Happy Halloween!

Yes, we regret how bad we are about blogging. In the interest of time, I will upload a bunch of pics and add stories later! Happy Halloween!!! (More pics to come)

G as The Queen of Hearts

S as Snow White!

R as Cleopatra with her other class Cleopatra and Hermonie

J the Pirate on the SPX Vampire Vittles lunch crew!

Girl Scouts Activities

Georgia had her first Daisy (little girls version of Girl Scouts) meeting this week. She got her vest and did a craft. It's a chaotic and fun group. Look for more Daisy updates and perhaps some cookie sales to come.

Ramona is also in Brownies, but I wasn't able to make her meeting. They learned about how germs spread using glitter as an example. What a concept! They also did morning announcements on Oct. 30th and sang germ songs on video in front of the whole school. Ramona's song was to the tune "Kung Fu Fighting" and one line was "when you sneeze it's a little frightening." Good stuff!

Georgia and her best buddies!

Daisy's circling up

Fall Leaf Fun

The girls had fun piling the leaves up, posing and acting like Zombies last weekend. It had to be captured on film.

Happy Banner Girls!

The pool in the Fall...right before covering!

Great pic of G & R

Zombie Eyes

Zombies walking...oooo...scary!

October Birthdays

Ramona turned 9 on the 3rd and Jeb turned 38 on the 28th. We don't have any pics from Jeb's coming of age day, but we do have plenty of Ramona's enjoy. Ramona's events of the day included lunar bowling + arcade time, pizza dinner, dance competitions, s'mores and a sleep over. She also got her new pet, Stardust, a male Guinea pig. Ramona had a great birthday!

Blowing out the candles!

Line up at the arcade prize booth

The Bowling Gange

The Morning After

Sylvia & Carolyn ready for their close up

Sally Walker - Dance Game

Another fab bowling pic!

Various Fall Photos

These include a photo shoot the girls wanted to do out front before we headed out, Georgia's art installation on our coffee table, and the one pic I took when G'ma Striewe and I went to the Children's Museum with Ramona & Georgia to see the Tutenkamman (King Tut) exhibit. All great times!

G working on the "no teeth" smile

R showing love for Harry Potter

On of my favorite G pics!

S eyes closed and her only solo pic

The Banner Girls modeling their Lake Michigan Hats!

Girls + Max

Pennies & Paper by Georgia

R & G in Ancient Egypt

First Day of School - St. Pius X

I can't believe I didn't post these earlier. The girls were so darn cute and excited on their first day. They still do love school, it's just not as easy to get them out of bed as it was this day.

G & S showing off their uniforms!

R outside of her classroom

G in her seat on the first day (things have improved since!)

Happy Birthday Sylvia!

Our "baby" Sylvia turned three yesterday. She has such personality and happiness bursting from her every pore. Here are some cutie pics of her early eve swimming party with her sisters and two good friends: Maddie Rocchio & Metta Judkins. She was given a Barbie Jeep by some friends of ours who are moving up to South Bend, IN. We expect lots of lawn jobs out front this summer. As you can see lots of fun was had by all.

CAKE!!!

Sylvia behind the wheel with Metta holding on.

Dora the Explorer cake (she requested a dinosaur, but we couldn't find one)

Silly face while waiting for friends to arrive

(more pics to come uploads blocked for now)

Happy birthday dear Sylvia...

Ramona's First Communion

Ramona celebrated the reception of her third sacrament in 12 months in the Catholic church, Holy Communion. She's moving quickly on her path of spirituality these days. She picked out her own dress, which was floor length, and looked very beautiful in her satin jacket and veil. Jeb and I could see a future bride that day, and it was scary, but a reality that we will probably some day face. Here are some pics of the day. We had both sets of grandparents and god parents in attendance, as well as a great uncle (my grandpa's brother). Our big group had a casual lunch out and then enjoyed time working on the house and pool later that day.

Getting dressed

Sisters

Looking lovely in the church

Ramona and friends

Happy kid!

Ramona with her God Parents (Ben & Ali)

Ramona with G & G Striewe

Ramona being silly with G & G Banner

Hanging with Sylvia and Morels

Sylvia is home today and we shot a little video together. She loves "making movies"!

Also, it's Morel season! We had a nice haul from Spencer this weekend, about 60 Morels!

Easter at the Hollywood Farm

Some people ask why it's called the Hollywood Farm, well it's because the people who live there moved back straight from Hollywood, CA. They were both doing fun things in the film industry and decided to raise the kids close to the grandparents outside of the wild world of Orange County. The farm is in Greenfield, IN and we simply love going there.

On Easter Jeb came down with some flu-like symptoms, still fighting off his pre-Disney flu we think. So our trip to South Bend was cancelled. The Shaver family graciously let us join them for a late lunch and egg hunt. Ramona and the dads ended up hiding 84 eggs for the little ones, all but 4 were found (some were plastic). We came bearing the annual bunny cake, which is always a crowd pleaser.

Georgia working on the cake!

The final product - Happy Bunny Cake Day!

Coloring eggs

Hunting eggs

Easter tractor ride

Spring Break at Disney World

This seemed to be the perfect year to take the kids Disney for their first experience with life size characters, princesses, and more. We had a wonderful time, the whole family! The girls especially enjoyed their visit to the Bippity, Boppity, Botique for hair and make up and lunch with the princesses. Ramona got her first taste of roller coasters and hasn't warmed up to them yet, but we think she might come around. Here are some of the highlight photos of the trip, these are also posted on Facebook. Enjoy, as we certainly did!

Ready to head to sunny Florida!

DAY 1: HOLLYWOOD STUDIOS

First bus ride to the parks with Grandpa

Character Breakfast : Sylvia & Jojo

Georgia & June
Ramona & Kermit

DAY 2: ANIMAL KINGDOM

The Tree of Life

Ramona and her face painting artist


Sylvia hits the midway in Dinoland


Georgia & Mom on the flying dinos

Girls with Pocahontas

Animal Kingdom was so much fun for us, we went back 2 more times during the week and we still didn't see everything we could have.

DAY 3: MAGIC KINGDOM


Jeb at Space Mountain

Banner Family on the "It's A Small World Boat"

Georgia & Jenny on the "Tea Cups"

DAY 4: BIPPITY, BOPPITY BOTIQUE AND EPCOT

The Banner Girls all princess-ed up for lunch

The girls and their favorite princess of the moment - Sleeping Beauty "Princess Aurora"

Proof that we really were enjoying ourselves too...our large beers from the Beirgarten were cropped out of the photo!

DAY 5: POOL BY DAY - FT. WILDERNESS & MAGIC KINGDOM @ NIGHT

We revisited one of Grandpa John's favorite attractions - the Wup-De-Du Review

Below is some footage of the Magical Kingdom night parade...it was quite spectacular!

FINAL DAY: ANIMAL KINGDOM (again) + HOME SWEET HOME!