Halloween 2008

This has to be the luckiest Halloween ever for the Fosters. We won so many contest this year. Here is a picture of Cedar and Aspen at the Trunk or Treat that we entered this year and won. I have to give the credit to Michael. I just decorated with limited time and budget. Michael had the idea of making a haunted trunk. We had a strobe light that looked really cool once the sun went down. Michael wore a mask and scary hand and each time you went for the candy dish he grabbed you. He said that there were some women that would not even come in. There were some really cool trunks out there and a lot of money spent. We showed that if you use a little imagination you can still make something great.

Cedar also entered a pumpkin coloring contest at the Library and took first for the most creative. She used buttons and feathers. She won a Crayola coloring case. At the same library Michael guessed almost exactly how many M&M's were in the container and won the container with the candy.

If you do not know this, Cedar has the same teacher this year for 1st as she did for Kindergarten. Ms. Irene moved up to 1st and we were lucky enough to have her again. Last year we won the Halloween door decorating contest together. The theme was spiders. I came up with these paper bag spiders to make. Ms. Irene came up with this line that said "Say Boo to Drugs" because it was anti-drug week as well. This year the theme was Ghosts have spirit, so do we. Our school colors are red and white. I had the idea to make ghosts out of plastic bags and with the things that Ms. Irene had bought I thought up a cheer theme with pom poms and mega phones. I called a fellow class parent, Regina, and asked her if she had any ideas for a tag line. She came up with We've got spirit, How about BOO!! So to make a short story long we won again this year. The kids had so much fun and they got a pin to wear on their lanyards.

Cedar carved her first pumpkin this year and she was so proud of it. She just drew a face on paper and Michael transferred it to the pumpkin. Cedar cut it with one of those pumpkin cutters. I think Michael had to save the pumpkin a couple times. And of course I had to send a message with my pumpkin. RECYCLE

We hope you all had a great Halloween.

Family Camp September 2008

Here is Cedar the first evening we were at Family Camp. We were accepted into a YMCA family camp this past September for a weekend. It was so much fun for all of us. We did archery, rock climbing and kayaking. We had a carrot race the first night that Aspen still goes on and on about. You get to decorate and name a carrot as a family and then send it down the zip line in the mess hall. Cedar named our carrot Happy Girl. Thanks to our smart leader Michael who picked the largest and heaviest carrot we won. The next morning we dropped the kids off at a kids play group and went to do the Odyssey Challenge course. We did this challenge with six other people. I could not have picked better people to do this with and they were all strangers. This is a team building activity. You have to communicate well and depend on everyone or you are stuck. We climbed up the rope ladder to the top and believe me you do not want to be stuck. I was so proud at the end. We did so well and had so much fun. After that we got the kids and did some crafting and swimming. We came back to the Odyssey area before dinner with the kids and they got to do the big swing and the Alpine Tower. Cedar loved it all but Aspen was a little scared on the big swing. He says now that it was fun and he wants to do it again. We always had dinner family style so we made a lot of new friends and the kids got to set the table and clean up. Cedar wants to go for summer camp but I am a little scared to let her go. On the last day we got to go kayaking and we saw tons of turtles and Aspen loved this piece of coral that looked like a brain. All in all it was a great weekend and I am so glad we got to go as a family. I can not wait until next year.