Halloween 2012

The girls are at such a fun age now for picking their own Halloween costumes.  They know what they want and are firm with their choice, but they sure do reflect their personalities!!  Abbie wanted to be a movie-star/super-star and Rylee was Strawberry Shortcake.



I love their costumes...this year might be one of my favorites!

Rylee's Halloween Party

Rylee is absolutely loving preschool and wishes that she could go to school everyday, which I love!  To celebrate Halloween, Mrs. Gossman had parents and grandparents come for a party.   They were able to dress-up for their party, they performed songs, and did crafts such as frost cookies.  I wasn't able to go to the party, but Jeremy took great pictures and sent me adorable videos of her.

 

They sang the "Hokey Poky" and also a really cute song about colors, "..the ocean is blue.  B-L-U-E.  The ocean is blue..."  Each song had actions.  Rylee did more watching others do the movements while she sang, but it was still too cute!!

Strawberry Shortcake and Mrs. Gossman

Of course Grandma Nate come to the party too!

Grandma Nate mentioned she had a lot of frosting on her pants after this craft!

Pumpkin Carving 2012

One of our favorite Virts' family traditions is pumpkin carving and this year was no different.  This year the girls each picked a design from the book of pumpkin carving stencils.  (We used this book last year, but Jeremy just looked at the pictures and still carved free hand.  This year he used the stencils a little more to guide his template.)

 

Rylee chose the face of a goblin and Abbie chose the Grim Ripper.  That sounds like we really are good parents, right??!  Instead, let me explain that Rylee thought the face of the goblin just "looked silly" and Abbie thought the Grim Ripper was "a boy trick-or-treating."  Those seemed so warm and fuzzy that I decided to stick with those thoughts and choices rather than explain anything different about the carvings they wanted! 

 

This year Abbie cleaned the guts out of her own pumpkin.  That was a big deal for her!  She also was a big help separating the seeds out.  We baked those and ate most before the night was over!

 

Doesn't the trick-or-treating boy on Abbie's pumpkin look like he is having fun??

Another year with beautiful work of art pumpkins...thank goodness for Daddy!

Rylee's 3 year-old Bible

Today was a big day in Rylee's journey of faith.  She was given a Bible as a way to start her walk with God.  So far she likes to look at the pictures...that's a good sign!!

The girls also sang in church today, "Father Abraham had many sons and many sons had Father Abraham.  I am one of them and so are you..."

Abbie's First Swim Meet

Abbie has tried various sports and activities in the last few years.  This year we told her she had to choose just two activities rather than try to manage several.  She chose gymnastics and swimming.  Swimming is a competitive team and I am so proud of her for trying this out at such a young age.  Swimming is a life sport and even if she doesn't continue swimming competitively, she will never regret being a strong swimmer.

 

The end of October brought her first swim meet and she did AMAZING!!  I was so proud of her!  She has got quite a backstroke!

 

 

Professional Fall Photos

I opted to try something new for fall pictures this year...no Sears this year for Christmas cards (I just didn't have the patience in me).  Instead I asked Melissa Allen if she would take our family pictures.  She did such a great job that I had a hard time deciding which pictures to use in our house (or to upload here).

Is that a smile?  Is he having fun taking pictures?

 

One of my favorites...they are too cute!!

 

Fall Pics

It is time for school pictures again.  Abbie picked out her outfit this year (purple is her current favorite color) and allowed me to curl her hair.  Any other morning she refuses to have her hair curled, but she made an exception for pictures. Always willing to make mom happy!

Isn't she beautiful?



Abbie and Roo both ready for school

Pierced Ears

In the last few weeks the girls have been obsessed with earrings.  Grandma Nate had bought some stick-on types and then they tried some magnetic ones, but all of them continued to fall off and get lost.  On Thursday as the girls were getting ready for school and trying to get sticker earrings to stay on Jeremy said, "Why don't you just get your ears pierced?"  Abbie shrugs and says, "OK.  When?"  Jeremy's response, "Sunday."  I never imagined that she would follow through since we had tried the whole ear piercing experience before and backed out after we had picked out the earrings and were sitting in the chair.  Sunday morning, October 7, 2012, Abbie is wondering when we are going to head to the mall to get her ears pierced.  Sure enough!  We head to the mall, she picks out the earrings, climbs up in the chair, sets perfectly still, and barely teared up after they pierced them.



Doesn't she look even more girlie?

Aren't they cute little daisies??!

Homecoming 2012

CMR Homecoming offered yet another opportunity for Jamie and I to focus less on teaching and more on our costumes!  This year's theme was "Rustlers Go For Gold", yet it was hard to embrace the Olympic theme.  Monday was "class country day".  We decided to jump on the seniors bandwagon and dressed in some Jamaican attire.

Tuesday was mismatched sports day so we combined some historic Husky football with ballet, including the leg warmers.  Joanie, the teacher who took over for McNamee, was full of spirit too with her referee outfit to complete the academy trio.

Last Camping of 2012

Our last camping trip of the year was mid-September...thank goodness for the beautiful weather!  The leaves were changing, but we were still wearing short sleeves.  Awesome!!  We headed up to Hughesville for the weekend. leaving after school on Friday.  We couldn't have a fire due to the dry weather, but we still had a good time eating popcorn and ice cream in the camper at night time.  In fact, maybe I enjoyed it even more because we all cuddled into the camper at night and watched family movies on the couch pull-out!  Saturday morning Grandma Nita drove up to meet us and we went on a four-wheeler ride past the Hughesville mine.  The weather was perfect and the scenery was breathtaking.  The fall colors were perfect with reds, oranges, yellows, and greens from the forest floor to the sky. 

My cute little pumpkins!!

Abbie was just intrigued with the whole mining process.  She wanted to know how it worked, how did they get down in the hole, what happened when they got in there, etc.  We explained what we

could but had to do some research on the internet when we got home to be able to answer her questions.  She wanted to go in every mine and just couldn't understand why we wouldn't let her.

We went for one more short ride on Sunday before we left.  Again the weather was perfect...it was hard to load up and go home!



Abbie looks so grown up in her helmet!