Month: October 2015

The forecast had been calling for rain today, but I had been ignoring it. It couldn’t possibly rain on Halloween, right? Wrong. It was cold and rainy all day. There was some hope the rain would stop by 5 pm, but everything was going to be soggy and yucky. Thankfully I had taken the kids Halloween picture yesterday. Compare below yesterday’s fully put together costumes and how we ended up dressing for the rain and cold. (Alex – ghost. Teague – Sonic. Kaitlyn – fairy.)

We went to our neighbor’s about 4 pm for chili and pizza. The kids took over the basement and the adults talked and ate in relative peace upstairs. Then we loaded up in the cars and drove to a nearby neighborhood with houses a little closer together than ours (and without the huge hills for driveways).

The kids made it longer and farther than I thought they would, but I didn’t mind a bit that we were home and eating candy in our pajamas by 8 pm.

I don’t think it would have been possible to fit any more parties into this day (It’s going to total three for us!). Kaitlyn and I dropped Teague off at his classroom and then went to the main hall to watch the Halloween parade and take a picture of Teague’s class all dressed in costumes.

Then we ran home to do a few things before picking up Teague just in time to rush home to meet the babysitter. The babysitter stayed with the two little ones while I went to Alex’s school to decorate and help out with his Halloween party.

Alex was allowed to leave a little early with me and we rushed home to load everyone into the car and drive to Milwaukee for Glenna’s birthday party.

It always amazes me that kids know how to use an old-school phone when they’ve never actually seen one in use. Kaitlyn has never had any trouble mimicking talking on a phone (of any kind)!

Kaitlyn moves a mile a minute and is into everything. These pictures were taken in my kitchen over a 2 minute time span.

One of the things I love about Teague’s school is they send a daily email in the afternoon with the topics studied, snack, upcoming events, and a few pictures from the day. Today Teague’s picture was one of the few and it made me smile to see his huge grin in his new glasses – playing market of course!

Today she wanted to wear her crown (or rather Teague’s crown).

Kaitlyn is finally starting to learn body parts. It cracks me up every time she shows me her “nose.”

We woke up to overcast skies, but we had a pumpkin farm on our list for the day. We weren’t at home so I didn’t have rain boots or rain coats, but we went with a hope and a prayer. The rain held off until we were a third of the way through the hayride. Thank goodness it was a somewhat warm fall day.

Later that afternoon we all snuck a nap where we could – we finally found Teague in Gram’s bed.

My sister and I had the great idea of trying to get a picture with all the cousins and maybe one with Gram in there too. In the end it went better than I expected and I got some pretty good pictures. The funniest is I didn’t realize I didn’t have shoes on (the ground was slightly muddy and we were trying to keep the blanket clean) until I was editing the pictures. (This explains the close crop of my crew and me.)

My sister and her family recently moved back to my hometown. It just so happens that Alex has two days off for fall break and Wade was leaving town this weekend for a football game with his family. I decided to pack up the kids for a long weekend in Paducah. I picked Alex up from school and we got to Gram’s house late last night.
Melissa, Harper, and Mackenzie arrived at Gram’s house this morning ready to play. We crumbled bread to feed the ducks and then headed to Noble Park. We stopped at the play ground and then picked up lunch for a picnic in Gram’s backyard. The older kids collected leaves and did leaf rubbings while the younger ones took naps. Then the cutest moment of the day might have been the grape sharing between Teague and Mackenzie.

I took all three of my kids to the dentist at the same time. This amazing dentist (Dr. Herer at Children’s Dentistry Group) had them x-rayed (partial for Teague and a full set for Alex) and examined before I even realized what had happened. Kaitlyn was not a fan (but then she hates to have her teeth brushed at home, but he just calmly counted her teeth, brushed them and gave her a fluoride treatment. (No pictures because she was in my lap the entire time.) Then the boys were done in separate rooms right after the other and I had Alex back to school by lunch time. Amazing. He even sat and discussed each child and their unique situations (because it is my family) and the entire staff entertained my children at the fish tank by the door while I scheduled the additional work needed for Alex. (Kaitlyn even let one of staff hold her.)

Kaitlyn is proving quite resistant to all things vocabulary-related. She is great with sounds and verbalizing, but refuses to say any “real” words. To try and avoid some frustration (on both our parts), I have been teaching her some of the limited signs I know. She has taken to those very quickly. Unfortunately, she still finds this face and a loud whine most effective at getting things opened as opposed to signing “open.”

While the boys were in school, a huge culvert was deposited in our front yard. Two houses down is a small stream and overpass. I knew they were scheduled to begin work on the “bridge” tomorrow. Not only did the culvert look fun to play and run through, but it looked like the perfect place to take some pictures. I put Kaitlyn in the stroller with some snacks and brought my camera to the bus stop (one door down). I bribed the boys with a really awesome snack and lots of playing in the culvert if they would let me take some pictures first. They were happy to work with me and I love the pictures.

Wade and I were a little hesitant to attempt our usual pumpkin carving party – mostly because we aren’t at all settled in our house and aren’t as plugged into the community as we’d like. We finally decided to make it a small party with just our old neighbors from Milwaukee. We had a little trouble finding a date that worked for everyone and then at the last minute Wade ended up on a business trip to China and missed the party, but we carried on without him. Thankfully Kaitlyn took a long morning nap and I had the boys help me get the house straightened and the food ready (they are aces when it comes to peeling wrappers for the cheese dip). Then our friends arrived and we spent the entire day eating and laughing and having fun. There might have even been a pumpkin or two carved!

It’s the first year we have ever had “official” soccer photos taken. (They look even more official because the weather was bad on our scheduled day and they had to be done inside.)

Teague’s preschool offered school pictures and I was curious to see what would come home. Today we got the pictures.