seemed to do OK but Christian had a rough day (While Christian was telling me about his awful day, Claire kept saying things like "I have 5 new friends" or "my new best friend is Erica." So she feels fine about it.) Christian wants to make friends but feels shy and scared to talk to the other kids. So we had some major pep talks last night and I'm praying he does OK today. His teacher is supposedly excellent--she's young and energetic. Claire's teacher is supposed to be good as well.

Joseph of course insisted that I pack him a lunch and a backpack just like the other kids. We had "school" for him while Gracie took her nap. He learned to write the letter A and we played football at his "recess."

We wait to pick the kids up outside the door next to the kindergarten playground.

Catch up post

This is my "catch-up post." These pictures are not in order--I'm just putting them up as fast as I can before I go to bed. Basically, you'll see pictures of the following events: A trip to Pennsylvania for Boyer family history, the last day of school, a camping trip to Gettysburg, a day trip the kids and I took to a sprayground in New Jersey, Ron's family reunion in Wisconsin that we drove to last week, Joseph's fourth birthday, and a trip to Kentucky (where Ron's parents live) on our way home from the family reunion.

We visited a pottery shop and watched them making pottery in Kentucky.

In Kentucky, we visited Fort Boonesboro. This is the kids with Daniel Boone.

These are Joseph's hands after we washed them after he ate his birthday cupcake.

Joseph hugging his new pirate ship.

Joseph's birthday cake.

The kids on a tour of Manitowoc, WI. This is Ron's great-great grandmother's house. Ron thinks this looks like a depression era picture.

Gracie at the family reunion.

This is a four-generation picture that I really like.

At the family reunion, we went on a sailboat on Lake Michigan.

Joseph on the sailboat.

Gracie and I on the sailboat.

This is our Gettysburg campout. Ryan and Melanie came with us! We loved having them with us.

This is Joseph in a Confederate Civil War uniform.

This is our Memorial Day trip to the Old Goshenhoppen Church where some of our Boyer ancestors are buried.

This is Claire steering the sailboat. It was a 3-masted schooner. We got to help sail it and hoist the sails.

This is Christian on the schooner.

I love this picture!

We drove for an hour to get to this sprayground.

Gracie at the sprayground.

Christian and his buddy at sprayground.

Claire at sprayground.

This is a picture of the family traversing the field at Gettysburg National Park over which Pickett led his famous charge. This was the climax of the battle, and is known as the high-water mark of the Confederacy because the Southern army almost overcame the union lines on the other side of the field in violent hand-to-hand combat. Ron's great-great grandfather fought for the Confederacy and was captured while trying to overcome the Union lines after surviving the march across the field. This was a very emotional and solemn occasion, given the fact that our own flesh and blood had been shot at by callous, cold-blooded Yankee dogs at this very spot. [Can you guess who typed this for me?]

Gracie at Gettysburg.

We went to Gettysburg with our friends, the Croshaws and the McMullins. These are Claire's friends.

Claire's last day of school. Her teacher was Mrs. Washington.

Royalties!

An a cappella group called InsideOut used Ron's song on their new CD. We get a whopping 8 cents for every CD they sell! That means if they sell 10 CDs, we get 80 cents. Ron is going to quit his day job and live off the royalties. And they're putting the CD on itunes. Way to go Ron! You can hear a part of the song here:

http://insideout-acappella.com/

Mother's Day

Les Miserables

Last weekend, Ron and I had a fun date in the city. We got this great nanny in our ward to stay with our kids. She watched all 4! We went to the temple and saw Les Miserables at night. The new version of the play is great. Its my favorite musical by far. I always come away from it feeling uplifted and inspired--my definition of good entertainment. I love the music, the themes, the plot. The only thing I don't like is the new signs and t-shirts say "Les Miz." Maybe its the French major in me, but I'm horrified by this tacky Anglicized nickname for the musical. You can see the signs in the last picture. We had a great time. We've lived here for 5 years, but this is the first Broadway musical we've seen since we've been here. We had a picture contest while we were in the city to see who could get the best pictures. Clearly, I'm not a great photographer. But at least I married into creativity and artistic ability.

That's me up ahead in the black and grey.

A cool picture by Ron.

Ron being horrified by the combination of the bill and the lack of quantity/quality of food. He's a little bit of a food snob due to all the fancy lunches the law firm pays for. I wish they'd pay a little more for insurance. I took this and staged it. But I forgot to turn the flash off. Its still funny though.

Another cool picture by Ron.

Ron looking good at the Trump Tower.

"Les Miz"???????

Philadelphia--Franklin Institute

We had a fun spring break trip to Philadelphia on Friday. They have this place there called the Franklin Institute--one of the coolest science museums around. The King Tut exhibit was there and my kids loved it. The following are some pictures from our fun day. Here Joseph is trying out "surfing."

Outside.

This airplane was one of Joseph's favorite things.

Claire crawling through a clogged artery.

Watching a frog get "mummified."

Gracie experiments with shoe-lessness.

Racing to blow up a balloon.

We had a really fun time.