End of September and Beginning of October AND Seth's birthday!

September means fall soccer here, which means manic time if you have more than one playing.  Last year we had three and it was insane.  This year it was just Caleb, so two games a week, plus practice on Monday (which we only remembered twice. Hehh.).  His coach this year was the dad of his best friend, plus his friend was on his team so he had a lot of fun.  He mostly played defender which he really really likes and he'll chase the ball all over.  Well, except the one night when he wasn't chasing and when we watched closer, we could tell he was limping.  After the game we talked to him and he said his thigh had been hurting since he played basketball that day.  Poor kid, pulled a muscle and didn't want to miss his game so he didn't tell us.  He healed pretty fast, we kept him from the game two days later but then he was back in the next week. 

Yay!  We scored a goal!

 Pinterest has lots of fun ideas for hair, so we tried a new one on Abby one Sunday, you make her hair into a hair bow.  It's really pretty simple, but we only achieve it half the times that we attempt it.  It's all up to Abigail's mood. This is after church and nap, so it's a little frizzed out, but you get the idea.  Here's the link to the instructions: http://www.simplysadiejane.com/2013/07/toddler-hair-bows-tutorial.html

 During Spirit Week at school, they had a Crazy Fashion Day.  We braided Felicity's hair with pipe cleaners and were going to bend them into Cat's Ears, but she had to leave early for Choir so we just tied balloons on the ends of her hair.  It was pretty cute.

 Caleb and Joseph's outfits.  Joseph  was so funny, he wanted to be crazy, but not toooo crazy. They both wore different socks and Caleb wore two different shoes, but Joseph didn't want to do that.  I drew mustaches on them, too, which they liked.

 And after the kids left for school, Seth and Abigail had to have their own mustaches.

 I was able to go to the Clark Planetarium with Felicity's class for a field trip.  Those sixth graders are loud on a bus.  But we had fun, and the planetarium is pretty cool.  This was a scale that would tell you how much you weigh on different planets.  Thank you, but I don't need to add to my anxiety.

 Waiting for the star show to start.  Once the lecturer started tilting the stars around I was about done.  I don't get motion sick very often, but that was not very fun.  Then he did this thing called a Space Rollercoaster.  I was dizzy for about half an hour after.  The kids loved it and jumped up right after.  Us chaperons moved a little slower. 

 Then we went to the moon...

 Clark Planetarium has the biggest ball run I've ever seen, it was about three stories high with knobs you could pull or twist to make the balls go different directions.  Very cool.  Felicity could have spent a lot more time just watching the balls and sending them in all kinds of directions.

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And then it was Seth's birthday!  He's so nonchalant about his birthday, I'm used to kids (well, mostly Felicity) planning their birthdays down to the last detail months in advance, but Seth was pretty calm about it.  One detail was that he wanted a pig on his cake.  He has decided that he loves pigs.  And he didn't want a pig cake, no, he wanted a pig on a cake.  And it had to be a chocolate cake (whew, that's what I like!) and he wanted plain chocolate ice cream.  I asked him what he wanted for his birthday dinner.  He said "Cake and ice cream."  I said "No, Seth, what do you want for dinner?"  He said "Oh. Cheese."  So I said,  "NO, what do you want for dinner, you can have something like pizza or spaghetti, or enchiladas..." and I'm spitting out all kinds of ideas and he's just looking at me like he's trying to figure out what I mean.  He had spent the day at a friends house and they had corn dogs for lunch, so the next thing out of my mouth was "or corn dogs..." which I instantly regretted and came back to the pizza idea, which was what I was hoping he'd want (yes, I manipulate my children).  But he heard corn dogs, and that's what he wanted.  A Birthday Menu by a Five Year Old Boy:  Chocolate Ice Cream, Chocolate Cake, Cheese, and Corn Dogs.  I don't think he meant to have the alliteration.  We changed it a little bit, and came home with corn dogs, french fries, and chicken nuggets.  Plus the cake and ice cream, of course.

I had baked the round cake when I still thought I was making a pig face, but then he insisted on a pig on the cake, so Nicki and I ran to the dollar store to see what we could find.  We combed the store, found nothing, almost came home with a bag of plastic bugs because we figured that he does like bugs and he would like a gross creepy crawly cake, but then we found a box of piggy banks!  Whew!  Thank you Dollar Tree.

Happily opening presents...

He loved the hat and gloves from Melissa and Nicki and I appreciate having more gloves and hats because it's always difficult to fully winter cloth everyone.  Extras are always welcome.

Mom and Dad found some trucks at IKEA that are stackable and switchable, he can make his own truck/tractor creations.  He loved that.

And then the cake came out!

Happy birthday Seth!  You are my sweet kisses giver and first class snuggler.  You are eternally in a fight against the Bad Guys and have an amazing imagination that makes me smile.  You are a great big brother to Abby and play so well with her (well, mostly) and you love your big brothers and sister and want to be just like them.  You're learning so fast right now and growing and maturing, but you still have that mischievous smile with the crazy long eyelashes that melt hearts left and right.  I love you Sethy!

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And we can't have a post without another mischievous little thing.  I rarely leave anything out like this that she can get into, I have experience in the mothering after all!  But she watches and waits and then attacks when we least expect it...like when we're eating dinner.  At least it was flour and not baking soda.  Although she might have stopped sooner if she tasted that.

Birthday Party and the Pinewood Derby and other fun

Finally we were able to have Felicity's birthday party and she was ready!  She had been planning this for months and after sickness had gone through the house we figured now it was safe.

After the fun we had at the family reunion earlier in the summer, we decided to play minute to win it games.  We played a lot of games, and now I can't remember them all, but the girls had fun and there was lots of giggling.  Totally made up for the being sick on the birthday thing.

 The prizes for winning the games were candy and cookies to eat with the ice cream later.

 One thing Felicity really wanted was an ice cream bar.  So we bought a big thing of Napoleon ice cream and then lots of toppings, including some of the candy they won playing the games. Those girls can eat a lot!

 Now that she's getting older a good part of the time at parties is spent just talking and hanging around.  Which makes my job easier.  Whew.

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 We got a bunch of new letters for our magnet wall and Caleb, Joseph, and I had fun spelling out everyone's names. We had to get a little creative by the end, but it was all good.

 Seth and Abby missed the kids while they were at school.  Seth asked me three times that first day when were the kids getting back.  But all in all, they've settled in to their new routine and they have a lot of fun playing with each other.  They're not great at hide and seek, though.  If this was a video, you could hear them giggling in their hiding spot.  Too cute.  I'm glad Seth has one more year before kindergarten because of his late birthday.  I think he needs that year, and he's having fun in the neighborhood joy school me and some of the other mothers are doing.  It's been really good for him.

 Here we are mom!

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 Caleb loves going to cub scouts.  Here he is presented with his Wolf, I know it's a terrible picture.  Church gyms are not meant for taking pictures.

 Explaining the rules for the excited scouts.  And their dads.

 Caleb was in the first race, how fun is it to see these kids so eager to see how their cars do!

 Anticipation!

(I blurred out last names in this picture)

 Caleb ended up being in 5th place, not too bad considering the gorilla glue that Farris used to fix the front end grew and went over the axle, so he had to do emergency surgery 10 minutes before the race. Caleb designed his car with only a little help from me, then Farris cut it out, he sanded it, he painted it (including the flames on the side and top, he liked the flames idea) and Farris helped him put the axle and tires and weights into place.  When the axle was going in, the front end broke, so Farris fixed it right before we rushed it to the weigh in a few days before the race. Caleb was pretty proud of his car and we learned a lot this first go round.  By the time Seth gets into cubs, we're going to have it down pat.

Caleb was voted for the Racer's Choice award, which means all the other cub scouts chose his for their favorite design.  He was happy about that! 

And last of all I have to share this video of Seth singing the Lumineers song, "Hey Ho" Or his version of it any way, I love how he starts making up lyrics at the end.  It's one of my favorite songs right now, along with Imagine Dragons "On Top of the World."   I like songs that have a fun energy to them, because that's what I need sometimes to get through the day!

August fun (with a little ninja action)

We only had a few more days before school started, and a lot we had wanted to do before summer ended, so we crammed some fun in really quick.

 First, we had been looking for a big (twin size) bed for Seth for awhile.  He was getting very close to outgrowing the toddler bed, and Abigail was getting very close to outgrowing her baby bed.  Plus, once they learn to climb out of the crib it loses it's point of being.  So we looked on KSL classifieds over and over again.  We needed a space saver because we've crammed all three boys into one bedroom, and even with the bunk beds it's hard to have room for three beds plus dresser space.  So we were thinking a loft bed would be the best.  I called on several and they were just too big for the space or they had already been sold.  Finally !! I found a bed with room for storage underneath and it was just shorter than a twin and it had a mostly new mattress.  Ok!  So Seth got his bed and it fit and Abby got the toddler bed.  They were both happy for bedtime, which doesn't happen often.  And Abby piled her bed high with stuffed animals as you can see. 

 Seth was happy to get a new, bigger blanket, and he requested the smiley face quilt mom made for me a long time ago.  Sometime I'll get around to making him a quilt just for himself,, but he's pretty happy with this one now.

 The day beofre school started, Farris took a vacation day and we went to the zoo.  It had been years (I think Joseph was a baby when we went to the Albuquerque Zoo), so we were all excited.  I love the zoo! 

 And Joseph has a superpower that turns him into a ninja whenever a camera goes off around him. Ninja Vanish!

 The elephants are amazing.  And the baby elephant is just as cute as when I was little watching Dumbo.

 Felicity liked the Eagles Nest.

 Caleb lvoed seeing all the LEGO creations that were displayed all over the zoo, and decided that he wants to be a LEGO engineer when he grows up.  The polar bear was my favorite. 

 The polar bear itself was all of our faovrite animal to see.  He was such a ham for the crowd and just played with everyone. 

 He would smiw slowly past the window so he could go nose to nose with all the kids.

 

Then he would push up out of the water right in front of the kids and they'd all gasp.

 

 And then he'd push back, fall backwards into the water and float on his back  away from everyone until he rolled over and came swimming right back.  He would do this over and over again, it was the best show in the zoo.

Seth wanted to be fornt and center to watch, but every time the polar bear would push out of the water he was startled and jumped back.  With disastrous results.

After that we hustled over to corner to settle him down and make sure Caleb still had all his teeth.  Even with the bonk, the polar bear was still Seth and Caleb's favorite part of the zoo.

 The LEGO monkeys were so cute.

 Whenever I've been to the Hogle Zoo before, the tiger always hid up at the top of his enclosure so you could barely see him.  This time he came down and sat right next to the fence and looked at us like he wanted to eat us.  Tigers are very beautiful but a little bit freaky.  He even went and sat in his pool for a little while.  So graceful. 

 I love to see the giraffes!  How can an animal that lanky and awkward be so graceful when they move.  They look peaceful and elegant.

 Seth hugging the huge elephant statue.  Good bye zoo, until next time!

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 The next morning, bright and early, sending three off to school!  Felicity is in the top of elementary now, and already a little anxious for Junior High.  And I am, too.

 Joseph is our social one and wanted to get to school to see all his friends.

 Caleb, our forth grader, is cool. 

 Ninja again!

And all their friends they walk with showed up and let me take a picture with them, too.  It's going to be a good year!