good bye october

Hope your October was amazing! I can't believe it's already November! 

we had a fun halloween this year Sofia was a lion

Ingrid has been a giraffe 2 years in a row.  she's a bit obsessed with giraffes

Swede was scary as all get out as a crazy cat lady.  I didn't mean to make her look SO crazy but, it is halloween, so we went with it ;)

all excited for trick or treating....or possibly getting really drowsy in Sofia's case

every year our neighboring town has a Pumpkin Walk.  The citizens all make up different elaborate scenes all made with pumpkins,  here we have, of course, ANGRY BIRDS

RICHARD SCARY

MISS SPIDER and her friends...i haven't actually read it, but my niece informed me it's a great book

here are my little girlies with my niece Meg

BAMBI, FLOWER, THUMPER aren't they adorable?!

Ingrid used to have an infatuation with GILLIGAN'S ISLAND so, we loved this one!

CALVIN AND HOBBES

WINNIE THE POOH

A ZOO and, yeah my kids are obsessed with most every zoo animal so, this was probably their fave

TANGLED

A CHRISTMAS STORY had 3 different scenes..the leg lamp was made of some sort of squash, haha- and the hair poking up on top of his head was the stem of the pumpkin

hope your october was as super awesome as ours was ;)  do you have any fun october traditions?? xo-Danielle

 

oh, teton park, how i love thee...

so, have you ever been to Grand Teton National Park??
if not, i will take you on a visual journey
if so, i will take you on a visual journey ;)

Mt. Moran

every year my husband's family stays at a condo just out side of jackson hole, wy.
we try to spend as much time in teton park as possible!
and, you see...from a photo like that one up there my husband will make a beautiful painting like this one here #amazing!

it's so beautiful up there right by them there mountains

canoeing and swimming in string lake

 picnicking on the beach

hiking to the bottom of the grand canyon of yellowstone

 and a jaunt to see the hot pots in yellowstone too

oh, and you can't forget about the wildlife!

hiking to water falls

more hiking
oh my gosh, don't we look like we're having fun? love it!

and a lot of this

driving around with binoculars looking for "aminals"

{and there may or may not have been a little bit of skinny-dipping ha!}

it's so amazing to have a place where we can spend time with family surrounded by such beauty, you really feel like you're in the heart of one of God's most beautiful creations.
love that place!
until next time, tetons

 xo-Danielle

how I got my kids scrubbing the floors...

so, I was on the hunt online for a chore chart for my kiddos (ages 3, 5, and almost 7 {yikes!}) I wanted something simple and with pictures so the kids could "read" it even if they can't read.  I stumbled upon Handipoints.com which looked like a website where you could customize chore charts and print 'em up...

but, it turned out to be more than that.  First off, you sign up to become a member (it's freeee) Then,  each kid gets to pick a cat avatar, and cat name {we used such creative names like "snowball" and "catty" haha}  The kids can mark off their charts after they're printed OR they can mark off their charts online.  When they mark off their charts online they get "bonus points" which they can use to buy furniture to decorate an online room for their cat avatar {think: webkinz or barbie.com}

I don't know about your kids, but my kids are crazy about decorating their pretend houses.  So, my kids had marked off their charts with all the stuff they had done the day before and still didn't have enough bonus points to snatch up the furniture they wanted...so, I informed them they could mop the kitchen floor or clean the bathroom to earn more points.  And VOILA! they went for it!  They all did several chores that they wouldn't normally be thrilled about doing.  But they earned bonus points! and they loved it!  we'll see how long this lasts!

Here's an example of what the kids are excited about earning :)

PROS:
-kids are excited to earn points
-they're not complaining about some things that they normally would be (because they get points)
-I can endlessly customize the lists (ie: go potty on the potty chair, be nice to your sisters)
-I can easily add points when the kids do something I think is good (my 6 yr. old filled up her own water bottle before dance class without asking so I gave her some bonus points :)
-It's free, and the kids aren't bugging me for any tangible rewards
-the kids are cleaning the house and keeping it clean :)

CONS:
-you have to log in seperately for each child (they make it easy enough, just kind of a hassle)
-I don't know how long they'll be excited about decorating the rooms
-there are pages dedicated to buying dress-ups for your cat avatar- but apparently, these are for the paying customers only (5 yr. old a little sad about that)
-there's a whole bunch of social interaction parts of the site (we just skip that part entirely, though)
-the kids want to be on the computer during their free time now :/



There are also a bunch of games that the kids can play on the site, we haven't ventured into that very much (nor do i plan to)  There are different places on the map that we are just beginning to explore which the kids think are fun...but are mostly a waste of time, haha :)

I don't know what you're supposed to do here...get back to work! ;)

Overall, I think it's pretty great...the kids are trying to figure out what they can do to earn bonus points, they're making their beds, picking up their toys, sorting laundry and putting their dirty clothes in the dirty clothes basket (hallelujah!)  we'll see how long it lasts! :)