Allison is now officially 11 years old.  She waited patiently Friday morning to have breakfast in bed - sausages, toast with eggs cooked in the middle of the toast and juice.  She pretended she couldn't hear us getting ready for the 30 minutes before.  We let her open 2 presents of her choice before school as Spencer was going camping that evening and would be gone.  She got a blue old fashioned phone for her room that she loves and pretends to be making calls on even though it isn't hooked up yet.

At school she passed around Jolly Ranchers and life-savers to everyone - her treat of choice.  I came in to teach art and we created a massive Mona Lisa mural.  Then she came home to spent the afternoon prepping with me for her party.  She had a great birthday and seemed to just be on cloud 9 all day.
I learned that fondant is HARD to do but Allison didn't care that her cake was more Dr Suess than Martha Stewart.  She helped make the owl to top the cake.
She and I made little owl hair clips to give to all the girls.
We made little mice and teddy bears for each girl.  And then at the party they decorated the front of their altoid tin house.
Throw in a dinner of lasagna and garlic bread (Allison's favorite), some reverse charades (watching girls try to act out skunk was hilarious), running around the backyard with glow in the dark bracelets doing tag and dancing a samba line, then curling up on the couch to watch pixar shorts made for a great evening.  And thanks to all you thought of her on her special day.  Its hard to believe that 11 years and 8 months ago I was just crossing my fingers and praying hard for a little girl.  (And then freaking out for a few weeks when I learned my prayers were being answered.  For those who knew Spencer at 2 and Taylor at 5 you will understand why.)

To give Allison some big girl time, Jeremy took Robyn out for dinner during the party.  We promised we would wait on cake and presents for her.  And Spencer was off camping in the mountains for the night so it was a girlie evening with Taylor gladly helping out by eating cake and ice cream twice.

Allison decided to postpone her lunch date with Jeremy till Saturday so she could go to Chinese Gourmet for their all you can eat shrimp.  She decided to start her fast Saturday as she came home stuffed and happy.
Saturday morning was a bit rocky as we had to go clean the church at 7 am.  After a late celebratory night the girls were not super excited to go but they did.  Then they came home to crash with Melissa while Jeremy and I spent the morning driving the Alpine Loop.  It is gorgeous and breathtaking and so much better driving it in a convertible than stuck in a van!
Jeremy has had 3 photo shoots this week with fall colors playing a big part in them.  He also agreed to fish sit for a few months so we now have a big fish tank in his office.
This week we had parent teacher conferences.  Spencer was slammed with projects as they all seemed to be due this week.  For some reason the idea of having two weeks to complete a project in his mind means he has two weeks to get started.  We are working on that!  But he is doing well in all his classes and his teachers say if he causes problems by talking a million miles a minute and having to answer every question they know just to tell him to calm down and back off a little.  The benefit of having a small school.  Allison is as always getting 100% in everything and making me wonder if I should accept teacher's advice and skip her a grade.  They have been suggesting that since 3rd grade but it has never felt right to me.  Perhaps if she wasn't so small.  Robyn is just right on grade level, happy, helpful and follows directions.  So despite approaching conferences always a little nervous, all was well so far in schooldom.

Taylor got measured this week for his new wheelchair.  He will hopefully get it at the end of December.  It will be a lot bigger and recline.  We made some compromises so that we wouldn't have to get a wheelchair van.  But to fit it in our van will require us taking it apart and putting it together each time.  A pain but so would either getting a huge van with a lift or loosing our back row of seats with a ramp.

Spencer met with his psychiatrist this week as well.  First, 150 pounds!  That just still surprises me.  He asked Spencer what he did after school and Spencer replied, jobs, homework, sometimes a piano lesson or tennis lesson and then I go to bed.  There isn't time to do anything else.  I sadly realized that lately that has been true.  Hopefully, life and homework will slow down a bit for him soon. 

Fall hit this week with rain and cooler temperatures.  I put out our Halloween decorations and have been sleeping with our bedroom windows open.  I love the smell of fall.  And since our computer is back up here are the pictures from last week when I took the kids and Allison's friend Andra up the canyon for a hike to Big Springs.