Dallas!

Kateri and I went to Dallas for the weekend. It was Jon's birthday, and I had been missing my family a lot.

Plus, I had been dying to meet this little guy since he made his appearance into the world last July. He did not disappoint. My sweet nephew was so happy and smiley and easy to make laugh.
And I fell in love all over again with my goddaughter Evie.

Kateri had the time of her life running around with her little cousins. They spent a whole evening playing our family's version of hide and seek.

They had to go find the scary uncles hiding in the back rooms.



This is what happened when they found him.

It was so much fun watching these three play together...

...and no one makes my face hurt from laughing like these two gentlemen. I have more videos starring them that I could post, but I think I'll save them for blackmail.

After all the craziness, Kateri snuggled with all of her aunts and uncles in turn until finally she passed out.

We even got a (too-brief) visit with Genny and Maggie!

It was way too short of a trip all around, but it was so lovely spending that rainy weekend with my family, laughing at my brothers, eating too much delicious food and sipping coffee with my wonderful sisters-in-law.

During bedtime prayers, Kateri's intention continues to be "That I can go to Dallas another day."

I hope so!

How to Train Your Dragon Halloween

Or, "The Best Day of Kateri's Life."




It's not often that the three-year-old of the family gets to call the shots when it comes to something as crucial as Halloween costumes. We were worried that our annual tradition with the Burch Jerks of all sticking to one movie theme was coming to an end, but a post-soccer brainstorming session in the car led Kateri to suggest her most favorite movie of all time: How to Train Your Dragon.









This was her face when it all came to fruition. (She hadn't even had any candy yet.)

These were the characters we had to work with. Lili declined to be the heavyset chap on the left and decided to be a generic Viking girl instead. (Can you blame her?)

I don't know what was the deal with Lili's sassy Viking poses...I'm sorry, I must not be raising her right...

Audrey's were far more authentic.

Here's Astrid and Hiccup working the sweet shields the Burch clan came up with.

Finn and Lili must have gone to the same school of sassy posing...

Audrey and Lucy were the squabbling twins: Ruffnut and Tuffnut.

They really got into character...it was awesome.

Lucy's faces were the best.

And then there was Lili and Jack.

These two make me laugh. They had really been pulling for Willow as this year's movie, but they both wanted to be Mad Martigan. (True story. My nine year old daughter's first choice of Halloween costumes was a Val Kilmar character from the late eighties. I'm so proud)

Here's another shot of the shields...the designs are copied from the movie.
We spent a fun evening painting them all together.


We had a surprise Viking join the fun. Crazy Uncle Justin showed up in full Viking garb to lead the horde of trick-or-treaters around the neighborhood. He stayed in character the whole time, threatening to pillage the houses we stopped at if they didn't give us enough candy.

The kids thought it was hilarious, as did most of the homeowners he threatened.

Best Halloween ever? I think so.

All Saints Day dress rehearsal: Lili

It's that time again. The girls have their annual All Saints Day presentations tomorrow. I never seem to have my act together enough to take a video on the actual day, so here is a little preview.

All Saints Day Dress Rehearsal: Kateri

Of course, since the older girls have had to practice their Saints speeches every night for the past couple of weeks, Kateri wanted to get in on the action. She picked St. Cecelia, and we tried to keep her speech short and sweet. Here's a transcript, in case you don't speak Katerese:
"Hello, my name is St. Cecelia. I lived a long time ago in Rome. Now, I am the patron saint of music. St. Cecelia..."

Sorry about the flash of princess panties...that's why a dress rehearsal is so important...gotta work out those kinks in the performance.

All Saints Day Dress Rehearsal: Audrey

The Book of Genesis

The kids had a half day yesterday. For some reason, Audrey decide to use some of her extra time making a booklet retelling the story of Adam and Eve:

I love these early attempts at spelling:

Wons a pon time = Once upon a time

And I'm sorry, but the strategically placed bird just makes me laugh. Why go for a boring old fig leaf? Also, God made him out of sand?

I skipped to the last page...there was a lot more about the "rool" breaking, but you get the idea. I also made the mistake of asking her why the cherubim with the flaming sword had no face. She gave me a pitying look and said, "Mom, don't you know angels don't have bodies?" Touche, Audrey.

lately

Lately I've been a terrible blogger, so here's what we've been up to. We celebrated Uncle Steve's birthday with what looks like a blowtorch instead of candles. Luke has become successful at bypassing Abby's fear of him by bribing her with his iPhone. She even will snuggle up with him on the couch in order to play with it...

...but it only lasts so long.

Luke's fanaticism about his winter lawn has reached new heights this year. He trained a hawk to patrol the back yard and keep the pigeons and sparrows from eating his preciou rye seed. Just kidding, this guy just happened to show up on the lawn, but at least he kept the birds away for a little while.

We are busy making costumes for Halloween and the kids' All Saints Day presentations. For Halloween, we are carrying on our movie theme tradition with the Burch fam. This year it's How to Train Your Dragon, so all of the kids are going to be Vikings. Nanny even sent a big box of fun fabric for this purpose, which included my grandmother's old mink stole. I am not usually squeamish about things like this, but it grosses me out big time. There is something about its beady little eyes and dangling paws that makes me shudder. Kateri loves it as long as you don't try to drape it around her chubby little shoulders. Then she freaks out, as well she should.

She calls it "The Wolf."

Fall sports are in full swing. Kateri and Audrey are "playing" soccer. Kateri much prefers the cooler evening practices to the hot Saturday morning games, where she burns out after about ten minutes and wanders the field aimlessly; pink cheeked and dejected-looking. Her coach told us, "yeah, Kateri practices a bit better than she plays." It's true.

Lili started playing volleyball this year. There are actually enough girls for VDM to have its own team, which is wonderful. The girls were so adorably surprised that they had their first win last Saturday.

We went out to dinner to celebrate the girls' good report cards and reminded ourselves why we never let our kids drink soda. Seriously, look at Audrey's face. That's what root beer does to kids...

Kateri didn't have the soda excuse...she was just being a goofball.