Party Time!

Nick's birthday party started bright and early

with pancakes shaped like the number 3

(I am more of an impressionist with my food art).

Then it was on to building the birthday bike with dad.

According to Nick, he had to fix the "broken bike."
Later, mom revealed the cake she made.
Remember I am an impressionist!
Nick would not let these cars from his cake go.
He even slept with them!
Once the candles were lit,
it was time to sing Happy Birthday.

Nick had lots of trouble blowing out his candles.

I think they were put out by spit rather than air!

It was a fun day, and I can't believe my baby boy is 3!

NICK TURNS 3!

3 years ago on November 21st 2006,

Nicholas Benjamin Melcher was born.

Can you believe that this cutie...

Has turned into this mischief maker!

What a goof!

Happy Halloween

Ivy is a PEACEful Lady Bug
Anna as a dog

Nora is a Butterfly Fairy

Nick is a Spooky Pirate,

at least that is what he called it.

He is into posing for pictures,

and this is his idea of a face a pirate makes.

It's a party!

The gang's all here!

Let's go trick-or-treating.

But wait...

Who are these 2 crazy dudes?!

It's Ben and Mike as Chancho and Pedro.
Two Mexican Banditos!

Sauvie Island 2009

No Halloween would be complete without a trip to The Pumkin Patch.
It is a great place to have fun with family and create lasting memories.

Kids large and small will have a ball!

Finding the Perfect Pumpkins

The race is on to see who can find the best pumpkins!
It is all fun and games at Sauvey Island!

Adam and Emily joined the fun at The Pumpkin Patch.

We found our pumpkins!

We found one pumpkin that looked like a head, and another with 6 pack abs!

Once carved we had a pretty cool pumpkin man complete with arms and legs.

Too bad no one got any pictures! It was awesome.

Bi-Zi Pumpkin Patch

Nora got to go on her first field trip for pre-school.

We went to a pumpkin patch and they climbed the hay pyramid...
got lost in a hay maze...

and visited the petting zoo.

Unfortunately my camera ran out of battery life by the time we got to pick out our pumpkins
but these were the best pics anyway!

ZING! ZANG! ZOOM!

Ben was able to get 4 tickets to the circus through work.

He was out of town on business, but Mike babysat Nick while I took the 3 girls.
We had a great time.
It was a magical show!
Unfortunately, due to lighting, I had a hard time getting good photos.

This is the best of the bunch, thankfully the elephants were the coolest event anyway.
I have some video too, but it wouldn't post.

60th Surprise!

Wally turned 60 in September, and we surprised him over Labor Day Weekend.
We ambushed him at the Helena IHOP on a Saturday morning.
Nick made a mess of his Chocolate Chip Pancake.

Anna loves her dad!

Ivy poses

All of the cousins together!
It was a fun weekend full of love and laughter.

First Day of School

The first day of school make a mom's heart cry/rejoice.

My kids are growing up!
This is the last year Ivy will be getting on the Elementary School bus.
Next year she will be too cool for me to get a picture of her!

Thankfully Anna has a few more years of elementary school left.

Next year I will have a photo of Nora getting on the bus too!

She starts Kindergarten next year, can you believe it?!

Here is Nora on her first day of Preschool.

She absolutely loves it, and she has the best teachers in the world!

Last but not least, I had to get at least one picture of Nick so that he wouldn't feel left out.

I only have one non-school age kid! I never thought I would get here,

and now it has come all too fast!

We have a good time just the two of us on Tuesdays and Thursdays while Nora is at school.

Let's Paint the House

Make a Smilebox slideshow Our home improvement project this year was painting our house. I had the kids take pictures so I could blog about it, but then they decided to have some fun with the camera!