Apple pickin'

Today we headed out to Apple Hills to pick, quite obviously, apples!!! It was a gorgeous day up there near the airport, trees are changing, it was cool at 55 degrees and the sun was out. Perfect!! We all ate and picked our way through the orchard, then spent some time petting the animals too. All around great day!!

Dave picks the *perfect* apple

Everyone stuffing their gobholes!!

Dave and Lin
Caleb hiding amongst the apple trees
Me, Caleb and Potter petting a donkey. He has surprisingly soft ears on the inside.
The kids pet the lone goat, who could smell the apples on our hands

Caleb is 4!

In the past couple of months, Caleb has turned a new leaf, growing, learning and becoming one of the big kids. Now that he is 4, really, I cannot refer to him as my baby anymore, boo hoo!! He had a wonderful birthday, filled with family, presents, love, and cake!!!

Caleb wears the birthday crown that they made for him at school the day before

Molly, Caleb and Potter on Caleb's birthday morning. The table in front of them was loaded obscenely with a huge amount of presents, begging to be opened.
Caleb's most favorite present(s) of the day?? Star Wars light sabers that his brother and sister picked out, paid for, and wrapped all on their own. I heart my kids!!!

Watch out, he has the Darth Vader light saber!!!

Courtesy of Grandma and Grandpa, Caleb gets his coveted Star Wars Lego book!!
Here is the story of the cake: I made a Betty Crocker cake (he wanted vanilla cake, not chocolate, my apologies to Granny!!), complete with orange frosting, as requested by Caleb. Sadly, after 2 entire packages of powdered sugar, the frosting was still a bit runny. I went ahead and frosted in between the layers, then put the frosting on top, trying to hold together the California-style fault line that had developed. The cake began a horrible tilt, so I tried to fix it, but then part of the side came off and as we know, you cannot frost where there are crumbly parts. GACK!! Thinking for a few minutes, I decided that the cake could be overrun with dinosaurs who could be blamed for eating part of the cake. Luckily, my craftiness was a huge hit!! Of this, I am sure Granny was proud!!!

Finally, after dinner, Caleb gets to blow out the candles. Mostly in one breath ;)

New floors, but with no furniture

The big thing to notice in all of these pictures is 1) the addition of all the baseboards and 2) the absence of the washer and dryer in the family room :)

My new laundry closet

Family room into the dining room
Family room
Family room into dining room
Family room (that is the corner where the icky carpet was with the nice patch from the tv stand)

NEW FLOORS!!

These are the floors as of Tuesday evening....we still need to have the baseboards put on (which is happening while I type). I'll have more pictures when they are finished and the washer and dryer are no longer in the family room :)

Kitchen

Kitchen into dining area
Dining area into family room (see my washer and dryer taking up the entire middle of the floor?)
Entryway and closet
Dining area

Prepping the night before installation......

We decided to help things move along, so that meant taking out the old carpet and pad. How fun!

Me gleefully ripping out the old carpet

The family room (a bit blurry) when everything was torn out
More family room
Family room into the dining area
Entryway and closet

Old floors......

This is the beginning, (well, except I had already moved the toy shelf when I took this) what our family room, kitchen and entryway looked like before we had our hardwood floors installed. Can I just tell you that you DON'T want to know all of the tragedies that befell the floors (I mean, we have three kids and have had a cat and two dogs on this carpet, you figure it out).

Family room

Family room, looking to the dining area

Entryway and closet

Kitchen
This is where our television stand goes. See what color the carpet used to be versus what is ended up looking like 5 years later? Umm, gross.

Molly open gym, climbing the rope

She's done many open gym nights, I've never caught her climbing the rope before. I assure you it is even more impressive in person. She has AMAZING upper arm strength. I'm sure that my daughter will be able to kick my ass one day soon.

Caleb's UPK goes to the library

Wednesday, Caleb's class took their first field trip of the year, to the local library. It is very close, so walking there is quite easy. Many of the kids wanted to check out books while we were there, not realizing that they had to wait for mom or dad to take them back. Overall, it went well, the children were really well behaved and had a great time!

Caleb, Preston (his new friend) and Mrs. Talley at morning meeting before leaving

Mrs. Mayer reads a story about a library before we head to the library

Caleb is the line leader this week, but he didn't want to perform the song while in line

On our way!!
In the library's children section, looking at all the stuffed animal characters and cool hanging quilts
Storytime with Miss Sue in the lower level, pointing to our noses
Parachute fun!!!!!! They loved, loved, loved this part!!!

Kids on the fridge?

I can't remember what prompted this, but they thought it was great fun.

Molly's first gymnastics demo

Molly had her first gymnastics demo on Saturday morning at the mall. Neither of us quite knew what to expect, but it turned out to be an *amazing* experience for both of us!! She is so grown up and didn't have any troubles with getting up in front of a pretty impressive crowd to perform. Her class, the Superstars, did a rotation of the small bar, a short floor exercise, the beam, and a vault. It was three different things for each, so she went through the course three times. I am so proud of her!!! The first demo was at 10:30 and we had intended to only stay for that, but she had such fun, she begged to stay for the one at 12:30 (despite all the company we had at home) so I relented and let her do them both.

Molly with her teammates and one of the coaches, Ashley

Molly stood still for .3 seconds for me to take this picture
Stretches and warm ups with the team girls
Molly does some casting moves on the short bar

Amazing cartwheels on her floor routine

On the beam
Mid-vault
Middle stretches that would kill her mother......
Getting some attention from her coach, Hadley