Excited

While we don't feel stressed about Christmas around here (just excited) there have been lots of good and fun things happening! Madison's artwork is featured at Dunn Bros. Coffee house in Farmington. Twenty-four artists in fifth grade at Riverview were selected to paint their images on canvas. Pictures of the canvases were made into Christmas cards. Between her dance classes, we went to Meet the Artist night at the coffee house that unveiled all their hard-work. Her painting is the snowman in the middle of a blizzard.

 Last weekend, we got to visit Dakota City, a 1900s town in Farmington. Our girls can't seem to get enough of this place. We're thinking of volunteering since we're there almost all the time anyways.

I told Derrick, "this is a picture!" While I don't bring the Canon out on the ski slopes, this was too great to no drop on my belly to snap this one: all those ski boots lined up in a row the night before and ready to go. Four pair. Momma stayed in the lodge and took the tired ones home early. While downhill skiing isn't exactly a cheap pastime, Derrick and I agree that at least this way, we're all together spending money.

 Madison performed in her third Winter Dance recital on the 21st. She performed in three dances. Grandpa Leon and Grandma Linda got to join in on the excitement!

Those eyes...

 

"Those eyes would be big on a cow!" - Bedtime Stories

Typecast

"I don't believe this, I'm being typecast!" (Kramer from "Seinfeld.")

Little Miss Breanne seems to have been typecast. In her acting career she's always played some sort of a gang member: Munchkin, Dwarf, Elf and now a rough and rowdy Herdman in "The Best Christmas Pageant EVER." And as the doctor in that "Seinfeld" episode says, "Oh, it's no mistake. We loved what you did with it."
Mom and Dad are so proud of you Breanne (or shall I say, Gladys Herdman?)!

"I think she went home. I think she got sick. All I did was I just said hi, Beverly and she left. 

The Christmas Pageant

Aliya was a baby angel…her second play.

The last line of the play: "Hey, hey, unto you a child is born!"

The Herdman kids.

Seriously, we did it

We're in the far right corner.

Madison & I really were at the 5K Chocofrolic Race last Sunday in St. Paul. Madison beat her goal by 30 seconds: 32.32 seconds. Her first race and she says she'd do it again in a heart beat for chocolate, but only for chocolate.

After a full recovery, in our shirts.

Patriotic Day Celebration

This week Thursday, Breanne sang in the Farmington Patriotic Day Celebration. It was a terrific program and they sounded great.

Barn Bluffs

 All this 60+ degree weather this October makes me want to get out and enjoy it. You never know what the winter will hold. As much as "hiking" pains some of the children, we got out and enjoyed the views of the Mississippi from Barn Bluffs in Red Wing yesterday.

6! But likely not a high-heel cupcake

What a complete joy and privilege to celebrate Aliya's birthday with seven cousins, five aunts and uncles and three grandparents! The only doubtful factor is, do these cupcakes really look like a high-heel shoe? I didn't think so either, but we went with it!

 Following a delightful tea party with fabulous stories (both fiction and non-fiction) about the tea cups, the cousins headed out on an treasure hunt adventure. A series of five clues led them to the hidden clues and lastly, they literally dug up buried treasure. Fun, but clearly, with no food in the treasure box, this auntie failed. Note taken and next time there will be golden chocolate coins.

"Call me Elsa, not Aliya!"

How do you make a birthday extra special when daddy's gone and the party's not for a week? I think our neighbors helped us pull it off by the looks of that smile.

Grandma Barb and Grandpa Verlyn stopped to give their birthday wishes and treat the birthday girl to dinner a day early. She was so excited to open her presents early: Elsa dress! Could a girl ask for more?

 It had to be crepes for breakfast! What else could there be? After church, we decorated the cake and invited neighbor friends over to help us eat it. It was scrumptalicious!

Better is a neighbor who is near

    than a brother who is far away. Proverbs 27:10b

On a side note…
Christmas money + fair premium check=American Girl Doll of the Year; Isabelle

And my baby's off!

5th grade, 4th grade and Kindergarten.

There have been no tears shed, just joy and afternoon snuggles. Day 1 completed, she flew into my arms and said, "Everything was awesome!" Need I say more?

2 County Fairs down…14 to go?

 We had lots of cousins visit us at the fair! Priceless!

While sisters were busy finishing fair projects all week long, Aliya made a colorful lunch. 

The little red wagon was needed to haul in all the projects. The girls' judging took from 10am to 2:30pm!

The wait was worth it! Three Reserve Champions and five Awards of Excellence!

Communication Arts and Performing Arts on Monday.
Fashion Revue on Tuesday...

Swine Show on Friday.

We are delighted in another successful year at the Dakota County Fair and are so thankful to family who make it possible and more fun to take in when they join us! With Aliya beginning as  Cloverbud next year, that means we have 14 more county fairs to go (that doesn't include the State Fair). How did my parents do it?

Summer fun

 I love it that when Derrick asked Aliya to grab a library book to read, the older two immediately snuggled next to them to read along as he read an Arthur book. Madi & Bre have read OVER 2014 pages this summer already. They love reading! I couldn't ask for more!

So much of summer revolves around Madison & Breanne's schedule, so I am so happy to see Aliya have her special things too: T-ball (with Dad as a coach) and violin lessons with Ms. Renee.

What an awesome 1st Base Coach!

One gorgeous summer evening, while picking peas by myself in the garden, I thought, This is dumb. Peas don't really matter. I'll go ask the girls if we can go on a bike ride or something instead. Rounding the front corner of the house, I found this. While they were rollerblading, Breanne had checked the mail and in no time, they were each glued to their Clubhouse and Clubhouse Jr. magazines. The roller-blading can wait!

How many times when the girls ask to do my hair, has Derrick said, "You can do my hair?" As if! And I'll tell them, "Once my cousins did Daddy's hair…but I can't find that picture." Got it!Enjoy it girls!

Oh...

 This is what the camping trip with the cousins was marked by…tubing! So much so, it put a hole in our tube (Breanne's favorite red tube.) So sad…we'll try to patch it Bre!

 We stretched the birthday girls' day into a week because her day consisted of seven hours in the car to get her sister, a visit to the 4-H pigs, but the highlight was 4-wheeling with the cousins.

Oh, summer!