Punkin' Pickin'

Sam's class took a field trip to the pumpkin patch, so Sydney and I tagged along.  We had never been to this pumpkin patch before, and I was excited to see how it compared to the one we usually visit.  It did not disappoint.  On the way there, we passed the castle in Versailles.  The kids know it is there and they always comment on it.  This time, as we were passing by, Sam exclaimed, "Hey!  Look!  A big castle!"

Sydney promptly followed up with, "Oh no!!!!  We didn't bring my princess dress!"  I don't think princess dresses are standard attire for pumpkin patches.

On another note, look how tall my boy is getting.

Since we were part of a large group (and there were at least 5 other school groups there that day) we kept to a pretty tight schedule.  I was pretty impressed with how they managed the crowd.  First we picked a few apples to take home, then everybody headed out to the pumpkin patch to choose a pumpkin.  When I was looking back over my pictures I realized that I didn't get very many pictures of Sam.  Probably because it's nearly impossible to catch him being still enough for a picture.  There are 11 students in his class, 9 of which are boys.  (God bless his teacher...)  You put 9 little boys in an open field on a gorgeous fall day....you're not going to get very many still-life photos.

But Sydney was excited for her chance to choose a pumpkin.  She, of course, had to look at every single one in the patch before she selected one.

Next we visited the petting zoo.  They had sheep, goats, ducks, a donkey....and a white pony.  There was a sign asking that the children not feed or pet the white pony because he apparently bites.  Three guesses which animal was Sydney's favorite.

Sam got a kick out of feeding the animals.  I couldn't get him to get up the nerve to let them eat out of his hands, but he agreed to hold the little cup of food and let him eat out of it.  Until the sheep got a little over-eager and yanked the entire cup out of his hand...

Next they ushered us into a little classroom where the kids learned about how bees make honey.

And finally we got to go on the hayride.  The kids had been talking about this all day.  To be completely honest, I wasn't sure if Sydney would be scared or not because you just never really know.  Everybody got a little cup of apple cider before we got on.  I'm not sure if it was the apple cider or what, but I'm pretty sure the hayride was her favorite part of the day.

Funny story about the hayride.  Immediately after this picture was taken, the little boy beside her jostled into her and spilled her apple cider all down the front of her shirt.  Honestly, I was afraid she was going to deck him.  She clenched her fists, narrowed her eyes, set her jaw a stared him down.  I grabbed a napkin and cleaned her up and the crisis was averted.  That night I was putting the kids to bed and we were going through our nightly routine.  I always ask them, "What was the best part of our day?  What's something that made you sad?"  I asked Sydney what her favorite part of the day was and she told me she loved the hayride.  When I asked her if anything made her sad that day, she immediately got that indignant look back on her face and said, "Well...dat boy spilled my juice on me!"

They also had a really cool play area with a huge slide, a hay bale tower to climb and all sorts of other fun things that the little boys were all drooling over.  Sam will climb anything.  I swear, sometimes I think he's part monkey.  Pretty sure Mt. Everest is in his future.

He scrambled up to the top of the hay bale tower like he'd been doing that all his life.

Meanwhile, I just set Sydney on one of the lower bales.  She was not amused...

...and chose to spend the rest of her afternoon in the safety of the sandbox.

Eventually Sam decided to join her because he couldn't miss a chance to get dirty.

I always love our trips to the pumpkin patch.  I might even enjoy them more than the kids.  What was my favorite part of the day, you ask?  Both kids took a big ol' nap that afternoon.

All I Want For Christmas...

On about the 3rd morning of kindergarten, Sam complained on the way to school that his teeth were hurting.  I made a mental note to check his mouth when we got to school...then promptly forgot about it.  (As I do with most mental notes...)  That night while eating corn on the cob, he again commented that his teeth were hurting, so Shawn took a look.  Sure enough, he had not one, but TWO loose teeth!  He was so very excited.  And I...well...let's just say I did a lot of blinking over the next 30 seconds or so.  His first day of kindergarten didn't bother me too much, but loose teeth in the same week?  Too much for this momma's heart.

The next day, because I am weird about such things, I decided an impromptu photo shoot was in order to get a few last pictures of his baby teeth.  Sam asked me why I was taking his picture, and I told him I wanted to get some nice pictures of his teeth.  So of course, I got lots of dinosaur growls.

And a few silly faces... 

Somewhere along the way, we have figured out that if we can find a way to chase Sam, we can pretty well trick him convince him to do about anything we want.  So he and I started playing a little game of catch around a tree in our yard. 

 Then he decided that he needed some pictures with his dog.  This boy and that dog...they sure do like each other.  We're pretty sure Molly thinks Sam is her puppy. 

A couple of weeks later, we were in the car for a little road trip, and Sam announced that "something had happened."  That "something" was his tooth coming out.  He was, of course, worried that the tooth fairy wouldn't be able to find him since we wouldn't be sleeping at our house that night.  But luckily, the tooth fairy knew just where he would be.

You know, I am a little sad that my kids are growing out of the baby stage.  I suppose it's a bit natural to longingly remember all of the little things they won't do anymore.  And every time I clean out a dresser drawer or place an outfit in the "too little" box, I choke back a wave of emotion.  But I have to admit...watching them grow up is pretty fun too.

School Days

We're about 6 weeks in, and I'm just now posting first-day-of-school pictures.  Sam started kindergarten this year.  He was super excited...he told me on the way to school that day that he couldn't wait to learn to read all by himself.  As for me, I was surprisingly okay.  I really thought I would be sad, but I guess his excitement helped alleviate my sadness.  

He did get a little embarrassed about the pictures, though..

But I finally managed to coax a smile out of him.

We had been to an open house a few nights earlier where his teacher went through his morning routine with him.  In typical Sam-fashion, he remembered every single thing and carried out the routine in the exact order she had described.

As we were walking out of the school building, Sydney was chattering along about her plans for the day.  First we went to the library.  We had gotten in the habit of going a couple of times a month last year, and that was one of the first things Sydney asked to do when we started talking about Sam going back to school.  This girl...she walks in everywhere like she owns the place.  She immediately wanted to know where "that girl I always play with" was (Ms. Bethany, the children's librarian).  But Ms. Bethany wasn't there that day, so we had to amuse ourselves.



Next, we went to the park.  We threw rocks in the creek, cooked some imaginary pancakes, slid on the slide a few times, and basically had the run of the place all to ourselves.

And what girl day is complete without lunch at Panera?

So far, as he predicted, Sam is loving all things reading-related.  But he hates any kind of work that involves writing or coloring.  It's just not his thing.  And music!  He is crazy about music class.  He comes home nearly every day singing some new little song that I've never heard.  His memory amazes me.

Take Me Out To The Ballgame

I'm trying to catch up a little here...

This summer we took the kids to their first baseball game.  Shawn loves baseball.  In one of our first real conversations about us...our future...I remember Shawn sharing that he wanted to coach our kids' little league team.

We're so lucky to live close to a minor league team city.  We loaded the kids up for a late afternoon game.  And dude...it was HOT.  We actually ended up changing seats so we could sit in the shade, and we ended up with a pretty great view.

It turned out to be a REALLY good decision because Sam ended up with a foul ball!  Initially he wanted to throw it back.  I don't think he understood.

I wasn't sure if we would last the entire game, but you'd be surprised what a well-placed concession stand run will get you.  Did you know the proper way to eat an ice cream cone is from the bottom?

We had a great time!

A Weekend With The Girls

A few weekends ago we got to have a sleepover with 3 of our cousins.  I remember staying at my aunt & uncle's house A LOT when I was a kid.  And I don't think I ever wanted to go home.  It's such a source of happy memories for me, it has been bothering me a bit that my kids aren't experiencing that.  It was time to do something about it.  So one Friday afternoon I picked up 3 of my nieces and 

we made the trip back to Casa de King.

 

 

 

 

 

The weather was AWESOME that weekend.  We spent the majority of the day Saturday playing outside.  I love watching these girls together.  Their birthdays are just two days apart.  That being said, I kinda felt like I was taking care of twin 2 year-olds that weekend.  While I've always had a deep respect for moms of multiples, it grew even more over those couple of days.

 

 

Even though Sam was outnumbered by the girls, he had a great time.  In the days leading up to their visit, I was able to say, "We need to do fill in the blank so the girls can come over."  Instant obedience.  And I can't count the number of times since then that he and Sydney have asked when we are going to have another cousin sleep-over.

 

 

 

Popsicles and lemonade in big people cups.  (Outside....of course.  I'm a cool aunt, but I'm not crazy.)

 

 

 

I asked the girls to pick one fun thing each to do that weekend.  Izzy immediately said she wanted to paint fingernails and toenails.  Hers are the blue ones on the left.  I'm not sure if you can tell by the picture, but she wasn't happy with just uniformly colored toes.  She needed polka dots on hers.

All. Her. Idea.

Also, I love that you can see Sydney and Abby are holding hands on the right.

 

 

 

And what sleepover is complete without a little dress up?  Someday it will be heels, pearls and make-up, but for now I like that it's super hero capes.

Springtime Fun

It looks like the Bluegrass is finally green again!  I was seriously worried about Sam not reaching his 5th birthday if we didn't get outside and burn some energy.  Both of the kids need to be outside, but it is especially true for Sam.  If he goes more than a couple of days without getting some fresh air, he just goes bananas.

 

I've mentioned before, but my kids are absolutely obsessed with storm drains and tunnels.  There is a pretty large one down the street from us, and there are usually a bunch of frogs lying around sunning themselves.  Sydney loves to go "see da brogs."  Molly does too.  I'm pretty sure she thinks one of these days, she's going to catch one, but I have my doubts.  My kids make way too much noise for her to sneak up on one.  There is always a mass exodus into the water about the time we top the hill.

 

I'm thinking there is really only one way this can end, right?

 

 

They like to pretend fish too.  Looks like we're going to have to get a couple of fishing poles, soon.  Right now, they just use sticks and stir them around in the muck, then jerk them out saying, "I caught one!"

 

 

 

But so far, all we've managed to catch are a couple of old tires, a stinky shoe, and some crayons.

 

 

These days, I'm thankful for sunshine, kids with healthy imaginations, and soap.  Very thankful for soap.



Feed The Birds.

We've been spending a lot of time at our local library lately.  Sometimes if Sydney and I have a few errands to run while Sam is at school, we find ourselves with an hour or two to kill before it's time to pick him up.  Rather than go home just to turn around and go back, we will drop in at the library.  We recently discovered that they have preschooler play time every Thursday, so we've been making a point to go by for that.  They always have a craft and lots of toys out, and the children's librarian is super sweet.  Sydney beats a path to the children's area as soon as we walk in the door now.  Fair warning if you are there when we are...please stay out of her way.  She probably won't slow down.

 

 

A couple of weeks ago, we made a bird feeder out of toilet paper rolls, peanut butter and birdseed.  We hung it outside our kitchen window so we could see the birds coming to eat.  For the first couple of days, we didn't seem to have any visitors.  I was kinda bummed.  But lately, we've been having a couple of cardinals stop by a few times a day.  There is a male and a female, but the female is a bit more skittish than the male.  She never hangs around long enough for a picture.

 

 

I told Sam we should name them, so he decided we should name them Sam and Sydney.  Hey...if it ain't broke, don't fix it, right?

Baby It's Cold Outside!

We are so. over. winter around here.  We were bundling up and getting outside for a few minutes every day, but lately it has just been way too cold or too wet and messy.  And I can really tell a difference in the kids' behavior.  Sam is like a caged animal right now.  Lots and lots of energy with no good outlet.  So I took to Pinterest to find some new ways to entertain the kids.

 

We made a couple of crafts, but I'm not the craftiest person in the world.  We built an obstacle course out of laundry baskets and kitchen chairs.  We made a hopscotch board out of masking tape on the floor.

 

We also played this Spiderman game.  Masking tape across the doorway, and we threw little pom pom things at it.  I thought it was pretty fun, but Sam wasn't all that excited...

 

 

...but then he put his Spiderman costume on to play, and it was instantly more fun.  I guess if you're going to play a Spiderman game, you've got to go all in.

 

 

 

But the thing that the kids loved the most and have asked to do again (and again....and again) was shaving cream painting.  I mixed food coloring with shaving cream and turned them loose in the bathtub.  They thought it was the greatest thing ever.  I'm not surprised.  My kids are total water dogs.

 

I looked into swimming lessons at our local YMCA, and I think we are going to do that soon.  With an indoor pool, I'm actually considering joining so I can just take the kids to burn off some steam from time to time.  I wonder if they allow a fall and winter only membership?

Cuppa Joe

Come sit and have a cuppa joe with me! If we were chatting over coffee (or tea...or Diet Coke...whatever your poison is), I would tell you:

 

 

I hate to admit it, but I'm glad Christmas is over.  I.  Love.  Christmas.  Really, I do.  But by the time it's over, I'm always glad to pack the tree away and get things back to normal.  And the second all of the decorations are down, I start itching for spring.  I'm ready for sunshine and playing outside.

 

 

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Sydney might be the most frustrating child to dress...ever.  She has been hanging out in that land between sizes since her growth spurt last fall.  One size is just a bit too small, but the next size up is way too big.  (Mostly, the legs are just too long...looks like I passed along my pants curse to her.  I'm sure she'll thank me.)  So my strategy for dressing her is going to be dresses.  Lots and lots of dresses.  Luckily, she looks cute in everything.

 

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I've struggled lately with reading my Bible.  I used to use Journey magazine, but my subscription expired and I never renewed it.  Since then, I've had a hard time staying focused.  I do better with a devotional or plan of some sort, so I've been on the hunt for a good one.  Right now, I'm using a chronological reading plan.  It's designed to read the entire Bible in a year, but I'm not going to do that.  I'm enjoying really taking  my time and working through the reading assignments.  The chronological plan is really helping me make sense of things and put all of the stories I learned years ago into perspective.

 

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 Some parents don't want their children to watch too much television for fear that they will become couch potatoes.  That thought is simply amusing to me.  Am I the only one whose child has to act out the cartoons he watches?  No lying around contributing to childhood obesity numbers around here.  No...if there is a chase scene, Sam must race around the room at full speed.  Slapstick humor?  We of course have to reenact it.  And don't even get me started on the dancing.  My kids have got some serious boogie fever.

 

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A couple of weeks ago, Sam told me that he wanted a Spider-Man cake for his birthday.  (He's been planning his birthday since his LAST birthday, but since Christmas, his planning has gone into overdrive.)  Sydney chimed in that she wanted an Elsa cake for her birthday.  And also an Ariel cake.  And a Dora cake.  (To my knowledge, she's never even seen Dora.)  Each time she made an announcement, I simply agreed. Then, suddenly, without any warning, she was crying. 
"Mommy!!!  I just want caaaaaaaaaaaaaakkkkkkkeee!"

No drama here.  No, sir... 

Snow Day

We had a snow day today!  And when I say we had snow, I mean we had about 11 inches (and counting) of snow.  I got up thinking I was going to have to try to ski to work, but thankfully our administrators closed the clinic.

 

Sydney started asking to go play in the snow at exactly 6:58am.  Sam ate two bites of breakfast then disappeared.  He came out of his room wearing his snow bibs and declared it was time to go outside. 

 

 

 

We started the process of getting everyone dressed and bundled up.  The kids and the dog stood pacing and wriggling by the door while I wrestled them into hats, mittens and boots.  And FINALLY, we were ready!

 

 

Bonus points for Shawn for buying us a new sled just last night.  Sam loved it...Sydney fell off on her first trip down the hill and she was so over the sledding.

 

 

The snow was too powdery to make a snowman or snowballs, so we just had to make snow angels.

 

 

Even if the wind chill is -7, when you get smiles like these, it's totally worth it.

 

Personally, my favorite part about snow days is warming up with some hot chocolate in front of a fire and taking a long winter's nap.