Cousins' Reunion at the Ranch

Over the past weekend, the Graham cousin's assembled at the Graham Ranch for the second ever Cousin's Reunion.  We spent Friday night with Uncle Clint and cousin Ryan in front of a fire.  On Saturday, everyone else showed up to enjoy a chili dinner and some clay shooting.  It was a great turnout and a lot of fun to see everyone.  Cooper and Penny had a blast romping all over the ranch and playing with all the kids.  It was really neat to watch the next generation have such a good time together.  (There are now SEVEN great-grandchildren.) Of course I didn't get any pictures of the adults. (I will have to bug my cousin the photographer for his group shot.)

Boys in the dirt.

Boys in the jeep.

New Army takes a juice-box break from some heavy duty playing.

Penny forges her own path.

Penny and Charley contemplate each other.

Cooper and Daddy on an early Sunday morning walk.

Nine Years Ago Today...

Penny's New 'Do

The next phase in the big girl project...Penny's first haircut!

Before...

After!

Halloween 2012

Halloween this year was so much fun!  Both of the kids LOVED their costumes and were thrilled that they got to wear them to school.  This was a triumph for me because I MADE their costumes!  I took on the task of learning to sew for this very reason.  I became disenchanted last year when at least three kids showed up at my door to trick or treat wearing the same costume as Penny.  Not this year!  Cooper was the only Fireman Sam I saw, and Penny the only Strawberry Shortcake...at least, the only HOMEMADE Strawberry Shortcake.  

Sewing lessons learned?  Well, you don't save any money when you make your own costumes, but the pride of doing it was mine to keep.  Cooper couldn't just be any firefighter...he specifically wanted to be Fireman Sam.  I made his blue coat from a boys' blue button-down shirt I picked up at Goodwill for $1.50 which I sewed big silver buttons to and stuck glow-in-the-dark duct tape to in order to look like Fireman Sam's coat.  His yellow hat came from the Halloween store, and was pricey, only because we had Penny with us...Especially since she was wearing the durn thing and flat out refused to take it off.  How could we say no? We were buying a hat for Cooper...And yellow pants?  IMPOSSIBLE to find...Coop's are L.L. Bean rain pants and more than I wanted to spend, but we reasoned he could wear them again...

Then there is Miss Penny's costume.  I found a tutorial online to create her Strawberry Shortcake dress and hat.  The dress is made from a white T-shirt from Walmart, pink polka-dot fabric and a strawberry applique from Joann's.   I made her hat by painting a white ball cap apple green and liquid-stitching matching gathered fabric onto it.  Her green and white striped stockings were really pajama pants and her pink shoes were $6 at Walmart.  Not too shabby!

This year our friend Libby came over to go trick or treating with us, and have "winner dinner" while we passed out candy.  (Winner Dinner is just pot roast...but it is Libby's family recipe and sooo yummy!)  The kids trick or treated about halfway down our street and came home to examine their loot.  I think Cooper could have gone longer, but Penny sort of lost interest after a few houses.  I am sure this the last year I will get away with only going to a few houses.  

Penny didn't like this house...she waited at the edge of the walkway for Cooper to get his candy.

We let the kids eat WAY too much candy...

 P.S.  Notice how ALL of my pictures are of their backs???  They were so done with pictures after the morning picture session, they wouldn't turn around!