my little helper

Grant is always the first to volenteer when I ask, "who wants to vacuum the van?"  We got this small vacuum for Cameron's birthday.... not one of the greatest birthday presents known to man but I wanted a vaccuum and his birthday was coming up so...  in my defence the van, kitchen and carpet has never been more vacuumed.

Fall Festival

Yesterday was our Fall Festival.  we had a Chili cookoff and a carnival of sorts with a cake walk, bean bag toss, fishing, coloring, and cookie decorating.  my kids loved it. 

Some of the kids dressed up, these were two of my favorite. Kaleb the Mummy and Grace the butterfly.

Grant has decided that he is attached to me. He wanted me to hold him and tried to hide from anyone who wasn't family.  he hasn't ever done that before.

Can you guess who Katelyn is?  I made Katelyn's Wendy costume, it was an easy pattern, creating the matching bear costume on the other hand wasn't so easy.  but it meant a lot to her, and it turned out pertty cute,  hopefully I can get some better pictures at Halloween.

Waiting for the Bus

These days we spend a lot of time waiting for the bus.  In the morning the bus picks Katelyn up at 6:40am.  You might be asking yourself, Why do you hurry to catch the bus at 6:40am when school doesn't even start until 7:45 and it's only a 12 minute drive?  I'll tell you why, Because Katelyn LOVES riding the bus,  if ever I tell her that I'm going to drive her to school the next day, she begs and pleads with me to let her ride the bus, and then she wakes up 2 or 3 times throughout the night to reconfirm that I really am giong to let her ride the bus in the morning, then just to be sure she wakes up at 5:30ish as Cameron is leaving for work and comes into my room and once again begs me to let her ride the bus... how can I say no to that? 

so if you ever happen to come by my house at 6:39am you'll probably watch as Katelyn, Dallin and Grant have races down the sidewalk as we wait for the bus.

The boys are equally excited for the bus but they usually sleep in until 6 or 6:30am and have not usually changed their clothes before we head out the door to wait. 

I'm not sure why I don't have a picture of Dallin.

Pumpkin Patch

The McKernen's invited us to go to a pumpkin patch with them.  It was free to get in but you had to have tickets to do any of the activities. Each ticket was a dollar and each activity cost anywhere between 2 and 5 tickets.  It turned out to be a little expensive but it was fun.

The kids had to most fun playing in the hay stack,  they took turns sliding down the"hill" and trowing hay at the adults careless enough to stand within reach.

They got to go on a train, pulled by a lawn mower.

paint their own pumpkins.

feed the lammas in the petting zoo

Enjoy a pony ride

Dallin and Grant had the best time playing on some rocks while the daddies waited in line for the pony ride.

Everyone had a great time.

a Garden

It was bound to happen, now that we have our very own house, with our very own yard we have planted our very own garden.  We went to Lowes this weekend and bought some plants... mostly lettuce, peas and pumpkin but we also got some straberries, bell peppers, and some other pepper.  It should make for an interesting crop. 

The kids got really into it.  Katelyn and Dallin both put in their muscles to spread the soil. Thankfully Grant was content to play inside during this whole ordeal.

Here's to fall gardening.

We also planted a tangerine tree.  it should start producing in about 5 years, right about the time we'll be moving... but hey it was 50% off. 

A new bed

Some friends of ours upgraded to a bunk bed and offered us their toddler bed... we couldn't say no.  Grant was so excited to sleep in his new bed that he had are hard time... aah.... sleeping.  

He tried to show us that he really would stay in his bed but every time we left the room he would start giggling and "sneaking" out of bed.  He's not the quietest sneak I've ever heard. He likes to open and close doors then run back to bed laughing.  We gave him a few trys but ultimately he ended up sleeping in his crib that first night. 

Dallin insisterd on sleeping on the floor next to the bed. 

We've had the bed for a few weeks now and Gramt's slept in it maybe 3 times, the other nights we try, he just gets too excited to stay in bed.  Dallin and Katelyn don't mind because if he has to sleep in his crib they get to alternate sleeping in the new bed. 

Who knew a bed could be so much fun?

A pet preview

We haven't ventured into the world of pets yet, unless you count Katelyn's pet tadpole named Rosie who we saved from the gutter near out apartment in Tampa after a bad rain storm.  Katelyn insisted we find Rosie's parents so she wouldn't be lonely.  we not only found Rosie some parents but we found her a dozen brothers and sisters too. then we left them for a week while we went to visit family. They all died... except for one who lived until we changed the water and then she died too.  and that was the end of our pets until yesterday,  Katelyn found a tiny white snail climbing up our house, she captured it and put it in a plastic cup with a leaf.  That  of course wouldn't do, nameless snail needs a sister... and of course a brother.

This morning Katelyn put on her pouty face and begged, "can I just have 5 snails, please mom, just 5?"  I didn't see the big deal in having 5 snails, hey at least their out of our garden right?  so now we are proud carers of 5 snails.  can't wait to see what's comes next or for the day she realizes that we could have real pets like dogs or cats...

since this was posted we have collected over 60 snails which have been moved into half a milk carton, Katelyn checks them every morning, night and after school and shakes down the ones who try to escape... most of them have stopped trying...