Homecoming Week

This was homecoming week.  Which meant fun dress up themes every day.  Here are some of my favorite.

Here is a crazy boy with his crazy hair!  Crazy hair day is fun for girls, but options are very  limited for boys.  They made a rule that no hair color was allowed.  What is a boy with short hair to do, you ask?  Why, put pipe cleaners in his hair, of course!!  Thank goodness for Google for giving us this idea!!

Speaking of Google, Nicole found a cute idea for a girls' batman outfit that had an adorable black tulle skirt.  As we are all out of black tulle around here, we improvised and used black garbage bags to make our own version!  Turned out so cute!

And yesterday, the elementary school had professional day, so Morgan dressed as a forester (just like dad!) complete with safety vest clipboard and hard hat.  Nicole had Hippie day, so she wore these fabulous velour bell bottoms that we've had for years, thanks to the Grangeville thrift shop! The junior high girls on the basketball team are required to dress nice on game days, so that's her "costume!"

And, tonight is the homecoming game, so today was Spirit day.  Sadly, I forgot to take a picture until moments before the bus was due to arrive, so I grabbed Glenn's cell phone for a quick shot.  Quality isn't the best, but you get the idea.  Go, Pirates!!

Spontaneous Love

I love it when all three kiddos get along.  It's not completely unheard of, but it's rarer than I would like.

Here, we were heading into the 4th of July breakfast that we always go to.  They were walking into the building like this.  (Gasp!  What?  Quick.... Glenn, give me your phone!)  I had to make them repose, because by the time I was ready to take a picture, they had separated.

I love it when there is spontaneous hugging among the three of them!

Spontaneous singing in the backseat is nice too!

Back to Basketball

We are in the thick of 8th grade basketball right now.  Two games a week for a few weeks.  Then on to Volleyball!!  Love it!

This poor girl was sick a lot the first week or so of school, so she missed some of the early practices, but she's a trooper and has bounced back well.

She's growing up to be a great little ball player, just like her daddy!  Speaking of which, you might notice he's the guy in stripes on the left!

Lewiston Roundup Parade

The Lewiston Roundup parade went SO much better than the first parade.  Jasper was a very good boy.  Until it was time to say goodbye to his new girlfriend.  Then he went a little crazy.  A good looking horse will do that to you!

This time it was the Princess's horse who was having a bad day, but they got through it fine.

Because it was a long parade, and the last one went so poorly, I offered to walk along with them in case they had trouble.  I was glad I went along, but from where we left the trailer, to the end of the parade was probably 3 miles or more, and it was 90-plus degrees out, so I was glad to see the end of that parade route!!  Here, mom joined me and walked along for a couple minutes after we passed her watching the parade.  Guess we should have been doing the "princess" wave, too! :)

Parade prep

 
These two girlies were a big help in getting Nicole and her horse ready to ride in the Lewiston Roundup parade a couple weeks ago.  We camp with Jackie and her family every year and she lives in Lewiston, so we had a fun day hanging out with her during the parade and rodeo.

It was a HOT day (90-plus degrees) and the bright sunshine made picture taking difficult.

But picture taking must continue in all conditions! :)

Not sure what this was about.  Perhaps the queen needed to sit down?

Buzz

Well, little miss Queen has one rodeo under her belt.  We went to the Lewiston Roundup in early September and took in the Friday and Saturday night rodeos and the Parade.

Friday night was "Tough Enough to Wear Pink" night, thus the pink shirt with the red, white and blue chaps!  Visiting royalty all get introduced at the beginning of the night and they "buzz" the arena.

Buzzing involves running the circumference of the arena at high speed while waving and smiling and (hopefully) keeping control of your horse.
 

She and her Jasper did well.  One rodeo down...... four to go.  Bring it on!

Tractor Lessons

Sunday was tractor driving lesson day.  

Everyone had a turn.

Glenn drove was a pro at driving this tractor by the time he was Morgan's age.

By the time he was Ellea's age, Glenn was responsible for about 200 acres of hay every summer. 

Not to mention feeding the cows every day during the winter.

My kids don't know how easy they have it.  

But they sure enjoyed driving dad's old tractor!

Parade Visitors

We had some visitors during Nicole's first parade appearance at the Idaho County Fair last month.

They weren't too excited about this parade that Grandma Dori brought them to until we clued them in that parades mean candy.  Yum!

Will was happy with one piece at a time.  Yay, candy!!

Sometimes it's hard to get any with the bigger, more experienced kids battling you for it, but they held their ground.

During lulls in the candy-throwing there was a lot of, "Where's the candy?"  During one lull I suggested they sit on the curb and take a picture.  They were happy to comply with the sitting, but their eyes stayed on the parade action.  Don't want to miss any candy opportunities!!

Rafting

We we rafting with a big group of friends over Labor Day weekend on the Salmon River.

Glenn had quite a large group on his little boat.  That's Ellea and Nicole in the second row on the right and middle.

Morgan in the next row back next to his buddy Sylvia.  I'm told they linked arms during every rapid.  It was his first real white water experience.

It was chilly for a day on the water and it rained (hard) on us which was a tad miserable, but I'm glad we did it.  How beautiful is this?  We are so blessed.

Major Sponsors

So many businesses have generously supported Nicole and her Princess for Border Days.  This beautiful display on the back of our horse trailer is a vinyl sticker that we can peel off when this is all over.  It was only $25.00 for this huge thing!  (I always love a bargain!)

And, of course, we added stickers on each side proclaiming our daughter's queenly status.

Because she's kind of a big deal! :)

The other kids are a big deal, too, but they won't let us put stickers saying that on our vehicles, so this will  have to do!

First Parade

The very first appearance for the new Border Days royalty was in the Idaho County Fair parade held in little ole' Cottonwood.  The queen looked fabulous.

It's hard to believe we're really doing this.

Her horse had a hard time believing we were doing this also.  He was having a bad day.  Didn't want to load in our new two-horse slant trailer and was scared of his own shadow in the parade.  He was better when he was following the other horse, but what queen follows behind her princess?  Not this one!  It can only get better from here.  Here's hoping.....

Royalty Chaps

 One of the first tasks as rodeo royalty was for Nicole and the princess to pick out and order their chaps.

It was exciting to see the finished product.

100% leather.

Gorgeous.  The chaps and the girl.  And so it begins.....

First Day

Another first day of school.  A sad one for me, because for the first time ever, they all rode the bus this morning.  I used to drive them all to school on the first day, but not this year.  Sigh.

We have a 4th grader, an 8th grader and a Sophomore this year.  Ack!  How is that possible?