Happy Halloween

Alex and his cousin, Caleb, dressed as "Optimus Prime" and "Bumble Bee" Transformers in the weeks before Halloween. They had way too much fun in these costumes.

Gage was a dinosaur. He was not quite as excited about wearing a costume as Alex was about his, but he sure got a lot of use out of the costume with all the Halloween events he went to this year. Who knew such a small child could have so many holiday obligations!

The kids each had a Halloween parade at Sonshine school, a Fall Festival party at church, a party at the Dacus' house, pumpkin decorating, and Trick or Treating of course. Not to mention a visit to the Pumpkin Patch. Gage crashed and went to bed before Trick or Treating could even begin. After a night of door-knocking (and trying to invite himself into every strangers' house) Alex was completely exhausted for the first time in my recent memory, and I actually carried him the last block home.

Not that I minded. It was tons of fun. We obviously love Halloween around here.

Apple Orchard

A few weeks ago we visited my family in Topeka, KS and my sister-in-law, Caroline, took us to an apple orchard. It was tons of fun and the kids had a blast. Fall is fast becoming my favorite season! Coming soon....Halloween photos!

Helping the Helpless

A month or so ago Lisa was taking Alex to Sam's Club when they had to stop at the light at Memorial and Penn. Seeing the homeless guy standing in the hot weather holding his cardboard sign Lisa asked Alex if they should help that man or not. Alex's reply was, "No mom. He can hold his own sign."

Politics

Today I took the kids down to Moore to have lunch with Lisa. On the way down I had a really funny conversation with Alex that went something like this.
A: Dad, what is that building with the man on top?
D: That's the Capital Building. It's where the people who make laws work.
A: I would like to go there!
D: (Thinking this would be a great learning experience although maybe a little over the head of a 4 year old) Sure! Let's plan to go sometime, it's a very interesting building and there are lot's of paintings and statues to see.
A: I think I would like to work there and make laws. I will make truck laws.
D: Wow! That would be very cool.
A: I will make secret truck laws so that people will build REAL robots. Robots in Disguise.
D: .....
A: You know Dad, transformers? Only Autobots though, not Decepticons.
D: Well if you're going to build robots that sounds pretty good.
D: (Trying to steer the conversation into a political discussion, why I don't know. It's a long drive to Moore.) Did you know that they make laws about money? Do you think we should give money to people who don't work?
A: I think we should put all the money into my piggy bank and then I will pay people to build signs, and bridges, and buildings, and trucks. Robot trucks. Just autobots though.

In other news, I've stopped letting him watch an episode of Transformers everyday.

Where Art Thou?

Why are there no kids in these photos? This is not Lisa's usual post, you say? Well, since Alex has been out of Sonshine School for the summer, he's spent a little more time at home using the "box of fun", our box of rainy day stuff to keep his hands busy. Alex is very proud of his art projects these days and doesn't want to be featured in the photos with his masterpieces that simply must speak for themselves.

Under construction no longer!

Well, finally, we are not working on installing our new living room floor anymore! These home improvement projects were a little less "life encompassing" before children. But now, we have a little guy with a seriously active imagination running around with our tools to show us a new perspective on how "fun" they can be. Who knew these knee pads were just part of a great superhero costume?

On a completely unrelated subject, I promised Easter pictures and I can't fail to do it just because it's summer now and Easter was months ago. I'll start off by saying that this was the best Easter so far for egg hunting. I find that the Easter bunny is self-actualized when he hides eggs for the 3 1/2 year olds of the world. Once Alex found all the eggs, he asked us to hide them again...and again...and again. Eventually he hid them for his Susu and I to go find. And, finally, he went of to hide them again for himself to find.

Gage, on the other hand, wasn't very interested in eggs. He put one in his mouth for a second, realized it was not helping him keep his body from touching the grass, and threw it aside. He had just about started walking when I took this photo, and I was afraid it would be the last of the "bear crawl" photos. Sadly, I was right. He now walks everwhere (even in the dreaded grass which he now enjoys) with his pudgy baby feet. We can't seem to find shoes to fit him, at least not for long. If babies are like puppies, then we're in trouble. His "paws" are huge for his size, so I think he has a lot of growing to do.

This is just to show off Gage's cute little Easter outfit. That's our handsome little guy!

It's been too long!!!

Has it really been son long since I posted last?

What has been going on? Hmm. Let me think...Alex has kept us busy challenging David and I to renew our reliance on the Lord for patience and our reliance on authors (and years of child development studies) for learning to live with a "strong willed child".
Exciting, huh?

Gage, on the other hand, has learned to assist us if we ever decide to take up "duck hunting".
As you can see, we no longer need to train a retriever.




I thought this picture of Alex below was cute. Remember that day in March a few weeks ago when it had been gorgeous outside for weeks, then all of a sudden -- snow?

We had long since given up hope of another snowman this year -- at least I had. Alex had been reading (still just looking at pictures and memorizing entire books, not reading yet) a library book called "LOOK! SNOW!" and had been wondering why we couldn't make a snowman (when it was nearly April). I told him, "Look, our daffodils have already been blossoming for weeks, and they are about to wither and then the other flowers will bloom and snow would not be good for them; that is why it can't snow anymore until next year. It is spring!"

Mother Nature, why do you have to prove me wrong all the time! You and Gary England.

In the end, we had just enough snow on our outdoor furniture to fashion a tiny snowman, and since the sandbox was nearby, he had dinosaur/dragon/shovel appendages. David vowed this was the scariest snowman he'd ever seen. Alex and I thought it was the best ever (of course this is coming from two people who love things to be a little scary and love Halloween more than any other holiday) and a little nontraditional snowman never hurt anybody.

Coming soon...Easter update!