No Sadie...that is not okay

It is not okay to go to the movies, eat your Starburst, and spit out the flavors you don't like onto the floor. This is not OK.

Sadie's Turkey Headband

Last Tuesday Sadie made a Turkey headband at school. When I picked her up and told her that we had to go to the grocery store she was so excited. She wanted to go in the play place and wear her headband so that the other kids would laugh at her. After I was done shopping and I went to get her, she was quite disappointed because none of the other kids laughed at her.

Primary Activity

There are no pictures for this one, so it will be boring. Last Saturday (the 21st) there was a Primary activity that I took all the kids to, while Ben studied. They made pine cone turkeys, cards, pumpkin cookies, and learned a song in sign language. The cards were to be delivered to a care center and the kids were going to do the sign language song for them also. Henry did not want to be at the activity and was not happy to be there. He did participate in it, but it was quite obvious that we wasn't pleased.

Sunday the Primary President came into Relief Society and passed around a sign-up sheet for volunteers to go to the care center. I was the 2nd to last person to get it and no one had signed up...Great. So, I signed us up. The lady after me also signed up. Monday morning Henry asked me if we were going to the care center. (It's not like he had anything else to do...he was in trouble from showing bad judgement at the Primary Activity.) He told me he would go, but he wasn't going to do anything.

After school Monday, I took the kids. William was held by one of the ladies the whole time we were there, and I had a hard time getting him away from her when it was time to leave. The 3 older kids sang and did the sign language song, and passed out the cards. I was happy that Henry participated, and didn't even seem to mind. One of the ladies we sang to commented that she thought my oldest was very brave, because she had been a teacher and knew that it wasn't easy for him to be there.

Chik-Fil-A Bingo

Last Friday (the 20th) we went to Chik-Fil-A for Bingo. I had to talk Henry into it, becuase Friday is traditionally pizza/movie night. It's a good thing we took Ben, since he won 4 times, I won once, and Samuel won once. It was a lot of fun. The kids each picked something, and so did Ben and I. I gave the shirt I picked to a little boy sitting by us that didn't win anything.

Primary Children Sacrament Program

Last Sunday was the Primary program at church, where the kids each have a little part that they get to say in front of the congregation. The week before the program each of the kids was given an invitation to give to their friends. Sadie came home and colored her's and took it over to Malcolm's house (he is our 8 year old neighbor that she is in love with.) So, guess who came to the program? Malcolm and his mom, older sister and younger sister. Way to go Sadie!

Super Saturday

Look what I made at Super Saturday! 2 Bracelets. I thought that they were so cute I made a pink and red one with lady bug beads for Sadie.

Jennifer's visit

My sister Jennifer came to visit last weekend. We really showed her a good time. The first day she was here she went to a cub scout pack meeting where Henry got a badge. The second day she spent 3 hours at the school book fair, an hour at piano, and then watched me get lost looking for Primanti Brothers (The Pittsburgh sandwich place.) The 3rd day I took her to Super Wal-mart ("Sarah, it's so BIG.") While we were there, we split up and I ended up with a phone call from her wondering if I had taken her basket as a joke, because she lost her entire basket of clothes she picked out (which also had her jacket in it). How does a person do that??? It was later found at customer service sorted into the correct bins to go back out to the floor. I wonder how much they would have gotten for her "butt ugly" jacket she has had for at least 10 years. She also helped me clean some of the gutters at the house. Finally, on the last day she was here we went downtown and were able to get a parking space to go to the Andy Warhol museum. It was a mess downtown since University of Pitt was playing Notre Dame.

The museum has a workshop area that I took the kids to. There were 3 different art projects to do. One was wrapping rubber bands around a block of wood to make different stamps. There was also a "make a poster", and a screen printing "make a movie poster" area. The kids and I had a fun time while Jennifer was in the museum. After we finished we took the kids to 2 different levels of the museum, one of which had a room with huge silver, rectangular helium balloons for the children to "gently" push. We were not necessarily successful with the "gently" concept.

After the museum we went on the Duquesne Incline. It was an experience in inefficiency, but interesting non-the-less. Plus, nobody even seemed to notice that I went down a one-way street the wrong way to find a parking spot.

William

Sadie's "field trip"

Sadie is in a state funded preschool program and we pay a mere pittance each month for her to attend. That being the case, their budget was cut this year (like everything else). So, they are not able to go on field trips, but they have gotten creative and had different programs come to them instead. Earlier this month, a family bought a bunch of pumpkins and put them on the church lawn (she meets at a church) and then the kids got to pick a pumpkin from the "pumpkin patch." They have also had the public library come and read books, the humane society come talk about pets, and the Aviary came and talked about birds. The families were invited to the Aviary presentation. We got to see a penguin and an owl. Here is a picture of Stanley the penguin (not to be confused with Sctanley in "Couples Retreat).

Eating with the kids

I took the kids to Eat N' Park today. This seems to be a Pittsburgh thing...think Denny's or Village Inn, but with Smiley face cookies. I took these pictures with my phone, so they're not the best, but we really felt the need to document the life of the Smiley face cookie. Also, for some reason Samuel wanted to pose with his lime jello. Is it weird that my kids had jello (Samuel and Sadie) and cottage cheese (Henry) for a side instead of fries?

Oh, the last one is a dancing cookie, courtesy of Samuel.

Ewwww!!

Tonight the kids and I were watching a movie in the Living Room on the portable DVD player. We were all sitting around eating our dinner and watching a movie, but I was the only one who had gotten a drink. At one point Samuel asks if he can go get a cup and then pour some of my water into his cup. Sure, whatever. So he goes and gets a cup and pours some water, then I look down and see him with his hand in my cup.
"Samuel, get your hand out of my cup."
"I'm trying to get some ice."
"That's gross, you pick your nose with that hand."
"No, (as he holds up the other hand), I pick my nose with this hand."
Yuck!

More cute pictures

Here are 2 more pictures my friend took when William was about 6 weeks old. Aren't they adorable?

Giant Marshmallows

Awesome!

Today....

Me: "Samuel, why do you have yellow boogers?"
Samuel: "Because I put yellow skittles up my nose."

Lovely

Halloween Fun

Waiting for the parade
I know that some parents dread Halloween and all the candy and the making/picking of the costumes. I don't. I love to see what the kids want to be and see if I can make a costume that looks good. I even like to find places the kids can go to get more candy. This year we had the school parties, trunk-or-treat at church, the parade uptown and trick-or-treating. The parade uptown (which is really what most people would call downtown, but our town is to hoity toity for a downtown) was just a little hometown parade with scout troops and the high school band. It was raining and windy. After the 45 minute parade (which I went to without Ben) we walked around to the downtown...oops, I mean uptown....mercants and got candy. Then I bought the kids hot cocoa (which I had to carry back to the car for Sadie and Samuel.) Here are a bunch of pictures.

Samuel's pumpkin
Henry's pumpkin BEFORE

Henry's pumpkin AFTER
Sadie's pumpkin

One guy in our neighborhood gives out hats. This year it was Steelers and knit hats, and the kids got one of each. Henry is sporting the Steelers cap and Samuel is modeling the knit one (which is the colors of our township).

Waiting for the parade to begin.