Note to self:

Here's a tip for dressing your daughter for church. If the crotch of the tights come BELOW the bottom of the dress, she is not wearing a dress. She is wearing a shirt.

Next time be sure to notice this BEFORE the second hour of church.

In my defense, it used to be a dress.

Running away from the girls

Scott and I escaped to Santa Barbara last weekend, not for a little R & R, but for pretty much the opposite reason. Scott ran his 3rd marathon! Amazingly enough, he beat his best time by 18 minutes and qualified for the Boston Marathon in the women's division. I raced too - but Scott is more fun to brag about.

While we were gone the girls went to stay with their cousins. I'm not sure what it looked like at their house but I have a pretty good idea anyway. Two weeks ago the cousins came to our house to sleepover.

These three played Sardines . . .

while these two made a fort and camped out underneath.

Why do we even buy separate beds?

So much for pets

Merliah, the hippy (who grew out of her costume since we bought it) and Belle went to the church Halloween party.

They won some fish and named them Nemo, Sparkles and Goldie. I've heard stories of goldfish that live for two years. Yeah, good one. Luckily I warned the girls that goldfish only live for a few weeks. I gave them this extra short time span so they wouldn't be disappointed when they died.

Here they are in action.

The next day two of them Goldie and Nemo were not very active any more. By that night Sparkles joined the party in the toilet bowl. Oh well. At least we still have plenty of candy.

Exhausting the children

First, take them to a family reunion in Southern California. Oh yes, that's pretty fun. Plus, hanging out with the cousins all day for a week will ensure deep sleep for everyone.

But to really wear them out,

take them to Disneyland!

You can try Splash Mountain, but don't sit in the front. You will get really wet. Trust me. I have "a friend" who found out the hard way.

Then look for the Kindergarten class mascot in the gift shops.

Even if your three-year old is tall enough to go on Big Thunder Mountain and begs to go, don't take her. She will not like it. (Not all grandmothers like Tower of Terror either - weird.)

If the seven and eight-year old cousins want to go on their first upside-down roller coaster together, let them. It gives their moms in the car right in front of them an extra bit of adrenaline.

Skip Playhouse Disney if you are over 4.

(Do those guys look like brothers or what?)

At the end of the day, be sure to have a strong dad.

If he is a superstar that will help.

When you finish your days at Disney, do your homework.

Now that's what I call a great trip. Thanks for the fun, everyone!

Sisters, sisters, there were never such devoted sisters!

Before we go to bed we always check on the girls and re-tuck them in their beds. Lately we've had to search for them because they move - a lot - like, into different rooms.

The first time we found them all snuggled up they were in Emily's room. She has a double bed but they were all on one side! They actually slept like this all night long.

It was pretty cute, but not as cute as . . .

the night when they Charlie and the Chocolate Factoried themselves. Can you even find three girls in there? Three girls in a twin bunkbed is pretty impressive. They are really good at playing Sardines, by the way.

8 is great!

No, no one in the family turned eight. It was our eighth annual pumpkin patch trip with the Workmans. To be perfectly honest, this is not the easiest way to buy pumpkins. The prices have gone up (WAY up), it's not close, and it's usually super hot when we go. That's OK. We usually get some cute photos along with some pumpkins and it is never, ever boring with C&G+5 around.

There must have been a strong wind when I took this one.

This was the best photo we got of all 38 of our kids. How many of you are lucky enough to get to wear shorts and flip flops to your pumpkin distribution centers? Please, come visit when you get tired of the snow.

We were so roasting hot after picking our pumpkins that we decided to cool off with a nice ice cream cone at Rite Aid. Yes, Rite Aid. They are extra cheap and really, really big there - and that's just what we were looking for.

This is the best photo of our family I've seen in a year - and it's of us sitting against the wall at Rite Aid after sweating to death at the pumpkin patch. We need to take more family photos.

Superstar!

We've already established that Scott is a superstar. How super is he now? He's so super he's half-way made of iron!

After a 1.2 mile swim, a 56 mile bike ride and a 13.1 mile run he was still smiling. Wow! He says he might be done with that race but I've heard that before. In just over a week he'll be running his third marathon.

Who knew I'd married such an athlete? I didn't. Scott didn't know it either. My husband is a superstar and I love him. You know what - he loves me too, even if I pose like I'm in the Mrs. South Placer County pageant in his finish photos. That's love.