Family Pictures

Between the weather being warm, the kids and dad having the day off, I knew we had to take advantage of today and get some family pictures taken. I just recently got a new remote for my camera, so I figured with a tripod, and the remote we could take our own pictures. So off we headed to Scott Park.

The big kids found this thin metal bridge type structure that goes over the creek that they instantly started climbing over it. I'll be honest we thought 'great one of them is going to fall in the water not even 2 minutes after getting here and there goes family pictures'. 

Thankfully no one fell in and we actually used the bridge structure for our 1st set of pictures. We found out with our 1st set of pictures that the remote doesn't work 16 feet away like it says it will. It works at most 5 feet away. 

MAJOR disappointment. 

Sigh. 

Relax.

I got over it and we made it work.

The city just finished making walking paths and putting nice bridges over the creek, which were perfect for our pictures.

Of course a little exploring under the bridge and over the rocks occurred, and so did tears. 2 sets of tears to be exact! Neither was from a parent. HUGE victory! But hey what is family pictures a without tears from at least one person.

I love Simeon's thoughtful blue eyes.

 Corrine is our natural posing child. You ask her to do something and it's done. 

I love Ammon's dark brown eyes and hair. He could have explored under the bridge all day.

Our little Rebecca is in a 'I will be happy about getting my picture taken when I WANT TO BE stage'.

Sigh. 

Relax. 

It will pass. 

Because "It came to Pass, NOT to stay"!

(I must remember this saying ALOT with her these days.)

One last picture to end with. I LOVE THIS PICTURE. This captures our sweet, energy filled Ammon perfectly. We were all getting ready to jump, and he was already high in the air! Ammon & Rebecca could run circles around Johann and I any day, all day and never wear out! 

Oh to be a kid again.

I considered our 1st do it yourself family pictures a success. Now to get them printed and on the walls before they grow taller then mom. Which by looking at these pictures is going to happen soon, very soon.

Fall colors

The leaves have started turning the most brilliant beautiful colors the last few weeks. Every time I drive down Court Street I see the bright yellow leaves at a church that are just begging to be played in.

Today Rebecca and I took a walk over to those leaves to play. What I thought was going to be half hour playing, ended up being a 2.5 hour play/bike ride. We were both TIRED when we got home!

On our way to the church we walked under this bright tree that I just fell in love with!

This lawn is leaf heaven to a 3 year old and her mom! Rebecca ran in the leaves, climbed a tree, made leaf soup, threw them in the air, searched for the mom, dad and baby leaves, found a big branch to carry and ran around some more.

After playing in the leaves we decided to walk down the street to check out the new bathrooms they built! You know your a mom when you know where ALL the bathrooms are, and which ones are the cleanest and best and which ones to stay clear of!!

 Rebecca found this ginormous leaf that was way bigger then her head.

After walking all the way to Hyvee and getting a free banana and cookie, we headed back home. Rebecca was so tired, that she gave up on her bike. Walking up our street we saw this bright yellow tree, right next door.

I love fall and all the amazing colors

Size 7 black boots

These sweet little size 7 black boots have been around for a long time. 10 years to be exact. They have been worn by Simeon, Corrine, Ammon & now Rebecca.

And Rebecca at 3 years old is about to outgrow them. 

This has made me quite sad. Very sad. 

I LOVE these boots! 

They have been LOVED and LOVED and LOVED some more by all 4 of our kids. They were used as firefighter boots, puddle stomping boots, bad to the bone motorcycle boots (complete with leather jacket), grabbed as the quickest shoes to put on, and of course became a holder of the many things the child wearing them wanted to stash or carry around.

I know I'm going to cry the day I hear Rebecca is her sweet 3 year old voice say:

"Mom, these boots hurt my toes." 

Because then and only then will I fully understand that our days of having little ones in our house is over. My little ones won't be so little anymore, they will all be "big kids". Right now we have 3 "big kids" and Rebecca. It will stay that way for a while longer, but not long enough.

The days of little feet and little hands in our house is growing farther away already. The 2 biggest kids and I could share shoes if needed to. Corrine has already put dibs on my purple Keens sandals for next summer. I secretly am alright with that because then I can get another pair. From the kids section I might add, because I have small feet!

 Rebecca LOVES these black boots as much as her siblings did. They have seen many adventures, have been filled with puddle water, had socks stuffed inside of them, have been lost under a pile of clothes, been found and been loved some more. They have helped her chase her brothers in the yard, protected her toes, climbed into the club house, played in the dirt with Corrine, been filled with dirt, slid down the slide and have sailed through the sky on the swings.

Oh man I'm going to miss the days of these boots being so loved and all the memories made in them. They will live on someday somewhere on another sweet kiddos feet.

They are the perfect childhood boot to be forgotten.

 Rebecca put them on in a hurry to get outside and play, since mom is insisting that she wears something on her feet so she will stop getting her sweet little toes hurt and she put them on the wrong feet. I hadn't even noticed until I looked at the 1st picture and obviously she didn't notice them on the wrong feet either!

1st day of Preschool

Rebecca has been ready for preschool for almost 2 years now! She's watched her big siblings pack their backpacks and lunches and go to school for so long that she was so super EXCITED to start preschool.

When I asked her if she wanted to make a sign and take some pictures with it, she instantly said "YES. I'll stand right here." And walked to the exact spot that I took the other kids picture at on the 1st day of school. She is so excited to be like "the big kids"!

Our preschool group is made up of 5 kids from our church. They are 3 or turning 3 soon. Rebecca is the 2nd oldest, but the smallest of the group. (Not super surprising since she is at the 3% for her size.)
We were the 1st to take a turn teaching. Our theme was "Getting to know each other."
I planned everything around the book Chica Chica Boom Boom, and used the phrase "will there be enough room?" Of course there is enough room for all our friends at preschool!

We made Palm Trees for snack with green apples, graham crackers, purple grapes and alphabet cereal. The kids had a fun time playing with their food and then eating it.

For our craft we made Chica Chica Boom Boom Trees. I used the Cricut to cut out the leaf shapes, and punched out each of the friends face for each child. The tree trunk was already glued down and the kids were given a glue stick and asked to make their tree. I gave no direction of how to place the leaves and faces. I did help put glue on the pieces if they needed it. Each came out so different and fun. Some had everything-leaves and faces on just the trunk, others were all over the page.

I have gotten into clothes pins lately. They are so great for learning activities and they work on fine motor skills. I made each of the kids their own clothespin name game. Under each clothespin I also wrote the letters in their names so they could match them up. Rebecca LOVES doing clothes pin activities and having her picture on this one, was a real big WOW factor for her!

A few weeks ago I found a Purple Cow laminator at Costco (which I love and go to every week since it opened 20 mins from our house.) and I finally broke it in the morning making the letters for our BIG Chica Chica Boom Boom Tree. I had visions of going through each letter slowly, but the kids just wanted to get the letters on the tree as fast as they could.

I had told the other moms at preschool that I have been dreaming of my own laminator for years and was beyond excited to have one of my very own. And for $20 with 100 laminating pouches I couldn't pass it up!

We also went outside and painted with water and drew with chalk. I made each of the kids their own hopscotch with their names. The kids were more interested in painting off each others chalks names with the water then jumping on their hopscotches!

Rebecca had such a fun time at preschool with her friends and is already asking when she gets to go again. This little girl is a sponge lately and it's been so fun to see her learn and grow.

Puddles are part of childhood

Early this morning we had a BIG storm with house shaking thunder, room brightening lightening and pelting rain. Our road has a little dip right in front of our house which always fills with water when it rains. This afternoon the road still had water sitting on it, and Corrine being our concoction girl needed to do something with that water. Corrine, Rebecca and our adopted neighbor kiddo Joe decided to play in the puddle with chalk.
It seems that whenever you combine puddles and a 3 year old that no matter how hard you try-THEY ARE GETTING WET! Rebecca slipped in and got her pants and boots wet. Before I knew it Corrine & Joe also had boots on and were jumping in the puddles. Trying to get Rebecca to watch and not join in was futile, so I decided that instead of fighting to keep her out of puddles in the road, I'd grab the camera and stand in the middle of the street so the kids could play and I could watch for cars. (Luckily our road is quiet with only a few cars.)

Ammon wanted to join in on the fun, but he couldn't find another pair of boots to wear. Joe needed to go home, so I offered the boots Joe had on to Ammon. He didn't want to wear them because they were wet inside and out. I told him after one jump that he wouldn't even notice they were wet, because he'd add water to them. He finally decided to put them on and jumped into the puddle. He tried so hard to keep a grouchy look on his face. He got ready to jump-grumpy face, jump in-grouchy face, then he looked up and grinned ear to ear and took off running to another puddle. The grouchy face disappeared and never returned because honestly how can a child jump into a puddle and not smile!!

After filling their boots with water more then a few times, they settled down and starting filled syringes with the water from the different puddles and comparing the cleanliness. One was super dirty and cloudy from the chalk they added to it earlier, one was oily looking and the 3rd was fairly clean for being a puddle in a street! Ammon was making fireworks with his syringe. These syringes came from the hospital. When Simeon had a spinal tap they would have some left over supplies likes blunt end syringes, sponge mouth cleaners and test tubes that we would take home to play with.

For the 45 minutes the kids ran from puddle to puddle, jumping, splashing and laughing. They practiced backward jumps, 360 jumps, super high jumps and biggest splash making puddles.

Today I got to decide which memories I wanted the kids to remember. I wanted those memories to be of jumping in the puddles and the fun and laughter that went with each splash. The load of dirty wet clothes I'd have to wash and messy footprints on the floor I just mopped will just have to wait while other memories are being made. Before I know it the kids will walk past the puddles and not jump in them and I'll look back and wish for the these years.

Being a kid is so much fun! 

Swipper swipped my cupcakes!

Swiper the Fox took my cupcakes!! I had to find them with my friends. We hunted for stars and danced to the Dora song with noisy maracas (that mom forgot to send home with my friends, so I have lots of them to make noise with!)  Then we put together the puzzle to go over puzzle bridge. We went through a tunnel and we walked on the lily pads through crocodile lake. When we went back up to my picnic table the cupcakes and Swiper were there. We told him "Swiper, No swipping," and he left them alone for us to eat.

We had lunch with my friends, then we went outside to play. We ate our cupcakes outside. The cupcakes we're really good!!

I got to open presents from my friends. I got a playdoh cake maker, a Dora phone, A princess pillowcase and a Tinkerbell play set.

When my friends went home we sent them with a Dora backpack with some goodies in them. It was a fun party!!

Backpack Goodie Bags

Oh No, Swipper took my cupcakes!

Hunting for Stars

Puzzle Bridge

Crocodile Lake

The tunnel

Make a Wish Birthday Girl and blow and the candle out.

My friends and I eating our cupcakes.

Kenzy, Nolan, Jordan, Me, Kensley, Eliza, Claire and Grant.

Map for us to follow.