arboretum, part 1

last friday was afton's first school field trip, they were headed to the pumpkin patch at the arboretum, and it was all day school (8-2.30 instead of 12-3), it was also the last day of our year pass to the arboretum, so as soon as we dropped her off at school, we raced home and got ready ourselves to head off to the arboretum ourselves! rayna and malachi had a blast posing for pictures. it was gorgeous weather, probably the nicest we've had in months! and everything was beautiful! hence the dual posts, i narrowed my pictures down to merely about 20 ;). some of my favorites:



rayna insisted on holding a pumpkin whenever she posed with them, which was everywhere

 

malachi kept posing, but he wouldn't really smile, he'd just climb up on the pumpkins and grunt at me til i looked at him... i wonder if he's remembering last year?



these two were being SO sweet, i LOVED it!
ps, note all the different kinds of pumpkins? there were tons!

 

still wouldn't really smile, but he sure liked being photographed!





just to give you an idea of all the pumpkins and gourds they had on display... and dramatically!
they had a series of houses that were cinderella-themed

 

again, just an idea of how many pumpkins they have here!



more posing




i don't know what he's doing here, but i loved this one too :)

and stay tuned, there's more!

next 5K

i just have to record this so i remember, and this is a good place to help me with that ;)
 

--feel free to stop reading here if you wish--

 my first 5K was in May, and i ran it in 31'30"
my 2 mile relay was in august (miserably hot in other words), and i did about 22 minutes
today was another 5K, and i've been sick for a while, so i've only gone running twice in the last two weeks (and both of them were short and coughy--for lack of a real word)... i didn't have a lot of hopes, but since i was signed up, and the next race isn't for a while, i figured i'd better try in anyways... and i was proud of myself! i didn't have to walk at all, and i finished in 33'15" (beating my friend teresa by 1 second ;)--nothing like a little healthy competition to get a fluckiger running!). my only goal going in was to not walk, and i did that, but i figured i'd be closer to 36-40 minutes, so i'm really glad i had teresa there to run with.
any other fluckigers want to race sometime? jacob? anna? katharine, i'm assuming you're not quite ready yet, but in a few more months, i imagine you'll be able to cream us all... i figure we live far apart, but we're trustworthy, so if we plan it right, we can just race on a given day and post our times :). i just mention it cause i figure this counts as healthy competition :)

just playin' around

these were from a few weeks ago, just playin around at the park :)







and afton found this cool bird's nest on the way home, it was just sitting by the sidewalk, i particularly liked the wet wipe/dryer sheet thing that was sticking out of it.



conversation after church this week

A: there's a church activity at 7.30 and i want to be in it and you need to call naylani's mom and tell her i'm going to be in it.
(ps, friday... talent show)
Me: what do you want to do?
A: um...
Me: it's a talent show, what talent to you want to show people.
A: um... i can play the piano
Me: but do you know how to play the piano?
A: (matter-of-factly) yes mom, you just hit the keys! see (unmelodic demo)
Me: we'll see... ... ...

girly girls and silly boy

our update today is brought to you by the letter R and by the number 6:



1) rayna wrote her own name. be creative, you can see it!
(ps, the R is sideways and the A's are upside down)
(pps, note the practice Y's on the top row, that's a tricky one for her!)

 

2) ballet class has started again, this year rayna's old enough to be a part of it all too!
(ps, yes i did buy her some tights, she no longer has to wear striped shorts)




3) happy grandparents day! sorry we didn't actually celebrate, though afton's school invited grandparents to come help make a special project. it was a family tree, though she hasn't brought it home yet. thanks mom for coming down and joining her! and for stopping by afterwards so rayna could see you too! we're sure glad we live close to you!

 

4) no caption required!!!




5) i just LOVE this picture, the close-up's on the top of the sidebar. how happy can you be!



and 6) malachi loves climbing, anywhere, anytime, but this is my current favorite. he likes sitting in the bathroom sink. usually stealing someone's toothbrush (like mine--blech!) but he's cute!

what can i say, my kids make me smile :) hope you're having a great day too!

afton's birthday

afton made it to FIVE last week. it was a strange day for me and paul to realize. funny how the kids keep getting older, and we don't ;). i had very good intentions of chronicling her birthday with photos, but you know what they say about intentions... so here's a few i did manage to get (most of the highlights at least!)

first, we had ballet class (more on that later) and playing with friends at the park. it was sort of spur-of-the-moment, or we could have invited a lot more friends :). after nap time we went up to grandma's house to go swimming, the water was a little cooler than most of the summer which made it about perfect! no pics of that. afton did get to invite her best friend joshua and his family to join us, and i think we all had fun!

playing in the sandbox

 

one of the most important things of a birthday is a pinata, this was partly as a reward for figuring out how to keep dry pants through the night, and partly for her birthday... either way, it's good!!! unfortunately a homemade pinata wasn't the best idea, at least this one wasn't...



it was a one-hit wonder... :( but it had candy in it so i guess that's good!

somewhere in here i feel the need to mention that dinner was won tons, per afton's request, and they weren't necessarily very pretty to look at, but they tasted great fresh (i made them in advance), and were still pretty good re-warmed for the actual b-day :). mostly i have to mention that because i think it's funny that my 5-yr old wants won tons. i wouldn't have known what that was at 5... and if i'd known it had cabbage in it i probably wouldn't have even tried it! i love that my kids (especially afton) are willing to try new things!

there was a pretty good pile of presents too! i was impressed!




this pic reminds me of one from my childhood... i think it was my 6th b-day and i got one of the old-fashioned my little pony's, but the grin and closed eyes were similar, maybe next time we go to grandma's i'll pull it out and scan it in for comparison's sake...

 

afton wanted a raspberry-jelly roll cake with green pudding-cream 'frosting.' a little too sweet for my tastes, but it made for a GREAT pic, i love how you can see the flame flickering in the last candle, and the puffs of smoke from the others, every so often i luck into an action shot!



and just to show the other kids were there too, malachi playing in the sand
(this is his new pose, btw, he does it a LOT!)

 

rayna was really excited about afton's new barbie-belle-ballerina...



and i should mention, malachi missed most of his nap that day, and considering how much trouble he usually is when he's tired, he did a great job!!! and was asleep long before we hit the highway on our way home.