Having fun with 12.12.12

I do love numbers and interesting tid-bits, so I had to document the fact that our tween was twelve years old on 12/12/12.  Kippy wanted a picture with her bestie, Miss Bella, who was freshly groomed and picture ready.  There have been three occurrences of this phenomenon in Angelique's lifetime...

Last November, the numbers and calendar aligned for her on 11.11.11.

 

 With the very first occurrence happening when she was 10 years old on 10/10/10, a little over two years ago.

Now she will have to wait until October 10, 2110, when she will be 110 years old to have the numbers align again!

Eleven on 11.11.11

I had fun capturing Kippy as an eleven year old on 11.11.11.  Can't beat the wonderful weather on this Veteran's day! The stars will align one more time when she is twelve on 12.12.12.

Our Haunted Halloween

We had lots of pumpkins this year because of our Blue Bird CSA as well as a trip to Potters Way. Kippy was the most enthusiastic about carving them.  She carved one on Saturday night and then both Abby & Kippy carved additional pumpkins on Sunday night.

 While Kippy was carving her dragon pumpkin, Abby decided at the last minute that she wanted to dress up for Halloween after all and needed a Little Red Riding Hood cape.  I found a free pattern on-line for a cape made out of polar fleece.  It was a little tedious taping together the 30 pages necessary to make the pattern.  (Our friend, KZ, was a great helper with taping part.) So with $12.50 in supplies for the fleece & ribbon, a costume was born.

 For some reason, there were no salvageable pumpkin seeds from Kippy's first pumpkin.  They were all flatso & weird.  But we got lots of seeds from the Sunday night carving so I made Martha Stewart's sweet & spicy pumpkin seeds, which are officially the bestest ever!

Pumpkin carving is so much easier than I remember from when the girls were little.  Now they both can handle it from A to Z, so all I have to do is take pictures of their masterpieces.  From past Halloween carving experiences, I remember having sore wrists from the elaborate patterns that the girls would choose. Now they are 100% on their own and I like it that way much better.

Kippy's creepy kitten

Kippy's terrifying dragon

Abby's bewitching bat scene

Kippy created her own costume after doing internet browsing for some DIY ideas.  She is a hunchbacked witch with a baby on her back.  She was able to recycle and re-purpose everything she needed from home except for the witch mask.  She got a lot of great compliments on her illusion costume.

Steve took Kippy and her BFF, Madi out trick or treating.  They had a fabulous time running all over the neighborhood gathering sweets and treats.

Abby's cape turned out great and she put together a wonderful Little Red Riding Hood ensemble, which unfortunately doesn't show up well in the picture because it was black.  She is still all about being a fashionista.  I was happy to see that she was still willing to participate in the haunted Halloween festivities at some level. 

The spooky sisters.

On a side note:  I only handed out candy to 9 kids, even tho the weather was fabulous (around 45 degrees). The Veteran's home across the street from us was doing a booming business and the parking lot was crammed full.  Perhaps all the T-or-T'ers had too much loot after their visit to the Veteran's home and couldn't walk all the way to our house?  Luckily, I sent all the leftover EVIL candy to work with Steve.

Recap of Angelique's 11th birthday

 Kippy had a number of gatherings to celebrate her 11th birthday.   We started out her birthday morning on Wednesday, September 28th with our traditional off-key singing of Happy Birthday to wake her up.  That was followed by breakfast at Perkin's before school.  It was a bit early (7:15 am), but worked out the best so all 4 of us could be together since that evening Abby had other activities.  We had a huge breakfast and opened gifts, which included a couple of pillow pets, a Harry Potter book & a mood bracelet.  Abby had time to get to pep band practice, which started at 8:30 AM and Steve got to class on time.

I had taken the day off of work since Kippy had a 2 hour late start at school.  We had time to get treats for her school classmates (ice cream bars from DairyLand - YUM!). I had time to pick Kippy up from school and thanks to the beautiful Fall weather, we got a nice afternoon walk in with Miss Bella.

 Her birthday was completed with a special treat - time with her BFF, Madi.  These two are just the best of friends and I absolutely love the energy that surrounds them when they are together.

 The girls picked deluxe treats at Dairy Queen and gorged themselves.

 After getting all sugared up, they ran off their energy at Grotto Park.  The poor Otter statue had his little nose stuffed with leaves as these two scampered around - coming up with crazy ways to entertain themselves.

We waited to have birthday cake until we got to the farm on Saturday, October 1st.  Aunt Claire decorated a scrumptious red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting and beautiful marine animals (Kippy's favorite).

 It was a busy field day at the farm, but cousins Makenzie (18) and Logan (9) along with Abby were able to join in on signing and blowing candles out before we headed to Potters Way to pick pumpkins.

On Sunday morning, I took pictures of Angelique next to her 11 year old tree at the farm.

 

 It was a great time honoring our beautiful daughter  {Kipper-doodle, Kippy Grace, Angelique} on her 11th birthday!

The start of a new school year

And I love how quickly both the girls get ready on the first morning of school... the rest of the mornings of the school year... NOT.SO.MUCH!
The air was cool and crisp, feeling definitely like Fall.
Abby is officially a high schooler at Kennedy Secondary school. Open house was last week, so the locker thing and class locations were all figured out. All that was left was the bright, fun outfit to wear. Abby nailed it!

Kippy thought it was chilly standing outside to take pictures, but that didn't stop her from wearing flip-flops on her first day of 5th grade at OLV. She dressed up her school bag with all the keychain fobs she had collected over the summer, including a special Seattle Space Needle keychain from her big sister.

Steve is able to take the girls to school before he goes to work, so my tradition has been to take pics of them getting off the bus on their first day. Bella was waiting and waiting for the girls, unfortunately, the new bus driver wasn't used to stopping at our house and drove right on past.
The girls walked an extra half of a block and Miss Bella was so terribly excited to see them.

They both reported great first days, with no issues. Can't ask for more than that! Wishing a successful year of school for you both, Abby & Kippy!!

The Munchkins rule!

Angelique was a head Munchkin in the OLV Wizard of Oz musical a few weeks ago. She was so excited when she got the part of Zoq, the mayor of the Munchkins. The whole play is put on by the Prairie Fire Children's Theatre in such a short time frame, yet the quality of the performance is amazing. The tryouts were on Monday, May 9th and the musical was performed at the end of the week on Friday, May 13th!
Angelique was worried that she wouldn't get a part because as a 4th grader this is the first year she was able to participate. Let me tell you, she was OVER-THE-MOON when she got a part with several speaking lines!
I am still in awe that my shy, Kippy-girl had such poise and expression on the stage. Can this possibly be the girl who had stage fright so bad as a Kindergartner when she tried to tell a joke for the talent show she froze & had to have the principal help her off the stage? Look how far she has come!

Zoq - mayor of the Munchkins!

A day with my youngest daughter

Easter Monday (April 25) has traditionally been a no school day; however, the public school had to make up a snow day, so Abby had to go to school. Since Kippy attends private school (Our Lady of Victory) she got to have the day off. Steve had to work, so I decided to take a vacation day and spend it with my youngest daughter.

I told Kippy that Monday was going to be a Mommy/Daughter day and said she would get to pick our activities. She made some wise choices and even let me suggest a few things along the way. Kippy brought her own camera with to document our day, so be prepared because there are a lot of pics in this blog post.

Our first activity: Bike to the library

We enjoyed the beautiful spring day by biking to the library. It was 65 degrees out and our first bike ride of 2011.
Reading is a favorite activity for both of us. Here are our book choices. After selecting books, we stayed and read for a little while until until I suggested another activity.

Activity #2: Go to Somethings Brewing.
We ordered our hot beverages (Caramel steamer for Kippy & Almond Joy Latte for me) and went up into the loft area to enjoy with our books.
After some reading, we decided should go ahead and order lunch.
Taco in a bag for Kippy and
a chicken Caesar for me.

Activity #3: Go for a walk with Bella and the Hubert girls around Lake Alice.
We spied a beautiful crocus peeping out of the ground.
Dani, Madi and Kippy were very busy exploring the newly uncovered areas of Lake Alice due to the partial draining of the lake. Kami was very helpful in doggie sitting so Heather and I could get some much needed visiting in.

Activity #4: Baking banana bread
We use my Grandma Nita's recipe with the addition of some brown sugar sprinkled on top. I turns out perfectly every time.


Activity #6: Poop picking after Bella in the yard. Kippy was not happy about that one because she thought the whole day should just be fun. She insisted NO PICTURES.

Activity #7: Packing up the Easter decor. Another not fun activity with no pics, per Kippy.

And we wrapped up the day with Activity #8: Piano lessons for Kippy and house cleaning/laundry for me.

All in all, were able to do mostly fun activities, and got some necessary work done as well. Best of all was just spending time together and I hope Kippy remembers that part.