Halloween Day

The kids had Halloween off of school so we had a little special Halloween lunch. Kevin didn't come home because he had a work lunch, but the kids and I had fun together. We had mummy dogs and fruit and veggies.  Clara loved sitting at the table with the big kids.  After the meal we carved our pumpkins.  It ended up being a fun day.

 WE made this cute smiley one for Annie girl. and Jane did this cute ghost all by herself.

 Russell wanted a scary one so this is what I came up with.

Lizzy wanted to make Jack the pumpkin king for her pumpkin, so I drew the pattern on for her and she carved it.  It turned out really cute I thought. we made the ghost one for Clara.

And Nellie made the one with the fangs.  It was fun to come up with faces on our won and for me to draw the patterns on for the kids.

Lizzy turns 12!!

 I feel like a broken record but I just cant help it!  How can Lizzy be 12 already?  I swear it was just yesterday that I was pregnant with her! I am blown away ever single day at how fast my kids are growing and how fast time is just zooming by.  This is such a big milestone birthday! She is now in young womens! I am so glad that I get to be with her in there a little bit.  Even if maybe she is getting the tiniest bit annoyed with how uncool I am. I know that it was bound to happen and every kid goes through it, but it is still hard when it does! I got to take her out for her birthday to pick out her presents and then we went and got a little bundt cake for her actual birthday since we always have the big cake celebration on sunday.  I loved getting to hang out with her and when we are one on one she is the most fun person to be around.  I always have a great time when we are together.

Lizzy asked for a white cake with raspberry filling and then she wanted it frosted purple since that is her favorite with yellow flowers.  I think I have gotten pretty good at frosting cakes, but I decided to do three layers of filling and it made it incredibly hard to frost.  Oh well she was still really happy with how it turned out.

Apple Hill

I can't help but look forward every year to our annual trip up to Apple Hill.  This year I wanted to try some different orchards because I feel like we always do the same ones and I just wanted to change things up a bit especially since High Hill is always so busy! So my friend had been up there recently and told me a couple to try out.   We went to Apple Ridge Farm first and I really loved it!  It didn't have nearly as many people as High Hill but still a lot of fun things to do. We loved their Kettle Corn too, it was to die for, and I don't even like Kettle corn!

This picture makes me laugh with her little hands there, trying to peek over.

I love this little monkey too and her cute smile.

There was a fun little mining thing where the kids got to sift through sand and find treasures.  It was really cute.

There was even a nature trail which was really fun to go and take a little walk and enjoy the beautiful scenery.  It was such a beautiful day, even if I was wishing it was very cool.  I get to fall and I get so antsy for the cool weather, even if I don't want it to get too cold.

After that we headed to Kids Inc. It was another farm I had heard good stuff about but never been. It also wasn't too crowded and it had some of the most beautiful scenery.  We decided to have lunch there and it worked out well that the cute kids table opened up right when we needed it. The kids loved eating their lunch there. Espcially little Clara.  She thought she was SOO big.

She was really into her food.

We tried to get a family picture but the sun was just so bright.  Obviously since we don't have a picture without Annie and Russ covering their eyes.

There was also a fun craft for the kids to do, decorating pumpkins.  The kids loved doing that too.  We were going to try and go to High Hill after that but Annie needed to get back for a birthday party and the traffic getting into High Hilll was crazy!  It was such a fun day though and I am glad we have a couple more orchards to choose from now!

All about Russell-5 Years

I cant believe that this boy of mine is already five!  How can that be?  He has always been the sweetest boy but somehow I think he has become even sweeter!  We call him our bear and he will always come up to me and say "I think you need a bear hug." and then give me the greatest tightest hug.  My heart!   He is always so sweet with his sisters and he has really started to even try and help with Clara.  He loves to try and hold her.  He and Annie also seem to be getting a long a lot better than they used to, so thank goodness for that!  He has turned even more into a little miniature Kevin, if that was even possible.  He just seems to love everything that Kevin does and it is just the cutest thing.  He has become obsessed with baseball which of course is Kevin's favorite.  He will ask "Is today dayplay?" Meaning is it a day game for the dodgers?  He loves the dodgers and call them his team. He actually has a bunch of dodger stuff because he wants to have all dodger stuff like his backpack and his lunchbox..  He even wanted a Kershaw jersey for his birthday, of all the things he could get.  Kevin was so proud.  He loves to help Kevin fix anything and whenever Kevin is working on stuff he has to be right beside him.  

Russell started Transitional Kindergarten because he wasn't quite old enough for regular kindergarten, and he has been doing so amazing at it.  I am in awe of how his mind has grown so much is such a short amount of time. He seems to be picking up letters and sounds and math at a really great pace now.  It's fun because for a long time I was a little worried because he showed absolutely zero interest in learning stuff.  He just wanted to play.  But now he will always tell me guess what letter this word starts with and he will sound things out.  He also really loves to try and add things and subtract things.  He always looks forward to going to school.  I'm sure all the kids in class like each other, but they always seem so excited to see him when he gets there. 

He is such a good eater and he actually eats a lot!  I think I am just seeing a preview of what the teenage years will be like for that!  He always tells me he likes the food I make which is so sweet.  I seriously cant say enough how sweeet this boy is.  He really loves when my parents come over and always makes sure to give them big hugs when they leave.  A funny thing about Russell is that he is really wanting to be one of the big kids so we will put him to bed with Annie, but when Annie falls asleep he will come down where we are with the big girls and say "I saw you gave me a wink so that means I can stay up."  I don't know where the whole wink thing came from because I never give him a wink, but we have been letting him stay up a little with the girls and he thinks he is pretty hot stuff when he does it.  I feel so very grateful that we were blessed with our Russy Bear!  WE couldn't have asked for a better kid!  We love him so much!

Russells 5th Birthday

Its so hard to believe that our buddy is already five!! Russ was so excited for his birthday this year and he started asking two months ahead of time how many days until his birthday.  And of course he still isn't that great with his whole concept of time, so he was asking me all the time and then upset when it wasn't any closer.  The day finally arrived and he was so excited to take baseball cookies to his class and we realized that he had pinkeye!  Poor guy, he was so disappointed that he couldn't go to school on his birthday. So his dad saved the day and took the afternoon off to spend with him.

 We had taken him out to lunch the day before. These two boys of mine are just the most handsome ever!

 On his birthday Kevin took him to Home Depot and they bought a little kit to make a bulldozer.  It was the cutest thing ever to see them putting it together.

For his birthday he wanted a baseball cake, which was pretty easy to make, and turned out so cute!  He was really happy with it, which is all that matters. It was perfect too because as you can see there was a dodger game on in the background.  if you look in the picture you can see that he has cotton in his ear because his eardrum burst.  The poor guy just couldn't get a break that week. we sure love this baseball loving awesome boy of ours!  He is so loved and we are beyond grateful to have him in our family!

The Runner Girl

Lizzy joined Cross Country this year.  She has always loved to run but has never had very much opportunity to do it.  She started off pretty well but then she just kept improving by leaps and bounds.  From the first race to the last she ended up improving over two minutes!  It's so fun to get to watch her because she makes it seem so effortless.

 She has her good friend Peyton who also runs with her, so that make it even more fun for her.

It was so fun to get to watch her at the Finals because she did great but this is just the beginning for her. She has a lot of years ahead of her, where she can keep improving.  I love that she has found something that she really loves to do.