Meg's 8th Birthday Party

Wow.  When did she get so big??? My girl is 8.  And we had quite a party to celebrate it!  She invited over a bunch of her friends from school.  The weather was fantastic - they played outside and we were able to do the pinata outside (thank God!!  I was a little worried about what this might look like inside...)  And I think a good time was had by all.

We even had a math lesson during the party!!!  Or was it physics?

or a lesson in bareback bronc riding?

And this handsome little guy greeted all of the girls with a big hug -- seriously!  It was pretty cute that each girl thought that she was the only one that he did that for... He has a way of making us each feel special!  

Oh and the pinata!!!  Dave was in charge of this.  Meg and I stuffed it and Dave hung it from a tree and was an EXPERT at making the activity last a whole lot longer than I though it would!!! He gave each girl one whack --- they could swing as many times as it took but after their one whack, they had to pass the pink baseball bat along to the next girl.  I was the one in the background saying - "get back... you're gonna get hit --- step back!!!" 

 Annie made contact...

 Everyone waiting their turn patiently...

 Did I mention that Annie made contact???  And did I mention that little girls think that candy falling out the bumm of a paper horse is hysterical???  Ladies... every one!

 And when Ella hit the poor thing, he came back to get her!

Do you see that snicker on Dave's face???  Maddy is on his soccer team and he enjoys teasing her a bit! 

 She takes it well.  :)

And the birthday girl of course! 

Oh... and who can resist this cheesy grin???

I think I've got some videos too so I'll have to download those and add them... 

Boys and their big sister's bikes...

So what is is about boys and their big sister's bikes???

These vintage photos are of my baby brothers wheeling my blue banana seat bike around the yard  -  Mom busted them while I was at school because I would never have let this happen if I'd been around. 

Aren't they so cute in their pointy-hooded Broncos coats???  And check out that conversion van -- my family was stylin'!!!  We used to load up in that thing and drive from Cheyenne to Omaha, in the worst of snow storms to visit my aunts and uncles for every holiday --- and let me tell you... this was before car seats!  The boys were stuck in the play-pen in the middle of the back of the van where Seth and I were arguing over who got to sleep on the couch in the back.  And we were happy!  And we survived more than one trip where I know that the only way Dad kept us on I-80 through the blinding snow storm was by following the lights of the semi in front of us. If that 18-wheeler had careened off of the icy highway into the ditch, we would have been right behind him!!! 

(Wow - I sure got off track there... I'm starting to blog like Tammy... which wouldn't be a terrible thing... Just sayin'... )

 But I do love that Ford pick-up... what year was that Dad??  And where's the red 1967 camaro???

So, why was I NOT surprised when Dave called me out to the yard and I found Mr. Jack perched atop Ella's little bike??? 

Not suprised a bit. 

I immediately grabbed my camera and got some evidence and then emailed Mom and said, "can you find those pics of the boys pushing my bike around??!!?" 

She came through in record time!

And the best part is, Ella couldn't give a hoot that Jack was riding her bike.  I think she even cheered him on!

She is a much more gracious big sister than I was ...

Harvest Season

So it's Harvest Time here in our little town --- and the Hubert's are officially off of their break in working on the house.  We took the summer off and went camping and did all of the fun summer things we love to do and now Dave and I have agreed that we are ready to start some new projects! 

Along with a trip to the local Pumpkin Patch and some carrot harvestin' in the back yard, we cleaned and repaired and pieced together the array of storm windows we found in the shed.  Dave kept proclaiming things like:  "I know where this one goes!!!"  and "I think I have three - no four! whole storms... "  I don't know if I have shared with you that the big green house has MANY windows... seriously - like 60-some... So this was no small undertaking...

And see behind that door Jack is standing in front of... that is our screened in porch that has these cool windows that fold up or down to open or shut the screened room... does that make any sense?  We can open the glass windows to just a screen or we can close the glass windows so that the screen is covered with glass... nevermind... What I wanted to tell you is that I cleaned all of those windows!!!  There are 11 of these big foldy down windows and they each have four panes -- and I cleaned all of them - both sides!!!  No small undertakin' -- I'm tellin ya!

And I thought this was a stinkin' cute pic of my boy:

 If you look closely, you can actually see two of those windows folded up to the ceiling in the top half of the screen door... okay... I'll let it go...

PUMPKIN PATCH

 Jack really enjoyed playing in the dirt...

 ... and trying to lift the pumpkins...

 ...while Meg continued the search for the perfect pumpkin and Ella stood watch over the ones we had already chosen and decided to take home.

I always enjoy the search for the most unique squash...

 In case you missed my FB post:  Say NO to crack!

 Look at sweet, tough Meggie haulin' that pumpkin all over the field!

 Jack got tired of walking... and we didn't want to miss the tractor that would haul us back to the barn!

 I think Jack had a good time -- He really enjoyed picking up the smaller pumpkin and tossing it... hard to explain to him that it is not in fact a ball...

 But it did make kind of a fun "thud" when it hit the ground.

When we got home, the girls and Dave harvested the carrots out of our garden.  We just had a small plot of two or three cucumber plants and two zucchini plants that were extremely prolific and two or three rows of carrots!  I love the red and purple and white ones!!!

And now we are enjoying the yummy smell of carrot cake and zucchini bread and apple muffins and carrot/zucchini spice cake... and all of the yummy smells of fall...

Oh and if you get a chance, check out our family pics:  http://www.jasonrogersphoto.com/#/hubert/