Come to the dark side, there will be cake

The day after Thanksgiving, Evie turned eight and we threw her a smashing Star Wars birthday party. Josh happened to have almost everything we needed, including an adult-sized Jedi robe, Storm Trooper helmet, and Darth Vader helmet. Add some balloon light sabers, a death star pinata, and some Princess Leia cupcakes and we had ourselves a par-tay.

Can't believe our girl is eight! She has grown into so much more than I could have ever imagined--funny, helpful with her siblings, responsible, thoughtful, creative, eager to learn, quick to cheer someone up, a loyal friend, lover of all things scientific. Happy birthday to our sweet, wonderful Evelyn Ruth!

Mississippi

"The Alaskans are coming to town!"

This is the song Trent sang all day on the Friday before Thanksgiving. Five of my family members (mom, Scott, Megan, Brittany, and Noah) arrived on a plane that afternoon and after picking up the girls from school we all set off for Mississippi in a mammoth RV (all except Josh, cuz somebody has to work around here so we can have nice things). My grandpa had no idea what kind of craziness was headed his way.

Grandpa Jack lives in a small town on the border of Mississippi and Alabama. He is in his late 70s and runs a 50 acre farm like it is no big deal. There was a lot of back-porch-sittin' and cow-watchin' during our two days on the farm.

When the cows were ready to be fed, Grandpa got in his tractor, put my 30-week pregnant sister at the helm of his Gator, and told us to follow him. We drove all around his property and didn't get mauled by the cows (a large fear of Evie's, who stayed behind for "safety reasons").

(Evie, safe on the back porch and separated from the cows by an electrified fence. Although, in all fairness, once she saw how passive the cows were she joined us on the next ride out on the farm.)

It was nice to spend time with Grandpa, whom I hadn't seen in fifteen years. He was really sweet and jolly the whole visit and kept telling us how much it meant for us to drive twelve hours to see him. 

Trunk or Treat Expedition

It all started with Loo a few months ago.

She started wearing an explorer costume around the house and visiting exotic locations, mostly in the clubhouse under the stairs. She declared "EXPLORER!" as her future Halloween costume and talked about it all the time. It wasn't soon before another Lamb joined her.

Evie decided her passion for science went very well with being an explorer for Halloween. And since Teddy adores Evie more than anyone these days, we were not surprised when he joined the expedition team.

The countdown to his self-proclaimed favorite holiday (tied with Christmas) and all the "can-gee" that comes along with it has been going on for a while. Thank goodness for our church's Trunk or Treat or he might have gone insane from the wait.

This was the easiest Halloween prep ever. The kids picked out "explorer clothes" (khaki shorts and a shirt), which Lottie rejected the day of and opted instead for something more her vibe.

The girls threw on some packs for collecting specimen and holding their journals (there was some drama over pretending the packs had all that stuff, because they had both packed them full of useful and heavy exploration items) and Trent opted for a monkey friend (obviously found on a jungle expedition).

Based on the amount and variety of candy specimen they collected on this expedition, I decided to fund a grant so they can explore the neighborhood on Halloween.