A Walk in December

The kiddies had the day off and we had to get out. Sam had already tripped and landed on a metal car, causing severe bruising. It's dangerous being a kid. It was time to go.

Mostly tricks and a few treats

Halloween felt a little off this year. With the holiday on a Sunday, I knew it was going to be different. I tried to prepare myself and the kiddies. I made the costumes early - Chad & Aubrey's came together quickly. I think I made Chad's overalls a little too well. He loves them, tries to wear them everywhere. Sam's truck, on the other hand, almost got recycled. It cost me a lot of grief and hot glue.

I made sure they all went to lots of Halloween parties - five to be exact. My enthusiasm backfired on me when Chad's teacher put me in charge of his classroom party. Just me, no one else. It ended up being very fun, and one little girl tried to sign me up for the Christmas party.

We went trunk-or-treating on Friday - Sam's garbage truck got quite a bit of attention. Apparently, not too many little boys demanded to be garbage trucks this year.

We decided to fore go trick or treating on Sunday (I thought about justifying it as visiting the widows, but we have mostly bachelors in our neighborhood). I had fun little activities planned to do instead, but I got sick. Needless to say, I still have uncarved pumpkins on my counter top. Seems wrong to do them now.

Pumpkin Patch #2

Ah, our annual pilgrimage to Lakeview Farms. The train ride never gets old, especially for my little boys. The 5 minute wait was a little more than Sam could take, he wanted nothing to do with waiting turns. Once we arrived at the patch, we were met with many pumpkins - mostly green, rotten, misshaped, and lumpy. After a great search, we decided to try our luck at the local grocery store. Still fun, even without a pumpkin. The kiddies ran through the hay maze, where Sam had an unfortunate accident. We are not entirely sure what happened, Sam just kept saying (and crying), "He hit me." Aubrey later told me it was a bale of hay. On our boat ride back, we were almost seized by a pirate ship. Quite an adventure! Thanks for coming Sarah & Lane!

A week in October

Last weekend, we meant to take the kiddies to the Enchanted Forest. After a long drive, we were met by a closed sign. With a few tears and a quick change of plans, we drove to the Family Fun Center. With our last visit still fresh in my mind, I decided to let Chad go on the water boats by himself (last time our boat didn't work, making us a sitting duck for all the other squirt guns that worked just fine). Only problem with this plan, was that Chad refused to come in when his turn was over.


Aubrey chose the go carts, and by the look of things, James enjoyed it as well.


My sister and brother-in-law came in for the weekend. We went to Sauvie's Island where we visited the pumpkin patch (one of many patches we will see this month) and then headed for the beach (it's really just the banks of the Columbia, but we pretend).
Sam manning the tractor:


Kiddies playing in the mud, me behind the camera pretending not to mind all the sand that will accompany us home.


Sam, immediately after being fished out of the water (thanks Kris for sacrificing one perfectly dry shoe).

9:26 am

Aubrey tends to drop her babies off at the babysitter's quite often. Apparently, Sam was her best option this morning.

Aubrey as a 5 year old

Aubrey has grown again! She turned five yesterday and she was a bit disappointed that she hadn't magically grown a foot or two. I see it, even if she doesn't. I have kindly asked her not to grow anymore, and she complied, but somehow I don't believe her.

Aubrey was not disappointed in her birthday activities:

Presents
Birthday toast with Sprinkles
Sweaty hour or two at Pump It Up
A donut with this handsome fella:



Scooter Ride



Pizza, ice cream, cake!





Funny story about that dang cake. Every birthday, I convince myself that I have cake decorating skills. And after completing each cake, I am once again reminded that cake decorators have magic abilities that I do not possess. Aubrey wanted a Barbie cake, the one with the cake as a skirt. I could have bought a special cake mold for this, but opted for the cheaper version - slap two cake layers together a stand them up. Didn't work so well. I had a huge gaping hole in the back that I slapped icing on, telling Aubrey that it was the dress train. The cake also leaned - a lot. I had kabob sticks and floss tied to my paper towel holder, trying to get this baby to stand up. It did, barely making it to the candle blowing event. I was sweating the whole time.

Summer's End

Ah, the smell of new clothes and books. I enjoy the first day of school so much more now then I did as a child! To prepare for school, I took each child out to buy a few outfits with little to no input from myself. It turned out to be harder than I thought. Aubrey did quite well, but Chad was a challenge. He chose a shirt with this on the front:



I think we have officially lived in the state of Oregon too long (no offense, my fellow Oregonians). It pained me to make this purchase (and no offense, beaver fans).

We also took some school pictures the day before school started. I have tried capturing the moment on the morning of the first day, running after them as they head for the door. The pictures never seem to work out.

A day at the zoo

Made one last trip to the zoo before school starts...



The favorites are never actually animals, but transportation.


While waiting for the train to arrive, we made a quick visit to the cheetah exhibit. If you look inside this little hut, you can see a window, a very clean window. Each child had their own reaction to this window. When Aubrey and Sam first went inside the hut, the cheetah passed by and both of them jumped back, fearing they had some how entered the exhibit. When Chad went into the hut, he walked right into the window, causing a giant goose egg on his forehead (if you look closely, you can see it). Kinda sums up their personalities, right there.

Summer Update #2

We had family in town, good excuse for the beach! I hope the kiddies remember it just like this:

All misty and magical.








Chad and James came back a year older and wiser. Cake, ice cream, sand, water, legos ... can a seven year old ask for more? I'm sure Chad will think of something. Thanks for coming Jef, Julie, & fam - come again soon!

We spent the weekend in Bend for a friend's wedding. Three and a half hours in the car proved to be too much for the kiddies, but we all enjoyed the in between part.




We rented one of those car/bike things - it screamed tourism. And random people took our picture. We were the envy of the road for the 3-6 age group.