Happy Halloween 2011!

All 3 kiddos had a great time, especially Sydney!  We walked around our neighborhood with the Shearer's.  The kids got lots of skittles and starburst for Daddy ;)  Sydney had her first taste of candy and LOVED it!

The Eve Before Halloween

We had a great weekend preparing for Halloween.  To start it out,the Cardinals won the World Series on Friday night!!  On Saturday we went and picked out 3 big pumpkins to carve.  We had a small party with our closest friends at night.  The kids dressed up and played with their buddies, got special Halloween goody bags and ate big Halloween chocolate cupcakes that they helped me make.  On Sunday we carved our pumpkins.  Luke especially LOVED this.  Luke picked out a scary face for me to carve and Ava picked a happy face.   Then we toasted some pumpkin seeds in the oven and enjoyed them!

How to be a Princess...

I couldn't be any happier with the way both Luke and Ava treat their baby sister.  Sydney has been so
cranky lately and the kids have been so good to her despite her 1 year old tantrums, loud cries and head banging!  This morning Ava was giving her lessons on how to be a princess.

More about Luke's First Day at Sorenson...

I couldn't be happier about the way today went with Luke at his new school.  He is a boy of very few words when it comes to giving me details about his day but his actions speak louder than words.  I can tell when something left a good impression on Luke when he comes home and recreates it.  All day long he played "school" with Ava where he was the teacher and she was the student.  He gave her the same snack he had today at school and they reenacted the same activities that he did while he was there. I know this because I got little love notes in his Steno notebook telling me about what they did today, what I should ask him about, etc.  Complete with how well he cooperated and responded to everything they did.  Tonight, right before bed he told me that he is so happy and he just kept repeating it.  He couldn't find the words to tell me why but I have got to believe it has something to do with how his new school made him feel today. It's amazing what a little bit of confidence will do for someone no matter what age he or she is! 

Leavenworth, WA ~ Oktoberfest 2011

We went with our good friends, The Shearer's to Leavenworth, WA and had a great time.  We celebrated Jonathan's Bday and Oktoberfest!  The cabin we rented had a beautiful view of Lake Wenatchee!  The kids did great the day of Oktoberfest.  We were there for about 5 hours and little Sydney did not even take a nap for the day!  We will definitely head back there next year!

Pumpkin Patch Field Trip

This year I was lucky enough to get a sitter so I could take Luke and Ava on their preschool fieldtrip.  We went to the Farm at Swan's Trail and it was a PERFECT fall day.  The sun was shining and a couple hours into it, it even was warm enough for ther kids to take off their jackets.  We took a tractor ride out to the pumpkin patch where Luke and Ava picked out three pumpkins each... 3 were white, 3 were orange. Next they went through a hay maze and at the end of it, went down a long wavy slide.  After that they got to play in a huge corn pit, go down even more slides and ride some saddle swings.  They had a real duck race in a long lap pool type thing that was hilarious and a pig show.  They ended out the day with some orange dreamsicles. It was an awesome fieldtrip!

Halloween Crafts

We have been working on so many little projects and baking so much the past couple weeks that I have not had much time to update the blog.  The kids are having so much fun preparing for Halloween.  This weekend we made potato head pumpkins with Daddy and Luke and I made a tea light candle holder from a glass jar.  We got the idea from the teachers in his old class.  He was obsessed with the candle for days... I can't even count how many tea lights we went through.  We also made a countdown chain out of construction paper and wrote each day on a link so Luke and Ava would have a better idea how long they have to wait until Halloween.  We made googly eyes pumpkins and hung them on knobs with pipe cleaners in Luke's room. 

Luke's First Time on the School Bus!

I was a little sad but mostly excited for Luke this morning as we walked onto his fist school bus.  He was accepted into Sorenson, a special school to help him with his shyness and speech.  We feel so lucky to have him going there, it is an amazing program for kiddos!  Anyway, today was his first day on the bus and he did so well!  Ava was so sad when he drove off.  All of us were there to support him in this big step!