Halloween Night

This post may end up being a little out of order chronologically since I'm typing a d blogging with a bandaged wrist. I'm just happy that it's getting done at all! The whole Coombs family came to our house for Trick-or-treating. We tried to get a photo of all those who dressed up, but Anya and Zaccary refused. Aunt Heather offered Anya a dollar to get in the picture,but no dice. Isn't Kelly's cape so pretty! After they all went out trick-or-treating they came back for the annual candy swap. They all dump out all their candy and trade. We watched "Charlie Brown Halloween" and had delicious treats. Chocolate Spot Cookies, Apple Cider Doughnuts, Pumpkin Dip with Ginger Snap cookies and hot/lukewarm apple cider to drink. All recipes are on the Seven Bum Kitchen blog.






The kids started out the day really excited about carving pumpkins. By the next hour or so, they had all abandoned their Daddy who finished carving all 7 pumpkins.

Fall Fun!

Helena's class had 'Scarecrow Day" at school last week. All the kids came dressed as scarecrows and the teachers attached the paper "stuffing". I was lucky enough to be able to help at the party. I love going to the girls' classes to help out. It gives me a whole new respect for their teachers! They got to eat pumpkin seeds, make a scarecrow puppet, decorate cookies to look like scarecrows, listen to scarecrow stories, and play scarecrow games (yes, games). Gotta love Kindergarten!

September Highlights

In September
our family took a trip to Myrtle Beach, SC. We only went to the actual beach for a few hours one evening and it was nice. The kids' favorite thing was the pool at our resort. I didn't take any pictures there because I didn't want the camera to get wet. Can anyone tell me how to get the computer to stop underlining everything I write!? Another highlight was Broadway at the Beach. It's a big lake surrounded by a boardwalk and shops, restaurants, amusement parks, golf, the aquarium and an Imax theater.

Anya and Helena dancing to 50's music at Broadway at the Beach.

Taking a break during a golf game.Vivien on the airplane ride; Evie and Anya on some weird car ride.

Also in September, our oldest child turned 12! Can you believe how tall she is. I took off my high heels for the pictures so you could see how tall she is. She had a rockin' party with her friends that was very...loud. Yeah, those were some loud kids. Who does she look more like: Me or her grandmother, Faye? toss up...





We bought apples at the farmer's market and Anya and I made apple pie filling to can. Anya was my helper with the core/peel/slice machine.


Ta-Da!














I do comb her hair once in a while.

A Trip We Took A Few Months Ago...

My hard drive is completely full and I haven't been able to download pictures for a while. Matt was finally able to get some things cleaned out (over 1,000 saved emails? Really?) so I could get the pictures out of the camera to share with you. It's been quite a while, and the downloading is slow, so this post may end up being really short. We'll see!
Family Trip to Norfolk, VA. How fun to have Mom and Dad and Aaron here for a few days! We got in a temple trip and a nice lunch at a nice restaurant before we all headed up to VA to see the Boney's. Good Cousin-Time was had by all.

First Day of School

The girls had less than one week off from school before the time came to head back for the new year. We now have a 7th Grader, 4th, 2nd, and Kindergartener. I didn't go to the trouble to walk my 7th grader to the bus stop and take a picture of her. I thought that would be a little embarrassing for her, so she's not pictured here. Poor Anya is home alone with Mom, now. When all the other girls were at school, she came to me after a while and said, "Where are the girls?" I told her they were at school. She said, "But where's Helena?" She's at school, sweets. It's just you and Mommy! The look on her face changed a little to suprize/sadness/horror. "But WHY!!!" And now that I've been able to get myself into a routine of working out in the morning before the kids wake up, Anya and I have nothing to do for a few hours. We're working on a schedule, but she's so bored. Any suggestions? I can't go to the park every day. Maybe the library?

Pasarlo Bomba!

Our 4th of July was so much fun! We got to tour this amazing piece of work, the USS Carl Vinson, where Uncle Aron works. It is huge! The girls loved it. Of course their favorite part was lunch in the Officer's Club. How can you not like a lunch that comes with a never-ending tater-tot buffet? good times...

That evening we made smores around the fire pit while we danced around to Michael Jackson music. Anya's dance to "Beat It" was the best. She kind of stomped around and pointed her fingers and glared at people.

On the morning of the 4th we walked to the nearby high school and had a family fun run around their track. The kids were on scooters while the adults ran. Allyn did her speed walking, which is faster than a lot of people's running.

Then we headed to the beach. Check out Helena's head-stand! She stayed like that for a long time so we could get enough pictures. Girl's got some good abs!

Our family participated in Race for the Cure again this summer. This year we were joined by our cousins, the Tant family. Kelly and I did the early race, then we all walked around visiting sponsors' booths. The favorite was the Skinny Cow booth. Free ice cream! Eliza, Payton, Vivien and Evie did the 1-mile race with Payton and Vivi having a fight-to-the-death finish. Evie and Eliza followed a few minutes later. Evie had tripped on her shoelace and Eliza had stopped to help her up ("Sisters, sisters; there were never such devoted sisters!"). You see the green shirts on Helena and Anya? See how they say "Outta My Way!" How cute is that! That was the shirt for the kids dash. The back says, "Eat my dust!" Sadly, by the time their race time came around they were both too tired and too hot to do the race. They were so "done" with race day. Akayla Tant did her kids dash heat while Anya and Helena cried under a tree in the shade. Thankfully this year the wait for the bus to go home wasn't nearly as long. We got home, changed and spent a few hours in the pool at the Y while Daddy slept at home on the couch.