It's Halloween time

Halloween is here again. We did the usual carving pumpkins and spent time with family for Halloween night and trick or treating. I just wanted to share a few pictures to remember it by. That is easier said than done. I have a little one who does not like group shots....see his quick get away. I could post several of this variety of him making a group shot hard to achieve. I simply ask him to sit next to his twin for a picture together and he would run off.
And notice one more of those fun things Daddy teaches. After he showed them how, each of his boys had to try it too.

Halloween was fun. The twins really got it this year and were excited to dress up and would eagerly ask Trick or Treat. That was so unlike last year when one spent a good deal of time crying over having to wear a costume. Then he was frightened by his cousin's scary costume and would not let go of me and barely opened his eyes for 30 mins or more. So this year was much better and very enjoyable for the family.

Hopefully the candy will be gone fast...I'm certainly already tired of empty candy wrappers laying around! But if it is not chocolate my little guys do not like it which makes the candy goes really fast, one lick then in the trash or on the floor.

This time is was apples

I have a great husband who is full of suprises. He loves us very much and always finds ways to bring a little more joy into our lives. Just this week he decided he was going to make me dinner, which is a great treat. What mom doesn't like a break from that chore. He made a great pork roast on the grill with sides. But the bigger surprise was that he got the stuff to make caramel apples with the kids for dessert. He is always doing stuff like this.

He would much rather bring flowers home, just because than for any holiday. When he brings me some, he always gets some for his daughter too. He finds something cool and will buy it for the kids. Of course he is a big kid himself so they all have fun together. Whether it be bounces on the trampoline or taking the kids fishing he makes moments his kids will always remember. And it is nothing over the top, just special I love you moments. And we cetainly love him!!!

Fun with 2 little boys

Is 3 the best age for little boys??? I am enjoying my boys more at this age than any before. They have good vocabularies and great imaginations so I never know what to expect. Right now they just eat information up.

What has been really fun is doing preschool with them. We got a small group together, just my 2 boys, their cousin and a friend. We meet just once a week and rotate houses. We teach basic preschool stuff.....thank you internet because there is such great ideas out there that it really seems easy to prepare stuff. Each week we have a letter of the week and base some of the lessons and activites around that.

Today was the letter E at my house. We started by singing the ABC song and introducing the letter E its name and sound. Then we read a book My E Sound Box followed by an egg hunt. Now I was not trying to confuse holidays but we did search for plastic Easter eggs using the Halloween buckets which I got out just yesterday. The kids had fun. Inside those eggs was not candy but little papers with E pictures (thanks internet again I did not have to draw them) We played a matching game with them. Then for snack hard boiled eggs. We ended up talking during snack time about which animals lay eggs.

Then after snacks we did switch to elephants. We played and sang Elephant on a tight rope. We talked about how big elephants were as I measured and weighed the kids. Then we put together some paper elephants and read an Elmo story. It was lots of fun to see the kids enjoying it so much. I love teaching them. I love that all my kids love to learn and read and I have been their first teacher, teaching each how to read before they entered school.

I love that these boys stop me now when they see a letter they know. During soccer practice tonight we talked again about what animals lay eggs. They remember. When I was getting snack ready today, S said "Cookies". No that was the last lesson we did on the letter C when we cut out sugar cookies. Things I do now they will remember, and they will remember that their mom played with them, worked with them, and most of all loved them.

I will always enjoy enriching my kids lives whether it be teaching them how to read, how to swim, how to sew, how to cook, or any other skill. I have plenty of work to do to teach these precious children how to be good people, caring, considerate and responsible. That is a big job and one that I will do my best.

September so far....

Things have been busy this month but I wanted to catch you up on what is important so far. The very end of Aug T got his wolf in cub scouts. We have several birthdays in Sept. My brother, Dad, and our T. T had a special golden birthday. He turned 9 years old on 9-9-09! So of course we had to have his party that day, even if it was a Wednesday and a school night.

I wish I had more summer birthdays, because having a swimming party at Mema's is fun and easy. The kids always enjoy the water. On this day it had rained most of the day but finally stopped about an hour before the party. So the air was not warm but is was muggy, no sun was out and the water was a little cool, but they kids all seemed to have a great time. Especially the birthday boy!

Other things keeping me busy has been volunteer coordinating. I had to do open house and a volunteer coffee meeting. Now I have most all of the forms I have been at the computer for hours typing and organzing the volunteers. Think most of that is done.

We have also had 3 dentist appointments and the soccer season has started again. Lucky me, 2 practices on 3 different nights, but the kids have friends on their teams so I will endure it for a short 2 months. Just gotta get dinner on the table at an early time.

And the biggest thing for me was the culmination of all of my summer training. I competed in my first triathlon. A 300 yd swim, 10 mile bike ride and 3 mile run. It was a fun activity that our ward Relief society put together. It kept me active all summer when I would have been tempted to sleep in with the kids! How did I do. I finished!!! That was my main goal.

I was first at the end of the swim, because I am a swimmer! I was last in the biking. I think could have done better with a bigger bike. My bike tires were smaller than all the others because I am a short person and bought this bike to fit me a few years ago. During a practice bike ride on the course the week prior I noticed that I was having to peddle twice as much but not going as far as my friends. I figured out then it was due to the bike size but I did not want to switch bikes and ride Toby's since I had not trained on it and it was not as comfortable to me.

I power walked the run and finished last. Something that was confirmed with me as I trained. I hate to run. My body does not like it and prefers less jarring exercise like swimming and biking. So I knew starting the race I would not run or jog, but I would walk my steady pace. I am proud of what I accomplished. Will I do it again???? Maybe??

The first week of school

Things went well this week for the family as we started another school year. It will be a big one as I begin a new role.....I am the volunteer coordinator at the elementary school. I have been and will be learning lots of new things as I embark on this journey, but I like to be involved and in the know. I enjoy volunteering and helping at the school. I have seen some weaknesses in the program and hope I can improve the process. Now did I go looking for this job, NO. I was asked to consider doing it by the PFO Pres. She actually wanted me to join the board, be a Vice Pres or secretary, but after learning what they do. I did not think with the twins home it was the right time. But this volunteer coordinator thing is suppose to be a lot of computer and telephone work which I can do from home. So far, it has been some work, but it should taper off after I get all the new volunteers entered for the year.

Now for the kids
C is so happy to be seeing her friends everyday. She is a social girl and likes having friends around. She has been lucky to have a core group of 4-6 girls that are always in the same class together. She likes school and enjoys learning. But she is not too keen on her teacher this year. She had heard that this teacher was mean from a few sources and so she went in dreading the worst. From little things I have heard, this is not my favorite teacher so far, but I will give it more time before making firm decisions.

T is already in a better class than last year. The bully is not there! He has a few friends from previous years including a buddy that was moved when they created a new class last year. He is very happy to have this friend in the class. I have only heard good things about this teacher and I hear she likes and uses volunteers (which many teachers don't at this school). T does not enjoy getting UP for school, he would much rather sleep in, but other than that he is enjoying school.

A was really happy to tell me that 5 boys from his Kindergarten class are in his 1st grade class and no girls! I am glad he already has friends in there. I worry about him, probably always will with his speech being so hard to understand. I did talk to his teacher and she seems great. I have heard from 2 sources that she was the best teacher my child ever had at the school. I like that.

R & S are missing the older kids, but we are staying busy. I am arranging a little home preschool for them one day a week. We do story time and are happy Ms Jo moved up from toddler time to do preschool storytime. I think she does a great job and love taking the boys. They like the songs and crafts, but prefer me reading stories to sitting in a group to listen. We have done some crafts at home.....Cutting and glueing are new to these boys and they like it. (It is just messy, thus why I waited til now) I hope to spend some quality time with these guys and have a bit of fun.

Ending summer with a splash

I guess summer began with a splash too by way of swim team, but this splash is Splashtown. We finally made it there. We had tickets to go with extended family the week of July 6th who were here on vacation, but that is when Austin got sick and we did not want to split up and go then. We choose instead to wait and go when we could as a family.

My kids really love the water. I guess they get that from me, their Mom who loves to swim and was sometimes called a fish growing up! But lately my kids have not wanted to go swimming at Mema's like we usually do. I honestly do not think we went too much this summer. 3-4 times a week max. Almost always with friends or cousins, but in the last week or so my kids have preferred not to swim.

But Splashtown was different. Everyone was excited to go except R! He is not a big fan of the water perferring to be a beach bum usually at Mema's house. C wanted to do every ride, and some of them twice. She loves adventure. A wishes he could grow 5 more inches so he could try every ride, even though we was a little scared, he did not want to miss out. T was ready to ride most things, though he needed a little convincing on one. S was at home in the water. He loved the crocodile island and the tree house. He has no fear of trying new things. It is also nice that all of my big kids enjoyed the little kid area too, because that is where the twins were most happy.

R was much more timid. When first getting him in the water he protested and fussed. I promised him I would not make him do the slide. He eventually found that he like that the water was shallow enough for him to walk in and he could do the pirate ship slide all by himself. There is a sea shell slide in the baby pool which is really small, no bigger than found at any public park, but R had to work up the nerve to do it. He must have climbed up the step over 10 times before I held his hand and he slid down. That was all he needed, he loved it after that. Same thing with bigger slides. Once Daddy or I got him to go down with us once, he was not scared and happy and wanting to do it again.

Between Daddy & I we did most all of the slides as well taking turns watching the twins. We really had a great family day together.

Return of the Dinosaurs

In the past week or two the dinosaurs have returned to life at our house. A few years ago the older boys went through a dinosaurs phase. It was lots of fun to see the exciting stories they told and the hours of play the dinos provided. We ended up with lots of dinosaurs, even jammies from Mom and dad and grandmas.

We all fell in love with The Land Before Time Movies and collected a few of them....grandma got them all! So now every morning S asks to watch a dinosaur movie. Even Daddy knows most of the songs which are very cute, and even cuter when he takes his twist to them. At our house triceratops are 3 horns, and brontosaurus are long necks. We have flyers and spike tails, just entire families of dinosaurs.

So long live the dinosaurs at our house. They bring us great joy and hours of playtime!

PS....Notice Snoopy in the picture, he has become R's play friend who must do everything with us like eat dinner, go to bed, and he even gets in trouble sometimes because he hits people! Still it is very cute to see this imaginary play.