First Day of School

The hair, the clothes, the backpack- it was Savannah's first day of 1st grade. She hopped out of bed at 7am and had a very specific vision of how she wanted her hair, clothes, etc. Thank goodness she was happy with the end result. What a cutie! She caught the bus at 8:30 am and got home at 4pm- it felt like a very long day for us but she loved it and is ready to "eat lunch in the cafeteria again tomorrow".

Savannah and Breanna ready to catch the bus.

Its a ......

We went today for our ultrasound and found out that we are having a ......BOY! What?! This will definitely be a major switch for us. With our 3 girls we all were expecting another little girl, but we'll have fun with a little boy in the house :)

The monsters

Meet Stella and Flower (little one) the monsters. The big monster, Stella, was Savannah’s first sewing project. I thought I’d let her try sewing on fabric yesterday since she has been sewing on paper all summer long. I was amazed at how well she did. She sewed the entire body by herself (or little to no help from me)- all I did was sew the eyes on and make it a quick apron. Pretty good for a 6 year old. My niece Breanna sewed the little monster. She did a great job also.
When Dan saw the monster he told Savannah that he thought monsters were too scary. Savannah thought this was pretty funny and when we went to bed last night she had them hidden under Dan’s pillow. Savannah- you made your dad scream.

A day with Grandma Malan

Yesterday the girls and I spent the day with Grandma Malan. We had a picnic, went to Cleo’s Museum (an outdoor still life museum), and fed the ducks. We enjoyed getting out of the house for the day, and we had a great time.

Savannah & Paige mimicking the little frog with binoculars.

Savannah with a wart hog and a giraffe.The girls loved feeding the ducks- we started out with 4 and within minutes there were 40.

Back to Sage Hen

This weekend we went back up to Sage Hen Reservoir to go camping with the Dana family.   Of course my Dad was the main man who got there early and got camp up and running.  Not everyone was able to make it up because Hailey and Jordan had to work.  Julee and Breanna did not make it up and my mom came up a day after we did.  We still had a great time and enjoyed the outdoors.

 

This is our girls with their cousins Chloe, Malachi, & Denali getting ready to go rafting.  Lydia despised the lifejacket.  She cried everytime we put it on her.  In her defense, she did look like she was in a body cast.  After many tears, we decided to just let her play in the shallow water.This butterfly just flew up and landed on Paige.  Perfect for her because she loves insects.  I was amazed at Dan's speed with the camera-  I could not believe he captured this shot.This is the girls with their cousins on our hike.  We had a nice walk and found several ripe huckleberry patches.  Let's just say we didn't hike as long as we snacked :)Here is a picture of me and my sisters (Kelsi and Rilieanne).   It was good to visit with them, but the trip did seem way too short.  Rilieanne will be going back to Coeur d'Alene soon and Kelsi leaves for Indiana in 2 weeks.  I wish my other siblings could make it- maybe next time.  

 Yesterday we took a day trip to Blue Lake with the girls and Grandma & Grandpa Malan. We had such a great time.

This is us before the hike.  The view was beautiful and everything was so green.  The temperature was only in the 60’s, perfect for hiking. It was about a mile each way to the lake and the girls did just great.

We could not believe it but there was still snow up on top near.  The girls thought it was neat and made a few snowballs.

We found some beautiful wild flowers, a neat waterfall, played some games, and Dan caught some fish.

Paige & Grandpa fishing.At the end of our hike, Paige caught a ride on Grandpa's shoulders.  But she walked a good 3/4 of the way up.

We did have a good time, but we can never go anywhere without a few mishaps.  About an hour after leaving home Savannah started screaming, we turned around and Paige was erupting like a volcano. Throw up went everywhere. Of course we had no change of clothes for her so Dan and his Dad went down and rinsed her clothes out in the Payette River. We hung them out the window and by the time we got there they were dry enough and we were grateful when she put them on and wore them.  

Can you guess what this is? Don’t worry neither could I. Apparently this is what happens when you leave a pork shoulder in the crock-pot when you go to Blue Lake. Luckily Grandma & Grandpa felt sorry for us and took us out for Thai food. 

Summertime at Sage Hen

Hello fellow bloggers.  This is the first "official" posting of the Malan Mayhem blog.  This last weekend we had a great time at Sage Hen reservoir.  It's only about 2 hours from Boise.  There were quite a few other weekend warriors up there when we arrived, but we found a semi-secluded spot and set up camp.  The girls had a great time.  The food was excellent (dutch oven chicken and spuds).  We even made a dutch-oven peach cobbler.  

Here are a few pictures we took when we went on a nature walk.  The girls gathered some beautiful wildflowers that adorned our picnic table.   

Paige and I found a neat Woodpecker through our binocs, it was a Hairy, not a Downy.

Paige found a little friend.  Of course Savannah was terrified.  

Lydia really enjoyed the cake batter.