Happy Halloween!

 Happy Halloween!!!

Five Little Pumpkins

 Five Little Pumpkins sitting on a gate

The first one said, "Oh my it's getting late."

The second one said, "There are witches in the air."

The third one said, "But we don't care."

The fourth one said, "Let's run and run and run."

The fifth one said, "I'm ready for some fun."

Whoosh went the wind and out went the light

and five little pumpkins rolled out of sight.

Out Loud

 It takes Lee Lee longer to fall asleep than any of our other children.  When we read at night to the big kids, she has a harder time attending to the story than the other kids and so she often asks unrelated questions, or talks to herself, or talks to her stuffed animals, or reads herself stories.

All of that is fine until she is too loud or disruptive.

The other night, Lee Lee was reading a book to her stuffed animals too loudly and the other kids were having a hard time hearing the book I was reading.  I talked to Lee Lee about this, and then she saw a different book on the ground and she asked me to hand it to her.

I said, "Addallee, you're not going to read this book out loud are you?"

Her response, "No.  I'm going to read it out quiet."

Not A Baby Person

 

Hubby is not a baby person.  It has taken me years to accept and understand what this means because we both want children and a large family -- so how can he not be a baby person?  Well, he loves children... and he loves our children, but he really ENJOYS our children once they are walking and talking and laughing -- and a bonus is if they are potty trained.

He LOVES doing big kid things with the kids.

For that reason, moments like this (and pictures like this) just warm my heart.

We will not have a baby forever, and I love that he takes the time and energy to build his relationship with our children when they are babies, even though he has more fun with them once they're older.

Such Fun!

 We had SO much fun in Denver together.

Duluth store, big malls, Build-A-Bear Workshop, Lego Store, Disney Store, a real candy store, jack-o-lantern pizza, staying in a hotel, watching Michigan Football, going to a restaurant, hair cuts, Once Upon a Child, Kid Wonder indoor play place, and a snowy day all together.

Note, we did not buy things at the Lego Store or the Disney Store (or several toy stores) but for our crew, that is a big deal just to go in and look at stores like that.

The big kids knew that Mama and Daddy were going to buy something special for Lee Lee because she had just had her birthday, and so they brought some of their chore money and had a lot of fun choosing what they wanted to spend it on.  Lucky for them Build-A-Bear was having a really good deal of buy one animal, get a second one for $10.  So, Howard and Caroline decided to buy Build-A-Bear animals with their money, but Tracey wanted to save hers for other things on the trip.  It is fun to see their personalities and priorities coming out.

Also, the kids needed lots of reminders of how "old fashioned tv" works -- you cannot pause, you cannot choose the program, you cannot skip the commercials... we had to remind them of that a lot.

We made it home safely by Monday late afternoon and our four big kids immediately wanted to bundle in winter gear and play in the snow.  Nine-and-a-half inches waiting for us at our house!!!

Change of Plans

 Hubby and I have been hoping for a few weeks that we could arrange to take our crew to Denver for a one-night overnight.  We decided to plan it for the weekend after Lee Lee's birthday because it would just be a fun way to finish up her birthday and have a little getaway as a family.

We really have stayed up since March, and our crew was OVERJOYED at the prospect of a night in a hotel.

We took these pictures on Vail Pass Saturday on the drive.

We knew snow was expected on Sunday, the day we were coming home, so we kept our eyes on the forecast and packed warm clothing, boots, and winter coats.

By Saturday afternoon, the weather forecasters were increasing the amount of snow predicted every hour, and so we made the call to reserve our hotel room for Sunday night as well and not try to get home (over two passes and through canyons) during the expected blizzard.

We are SOOO glad we made that call.

Rifle got hit SO hard with this autumn blizzard.  The interstate was closed multiple times.  We heard stories of our streets being complete ice and people having to abandon vehicles and walk home from church.

Our district also called a snow day tomorrow -- which this year means a distance-learning day.

Here are some pictures of the snow in Denver on Sunday -- not much but it snowed ALL day and it was COLD -- well below freezing (around 17* but felt like 4*).

Oh, Colorado... we love you!