Fall Holidays

 Wanna know what we've been up to lately?  Well I thought I'd share a few pics to catch you up. 

We've carved pumpkins.

Coop kissing his cat pumpkin.  He was bored with the whole carving activities so we just stuck some cat pieces on his pumpkin and he was happy.

  For Halloween this year the kids dressed up as their favorite characters:  Ariel the Little Mermaid, Thomas the Train, and Toy Story Army Men. 

Connor at his Book-a-Ween parade. He was an Toy Story Army Man.

Caroline & her BFF Jakers at Trunk or Treat. 

Connor went on his first field trip in November.  I got to go with him to Uncle Donald's farm and we had a blast.  His favorite part was at the end.  They put all the kids in a gated field and gave them a handful of feed.  Then they released all the goats into the gated field and the goats came running up to eat the feed right out of their hand.  The kids had no idea what was happening.  It was priceless to see the looks on their faces when the goats came running at them.

  Caroline & Connor both had Thanksgiving presentations at their school.  Caroline was so . . .cute in her turkey hat.  She sang for days and days. 

.  We had a wonderful Thanksgiving & now the count down to Christmas break and Caroline's birthday.  She reminds me daily that she won't be three for much longer. 

Fall

 Just can't quite bring myself to talk about Craig's Dad yet so I thought I'd show some of the other things we've been doing around the house the last couple of weeks.  Fall has come to stay.  We're loving the weather and all the autumn decorations.  One thing the kids had fun decorating this season was a gingerbread haunted house that Aunt Pam & Uncle Brant got them.  They had a blast making it look spooky. 

 Another fun activity we we did was painting ceramic pumpkins at Amazing Glaze.  Connor and Caroline each chose a pumpkin and Cooper found the back wall that was painted in chalkboard paint so he took some sidewalk chalk and some 3D googles and went to town.  They had so much fun and I can't wait to display their works of art.  I don't have a picture of the final product yet because we haven't received them from Amazing Glaze yet. 

 

Tent Camping, take two

We camped in a tent over the summer in our backyard and the kids loved it.  We thought we would take it a step further so we went tent camping again this past weekend at Hillsborough River State Park with friends.  It was a quick trip, just one night, but the kids once again loved it.  I am now covered in mositquito bites and we are still trying to catch up on sleep but it was worth it.  We took a walk down by the river, roasted marshmallows, played with friends, and enjoyed the great outdoors. 

Founder's Day

We enjoyed a nice evening at our school's Founder's Day.  The kids had a blast going to all the different classroom booths and riding on the inflatables.  They also had a lot of fun running around the football field in their socks and finding frogs in the grass.  They've been anticipating this day all week and they really loved every minute. 

Noteworthy Naughtiness

Everyday with Cooper is an adventure.  Just this week in fact he has created some noteworthy naughtiness that I just need to share.  On Tuesday of this week he woke up thirsty.  I was getting ready to go to work and everyone else in the house was still asleep.  He decided to go get a glass of "lemonade" without letting anyone else know.  He comes trotting down the hallway and into our bedroom sloshing a large pitcher of tea all over the place while announcing "I want lemonade in my cup" to anyone that will listen.  I'm now in the market for a frig lock if you see one. 

Yesterday during the day he decided at some point to go play with my alarm clock.  So this morning our entire household, yes that's right entire household, was up, showered, dressed, fed, and ready to go a whole hour early.  We didn't even realize that we were so ahead in our morning routine until Craig looked outside and noticed it was still dark. 

But his latest and greatest happened just a few short minutes ago.  The stomach bug has been going around our house and he was it's most recent victim.  I'm rocking him to sleep like a I do every night and he starts puking.  Not a big deal to many but a huge deal to me.  You see I hate puke, loath it, detest it, will puke myself if it hits me just right.  You know they say when you become a mother you just seem to be able to look past all the gross stuff and help your kids get through it.  That gene must have skipped a generation.  So he starts puking and I start gagging.  He pukes all over me, the floor, his doggy, his blanket, and anything else in his way.  I finally pull myself together to clean up this awful tragedy and he gets the notion to help.  First, he grabs the liquid disinfectant cleaner I was using and runs off with it.  After I finally catch up to him and so gingerly place him in the recliner he still has that itch to help so he grabs my glasses that were lying on the ottoman next to the recliner.  He quietly walks over to my sickened form that is scrubbing the puke off the floor and tosses my glasses over so I can get a better look at the mess I'm cleaning.  Well he misses and my lenses pop out of my frames and land directly in the middle of the puke.  I am not making this up folks, God's honest truth. 

You know life just wouldn't be the same without him.  It's off to bed now, since I lost an hour of sleep last night I'm exhausted tonight.  Thank goodness tomorrow is Friday.

Silly Sock Day

Connor has "Silly Sock Day" tomorrow at school so we went rummaging through my sock drawer in search of some silly socks.  They were so excited to try on my socks so we had a little silly sock day of our own.  They all have on their "boots" (socks pulled up to their knees).  It was cracking me up to watch them run around the house in my old Halloween socks.  I thought it was the cutest thing, I just had to share.

Just a swinging

This is a video of Connor's first time swinging by himself!  Last weekend they were outside playing while Craig & I were pressure washing the porch.  I looked up to see Connor with a huge smile across his face.  He was pumping his legs and showing me he could do it all by himself.  I am so excited, one less to push on the swings!