Halloween at School

Today the boys and Sadie got to parade their costumes at school. Sadie only has 5 kids in her class, so they just had us take their picture in the gym. Sadie is Dora the Explorer, Henry is Luke Skywalker, and Samuel is the Emperor from Star Wars. William is Dora's friend "Boots."

Pumpkin Patch

Yesterday we took the kids to a pumpkin patch, but it was soooo much more...

Show and Tell

Today was a big day. It was William's first day of school!! Samuel has been begging both his teacher and I to let him take William to school. So, today was his day for show and tell and he got permission to bring in his baby brother. The kids had a lot of questions, and knew a lot about babies. Samuel was a very proud big brother.

Unfortunately, the picture is blurry...oh well.

Hooray for William

He finally did it....he rolled over today. We are all so excited.

Wierd Circus....

or Cirque du Soleil. My parent's told me to buy tickets to something cultural for Christmas. Last year we went to Ringling Bros. Circus, which the kids loved. I had a couple of different ideas this year, including the circus again. I had finally settled on season tickets to a children's theater in the area that has five shows in their season. After thinking about it for a while I realized that five Saturdays might not work out with Ben back in school. So, a couple of nights ago I got on ticketmaster to see what the options were and settled on Cirque du Soleil. Neither Ben nor I have ever seen a show and everything I have heard about it has been positive, so why not. I wasn't sure how to describe it to Henry when he asked what we were doing. I didn't want to say circus and have him expect Ringling Bros., so I just told him it was a "weird circus" with no animals. We went last night and it was really good. My favorite part were the 2 clowns. They were extremely clever. It was also fun to see a circus that was based solely on people's talent, not animals. The kids enjoyed it also, even though Sadie fell asleep, since it went so late.

Henry the Lady Killer

Sometimes I just have to shake my head. Tonight was one of them. I have the privilege of being the Den leader for the Bear Scouts (translation...try to keep 5 or 6 8 year old boys entertained for an hour without anyone crying or losing, and pass things off at the same time.) One of those 8 year olds is Henry. This is the 2nd year that I have had this calling and finally feel like I am getting the hang of it. Anyway.....

Achievement day girls meets at the same time as we do and one of the girls lives not too far from us. So, I offered to take her home afterwards, so her mom doesn't just have to sit and wait. Tonight was the first night that I took her home. The drive takes about 15 minutes. About half way home Henry told her to pull his finger (good grief, where is this going I thought to myself). She pulled his finger and he burped. She thought this was hilarious and kept pulling his finger the rest of the way home. Man...Henry sure can get those girls. Of course, he also kept saying "cup of joe" which would send them both into hysterics. Someone please explain this to me.

Sadie grows up

Yesterday Sadie told me that she wanted to go to the playground. Unfortunately, it was like 5o degrees, and I'm not that brave. So, I told her that we could go to the inside playground, but we had to run a couple of errands first. After we went to the store she asked where we were going and I told her that we were going to the playground at the mall-which is the only indoor playground that I am aware of. She was quick to inform me (very loudly and disgustedly) that she can't go to that playground because it's for little kids...not big sisters.

Henry the Gentleman

I am a lazy mom...it's true, and I freely admit it. Yup, I make my kids walk home a whole half mile up and down a hill, by themselves. I do pick them up if I happen to be getting home from running errands or something when school gets out. I also pick them up if it is raining or below freezing. Anyway, I digress...

Yesterday I picked the boys up after school and it wasn't raining or below freezing, so they were not on the look out for me. Our school doesn't have a pick-up/drop-off line, so it's every mini-van/SUV mom for herself. There is an area that I typically park in, so they know to look there as they walk by, to see if it's their lucky day. Again, I digress...

Okay, as I passed the school, there was an open spot right out front, so I pulled in. Knowing that my kids would never look for me there, I got out and looked around. I immediately saw Samuel, but didn't get his attention, because I like to watch my kids undetected. I looked around for Henry and saw him walking out of the school with a violin in his hand and a girl beside him...hmmmm.

I watched him carry that violin for the girl down the hill through the school yard until the girl saw her mom and took the violin to give to her mom. What a gentleman. I asked him later if she had asked him to carry it and he told me no, he just offered...awww, cute.