The kids had Red Ribbon Week at school at the end of October. Tuesday was dress like your hero day, and Samuel dressed up as Matt :). He's my hero too.
Katherine and I met up with some friends at a pumpkin patch one day. It's still a little weird that I only have one child home with me during the school days. We missed the other kids, but I do love getting so much one on one time with her and her two year old cuteness.
She had the best time feeding the animals.
I even let her ride a pony. It's much more affordable to only have to pay for one pony ride instead of four, ha! Normally we always tell the kids no on activities like those.
She's the cutest pumpkin in the patch.
I got to be a mystery reader in Elisabeth's Pre K class at school. I surprised her and brought her lunch before too. And it was Freckles Friday, so it was pretty much her best day ever. I read I Can Read with my Eyes Shut. It's one of Elisabeth's all time favorite books. She practically has it memorized.
Katherine and I stayed for a bit and played with the kids in her class, and then I brought Elisabeth home with me for a relaxing afternoon.
Nathan's KJAM group helped lead worship on Sunday at church. He's getting so big and so handsome. He's just the greatest kid around.
Hearing him sing made me so grateful for God's grace in saving him. It really is so sweet to trust in Jesus, and an honor to watch him grow in Christ.
Katherine has recently learned the thumbs up sign and does it all the time now- especially when she likes food, ha! I think she's giving me a thumbs up for the marshmallows in her cup in this picture. She even gave me a thumbs up one morning while she was in her gymnastics class. And she's always wearing a tutu, or a dance leotard, or a princess dress. It's her standard attire these days.
I kidnapped this boy from school one day and took him out to a long lunch at his favorite restaurant, Cici's. I took him out on Thursday when Kate is at school, so I got some great one on one time with him.
I adored getting to focus 100% on him. I paid attention to everything he did- the way he served himself his food and how he played games, and listened intently to all the stories about his friends at school. He's my least needy child, and as hard as I try to prevent it, he can get overlooked at times, so I treasured that special time with him and can't wait to do it again!
We have WAY too much Halloween candy in this house even after gifting plenty to teachers. So one day after school, I surprised the kids and let them make cookies with some of the chocolate candy. They all chose different candies and mixed them into the cookie dough. Elisabeth and Nathan were so impatient and chopped up their candy as fast as they could. Elisabeth made each cookie with a different candy bar. Nathan mixed all of his together, and precious, patient Samuel took time to chop his candy up finely and mix it in to the dough with extra care. It's fun to see each of their personalities come out in activities like this. All three of them were so proud of their special cookies.
The kids' school had a Fall Family Literacy Night, and the kids couldn't wait to attend. They had literacy activities set up in some of the classrooms and carnival games in the gym. My kids are so focused on all the activities. They don't do things half way and refused to skip any of the activities. So of course we were there for the entire two hours.
Katherine was a ham during all of the games. She refused to be left out of anything.
Last Saturday we had zero plans in the morning, so the kids stayed in their jammies all morning and played. For a few minutes they were even playing happily upstairs all together.
We're realizing that three is a hard number. When the kids pair off and play with just one sibling everyone gets along so much better. I think three is just a hard combination. Good thing Katherine's getting older. Hopefully she can even out some of the arguing.
These Cuties requested a picture in their matching unicorn tutu dresses before church. I love how much they like to dress alike right now.
Nathan had a Veteran's Day Assembly at school this week. He's attended the assembly with Papa Joe every year since Kindergarten, but this year was extra special because the third graders perform in the assembly. He practiced his songs all the time at home and talked about the assembly constantly. I could tell he was really excited.
The third graders did an awesome job. I was impressed with all the words they memorized for the songs.
Nathan got chosen by the speaker to be a part of an activity to demonstrate the importance of working together as a team. He was thrilled to be chosen.
All the kids are so proud of their Papa Joe. He's attended every year since Nathan started school. He'll be attending for awhile longer too I'm sure.
We're grateful for all the Veterans who allow us to live in a great, free country
We had a fun few days celebrating Halloween. We went to a Halloween themed birthday party the Saturday before Halloween and the girls wore their costumes (the boys did too, but they came straight from another party, so they changed in the car, and I didn't get any pictures).
I put the idea in Elisabeth's head that she and Katherine should be Elsa and Anna because Kate is in a Frozen obsession phase right now, and I was pleasantly surprised when Elisabeth happily agreed.
These girls are such sweet sisters. I hope they always take care of each other.
The night before Halloween, the kids did a Trunk or Treat at my parents' church. My mom got them costumes, and they had a Flintstone's theme. The kids were very excited for candy.
After they filled their buckets (to almost overflowing), they came back to the Flinstones car and helped pass out candy to the trick or treaters.
Katherine ripped right into her candy.
For school on Halloween all the first graders wrote a book report and got to dress as a character from their book. Then they had a book character parade throughout the school and presented their book reports to their classes. So fun! I know these are the school moments my kids will remember. Samuel really likes the Eerie Elementary book series right now, so he dressed as Same Graves- the school's hall monitor who protects the students from the haunted school. He picked out his entire costume including the black hair, jeans, red shirt, and hall monitor sash. So cute!
After school on Halloween, the kids put on their costumes and posed for a few pictures. Katherine asks for "Anna braids" everyday now. Her red hair is perfect for her costume.
Elisabeth asked for white hair, so we did the best we could.
My little Elsa belted out some Frozen favorites while we were waiting to pick up the boys.
Nathan recently finished the third Harry Potter book and picked out a Harry Potter costume. He makes a good Harry :). His teacher is a big Harry Potter fan, so he had to send her a picture.
Samuel chose the green Lego Ninja- Lloyd for his costume. I think he especially liked the gloves.
Silly, silly kids pumped up on sugar and ready for a fun night.
For the third year in a row, we spent Halloween with the Shondelmyers. It's a fun tradition, and their neighborhood is waaaaaaaaaaay more trick or treat friendly than ours. The kids especially love trick or treating with all their favorite friends too.
Anna found Olaf at their house and was infatuated.
Silly boys ready for a fun night.
This year we decided to Trick or Treat first while it was a little warmer and light outside and ate dinner afterward.
The kids had so much fun. We had a group of thirteen kiddos and they ran around like they owned the neighborhood. They came home with popcorn, battery operated fan toys, and several full size candy bars. Their neighborhood is the jackpot for Halloween.
Katherine was the star of Halloween for us. She was the most adorable thing ever. She was super enthusiastic and determined to keep up with the big kids and bring home allllllll the candy. She ran and ran and refused to ride in the wagon until she hit a wall about 7:30. At one point as she was running to keep up with the big kids and make it to the next house, I heard her yelling "Go, Anna Go, Go Anna Go" to encourage herself to keep going :). She makes life so much more fun!
After trick or treating we headed back to the Shondelmyer's house for frito chili pie and hot dogs and candy of course. The kids were starving and overly excited and stimulated. We had such a great time and are grateful for framily traditions and memories like these.
Friday afternoon, we dumped out all the candy and sorted it. That was crazy! We're going to gift the kids' teachers and AWANA leaders with plenty of candy to use as rewards in their classes. We could never eat all of it. Halloween is less about the candy and way more about fun, community, and friendship.
