ballet under the stars

i've always wanted to go to the 'Ballet Under the Stars' performance that Ballet Arizona puts on at some of the local parks. we finally made it this year to the show they had at Indian Steele Park. Brian and Lizzy from across the street joined us.

ella and i made rice crispy treats and put them on popsicle sticks so we wouldn't all have sticky fingers...

the kids were so excited to lay on the big comforter we brought - there is something about being at the park at night that's so relaxing, especially since its finally been cooling off at night. they all enjoyed watching the ballet show...

John was especially intrigued...

by the end of the performance, the girls and john were up dancing and having a great time on the cement slab next to where we were sitting...

Sunday Sliders

i've been meaning to make sliders for awhile now, and since I had just bought that big bag of rolls from costco i decided it was time.

so we had them for dinner sunday night along with homemade french fries (always an exciting treat) and salad - to off set the fries.

they cooked so quickly on the grill, dinner was ready in a flash. and we were able to make so many of them that we had them again tonight - always a plus to be able to just reheat a meal, especially on a busy school night.

so another quick and easy meal idea, i'll have to post some actual recipes soon with some actual ingredients and instructions!

chicken teriyaki on stick

those skewers we found in the drawer have sure come in handy....
Chris grilled chicken tenders (we like the all natural ones from Sprouts - which go on sale regularly) on a stick for dinner and they were a big hit. He brushed some good teriyaki sauce on them and we poured extra on each plate to dip into. We served them with rice (and curry - I'll post that recipe soon) and they were easy and delicious!

Happy Friday!

still waiting...

for pictures from the Halloween parade at school, that is. I took my brother's camera and he hasn't had the chance to get them to me yet - busy college freshman that he is. mine broke right as i was starting this blog, so i've only been using Chris' iphone:( (and he couldn't make it to the parade!)

but i do have a few from Halloween...

At first John did not want to be in the picture....

then we realized that he was scared of baby Ava's duck hood piece of her costume, and once we pulled it off he was all smiles....

The big thrill this year was going trick-or-treating at both Christopher's 4th grade teachers' houses who gave out full size candy bars, homework passes, and gold dollar coins.

the sun had gotten to this pumpkin by the time i took this picture...it did look cool when it was lit up, too bad i wasn't able to get a picture of that - iphones don't have flashes!!

oh, and we did have a last minute costume change as john john refused to wear his lion costume (it too had a hood) and since he had been wearing that football jersey shirt we just threw some pants on him and lines under his eyes and he was all set - easiest costume ever!

Halloween sneak peek...

Today is the Halloween parade at school for k-3rd grade. So, Ella and Andrew get to dress up for it and Christopher is out for the first time (he gets to look forward to next year when they study the saints and the 5th graders dress up as their chosen saint for the parade - very big moment to look forward to!).

I've been working hard on their costumes this week. From the get go Ella has said she wanted to be a St. Mary's (high school)/SS. Simon & Jude (grade school) cheerleader. Ask her what she wants to be when she grows up and she'll say 'a St. Mary's cheerleader'. I finally convinced her a few weeks ago to just go with SSJ for the parade (and purpose of simplifying the shirt). Her best friend Elise decided to be an SSJ cheerleader with her (is this the start of many years of dressing alike?...I remember doing this with my best friend growing up and we loved it...it will be so cute & fun if Ella & Elise do this too).

I was so happy with the way her costume turned out. I took pictures last night when it was all finally completed....

Andrew also came up with a great idea this year...He is going to be 'Ash' - the main boy in the Pokemon series, he reads the 'Pokemon' books and trades the cards with his friends. It has been the big thing this year. The boys will sit down (and Ella too - she knows all about Pokemon cards from them) and trade cards and talk about their different evolutions and powers and it is a nice quite activity that they can sit for hours and talk about.
I finished Andrew's costume last night too...

pictures from the parade will be posted tomorrow....

Happy 8th Birthday, Andrew!!!

My second born is now a big 8 year old!! My outgoing, funny, little Andrew is now a big 8. I can't believe it. This picture was taken over the summer and it just captures Andrew's fun loving personality. He has really outdone himself already at school this year - academically, socially, spiritually and we could not be more proud of him.
We drove back from our little California trip on Andrew's 8th birthday, pulled right up to the house and had the entire family (grandparents and 7 uncles) over for dinner. We did not even unpack the car. It has become a tradition to have the grandparents and 'uncles' over on the kids' birthdays, so they always look forward to it...

Chris picked up Carolina's (as requested by Andrew...we tried to talk him into Pei Wei but he had his mind made up) and we had a nice little celebration. Nani made him his cake(s) since we were en route from Cali...

Miss helpful Ella put the candles on the cake(s)...

and John now calls candles "Happy"....
I love this picture of Andrew and Christopher from our trip. I didn't realize it right away when I first looked at the picture, but they are totally in sync - I mean just look at their arms, legs, heads...it looks as if they are doing some kind of cha-cha slide dance they spent hours practicing when in fact it was totally unplanned. It just makes me think of how close they are and what great friends they are. Don't get me wrong they do fight, and fight often but they are also very close, and I hope they will always be.

And I had to include these pictures from Disneyland this summer as Andrew has always been our major Star Wars fan (this started at a very young age due to our neighbors passing down a bunch of Star Wars action figures to us). All three kids got picked over the summer for the Jedi Training Academy Camp Show at Disneyland...

Thanks, mom, for making the cakes. And thanks to everyone who came over and made the birthday boy feel so special - he couldn't wait to see all of you!
Andrew - here's to a great year as an 8 year old...we love you!

scenes from a wonderful fall break

we had a lovely time in southern cal with lots of r & r and time together as a family.

the first day was great. it all started with this...

then it was off to work (or shall I say play?)



endless fun playing in the sand together. the kids were so focused on keeping water in their ditch they would take turns announcing "water duty! i'm on water duty" and whoever was would run back and forth filling up a pail and dumping it into the ditch. they took this role very seriously and were proud to have the responsibility of it. andrew is on 'water duty' in this picture (in the background).

although chris and i did spend a good amount of time observing how much fun they were all having together (and reading our books), we did also lend a hand joining in on the fun.

the older three did eventually jump in the water, clothes and all...

and the little one was surely ready for a nap by the end of the afternoon...

p.s.

sorry the orange was getting to me...it didn't last until halloween! my house has been decked out since the beginning of october though, pics on that later.