Leaf Piles Galore!

Well, it's that time of year, and last Saturday was full of LEAVES! We had our youth service day, in the form of the GREAT LEAF PILE '09! We've turned our typical leaf raking service day into a really fun event that includes service... we bring all of the leaves out to Mom & Dad's and dump them all in one giant pile. Then, it's all about the gymnastics and flips and dives and practically swimming in leaves!! Last year I didn't get to go, so I was pretty amazed at all of the leaves this year!

We started off small, though, with just Josh raking our own leaves, so we could bag them up and add them to the pile! Before Josh bagged them, though, we decided to let Laney play in her first real leaf pile! The first introduction... well, she wasn't so pleased!

Laney did eventually warm to the fun of a leaf pile, and happily jumped in... as long as she was jumping herself in! Not so much on the being tossed!

Always fun if Daddy's hanging out with you!

Such a big girl!!

Buried in the leaves...

After we got all of our leaves raked, bagged, and loaded into the van (and by "we" I mean Josh...) it was time to head to church to meet the youth! We had a good turnout, and split up into three separate groups to go and rake leaves. Our group was full of really good workers, and we got our house raked and bagged pretty quick!

Here's our group with all the bags! We ended up with 20 bags or so... amazing how fast those bags fill up!

When all the houses were raked, we headed out to Mom & Dad's, where there was a massive campfire, hot dogs to roast, marshmallows, and, of course, a GIANT leaf pile! Everyone ate and hung out by the fire, and then the jumping began! Obviously pictures weren't so great, it was pretty dark. But I did manage to capture a few!

Josh, mid back-flip!

Laney was not so sure about the giant leaf pile. But eventually Papa tossed her in it, and she loved it! Then we couldn't keep her OUT of it!

Playing in the leaves with her friend Clara!

And, by the end of the night she didn't want to go home! But she clearly needed a bath!!

It really was a lot of fun, and a great chance for us to help out some members of the Midway community! And, to leave you with a smile... Laney's rendition of "Twinkle, Twinkle." It's her new favorite song to sing, and is actually hilarious because she does it similar to "The Song That Never Ends." After every chorus, she just starts right back with the second line. Pretty hilarious, and pretty off tune... but fun anyway!! :)

Gymnastics Madness!

Ok, well, I hope you have tissues nearby, because this is hilarious... and may actually be funnier for those of us who saw it, but I still think it's pretty funny regardless!

Laney's daycare participates in the Gymnastics Express. It's this pretty neat opportunity- these people took an old school bus and converted it into a mobile gym. They drive around to different daycares, and the kids do trampolines, tumbling, rope climbing, etc. etc. right on the bus. Laney absolutely loves it, and the best way to get her to go to daycare on Wednesdays is because she knows it's "Gym Bus day!"

Twice a year, the gym bus people set up a "performance" where the kids all get to go to an actual gym and do some of their "routines" for the parents. Picture this: 40-50 kids, 2-4 years old rotating around the gym doing rope swings, somersaults, trampolines, parachutes and cartwheels! Yeah... it was that funny! And, well, a picture's worth a thousand words...

Somersaults on the incline... Laney has no problem with these!

Climbing the rope... which was hilarious, because obviously the guy is helping them. Well, some kids actually looked like they were pulling a little weight. Not so with Laney... notice her hands are below her head! She was pretty much along for the ride!

After every "event," they tried to get the kids to stop and put their hands up... not so much on the stopping, but the hands are up!

The cartwheel was hilarious... not so much a cartwheel as putting her hands on the ground and flailing around like a fish out of water... I'm pretty sure this is as high off the ground as her feet got!

The trampoline, however, she LOVED! Still not so coordinated (hey, she is my daughter), but lots of enthusiasm for this event... and she NAILED the jump up and sit down (I think they call those seat drops).

One thing that totally amazed us all was how well she sat, listened, and waited her turn (not things she's well known for doing on a normal basis). When the lady told her it was time to get off the trampoline, she just hopped off, sat on the side, and happily watched the next kid go. Utter amazement...

The parachute was probably the funniest event. She was not very enthusiastic about waving the parachute. Partway through, he started throwing balls onto it. So, since everyone else was waving much more vigorously than she was, the balls constantly rolled off on her side. So she ran off to chase them, threw them on, and then repeated the whole thing... pretty funny! But, hey, she knew the colors of every ball he asked them about!

And at the end they all got medals. Pretty adorable! We were amazed at how big and little she looked at the same time. Big because she was out there walking around, following directions, and oblivious to the fact that there were people watching. But she's so petite, and still younger than most of the kids, so she looked tiny next to them.

And, well, since you can't fully appreciate the feeling of the whole event in the pictures, I created a montage of video clips from each event. Quality isn't great (using my digital camera, and pretty far away), but you'll get the idea. And, then imagine it repeated around the gym with the rest of the 40-50 kids... kids were just wandering aimlessly around from event to event, other kids were even less coordinated than Elena (hard to imagine)... and the commentary from Josh was hysterical! :) Thus, the camera is pretty shaky sometimes, mostly from me laughing while filming! Enjoy...

Definitely going to do this next year... and might try to find a nicer camera so I can zoom in on all of the action!! ;)

Halloween!

Well, Halloween came last Saturday, and it was time for Snow White to make her debut! Like last year, we didn't so much wander around the neighborhood trick-or-treating, we went to different houses of people we knew instead. Which, it was fun to see everyone, but it was exhausting! 2 and a half hours of trick-or-treating, and we made 4 houses!! :) Oh well... made for some good pictures...

Daddy (dressed as a Rams football player, obviously) and Laney, knocking on our first door- Uncle Tim's house!

Working on a box of Harry Potter Fudge Flies at Uncle Tim's!

Our second stop of the night: Grandma Jo's house!

Learning how to work the flashlight that Grandma Jo gave her... it makes screaming or howling noises when you push certain buttons. Thanks, Grandma Jo... Funny thing is, whenever she pushes the screaming button, she tells it to stop screaming!

Yeah, so Snow White was a little tired (we had Uncle Charlie's birthday party that day, so she didn't get a great nap), so trick-or-treating was a little hard on her! Can't remember what we told her no about, but clearly it was something Earth-shattering...

And stop number 3, Ellen's house! Thankfull, Mom & Ruth met us there, so we didn't have to drive all the way out to Mom & Dad's.

And a tired Snow White on the way home, after stopping at Uncle Charlie's house for the giant tootsie pop she had to immediately open!

And later in the week, enjoying the purple ghost cookie that Grandma Jo gave her... we weren't brave enough to give it to her with the costume on!

Anyway, fun Halloween, but exhausting! I think next year we're going to go with the trick-or-treating in our neighborhood plan! Everyone can come see us and hang out at our house if they want to see us! Two kids in and out of the car just seems like a lot of work!! Funny story, now that Halloween is over, Laney has been wearing her "princess shoes" around the house. They're just black shoes that we bought to wear with dresses all winter, but she's convinced they're her princess shoes! At least she'll be happy to wear them to church!!