A little this, a little that

Grant getting read to again--so sweet. Kari loves holding her baby brother.











No, Joel has not sprouted a mop. It was silly hair day at preschool. He borrowed the wig a month ago from the dress-up bin at Grandma and Grandpa's house so he'd be ready when the long-awaited day finally arrived. He's wearing his "Indian" vest they made for Thanksgiving week and holding his Thanksgiving placemat.










Aubrey has been spending a lot of time playing with Playmobil lately. Maybe our tornado girl has some organization in her after all. See how she lined up all the beds?









Joel and Aubrey have gotten into a lot LESS mischief now that I have them separated during rest time once again. This was one of the activities I had them do this last week to avoid a double-trouble disaster while I was doing a bunch of cooking/baking in the kitchen. I forgot how long big paper taped to the table can occupy little ones. It was great!

New trick

Grant learned how to roll over today! He's done it once before but couldn't repeat it, so I chalked it up as an accidental roll-over. Today, however, he did it over and over again and liked our cheers, I think. He's not a fan of being on his stomach (none of my kids have liked it), so I'm sure he'll utilize this newly discovered skill to his benefit.
Going...












...going (and drooling)...














...gone!

End of the season

Soccer officially ended a week ago Saturday with the kids' last game and their pizza party. They're quite proud of their trophies. Our friend and team manager even got mini trophies for the little ones on the sidelines. You made Aubrey so happy, Christine. :)













Joel with his first-ever trophy at the pizza party. Our tables were in the game room, which made for a very loud and chaotic party, but the kids had fun. It was a very successful soccer season, and I think we all, parents included, had a lot of fun this year.












We had a cozy, warm, and DRY Saturday morning at home this last weekend with no soccer. The kids entertained themselves by playing in the garage. Greg moved the cars outside so they could ride their scooters and expend some energy. Later we found them decorating the inside of the garage door with their artwork (and using ridiculous amounts of tape). After art time, they made a mini soccer field on the concrete (more tape) and played some indoor soccer. They had a rather large tape ball by the time they finished and cleaned up out there.

Tea time

Aubrey was invited to a dress-up tea party this last week. She was the youngest one there and LOVED every second of being considered a "big girl." She especially loved the fact that Kari and Joel weren't there, that it was just for her.


Working on a craft






Frosting cookies

All the little ladies

Thanks, Amy and Abigail! What a wonderful little party you threw. So sweet!

Three months old today

Love this little guy

Put a smile on my face and joy in my heart

This has been one of those weeks where I have been one step behind instead of ahead of my children, which is never good. Monday was a terrible day at home with the kids, and I've been on the edge of insanity a few times, it seems. However, the last two days have been better. The beautiful weather has helped lift my spirits. I can't get enough of the beautiful fall colors against the backdrop of the clear, blue sky. It's absolutely breathtaking. The kids have been able (and eager) to play outside, too, which has helped matters here at home. Yesterday afternoon I looked out the window and saw this. They all had their guitars (Kari made hers herself out of wood, nails, and rubber bands) and were dancing around, belting out a song from Sunday school: "Making melody in my heart...to the King of Kings!"

Trick-or-treating

The kids went trick-or-treating two different times this year and went to a Sunday school party on the day in between, so the kids got to wear their costumes out three days in a row. They were pretty happy about that. We went around the shopping mall on Friday, and the weather was beautiful. We didn't even need coats! It rained for the harvest party the next day (and for our soccer game), but we had a lot of fun anyway. The older kids hosted the party for the younger ones, and it was so great. They all (along with their parents) put a lot of time and effort into making it a success, and we sure appreciate all their hard work! Halloween night we went trick-or-treating with some friends in their neighborhood, and then Greg took Kari and Joel around to our our neighbors when we got home. Aubrey was worn out and ready to be done pretty much from the start of the evening, but she made it. :) Grant was a champ through it all, cozy and warm in his costume.

Our crew this year: a peapod, Superman, Sleeping Beauty, and a monkey

We met up with Buddy from Dinosaur train (aka Jack, a friend from soccer and preschool) and his mom and brother on Friday afternoon. The kids had a great time running around together.

The peapod zonked out halfway through.

We met up with Brian and Emily and cousin Russell while we were there, too.

Isn't he the cutest little spider?

These two are only about five months apart. I had to get a photo of the peapod and spider cousins together in their first costumes.

Carving

All three kids enjoyed carving this year. Greg streamlined the process by making a chart of shapes he was willing to carve for the various parts of the face, and the kids picked which ones they wanted. They stuck to the classics. :) Kari did most of hers all by herself.
















Had to get Grant in on the action, especially since he was in his orange outfit (that one's for you Amanda H!).
*I think I might have to trim Grant's comb-over. It's making him look like he's got a cone head.

Time with Joel

Thanks to Grandma being willing to watch the younger two, I was able to go with Joel on his first field trip to the pumpkin patch with his preschool class.
Here he is all excited to be on a school bus for the first time.








Searching for just the right pumpkin

















Found one--the biggest one he could carry.

















Watching the pigs devour a smashed pumpkin (what else would they eat at a pumpkin patch?)

The happenings

We hadn't done any finger-painting in a while (or anything in that realm, really), and after a week of Joel destroying and defacing various things in our home, I decided I had better plan and execute some acceptable activities for him and his side-kick. Joel is currently not allowed access to crayons, markers, pencils, or scissors without adult supervision. The walls, his bunk bed, the ceiling above it, his duvet cover, the curtains, and the rocking horse know all too well why this is necessary.




This was our most recent poor attempt at an all-the-kids-on-the-couch photo. We'll try again soon at a better time.






It was a rainy day, too wet to go outside.
Mommy said, "Let's make cupcakes! What color do you want?"
"Pink!" I said. "Pink, pink, pink!"
Aubrey has been asking to make cupcakes like in one of her favorite books, Pinkalicious, and it was raining Sunday afternoon while Greg was out helping move my parents, so we made pinkalicious cupcakes and purplicious ones (the sequel to Pinkalicious) and bluealicious ones (there's no bluealicious book, but Joel said boys don't like pink, so he suggested blue).















We now have two different "As Seen on TV" products in our house. Don't judge! We bought our Magic Bullet (love it) from Costco, and the kids got their Pillow Pets with their own money today from Fred Meyer. I've been putting off the spend-the-spending-money outing for quite some time but finally took them to the store today. The people who market the Pillow Pets know what they are doing, and their tactics are effective. When the kids saw the Pillow Pets display in the store a month ago (right it front by the check stands, I might add), they got SO excited. They've been talking about these silly things for months (thanks, Qubo), and seeing them in person only increased their interest. It cost us $16 to let Kari and Joel spend their money (got one for Aubs). There was no way I was coming home with two Pillow Pets and not three. It was totally worth it, and I'm not worried about setting a precedent, as it is going to be a LONG time before they have any significant amount money in their spend jars again. A fifty-cent allowance divided between give, save, and spend takes a while to add up, and Aubrey just started getting allowance, too, so it'll be an even playing field next time. A Pillow Pet would not have been my selection for them, but it's their money...except for that $16.  :)

You can almost hear it, can't you?

A baby's laughter has got to be one of the best sounds in the world. I got out the camera, and he started laughing. He thinks Mommy's pretty funny!

Pumpkin Patch 2010

This year's pumpkin patch experience was not my favorite. In fact, I was muttering, "I hate this," under my breath for the first 10 minutes we were there. Greg told me to put on a happy face and pretend it was fun for the kids' sake, so that's what I did. We ended up having an ok time, but it definitely wasn't ideal. You see, we've gone to Liepolds every fall for the last 4 years, but we always go first thing in the morning on a Saturday in mid-October. There's a reason we go early. There are no people there early in the morning! Soccer games made a morning outing impossible this year, but because I love this sort of thing and because we go every year (and I needed to get my pumpkin photos) I insisted we still try to go. Big mistake. The parking lot that in years past has only had a handful of cars in it was packed. We maneuvered through the crowds and still managed to do the things we wanted to do, but it just wasn't the same. Going in the afternoon also meant we were all a little tired, or a lot tired in Aubrey's case. Greg carried her through 2/3 of the corn maze. Our normally photogenic, smiley 2-year-old frowned in almost every picture. It was actually pretty funny. If you look closely at all these photos, you'll see no Aubrey smiles.
This one cracked me up. We have a whole sequence of these photos--lots of funny faces from the kids while I smile away!



This was at the very end of our time there. Aubrey was spent. Joel was kindly trying to smile for my photo. We were all ready to go home.









I am glad we went, but never again will I attempt to drag my family to the pumpkin patch on a sunny Saturday afternoon in October.