Halloween...Finally

Here is our little Halloween menagerie. This cute picture was taken at our ward Halloween party. It is the best picture we got, and I had to wait for my friend to send it to me, which is why this post is late.

This is more like the pictures I got. In fact, I only got two pictures of Jack the whole Halloween.  And he's walking out of this picture.

Remember last year when I made JJ an astronaut costume, because we couldn't find one in the store.  It cost more money than a store bought costume and took way too much time.  I had so many people tell me how great it is when they see homemade costumes, and all I thought was, I will never make another costume again.  Fast forward to this year.  In September I asked what they wanted to be.  JJ said a dinosaur.  Okay, I can do that.  Ryan was happy to do whatever JJ said.  So we had a plan, I had found some cute ones online and purchased one for Jack.  Then in October, JJ decided he really wanted to be a wolf, only problem, there are no wolf costumes to be found.   And there was no deterring him.  Oh, there were tears (his and mine).

What's a loving mother to do. I gave in, and made the simplest costume I could come up. He was insistent that his face be painted white with a black nose. Other than that he was pretty accommodating. And I will not be making another costume. Here he is shaking his tail.

Ryan would have been anything I suggested, so when I found a giraffe costume half off, he was all about it. He loved his glove hoofs. This was the first year Ryan anticipated Halloween events. He struggled with waiting to go trick or treating. And he loved carving the pumpkin. He still asks almost every day if we can get a pumpkin and carve it.

Jack was an elephant for the ward carnival. The costume was a little big, so we went back to the Winnie the Pooh for trick or treating. Jack thought it was awesome. Knock on a door and people give you candy. He walked around holding on to, and smoothing his candy bars all night. He walked the whole time.

And these are the pumpkins. The painted one JJ made in school and the other one is ours, the large whole on the side is the ear (in case you were wondering).

First Day of School

JJ's first day of school was August 28th. He was so excited. And so was I. None of the boys was super excited about having their picture taken, so these are the best I could get.

He had absolutely no problem leaving me, although he did want me to stay until the teacher came to get them.  He has about 6 kids from his preschool class in this years class, so it was just like a big reunion.  The fact that he knew so many kids and knew the school from last year made this transition so easy (and it kind of made him one of the popular kids).   He has a great teacher, she's our neighbor and I requested he be in her class.  She does really well helping JJ stay focused and on task.  And bonus, the one child I was worried about JJ interacting with moved to a different class.  So this year could not have started out any better.

 Ryan struggled for about 3 weeks, everyday leaving the school in tears, "Please can I go to school.  Do you think I'm 3 now so I can go to school."  He still struggles some days, but he's come to accept it. 

Summer Bucket List Week 4

My parents and my little brother came into town for a quick visit and so we spent Monday and Tuesday hanging out with them, jumping on the trampoline and going to City Creek Center. Seriously, they couldn't have asked for a better end of summer activity.

Wednesday we had a ton of errands to run.

Thursday was JJ's first day of soccer.  This will be a very interesting experience.  I'll have more on this later.

On Friday, we went to Kangaroo Zoo, a bounce house near us.  Once Jack figured out what was going on, he was in heaven.  The other boys loved it too, although the adventure ended with both boys in tears due to a few minor injuries that got way over blown.  (the pictures were taken on my very cracked and dirty iPhone, which is why they look bad).

 

 And we're done.  Our summer is over.  School starts next week.  I'll have pictures of that on Tuesday.

Summer Bucket List Week 3

This 3rd week was a tough week. The three boys took turns battling the stomach flu, so we spent a lot of time watching TV, trying to take it easy.

So on Monday, while Ryan was sick, we decided it was "build a fort" day. My boys are novices, but they had a great time.

On Tuesday, we were watching Sid the Science kid, and they were discussing sun tan lotion and did this experiment.  The boys decided they wanted to it as their fun activity for the day, which was good, because it was quick and easy and I hadn't planned anything because I had been doing throw up laundry for 4 days.  You draw designs on a dark piece of paper with sun tan lotion and then put it in the sun to dry.  Come back a few hours later to compare.

Wednesday was another project inspired by TV, this time from Abby's flying fairy school on Sesame Street.  We made noodle art.  Thanks to Costco, I have lots of fun shaped noodles and I gave them a piece of cardstock, a bottle of glue, and bowls of noodles. 

 

And that's the end of the adventures this week. I was exhausted. I think on Friday I might have taken them to a play place for lunch.  Friday was also back to school night where we got to meet JJ's teacher and see his classroom.  He is so excited.  (And so am I).

Summer Bucket List Week 2

Monday's activity was making slime. 1 1/2 cups of clear glue and 1 1/2 cups of liquid starch (Sta-Flo found at Walmart) and some food coloring. At first, it's a little lumpy, but as we pulled it like taffy and kneaded it like bread, it became smooth and pliable.

It doesn't really mash, like playdoh, but kind of melts and meshes together. The boys enjoyed it.

I don't have a lot of pictures from this week.  Tuesday we went to the pool and Wednesday we went to the McDonald's play place, where Ryan whacked his face and ended up with a lovely bruise and black eye.

Thursday we went to up to see my brother and the kids got to play with the dog.  Awesome!!

And Friday was flubber.  Here is a link to the recipe.  This was ooey and gooey and the boys loved it.  It did however, require throwing away the table cloth as the clean up was way too messy.

Two more weeks of fun!!!

Summer Bucket List Week 1

Last week I realized that JJ would be starting school in 4 weeks and I had spent most of the summer telling the kids to leave me alone so I could get (fill in the blank) done.  It was generally worthwhile activities: cleaning, Primary stuff, a shower; but I didn't want them to remember this summer that way.  So with 4 weeks to go I decided that we would try to do one fun thing most days.  I have been faithfully pinning activities on Pinterest, I figure I would have plenty of options.  So here is a run down of week one (but not in order because Blogger hates me.)

Tuesday's activity was making homemade Jello pudding pops.  The recipe I found was one large package of Jello pudding, 3 cups of milk, 1/2-1 cup powdered sugar and 2 cups of Cool Whip.  We filled 10 plastic cups and froze.  If I do this again,  I will cut the recipe in half,  but still fill 10 cups

Jack loved it!!!

Thursday we made GAK: 2 parts cornstarch, 1 part water.  If you are not familiar with it, it hardens  when you touch it and play with is, but turns to liquid when you leave it alone.  JJ thought this was a great science experiment and asks to do it everyday.

Monday's activity was blowing paint.  I watered down paint and they blew it with straws.  We did this one outside, although they did a pretty good job of not making a mess.

Wednesday was shopping so we didn't do anything fun.
Friday we put food coloring in cups of vinegar and then dropped it into pans of baking soda.  This was so fun.  But after this, I stocked up on baking soda.  It takes a lot, but the boys played for more than an hour.  So worth it.

Fun! Fun! Jack is One!

Ah, one.  It's my very favorite birthday.  It's the beginning of so many great things.  Don't get me wrong, I love my babies, and there is nothing better than the sweet smell of a baby cuddled up, but I don't do sleepless nights well.  And the lack of personal space and personal time. And I just love my toddlers.  Learning to walk, talk, manipulate the world, I love, love, love it!  So here's my cutie patootie. 

Jack loves to wrestle with his brothers.  If the two older ones get on the floor, Jack makes a bee-line for them, and piles on top.  This is him on top of JJ.  Jack doesn't talk much(well, not actual words, but he jabbers constantly), but he makes sounds for his brothers.  Especially if they are downstairs or outside and he is trapped in the living room with me, he will stand at the top of the stair or bang on the screen door and yell Wa-Ya for Ryan and Ja-Ja for JJ.  He will occasionally say Momma, but only when he is in bed and wants me to come get him.

Jack got a Mickey Mouse for his birthday and loves it.  

 

These are just cute pictures of Jack being happy and smiley

Jack is learning so many things.  He can climb up stairs, and can go down one or two before he loses his coordination and usually falls over.  He's taken several steps on his own and can stand himself up.

 

We finished nursing in May.  He was my easiest baby to wean, I just gave him a bottle and he was fine.  He refuses to eat baby food altogether, but doesn't eat a whole lot of other food either, so he is following in his brothers footsteps. He likes oatmeal with brown sugar, mini-wheats, bread, macaroni and cheese, and I recently discovered he will eat freeze dried bananas. And that's about it. Oh, and ice cream, let's not forget that.

He is really good at imitating sounds. Screaming, crying, whining, if someone is making a sound, he wants to participate.  He also mimics facial expressions really well.  He especially likes to make faces with his dad.

And this is proof how much Jack loves his ice cream