The Horse

Last week Jack and I read a story about a lost mitten and Jack decided he wanted a hat like the one the kid in the story was wearing. Well we found one in the dollar section at target and got one for each of the kids. Jack has wore his for practically three days straight. It's been cute to see him running around the house at all hours of the day with his new hat on.

The chill has left though now and the kids went to school again today without jackets.

Luke turned 9 months old. He has had a cough for the last couple of days, but he's doing fine. He is getting so expressive with his looks. Mer and Max saw him raise one eyebrow as he looked at them yesterday. They tried their hardest but were sad that they couldn't do it. One more reason for Mer to call him "a very educated baby". She calls him that whenever she sees him do a new "trick" or claims that the noises he makes were actual words.

He actually pulled himself up to standing a few times this weekend. It's really funny though because he'll scream out like he's hurt or sad and you go to get him and he's trying his hardest to pull himself up. Doug said he's like an olympic bodybuilder screaming out as if he's lifting some incredible amount of weight.

For the last photo...here's a glimpse of some of the kids extracurricular activities on the mattress. The game: "The Horse" The object of the game: attack the horse and try to avoid getting bitten.

Cold Snap and a Flat

Last Wednesday we were wearing Swimsuits.....

1 week and 20 degrees later....today we wore Jackets.

We are three days into a typical Florida winter cold snap (Highs of 63-still very nice tonight will be in the 30's). I'm sure it will be back to the 80's next week, no need to put away the shorts and flip flops. We met some friends at a playgroup at the park today. As we were leaving to pick up a donut on the way home, some park workers pointed out that I had a flat tire. (I thought something felt funny as I was driving there today, Good thing it didn't blow out on the highway) Thankfully, the workers had time to help me change the tire. It was a little tricky, the bolts having been freshly tightened at the shop. Also thankfully, the kids sat patiently in the car while we took care of it. We arrived at the donut shop as our friends were leaving and they were nice enough to give Jack a chocolate one to eat on the way home. This was my view as I pulled into the driveway.... a sleeping chocolatey Jack.

and a snoozing Luke

"Ahhh, peace and quiet for and hour before I get the big kids from school", I thought. Alas, I was wrong, the nap didn't take and they both woke up as I tried to transfer them in the house.

Mischief of interest: See that shiner on Luke's forehead?? Mer had pulled out a couple of mattresses to jump and do tricks yesterday. They were so proud of Luke for being able to climb on and off of them. Unfortunately, one was pushed a little close to the tile area of the kitchen and Luke face planted onto the tile floor as he was rolling off. There are not many "safety zones" in a house with four children.

Circus Time!!

Monday night we went to the circus. It was a small traveling circus that came to our town this week, in a striped "big top" tent and all. We had so much fun. Luke's eyes were glued to the show the entire first half. Everyone's were actually. I was so fun to see the wonder and awe in their eyes as they watched all the acts.

We saw acrobats, camels, motorcycles riding around inside a big sphere, camels, dog tricks, clowns...you know, your basic circus stuff. It was so cool because we were sitting only about 50 feet away from all the action and could see everything so well. Here are a few acts we saw.

This acrobat kept balancing on this thing as it spun around and around.

The elephants were one of the kids favorites.

Here are the Motorcycles

The best part of the evening for Max was when he got to buy this light up sword. He remembered them from last year and was talking about how "he wanted to buy one of those light up swords this time" with his own money. After Max got one Jack wanted to spend his birthday money on one as well. Mer got some highly desired cotton candy.

The show ended with a Human Cannonball. We were right next to the cannon. It was cool...see for yourself.

Recognitions

Highlights from our week...

This is a picture of "baby Jack" sleeping in his crib. This week we played a lot of "baby Jack", pretend train (where we build a train and ride on it), and pirates (where we of course, build a boat and act as pirates).

Thursday we had a busy day. We took a trip to the Dentist office for my teeth cleaning. Jack and Luke came with me and did very well. Luke sat on my lap and watched the whole thing and Jack sat in the corner and shied away from everyone who talked to him. Jack let the Dentist count his teeth after the dentist asked him about what he was for Halloween. After some lunch we stopped by Mer's school for an awards assembly where she was recognized for getting all A's so far this term. (Max also had an award's ceremony on Friday where he earned the RESPECT award)

Then we zoomed over to the Doctor's office to have Jack's leg looked at. He jumped off the ptop rung of the playest ladder in our back yard the day before Halloween and has been limping on and off. But no worries, he's fine. They wouldn't even xray it to check.

Luke tagged along being his cheery self.

Check out those chompers finally starting to show. If you look closely at the next pic, you'll see the bottom ones. He has 5 now. (he got a 3rd one on the top last week)


I listed the Thanksgiving banner that I made last year to sell on etsy and Lookiloos posted it on their blog of great thanksgiving decoration finds. I was excited about that. My etsy shop is called blueSusan. I've only put a couple of things on it. It's an experiment.



And lastly last night we did a fun thing the kids were looking forward to all week. We chopped up all kinds of Halloween candy and made our own ice cream like Cold Stone.

Don't worry we didn't use it all yet. See the bowl full we still have.

An Unfortunate Turn of Events

LAST TADPOLE UPDATE: I'm sad to have to report this ... yesterday we had 2 frogs with no tails to let go. It had been chilly the night before and I didn't want to just let them go into the cold when they had lived their whole lives in a warm house. So I put the bowl outside in the back porch mid-day to let them be in outside temperature as the night fell. Last night I put the bowl just outside the porch in the back yard and took the net off to let the frogs jump out at their leisure. (I've also been told you're supposed to do this and they'll jump out when they are ready). This morning Jack and I went to check on the tadpoles and we found that both frogs had jumped out and were dead on the ground just outside the bowl and were being eaten by ants... and the bowl was empty. Something had fished all of the eight or so remaining tadpoles out of the bowl in the middle of the night I guess. I wish had had a video on it cause I can't imagine what would/could have done it. The kids were sad of course but really just as astonished as I was that it happened. So our tadpole rearing has come to an end. Too bad it had to be a sad one. Not sure we will be trying that again.

True Mischief

Second blog of the day...is this really happening? So I made the mistake of not putting the Halloween make up away and lets just say I was slow to get to it today. Apparently Halloween dress-up was not enough because this afternoon Max and Mer were unusually quiet, cooking up some mischief in the bathroom. Can you guess who's who?

"The Closet Gypsy"

"The Weird Fish"

Jack had to get in on it too. (I'll have to ask what Mer named his character)

Of course I thought, how funny and creative, until they wanted to take the make up off and I glimpsed the bathroom. After lots of scrubbing and soaking in a color tinted tub the boys got out so Mer could shower. There was a serious blue/green ring around the tub and I immediately pointed out it was like that scene in the book, "The Cat in the Hat Comes Back". Mer said "maybe we should wash it off with one of your new dresses." Ha Ha! I was going to take a picture of the ring but Mer had scrubbed it off during her shower. She mostly cleaned the bathroom to, which was nice of her.

Tadpole update: The frogs have been slow growing but we finally got another one with all four legs a couple of days ago. We heard they shouldn't really be let go while they still have a tail so we let the last one linger a little while. Yesterday Jack found something on the floor by the piano. It was out little frog slightly shriveled looking. (I'm really glad it was Jack who found it instead of Luke, who would have promptly picked it up and eaten it. Yuck) We picked it up and put it back in the water to see if it was still alive. It was, but only barely and it only lived for an hour or so longer before the rest of the tadpoles gobbled it up. So as you can see, we have another one clinging to the side of the bowl and I've added a net over the top to let those little guys stay in till they lose the tail.

A Happy Halloween Night

The much anticipated day has finally come and gone. We started the day watching Max in his "Literacy" Day parade, Where he was required to dress up as a character from a book. Good thing he got the Zulu warrior idea from a book. They paraded through everyone's classrooms and around the halls. Jack and Luke had fun watching the sea of costumes go by.

'

Then we came home and made some witch broomstick bags to deliver to friends, (thanks Ronnie and Martha Stewart for the idea)

That afternoon after picking up the kids, a quick dinner of Taco soup, and some last minute costume fixes...and lots of makeup and hairspray, we were finally ready for Halloween Night.
Mer was an Alien, Max a Zulu warrior, Jack a Pirate, and Luke a Tiger.

We snapped some shots and left for our ward trunk or treat. Jack and Luke fell asleep on the way there.

Luke was happy we let him get a hold of some candy bags to chew on.

Then it was home for some real trick or treating, passing out candy, and of course sorting and eating lots of candy.

All said and done, the night tons of fun but definitely exhausting. This picture says it all...and we still had to wash off all the makeup.