10-26-15 Pumpkin Patch Photos

10-25-15 A mom's dilemma & Baby E gets a toy

This afternoon I decided to make brownies with the kids. Tim was taking a nap, trying to sleep off his cold, so I thought it would be a quiet activity that would keep them engaged. I left them at the table to stir the mix as I was cleaning up the kitchen. 

C- Will getting pretzels in them hurt them? 

Me- Um, why do you ask?

C- Because I'm chewing and I accidentally spit some pretzel crumbs in it. 

Ugh! I briefly thought about just tossing the whole batch, but quickly scratched that idea when I realized how upset the kids would be, so I let them finish stirring and then I put them in the oven. 

In comes the dilemma. It's 10:00 at night, my children are in bed, and I am craving a brownie!! What's a mom to do?!? After all, five plus years of motherhood have stripped my brain of that filter that used to keep me from doing a great many gross things. For goodness sakes, I've picked boogers out of someone else's nose. I've kissed dirty feet that have gotten scraped up. I've wiped bums and cleaned up vomit. I've cuddled with children covered in a variety of bodily fluids. I've licked used spoons, eaten the last few bits of someone else's decimated dinner, and I've smelled baby butts to see if that odor is coming from my kid! So really, a few pre-chewed preztels covered in cooked brownie and sprinkled with peanut butter chips really doesn't sound that bad!! 

Ha! 

In other news... 

I still can't believe that Baby E is turning one in less than two weeks! He is starting to make so much progress with his motor skills. He is crawling like a champ now and he really wants to walk. He keeps forgetting that he doesn't know how and has face planted more than once. 

He has this bizarre habit of banging his head on things on purpose! Nothing makes him happier than sitting with his back to a door, or a wall, or a cabinet and rocking back and forth tapping his head against the hard surface. 

This evening he was playing with a new toy that Ms. Rebecca and Mr. David got him when they were on vacation. He got so excited when I place it in front of him. He got this massive smile and started 'talking' to it immediately. 

I love his cheeks. So adorable! 

10-24-15 Autumn

I love this time of the year! The temps are getting cooler and the leaves are changing colors! I came out of my house early this morning and the air was crisp and the neighborhood was quiet. As I looked up a very large deer walked across out little street, staring at me as he went. It was just me and him taking in the morning!

We decided to take the kids to a pumpkin patch today. It's one of my favorite fall activites. My favorite is corn mazes, and luckily this place had one of those too! 

I brought the nice camera today, but I didn't have anyway to download them this evening so I just took photos of the screen. 

Our schedules are always so busy, so I was really thankful that we got the chance to spend time together as a family today. I had been looking forward to doing something like this for weeks. We surprised the kids by showing up at the farm. We took a hay ride out to a huge pumpkin patch. There were pumpkins everywhere! The kids had fun picking out pumpkins, but I'm pretty sure that Tim and I had even more fun than them! We wanted to hang out in the field a while longer, but the kids really want to do the bouncy slide. 

The next one pretty much sums up their relationship! 

Poor Baby E is usually the recipient of their more aggressive cuddles. 

Big E had fun wandering around and seeing how many pumpkins he could lift. 

I think Baby E was the one that was the most fascinated by the pumpkins.

After the pumpkin patch, they did the bouncy slide, the bounce house, the petting zoo, and finally the corn maze. It was a lot of fun, but towards the end C kept stopping to 'plant' kernels of corn in the dirt of the path! 

We were all tired by the time we got home and now the little ones are fast asleep in their beds. Tim and I are about to sit down for a movie! Wahoo!

10-23-15 Friday Night

You can't really tell from this picture, but Big E is sporting a pretty good sized lip this evening. We were having dinner with some friends and family tonight. The kids were disappointed because I insisted that they finish everything on their plates in order to get dessert. They both protested. C finished first and excitedly ate her jello. It took Big E awhile to finish his, but when he did he was so excited to tell me that he jumped out of his chair and ran towards me. Problem was he didn't see the small step in front of him and tripped and rammed his mouth into the ground, pushing his teeth into his lip and causing quite a boo boo. There was blood and tears, but both eventually stopped. By the time we left, Big E's lip was getting bigger and he was incredibly emotional. He calmed down after he reminded me that after all of that he never got to eat his jello, and I told him we could take it with us. By the time we got home he was so tired, but we let him end the evening with jello and then bed. I sure hope he feels better in the morning!

10-22-15 Sometimes Adults Make Mistakes Too

For the second time in about a week C has had to learn a tough lesson. 

Sometimes adults make mistakes too. 

There must have been some confusion today. The note that I sent to her teacher saying she needed to stay for aftercare never made it to her. And even though she goes to aftercare every Thursday, she was put on the bus and sent home.

But no one was there to get her. Thankfully this time the bus driver kept her on the bus. She had to stay with him while he finished his route for her school and his next route for another school. She was on the bus for an hour and half.

This evening I had to deal with a very scared little girl that was crying about being left behind and all alone. 

I'm very frustrated that this is the second time in a week that we have had drop off issues. :/ Ugh!

***************

We were driving home this evening and I had given Big E two crackers to eat.

Big E- Wait!!! Where did my other cracker go?

I turned around to see him holding one cracker in one hand and trying to reach down his shirt with the other.

Me- Did you eat it?

Big E- I guess I did.

Long long silence.

Big E- Oooooh! I'm holding it!

10-21-15 Time for your checkup!

10-21-15 Back to the Future

So today is the date that Marty McFly visits in the second Back to the Future movie. So off course, it is the perfect day to grab a photo of yourself next to a Delorean, right?!? Well, my friend Jeremy has a Delorean! So I text him to see his whereabouts this evening, and alas he won't be home until late, so my Delorean photo shoot will have to wait. 

But...

I did dig through some old photos and found this gem! Mind you I'm about a gazillion months pregnant with C is this photo (ok, maybe 6. I was huge.) 

We threw an eighties themed party complete with The Delorean! 

And yes, that's a glow worm on my shirt. No judgments! 

I'm also including this photo of Steven's man leg!

Enjoy!

10-20-15 Missing One

Big E was still running a fever this morning, so instead of leaving him at the sitter with other kids, Tim decided to take him to work and let him sit in the office. 

This totally brought me back to my own childhood. We spent countless (literally countless) hours at the shop growing up. When school was out, or we were sick, or during summer vacation we headed to the shop. Back then there was no Netflix to pass the time.

My parents did have a thirteen inch black and white tv with rabbit ears that sometimes worked and sometimes didn't. It got a total of five channels on its best day, with the antenna wrapped in foil and positioned just so. We would sit on a floral print couch that released clouds of dust when you flopped down. It smelled faintly of lacquer thinner. When the TV wasn't working, or we got bored we would get out large brooms and sweep 'tracks' around the dust on the floor and race each other. At times we would each get on a moving dolly and chase each other around. No pain matched running over your fingers, though. The large empty drying rack dollies became houses and castles. Empty wooden 'horses' were majestic steeds. The forklift was a jungle gym and the loading bay was a mountain to be scaled. 

We played in empty dumpsters and 50 gallon drums. We walked tightrope on spray gun cables and drew pictures in the dirt stuck to the compressors. The air sprayer forced your face in funny contortions and made your clothes whip around like a hurricane. Boxes of rags made fancy clothes and the car jack was an amusement park ride. 

We had a unique childhood to say the least!!!

With Big E gone, it was just me and the other two. The dynamic is always different without them all together. For the most part it is quieter, however Baby E has started screaming like a banshee to get what he wants, which is a really irritating habit!

It was an uneventful bedtime, for which I am thankful! 

On time hop on FB, this photo came up from last year. It made me smile. 

And this came up from two years ago. Must have been an eventful day! 

10-19-15 I'm a dork!

It's true, I'm a dork... Especially when it comes to word games and puzzles. So I was pretty excited to find these babies at the store this evening. 

I've always loved words and language. I spent many years learning French and German, and to a shorter extent, Japanese. I've love reading classic literature, my favorites being Dickens, the Bronte sisters, and Jane Austen. And my all time favorite game is Scrabble. (Btw- my scrabble arch nemesis is my brother-in-law, Davey.) I also enjoy crossword puzzles, word searches, and anything that scrambles up letters. 

I see that love of language in my daughter. Her passion is books, and I love watching her 'read' them. She takes great care to choose out which one she wants to read next. We spent a lot of time reading to her when she was a baby, but when the others came along there was less time for reading, so the boys did not get as much exposure. But we try to make story time very enjoyable and Tim is great with making all the appropriate character voices. 

10-18-15 Family

Despite the ridiculous five hour drive out to my parents' house, it turned out to be a lovely weekend! The kids enjoyed seeing their grandparents, playing with their Aunt Julie, and seeing their great aunt and uncle. It was funny to see Big E seek out my uncle's company during our trip.

Baby E was pretty fussy all weekend and he slept a lot, but I think it was him getting over his fever and apparently he is teething. He now has molars on the bottom (and as I am typing, Tim is sticking his finger in Baby E's mouth to find out if he has ones on the top.) Nope, just the bottom. 

The kids got to sit in the back of GP's new red Camero, and I even got a chance to drive it! That was fun! They also got to paint pumpkins, make and decorate cookies, do some crafts, and play on the computer! No wonder Big E was pretty disappointed when we told them we were heading home! 

But as always, it is nice to be home. We will be doing some unpacking and then off to bed! 

We loved visiting with aunt and uncle! 

Ok, so I am officially hooked on adult coloring books. Seriously addictive. And yes. It took me all weekend to do this picture! C thought it was awesome that we got to color together. 

10-17-15 Our Day in Black and White

10-16-15 Long long drive

C had the day off from school, and my aunt and uncle from California are visiting my parents so we decided to make a long weekend of it and join them! We headed out around 12:30 today for what should have been a less than two hour drive. Five hours later we got here. Seriously, that was a horrible drive. 

There was a suspicious package on the Wilson Bridge that had half the bridge shut down so we sat on the beltway for a long time. We got off and decided to go the other way only to find that it was really backed up to. So we decided to head through town. Guess what, also backed up!! We finally made it through. 

Since we were stuck on main roads and highways we couldn't really stop to let the kids out at all, so the poor little ones were stuck in their car seats for that entire time! We were all very glad to get here and stretch our legs! 

10-15-15 Poor Baby

I got this fellow home this evening to find that he is running a fever. This is unfortunate because we are supposed to go visit family this weekend. He went to bed early and mama is going to bed early too in anticipation of being up a lot with this sick little guy. Prayers appreciated that this passes quickly and doesn't spread to anyone else. Thanks!