painted pumpkins & Halloween

Had to. For Mike. Our parade was rained on today, so we stayed home and made ghost cookies (those Pillsbury kind you just have to pop on the sheet) in our jammies, watched Hotel Transylvania with Grandma and Grandpa, and painted our little gourds. Tiger, Sea Queen, monkey, princess, and magician (See? All I had to make was a cape :^))... The rain had cleared up later in the day, so we suited up and drove to Belleville to go trick or treating around a development. We got out a bit late, and a lot of houses were all out of candy, but they still made a pretty decent haul for only going around one block. And then came home and sorted and traded and gave their cut to Mom and Dad and grandparents. It's only fair.

Happy All Hallows Eve... Now, bring on the saints!

Opal's birthday

We thought this would be a good gift since our other two (pricey, wooden, supposedly sturdy!) strollers broke. Some fun things from Grandma and Grandpa! Opening a package from her godparents :) Stright fromt he World Meeting of Families, he came!

We had a fun celebration for Opal's third birthday last week. It was a pretty laid back day with some present opening (and Frozen cereal!) in the morning followed by swim lessons and playing with new toys. In the evening, we joined Mike at our kids' birthday celebration spot of choice: Chuck E. Cheese. A fun day honoring our sweet girl!

We are blessed!

three

My, these three years gave whizzed by like a whirlwind! I remember bringing this little vernixy-head thing home from the Midwife Center (early because of Hurricane Sandy) to the sweetest welcoming crew you ever did see. She was my most complicated pregnancy, my only post due-date baby, our only brown-eyed child (and those peepers make up for it in size), and our only finger sucker. She will not be sold short by her older siblings, she loves to both play with and antagonize her baby brother, play babies or farm animals with her big sisters, blocks with her big brother, and Legos with whoever's playing. she loves Thomas the Train and Bob the Builder, Daniel Tiger, Sophia the First, Fig the Fox and Yo Gabba Gabba (when you're pre-school in a homeschooling family, you get extra screen time). She also loves bathtime and being in the pool at swim lessons. She is quick to correct us when we speak in general terms ("No, they're not shoes! They're BOOTS!" "No! They're not clothes, they're pajamas!"). She cannot sleep without her Giggy (blanket) and requires approximately three songs before naps or bedtime ("Twinkle Twinkle", "Sunshine", or the Reading Rainbow theme song- not that she's ever seen it). She likes to snuggle, but not for long. She's SO excited about wearing big girl panties... when we'll get there, I haven't a clue. Happy third birthday to our full-of-sunshine, spunky, big-eyed Little Bird! We are so blessed by you!

fall Michigan trip

After swim lessons on Thursday, we headed to Michigan to visit with Mike's brother and family. Grandma and Grandpa were there, too. We were only there until right after lunch on Saturday, so it was a short visit, but we packed a lot in and had a great time with family- playing indoor games and outdoors in their yard and at the park, amongst the lovely fall weather. We visited the most spectacular pet shop ever, Blue Fish Aquarium, which had sting rays and poison frogs and all kinds of lizards, fish, and turtles. Jack now has his hopes high and is saving his money for some sort of new pet. The girls had fun playing dress-up and mothering their young cousin, Emmaline, and they all enjoyed the company of kitties.

Thanks for hosting us, Will and Ashley!

fairy houses

We have been (mostly) keeping up with the Along the Alphabet Path curriculum for Iris this year. Each week, we read a story about a little boy named Michael, who ventures along a wooded path, gathering flowers to make into a bouquet for his mother for her birthday. Each week focuses on a different "blossom baby" (fairy), saint, artist or art theme, etc. according to the letter of the week. We've had approximately 10 weeks of school and are only on letter F, so you can see we've not been that ambitious.

Nevertheless, She's been loving the fairies theme, and I've been promising her we'd make our own fairy homes, so today, after swim lessons, we drove to JoAnn's (the first time since we've lived here!) to pick up some unfinished wooden birdhouses, moss, faux flowers (at least fall flowers were 60%), and some pebbles. And, Jack selected some fabric for his Halloween costume, which he is SO excited about, dear boy (1. He wants it to be a secret; 2. It isn't involved at all, which is the only reason I agreed to actually sew it this year; and 3. when is he not SO excited about his Halloween costume?) Anyway, we picked up supplies, had lunch at Chick Fila since we happened to find ourselves far from home at lunchtime, and it was right there. After getting home and putting little people down for naps, we broke out the paints and supplies and set to work decorating their fairy homes and gardens (or bird home, in Jack's case, and he also decorated one for Toby to be put in his same little "village", as Abigail did with Opal's).

These were so fun to make, and they are super charming. I let them each paint a little peg doll fairy, but because I helped did all of Iris', Abigail wanted me to do her's, too. The kids spent a long time playing with them after they were finished. Until Abigail's little fairy got stuck inside, and we still haven't been able to free her.