Bitter Roasted Nuts

Beth recently performed for the first time in the Nutcracker Ballet. She started Ballet classes in August and has absolutely loved dancing. She was very excited to perform on stage. Dress rehearsal came and she did fabulously. The day of the performance came and we knew we were in trouble when she had her head resting on her fists and a big scowl on her face as they wheeled her onto stage on her doll stand. She popped up from her spot and stomped over to her stage mark. She stood still scowling with her hands in her Tutu while the other girls danced. Then she stomped to center stage where she spun with the others and then stomped over to her stand and was wheeled off stage. The entire audience laughed as Beth stole the show with what was quite a performance. Sean and I (mostly Sean) were mortified by the whole experience. I went and collected her from backstage and explained how inappropriate her behavior was and how she had better straighten up and do well at the end of the show when she returned to stage to take a bow. She pouted and took her seat. We watched the rest of the Ballet. During intermission, the fire alarm went off and we all had to evacuate the theater. The fire department arrived pretty quickly and fixed the issue (someone had accidentally bumped the alarm backstage while moving the set)and the ballet continued. After a few intermission cookies, Beth began to perk up and returned to the stage at the end to do a fabulous job.
PS: The picture where Beth appears to be happily dancing are from the dress rehearsal!

Boston Baked Beans

We recently spent a Saturday at the Boston Children's Museum. This is the most awesome children's museum known to man. It is housed in HUGE old factory building right on the water. It is full of so many fabulous exhibits that entertain both children as well as adults. Check out their website by clicking on the blog title above! Awesome place! We spent most of the day there and still didn't see everything there was to see. We had lunch at the onsite restaurant and then before we left, we let the kids shop at the gift shop. Of course, our trip wouldn't have been complete without a bag of Boston Baked Beans. Gwyn and the kids enjoyed them on the walk back to the car while Sean gagged at the thought of us eating evil peanuts! Fun times!


Will pedaled like crazy to create enough energy to make a large sign overhead move back and forth.


Mara and Beth find themselves on TV with Arthur.


Evee in water table heaven!


Will pets an alligator.


The coolest climbing contraption ever, designed and donated by New Balance. The kids played in this thing for about 45 minutes!

Tiger Meat

At last month's Cub Scout pack meeting William participated in the Raingutter Regatta (he carved a boat out of a styrofoam block and then raced it in a water-filled raingutter). He also earned his Bobcat rank. To earn his Bobcat he had to memorize the Cub Scout promise, law of the pack, sign, handshake and motto. He also had to learn the meaning of WEBELOS. Good job Will!

Cherry Pie

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SEAN!!!

This is my ode to my wonderful cherry pie eating husband of 10+ years! He celebrated his birthday this Saturday.

He always asks me why I have stuck with him after soooooo many years. So I want to list the top ten reasons why I love Sean so freakin much!

1. He is a man of God
2. He is a loving father to his kids
3. He has always been a good provider
4. He is humble & generous towards others
5. He has never raised his voice to me in anger
6. He is always seeking to improve himself
7. He always looks for the good in others
8. He has done the dishes since the beginning of our marriage
9. He can dance like nobody I know!
10.He is my best friend and my warm place to cuddle after a long day

Happy Birthday you sexy man! I hope I didn't embarrass you too much;)

Lobstah!

So everytime Sean's parents come to visit his sister hosts a big Seafood Fest at her house. Sean's mom loves Lobster, so our Bro-in-law Rob cooks up several and then grills all kinds of fish. It is some fabulous east coast food!

So as you may have guessed, Sean's parents recently spent a week with us. They arrived two days before Halloween and stayed for a week. We all had a blast and the kids enjoyed time with their Grandparents.

We played at the park, went on a hike, and tried letterboxing for the first time. Letterboxing is this awesome scavenger hunt type activity where you find directions to a certain location and then use clues to find hidden boxes with "treasures" inside. There are letterboxing locations all over the world. It is a great family activity. Check out this website for letterboxing near you. http://www.letterboxing.org/america.htm Don't forget to bring a notebook of some sort, a stamp and an inkpad. You'll understand when you do it the first time!

After all of this fun, the kids enjoyed story time in the evenings with Grandma.

Halloween Candy

Yes...we actually did celebrate Halloween! It just took me longer than normal to post. We went to our Church's Trunk or Treat Carnival the Tuesday before Halloween. Sean and I dressed up as Joe Biden and Sarah Palin. I won best adult costume and Sean handed out Obama flyers to the poor trick or treaters at the party. He probably broke several church rules about endorsing candidates, but it still didn't manage to get him released from the Bishopric..Darn it;) Maybe next year...
We didn't get any good pics from the church party, but we got some great ones on Halloween!

Birthday Cake!

Happy Birthday Will!
We celebrated Will’s 7th Birthday last week. He got his usual breakfast birthday donut from Dunkin’ and requested a pumpkin shaped birthday cake for that evening. He got his first set of scriptures and a Guinness Book of World Records and you would have thought the boy had just been invited to Disney World! So easy to please!

Comfort Foods

This week has been full of ups and downs for us. We started out by discovering that a fellow church member who was serving in Afghanistan was killed while in the line of duty Monday. He and his wife just joined the church last year and he leaves behind four children, one of which had preschool with Beth last year. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family right now.

Then Will and Dad shared an exciting night Tuesday. They had their first Tiger Cub Meeting. Will is quickly learning the Cub promise and law so he can earn his Bobcat. He and Dad had a blast making ghosts for their upcoming Halloween Pack meeting and also creating a den banner with the 12 other boys that attended.




Beth got her part and tried on her costume Wednesday for the Nutcracker ballet she will be performing in on December 13th. She is very excited and has been inviting everyone to watch her dance.

Evee enjoyed some nice Fall weather outside with her pumpkin...





Sean and Gwyn were able to enjoy the Boston Temple on Friday night and a nice quiet dinner at Cracker Barrel afterward.

And just today, the entire Kinney Clan (except for Evee who watched from the audience with Aunt Christa) was on the stand at church taking part in the annual Primary Program. The highlights were Mara singing “If the Savior Stood Beside Me” with 3 other girls (they managed to evoke several tears during their rendition) and then the entire Primary marching through the congregation singing “Called to Serve”. It turned out to be a very nice program, but I am a little biased...

Trail Mix

We spent today hiking Mt. Kearsarge with the Bendixsens. We had a picnic at the bottom of the trail and then took a very scenic hike with all of the Fall colors in full force. The top offered views for hundreds of miles in all directions. Absolutely beautiful!

A Little Bit of Everything...

Fried Oreos
We went to the Hopkinton State Fair (which is the equivalent to a county fair out west) and had a blast all day with our friends the Bendixsens. We watched 4x4s drive over huge rocks in the rock crawl event, we saw every farm animal known to man and we discovered the most wonderful food (if you can call it food) on the planet...FRIED OREOS! Of course, as we discovered a few weeks later while trying to replicate them, you really should NOT consume more than 2 in 1 day. Tummy ache and grease overload! Yikes! Anyway, the kids had a blast playing with all the animals.

Cheese
Beth just started ballet lessons this month. She has always loved to dance and she is doing really well in her class. Here she is cheesing it up before her first class...

Peaches
Before embarking on a day of canning peaches, Evee decides to share her peach with her best friend (and future husband...) Brice!

Granola Bars
Beth and I spent the afternoon making our favorite treat...granola bars. Apparently stirring is the hardest part!

Hams
My cute little babies!

Doggie Biscuits
The Weech cousins, who conveniently live right down the street, just got a new puppy named Daisy. Our kids have been having a blast playing with her. Thank goodness Rob and Christa bit the bullet and got a pet! Now we can enjoy having a pet with "having" a pet! Thanks Weeches!

Cooked Goose
I love living in New England. I was driving down the street yesterday and had to stop while about 100 Geese decided they had right of way and crossed the street. Fortunately I had my camera in the car with me!