Happy Birthday Kiana!

What do you need for a great birthday party?

Friends to swim with, a flower pinata, and of course pink cupcakes!




We had a wonderful time celebrating Kiana's 7th birthday. There were a lot of friends, cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents to share this fun day with her. She received a lot of fun gifts from everyone. Her favorite seemed to be her musical barbie horse & carriage.

Italian Cream Sodas

My brother Kyle made a special treat for our family during our reunion. Italian Cream Sodas. Pick your flavor, add some ice, top with cream, and don't forget the straw!

Yummy!



Tasty!






Can I have some more?

BACK TO SCHOOL

It's officially started. Goodbye to sleeping in, staying up late, free afternoons, and family vacations. Time to get back to work. The kids were actually excited to start school this year.

Andrea feels much more confident in Jr. High this year. She will be working hard in Algebra and enjoying her Chef Prep. class as her elective. She even has P.E. 1st period like she wanted.

Seth was thrilled to have Mr. Bishop as his teacher this year. He is always coming home and telling me something else that "Mr. Bishop" has taught him. He also loves having all of his close friends with him in his class.

Kiana has Mrs. O'Connell for a teacher. She seems to be enjoying school and adjusting well. I only had to walked her to her class on the first day. She is now completely comfortable and does not need "her mom" to escort her anywhere!

Am I sad that they are back in school? Of course not! But I am sad that the years go by so quickly.

Can You?

Can you eat 10 Saltine crackers in one minute? Well, Seth thought that he could, but realized after about three that his mouth wasn't working properly. He sure had fun trying. What a good sport!

Try it for yourself and let us know the results. Happy munching!!!

Family History

My Great Grandfather, Herman Fredrick Gherhardt, passed down some personal belongings to my father. Some of these things were stones that he had collected throughout the years. As a special momento of our recent family reunion, each family member was given a stone. It was either made into a necklace or a tie tac so that everyone could have somthing from their ancestor. It was a wonderful way to share a little bit of our family's history with our children. Thank you "Aunt Nicole" for making such beautiful pieces of jewelry that will remind us of our family and the times that we were able to share together.

Family Reunion

What do you get when you add 2 parents, 7 siblings, 5 spouses, and 17 grandchildren?

A FAMILY REUNION!!!

Oh, it's that time of year again when you bring the family together to enjoy each other's company and make some new memories. This year my family met up at Lake Almanor for some "Camping good time!"

Our days were filled with various activities such as boating, riding a wave runner, making smores, playing ping pong, tag & Duck-Duck-Goose (in the dark), catching chipmunks, eating, napping, relaxing in a hammock, fishing, swimming in the lake, visiting & taking pictures! Wow we were exhausted by the time the weekend was over but we definitely want to do it again----in a couple of years.

The Art of Food

What is this you may say, well Andrea thought her french toast needed a bit of dressing up. She topped it with peanut butter, syrup, fresh picked blackberries, peaches and a spot of whipped cream. Wow--what a masterpiece! We never knew how much fun having breakfast could be, and Yummy too! (we're not counting the calories on this one!)

Arrow of Light

Last week we attended Seth's last official Cub Scout Pack Meeting. He along with 2 other boys were able to receive their Arrow of Light award. I can't believe that Seth is now done with cub scouts and is moving on to boy scouts. The years just keep flying by. Congratulations Seth for all of your hard work--keep it up!!!