Wait....where did SHE come from?!?!?!?
This is Ainsley? For real? Our little 4-1/2 year old???? I have to say, the resemblance between Hayley & Ainsley struck me in this picture....typically I would say they don't look alike but something about her smile....oh, she looks so old. :(

I've been away for a while now......

Okay, that was my copycat of my friend Kim's blog where all her blog titles are song lyrics. :)

aaaaaaaanyway.....

It's been awhile since I've updated this blog! Yikes. It's been such a crazy but fun couple of months. Where do I start??? Oh yes, I and my favorite friends and my mom, went to the beauty that is the Malibu Young Life camp for Women's Weekend. It is such an amazing place and we had a wonderful time. I did NOT do the ropes course again, once was enough! It was actually a very relaxing weekend, the weather was beautiful...it was just so nice to get away.

mom, Teresa, Heather, me, Michele, Katharine, Lea, Stella, Lori & Shannon - what an awesome group!

After Malibu, my time was focused on planning a couple parties to celebrate Dan turning 40! Pretty unbelievable, time just goes so fast. We had a family dinner on Saturday with the whole crew, and then a dessert open house on Sunday with friends. It was a lot of work but a lot of fun. I also sent him golfing for his birthday, at Chambers Bay with his favorite golfing buddies. (Little know fact - Dan loves to golf. ha ha ha)

Dan wishing he was 20 again....

(There was no way to fit 40 candles without setting off the smoke detectors.)

Dan and his sibs - LaDawn, Wendy and James

And of course, the entertainment....

Oh, and I have to include this....one our friends wrote an impromptu poem at the party and I have to share it here: (they are really young, hence the reference to 27)

Dan, you're really old

If you were a card game

You'd be about to fold

But don't despair

Even with your loss of hair

40's the new 20

and 27's the new 10

So I am young

and you're...well, you're just old.

Have one heck of a day

Be careful how much you play

For tomorrow might never come

Because you soon will die.

The Millard's (the last line was courtesy of Ed....he has such a way with words)

We went to the annual Meeker Cider Squeeze, for the 4th year (look at how teeny my kids were compared to this year!) We had a great time, and squeezed 3 buckets of apples this year, and got almost 4 gallons of yummy cider out of it.

October 2005 and 2008

oh, so happy to be making cider!

it's a wonderful day to make cider!

wait, WHY did we decide to squeeze 3 buckets of apples?!?!?

no no, girls, squeeze the apples, not each other's throats

I can't believe how much cider we are making!!!

We had fun getting crafty and made some Halloween placemats. Now I'm trying to figure out a way to actually use them without getting them dirty. I wonder if you can laminate felt???

Even Dan got crafty!

Can you guess who's is who's???

This past Friday, Ainsley had a preschool field trip to Jim's U-Fish - what a fun place! There was so much to do, the kids had fun and we had a great time hanging out with friends. After dark, we went on the I Spy trail...little spooky but the kids loved finding all the surprises on the list. And we thankfully did NOT encounter any cow-dees. :)

feeding the very hungry animals

look at these baby goats, aren't they sweet? they were so fuzzy and adorable.

hamming it up on the hay ride

In the midst of all this, Ainsley started swimming lessons! The schedule for ballet just didn't work out this year, so that was a no-go and she'd been wanting to go back to the pool since we went for a bday party this summer. And since she is VERY timid of the water, it was important to us for her to learn to swim. What an amazing thing to watch! At her first lesson, she literally screamed, sobbed and begged for at least 15 minutes....and finally by the end of the half hour, she didn't want to get out! The teacher had to about DRAG her off the diving board and just 3 short lesssons later, she did it herself. And will DIVE off the edge of the pool. AND swim on her back without anyone holding her (floating on her back scared her the most, so this is a HUGE accomplishment for her). I am so proud of her, her little face is so determined when she's trying to do the crawl stroke across the pool. What a big girl.

Like I said, it's been a crazy couple of months, and since we're headed into crazy holiday season, I can imagine it's only going to get crazier! But that's how we roll, and somehow we've been surviving it and managing to have some fun along the way.