Life At The Circus

The kids and I escaped down to VA for just shy of 24 hours to spend some time with my SIL and her family.  I adore Scott’s sister so a visit to her house was a bright spot in our week.   We arrived in the early afternoon with time for me to take the 4 boys to the park while Aunt Karen took the girls to run a few errands. Then after dinner we built and decorated gingerbread houses.  Now, I must say we did not have luck with building a sturdy construction of said houses… the nifty little trick on Pinterest turned out to be a bust, to say the least, however not a single kid seemed to mind as they still were able to consume gobs and gobs of sugar throughout the endeavor.  I love this picture of my nephew… arm out on the bench, mouth full of graham cracker and icing… he was one very happy little boy.  Pretty sure his face says, “man this is the best after dinner activity ever” Then there’s my youngest… roof falls off mid decorating, no proble...

It’s hard to believe that my youngest will be school age next year.  Seriously, how did that happen?  Sometimes when we drop the big kids off at their tutorial on “school at the building days”  he will pause outside the Kindergarten room and tell me, “That’s where I go next year Momma and then you will be all alone and so sad.”  And my heart kinda breaks a little.  Because he is right.  I will be so sad.  I will miss my little buddy at Trader Joes who pushes the cart and makes a dash for the coffee.  I’ll miss him packing up his book bag with sooo many books so he too can carry it around like the big kids, even though I am most often stuck lugging it around.  Scott encouraged me to make sure I am cherishing these days… not just getting stuff done that I need to, but really taking advantage of this time with him. Which I know I am guilty of not doing.  So I brainstormed a few things I want to make sure we do together this year and on...

It really has been fun watching our youngest play soccer this fall.  And he truly has been so excited to have a sport of his own to go to for practices and games.  He’s lived up having his turn with the celebration plate.  And besides the first game (in which he was very cold and a little under weather), pretty much every other game he has looked like this Smiley and happy…. He even scored a few goals… But there were no smiles this morning. This morning it was C-O-L-D and rainy and windy…. and we had to be on the field at 9am  after Halloween… Halloween in which we let him stay up late playing in the court with the neighbors…. Today he looked like this.  I told him he’d warm up if he ran on the field… He responded, “I will warm up if I go inside.”  because he wanted to be able to eat a doughnut after (b/c really what kid doesn’t need a doughnut the morning after Halloween) he did go on the field for a little while then it was back to Momma’s a...

What a Night! We had a super fun Halloween evening this year and I am thankful we got to know several of our neighbors better.  This year we had Harry Potter Super Girl (yes she has been Supergirl for 1/3 of our Halloween’s but what can I say, the girl likes being super girl)  This year she changed it up and went with pink super girl though. Her majesty the queen also graced us with her presence.  I have to say one of my favorite parts of the day was putting make up on her.  I let her wear my real make up and earrings and her smile and her smile and giggle while I got her ready were priceless. I bet you will NEVER EVER guess what this little man went as… He is a Jack-o-Lantern dressed up as a lion.  He also really likes making sure that the nose of his pumpkin stays in even when lit.  So he carefully pops it in. We had a super fun evening. 

We carved our pumpkins tonight…. My second born has always been my tactile child.  She loves getting her hands messy… she’s the one who loves the feel of dirt on her skin and apparently is also fond of pumpkin guts on her fingers.  She happily squished and sorted seeds. Her sister was less thrilled with the feel of pumpkin guts on her hands. But,we were all happy with how the jack-o-lanterns turned out. And we are looking forward to trick or treating on Friday!

While picnicking at the orchard last weekend, a bee made his way to our 4 year olds apple.   As it buzzed around and lingered around his hands, Scott thought that it might freak him out so he started to swat it away. “No Daddy!” our 4 year old protested, “he’s trying to become my friend!” That’s one we hadn’t heard before…

I absolutely love apple picking with my kiddos.  This year I found a great price on delicious locally grown honey crisp apples at the local grocery store and we enjoyed them all fall and I was so tempted to skip out on apple picking b/c we had already enjoyed such delicious apples this fall.  But apple picking is about so much more than the apples for me. It’s the memories.   I love walking through the rows of apple trees.  I love watching the kids pick apples.  I love the big blue skies, the fall colors, the cool air and warm sunshine.  I love fall.  I love pretending we live in the country even though we live in suburbia.   And so I was so grateful that we were able to slip away for a few hours this weekend and pick apples together as a family. Fall fun at its finest…

It’s been a few years since we have been to the zoo, and our youngest has been eager to go and see real animals up close.  He was super excited about the lions and tigers.  He’s been asking for several months if we could go to the zoo.  I thought fall would be a nice time as it wouldn’t be too hot.  I was hopeful we could see animals being more active than in the summer months that we typically visit. We planned to go on Columbus Day since we didn’t have school.  When I saw the forecast for clouds and rain, I wondered if we should try for a different day.  But, we decided to go ahead as planned.  When we first got there it started really down pouring and part of me questioned our decision.  But the radar showed the down pour would pass, so we grabbed our umbrellas and proceeded. I was eager to see the panda bears.  We also added elephants and zebra to the list.  I recall at our last visit they were working on building a new area fo...