Laura's Birthday

Laura turned 11 this year!!!!  So hard to believe.......

Opening presents in the morning 

Corn Dog Maker - She LOVES corndogs!!!

New BIKE!!!!!!!!!!

She had a soccer game the night of her game and.........THEY WON!!!!!!!!  Especially fantastic because their team was playing up a level this year to accommodate a couple players so they were CREAMED on their first 2 games.

See how happy she was that she won on her birthday!!!

The next night she had a "GLOW" birthday party - it was completely her idea, and it was really super fun!!!  They played out back for the first 45 minutes with music, glow-sticks,  glow-balls, glow-frisbees, etc.  The best was when the Cha-Cha Slide came on and they all lined up to do it with their glow-bracelets around their wrists and ankles - really cool, but couldn't get a picture.  Then they came in and played some games with the black lights - great party!

So excited to get the "11 yr. old gift" from Grandma and Grandpa Starr - a sleeping bag!

 Happy Birthday, Laura!!!

Fall Break

So, then the other kids had Fall Break.......and Mom tried to make it fun!

 Monday night we went to Golfland for Family Home Evening - we had never take the kids mini-golfing because it's too expensive for a big family....... but, I found an internet special :)

The little kids also wanted to see the NEW WinCo Foods store - woohoo, cheap activity!!!  They loved it - he, he.

Fluffy Stuff - we found it on Pinterest and it was really fun!  It ends up like Moon Sand.  Yes, its a mess, but it lasted all week and they played with it ALL WEEK!

Laura and Emma

Laura's creation

JUMPSTREET!!!  Dad took them to Jumpstreet (Groupon, yeah!!!) while mom was at another activity.  Kelcie, Jamie, Emma, Sophie, Laura, and Talin

Kelcie at the Foam Pit

We had a fun break, even though it was split up and kind of funny - and Mom made it through - whew!

San Diego Conference

Lafe had a medical conference in San Diego, and originally it landed on the week that we thought all the kids had Fall Break, but then we realized that only the older two would be on break.........so, they went with Dad!  I think they had a great time!!!

At the Beach soon after they arrived

 

Mormon Battalion - one of the Sister Missionaries was a niece of a friend of mine in our ward - so fun!

Knottsberry Farm - Weeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!

SNOOPY!!!!!  (Mom loves Snoopy)

Funnel Cake

Ethan's purchase - cool hat!

Waiting in line - hardly happened because it was a rainy day - AWESOME!

Silly boy

So, Talin sometimes has a hard time understanding what foods are for what meal - spaghettios for breakfast, cereal for lunch, etc.  He always wants this ^^^^^  but they are for the big kids that have to be at school at 6:30 in the morning!  He and Erin were having a "discussion" about how he couldn't have one for snack one day and Erin showed him that it says right on it that it's for Breakfast.  About 20 minutes later, Erin found that he had edited the box - crossed out Breakfast and added "enetim", translation: anytime.  He didn't even say anything, just changed it - we were dying laughing!!!!!

FHE

I saw this cute idea in the Family Fun magazine, and I thought it would be fun to do with the kids for Family Home Evening while Lafe was gone ( more on that later).  They turned out pretty cute and were really easy.

Orchestra Concert

Jamie is in orchestra again this year, and she had a concert with the JH Band and Choir.  They did great!

Jamie playing her viola

 I was a little nervous, though, because the choir director asked me to accompany the choir.  IT WAS SO FUN!!!!!!  I had a blast practicing with the kids and I loved playing the piano so much!  I really enjoyed it and can't wait until she needs me again.  (Jamie was my page turner :) )

Me :)

Student of the Month

Guess who got Student of the Month???  The Virtue for last month was Diligence and he got it for always working hard and staying on task.  He was surprised and it was so fun!!!

All the kids with the principal

Cute Boy!!!

Choir

I convinced Ethan to try out for choir this year, and he made Concert Choir - the top choir at the school!   (They needed guys, but he does have a great voice and pitch)  Last night was his first performance - I think they did a great job.  It was so fun to watch him - I think he might like being in choir :)

Singing - You can see he was right behind the director - luckily, Erin could grab this picture of him.

He was really enjoying wearing a tux!  He swaggered onto the stage :) and kept pulling 007 moves - I think he liked lookin' GOOD!!!!!!!

School Pictures!!!

Erin - Junior

Ethan - Sophomore

Jamie - 8th Grade

Laura - 5th Grade

Kelcie - 3rd Grade

Talin - Kindergarten

Cancun

Last week, Lafe and I got to go to Cancun!!!!!  We had so much fun!!!  Just look how beautiful it is!!!

View from our balcony.

View of the Beach

Church - great ward!  Really friendly people

Chichen Itza

Baby Turtle - We got to let the baby turtles go!  It was so cool!!!!!  They would line us up and then count and we'd let them go toward the ocean.  They were so cute!

Us and the Guthries at Chichen Itza

 

This is a Cenote - an underground water hole that the top eventually caved in.  It's really beautiful and fun to swim in!

This is at Ek Balam - another Mayan site - this part looked as if it had been rebuilt, but he said it was just cleaned and then protected - amazing that it's still there in such detail.

 

There's a better picture of Lafe at the top, but it didn't upload.  Here I am holding on for dear life about 3 feet from the top.  I figured the view was the same from there :)    Do you see how beautiful it is behind me?  So GREEN!!!!!

High and STEEP!!!  It took me a while to get back down.....

Lafe and I in the "Lover's benches" at at park

We're Parasailing!!!!!!!!!  (We're the white one)

Me in the air - see, I'm smiling.  This was at the beginning, we got a lot higher.

Lafe in the air - he LOVED it - crazy.....

Dinner at the favorite Taco spot

Lafe went down early one morning to catch the sunrise and was able to see this mama turtle, too.  She had just laid her eggs and he got to watch her bury them and then go back out to the ocean.  Really cool!  I missed.....

The eggs

The sunrise he was after - GORGEOUS!!!!!

View from the lobby.  We had a BLAST in Cancun!!!!!!!!!