October was warm and lovely. Thank goodness because Patrick had lots of weekend soccer and it could have been brutal. There were two teams that had a fair number of Stanley kids on them and they had a game against each other one afternoon. Here they are pictured together afterwards!
I ran a few board game parties because Tryazon sent me five games to test out. That's a lot to tackle in one evening so we spread it out a bit!
Jumanji Deluxe turned out to be the winner of the bunch. And it always pays to check out Patrick's face in any group picture.
Jumanji was quite active and made me get up and move around and I rather resent that in a game but the kids certainly enjoyed it.
Mornings have been rough now that it's dark when the kids wake up. If you look closely you can see an Eleanor hand poking out under the mound of blankets.
Juliet has gotten rather combative about how old she is. I'll say she's 2 and a half and she'll holler back many other numbers at me.
Also, thanks a lot to Eleanor for telling Juliet phrases to yell when she's upset.
Bradley brings home loads of art from school. It always starts like this.
And ends something like this. Sigh. Too bad I think this is hilarious.
Meg has gotten extra clingy now that it's colder in the evenings. She is cuddled up against me and under a sherpa blanket here. Nathan had a few comments to make.
Juliet counts down to her gymnastics class each week and enjoys getting to play outside on the playground on our way in to class.
I have a HABA person who sends me games now. Juliet is a fan of this development.
Of course the big kids were happy to help her unbox them and test them out when they arrived.
Off to Bed was the surprise hit of the two. Juliet loves playing pretend with the pieces.
But the big kids were all about Animal Upon Animal Junior and like it a lot, which is both great and a little unfortunate because Juliet is afraid to play it now after Eleanor has repeatedly lectured her about how wrong she's playing.
Juliet has a crew of buddies and is really proud that they all like riding in her wagon on play dates at Deanna Rose.
Helping shove Aria up the slide to escape from the hot lava. There was a lot of excited shrieking involved.
This was Patrick the night before we left on our trip to Santa Cruz. Rockin' the shirt, so excited!
Eleanor helped Juliet put up some festive Halloween decor on the window.
And then we were off for the airport! I've never had an easier trip. Traveling with two kids ages six and up doesn't even count as anything but extra fun.
Of course, it helped that we brought along a bunch of tablets and games and books.
And when you travel with Mommy, you eat right. Trip treats!
We landed and went straight to In-N-Out. The kids just had french fries and lemonade but that's all they wanted anyway. We made a bargain with my Aunt Diana to be vegetarians for the trip in exchange for her going with us to the Mystery Spot.
Patrick and Eleanor were delighted to go and harvest everything they could from the garden. Every single strawberry was picked.
Patrick showed off making us eggs for breakfast.
And then we went to the Mystery Spot!!
Proof that Diana and Bill went with us! Apparently Diana would be okay with not being dragged to the local hokey tourist trap every time we visit - but it's so amazing and I really like making her come and enjoy it with us. Hence the vegetarian promise. We kept it too. Worth it!
Patrick and Eleanor were the very first volunteers chosen on our tour.
So mysterious!
Video of the mysterious event.
Going inside the actual house on the Mystery Spot was something else with two small children. All of the adults on our tour seemed to be slightly seasick and Patrick and Eleanor kept running around like crazy people.
For the record, the guide had made a point specifically telling people not to try to jump off this ledge.
Eleanor didn't want to leave. I was so delighted that she loved it as much as she did.
Trying to stand upright with my crew.
We came at a bit of a rough time - Diana had a big work deadline and Granddad had to get a toe amputated (!!) so we tried to make sure they got some breaks from their excited visitors and they dropped us off for a couple solo beach outings over the course of the trip.
The water was freezing. These children are crazy.
We were really lucky because we came on the last really warm weekend of the year. So even though the water was cold the beach wasn't too bad.
Patrick decided to chase birds at a certain point. Poor birds.
I saved the birds by taking the kids over to the nearby ice cream shop for giant cones. When we're traveling we do treats right!
We're pretty sure at least some of the ice cream made it into Patrick's mouth.
Then they ran around the beach and collected whatever this stuff was and showed me their amazing creation.
Joint shower in Diana and Bill's fancy bathroom. After a couple of these showers Diana said something about trying to remove at least some of the sand from the children before letting them shower off because there was so so much and clogging the drain was a very real concern.
Music time in the evenings! This was a bit of a surprise on the trip, both kids loved playing with the guitar and ukulele and played around with Diana's piano a bunch. I got them going on piano lessons when we got back to capitalize and this excitement and interest!
Pretty girl in the garden.
Patrick standing still for long enough for me to take his picture. He's sweet too. It's just running and roaring or hugging for this guy, there is no in-between.
Violin time! The kids were in heaven getting to play around with so many fun instruments.
The kids were so proud of their bounty they collected from the garden. We started to have to set limits on what they picked, that apple tree would have been bare if they had been allowed to harvest all they desired.
Time with Granddad! The toe amputation seemed to go really well but wow, what a thing to have to go through. Patrick in particular was so proud to meet his great-granddad, 96 is a big deal to a 6 year old.
Making lemonade. Patrick was pleased.
We took a pedal-cart to the Santa Cruz boardwalk and the kids were beyond thrilled. It was pretty cool, I had never been in one before either.
We got the unlimited pass for rides for the kids and gosh darn it, we were going to make good use of them. This was the first ride of the day and if you look verrrry carefully in the very last row you can see a terrified Patrick crouching in terror. Bill tried to warn the kids to sit in the middle but they wouldn't listen. Eleanor loved it. Poor Patrick.
Then we toned things down with this ride and Patrick spent most of the time with his arms crossed sighing in boredom. I guess you need to exactly hit the correct thrill level to do right by Patrick.
Then we waited for about 40 minutes to go on a big ride with the kids and I decided to get a ticket so I could ride with Patrick, based on his reaction to the last terrifying ride we put him on.
Turns out it was a good choice. More cowering in fear. Eleanor has her arms up behind me because she's a daredevil. So is Patrick, to be fair. Not many 6 year olds rode on this ride!
I was told many times about how it wasn't worth waiting that long for such a short ride (reaffirming my decision to not take a Disney vacation anytime soon) and then we got some dipped cones.
Tourist trap photos!
Eleanor took this one because she refused to be on the girl side with Patrick for this pic.
Then we really hit our stride on rides. Found lots of good ones.
They loved the mini coaster so much.
And we even fit in a little beach time because we were right by the beach the entire time. Again, the water was freezing. The kids didn't care.
So much fun, I definitely brought the correct two kids for loads of beach time.
We hit up our favorite local bakery the next morning.
And then went back to the Soquel beach we had gone to the first day. We went to the beach each of the three full days we were there. It was the correct decision.
And then we went to downtown Santa Cruz so we could go to Pizza My Heart and the bookstore!
Patrick in pictures. I tell you. Good thing Diana and Bill found him hilarious. Poor Eleanor.
On our last morning Patrick spent about an hour snuggled up with Granddad watching shows. He gave him kisses too. Patrick is such a sweetie. I'm really glad he got in some cuddle time, that's certainly his love language.
And then we were off to the airport for the trip home!
I'm told things went very well while we were gone. Bradley got in some extra robotics time with Grandma and his teammate Micah.
And Nathan put together an epic 6 hour playdate for Bradley and a couple friends involving searching for Pokemon in the park and then playing video games. So impressive, way to go Nathan.
Juliet had a range of emotions on the drive home from the airport to pick us up.
Such a Juliet conversation. Apparently I might talk to them a little too much about eating fruit so the poop can get out of their body.
And then Nathan had a work trip the day after we got back! This is his joyful return. Juliet loves helping drive his car into the garage.
Robotics practice was extra exciting the next week.
Because I brought back candy Legos from the Santa Cruz trip!
Our t-shirts came and they look pretty awesome. Once again, kudos to my mom for making robotics work. No idea what we would have done without her coding expertise.
On the other end of the intellectual spectrum, here is Layla who somehow managed to trap herself in a bath mat.
Juliet likes using siblings as pillows and Bradley has zero complaints.
I finally checked out Pumpkin Hollow at Deanna Rose with Juliet. Turns out it's a blast!
I had never gone with the older kids because waiting in line for a wagon ride was involved and then you had to haul one pumpkin home per child. It just seemed difficult when things were already difficult. So I was delighted to get to try when I had just one child to wrangle.
Turns out it's completely awesome and ideal for ages 2-5. Juliet has a lot of pumpkin hollow visits in her future.
We came with friends. And then I told my dad about it and I think he took her two more times on his own for their Monday morning outings.
Picnic afterwards. If only Juliet were expressive.
She's a bit of a goof. I love it so much.
It took a bit of persuading to get her to come inside because she was shouting at me about her work she needed to do which was ripping leaves off the azalea bushes and tossing them by the bush on the other side of the front step.
"It's my JOB!!!"
Then we got to celebrate Daddy's birthday. It was a busy day.
Juliet was soooo excited to get to help him open presents.
Fall festival at Lionsgate in the evening!
The kids waited in a giant line for a balloon lady and then requested lightsabers to use with their new friend they made in line. Of course.
Group shot. I love this photo set up they have each year. It's a fun little event.
Bradley's friend's name was Addy (I think) and she was Eleanor's age so we made sure Eleanor didn't get to meet her so she wouldn't steal away the new best friend. There are some pros and cons of having kids so close in age, Eleanor steals any female friends away from the boys. Even Mabel doesn't get to be around Patrick very much when they hang out. Eleanor is just too fun. Apparently Patrick does okay at school though, he told me just yesterday that he and Mabel had kissed at recess again. Huge smirk on his face as he told me. I asked if it was on the mouth and he said, "Yes!" Then I asked if he had been kissing anyone else and he said, "Yes, Cael." Then I asked if that was also on the mouth and he said, "Yes, but it was just because he kissed me first. Also on the mouth." This boy gets around.
Girl picture on the hay ride!
And then we went home and made popcorn and watched the Disney version of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.
It was so fun. My favorite Halloween show by far. The kids shriek with glee every time we watch.
I told Juliet that she was forbidden to go anywhere near Bradley and she had to stay on me and she promptly plopped down on his lap. Bradley was beyond delighted.
Nathan got Deadpool Unmatched for his birthday! He hasn't gotten to play with the character yet because Bradley has claimed it as the best and most exciting Unmatched character ever.
Looking through the only medium inappropriate cards.
We made it down for a Saturday afternoon at the lake while the weather was so nice.
Juliet has turned into quite the little fisherman.
She even caught a couple fish!
Nathan's dad got us a BB gun because it seems he thinks our children have too many eyeballs and wants to see what they can do to remedy that. It's good that Nathan is very very careful. No injuries ... yet.
It seems all this fun is tiring if you're a sweet Patrick boy. Took off his church shirt and cuddled up with Nathan for some Sunday football and he had the same reaction I do when I watch football.
Post nap walk in the park. We took a danger photo of Patrick at his request and he fell about two minutes later. Not from the monkey bars, from the ledge below when he made his dismount. I can't believe this kid hasn't broken any bones yet. We still talk about the time when he managed to fall out of a fenced in trampoline because the entrance wasn't fully zipped up and he dove at it while trying to tag someone. Flew right out on his face.
The sad ride home in the wagon. We have banned the phrase, "What's the worst that could happen?"
Juliet is my only child I constantly sit up on counters because it's so darn cute to have her sitting up there by me while I work on things. She decided to help me cut up an apple.
Gymnastics. She can do a little flip over the bar!
She got an award for completing her class. We signed up for the next one for her! I'm going to be a little sad when I don't get to go in with her for her classes. She has such a great time.
We have had some colder days so the sherpa blanket is back! Cats appreciate it when I read during Juliet's quiet time.
But we've also had some weird warm days - it was in the 70's in mid October so we got out the wading pool one more time.
The water was cold but she didn't care!
I took the kids to get their flu shots and we got our traditional donuts afterwards. Hurts Donut was closed (Covid staffing issues) so we went to Lamars. The only person to cry during their flu shot this year was Bradley. Every other child, including Juliet, took my advice of not looking at the needle and just chatting with me while they got the little shot. Bradley wasn't paying attention in the car because they will come out to you now to do procedures like this (fancy!) and he was reading in the back. I said, "Bradley! Move up, it's your turn for your shot." and he took one look at the scary tray with the needle and other items on it and rightfully freaked out. Sighhhh. Covid shots are coming up, we'll see how he does on those!
Park outings. I keep thinking it's so great to get my kids out in nature.
But then there's so much cleanup involved afterwards because the kids inevitably end up in the creek. I let Patrick and Eleanor go out solo the other day with the warning that if they fell in the water and got wet, fun time was over and they had to come home. Bradley ran out and fetched them when it got to dinner time and sure enough, that's when Patrick chose to fall in the water. He also told me that he was so scared when Eleanor told him he had to climb up and down a giant fallen tree limb in order to hear more of her stories but he did it and he was so proud afterwards. I don't know if I need to ban these independent adventures in the creek or at least ban them from telling me what they did while they were unsupervised.
Bradley and Eleanor have started piano lessons! Layla helps them practice. I was so thrilled to find a nice teacher who lives nearby although the only night she had availability was the same night we have Lego robotics practices, so logistics have been rather tricky. My dad started driving the kids as of their second lesson and it turns out he knows their teacher, she and her husband go to the same church as him and my mom! It's really good we have some extra street cred because we're starting Patrick at slightly under the recommended age for beginning piano lessons (7) and I assured the teacher he would be extremely dutiful and he can read and would practice a bunch - and then he spent his entire first lesson pressing every button he could find and it's a piano so there were plenty of buttons to choose from. Apparently he got it out of his system and has been doing fine now. He's very good about practicing, as is Eleanor.
Eleanor is very excited about an audition for honors choir at school. Here she is practicing "My Country 'Tis of Thee" when she was still just a little shaky on the melody. She sounds so good though! Here's hoping she makes the choir!
I was a bit of an exhausted wreck after trips and kid activities so Nathan took the lead on kid activities for the weekend. There was a girl outing to the park.
An exciting shopping trip where they found a machine that will slice up your pineapple for you.
Well, and then he got in a guys' night.
He has a good group of dudes.
We've been doing a special Sunday school class for Eleanor in preparation for officially giving her her first Bible and Juliet has been joining us because there is no nursery during the Sunday school hour. She didn't mind it so much and we didn't either, she's pretty adorable at church.
Even when she has too much fun and falls asleep while Nathan is reading to her for naptime.
Nathan took all the kids down to the lake for the afternoon. We've had quite the amazing fall.
Never enough fishing for Patrick!
Again, no one has gotten shot yet. Honestly I can't wait until I get a turn with the bb gun, it seems really fun.
Making dinner!
Juliet ready to go to Deanna Rose with Grandpa for one of their Monday morning adventures. He has learned the power of fruit snack bribes to get her to go places and actually agree to get in a car.
Leaf pile!
Patrick was invited to go to a pumpkin patch with Mabel's family so I sent him with $20 in case they had to pay for food or anything else for him. He chose to use the money on a $17 pumpkin. It was so huge. Kudos to Mabel's dad for carrying it for him.
My dad had his birthday celebration and we made sure to get a picture of him and mom with the kiddos.
All was well until we gave Grandpa his birthday bundt cake and he was sitting right by Juliet's spot. Her lower lip went out immediately and she started hollering about Grandpa eating her cake. Poor child. We all laughed - and then quickly went and got her her own little bundt cake.
Eleanor finished up her horseback riding lessons in October. They were cute, although she only got about 15 minutes of riding time each time and I'm not sure how much she learned. Oh well. She loved driving with me or my mom and having nice chat time for the 30 minute drive each way.
The Juliet menace, inflating a basketball. She is in on everything.
Cute Bradley in the solo pic I took of him for Lego robotics. He's been ... medium interested in the robotics we're doing and has even been so-so on the artwork I've been having him do for the posters, because it's guided and he can't do whatever he wants. After one meeting, where he was clearly dragging his feet on doing any work and just wanted to hang out with his friends, he came home and played around at the art table for an hour and a half and made a mountain of exciting and fun artwork. Sighhhhh. I signed him up for a once a week art class starting in November and he is so excited. Trying to help this kid explore his interests is something else.
He has been doing okay at the coding though - there are at least parts of it he likes. And it's such a sweet group of kids on the team, he's certainly excited to go to practice every week. Here he is with Xavier.
Juliet still barely fits into her unicorn onesie outfit she wore for Halloween last year. Look at her helping me make eggs for breakfast!
There's nothing Juliet likes quite so much as a picnic lunch.
Our park outings are perhaps one of my favorite things ever. I love going out to our park with any of the kids.
So tired afterwards.
I also love our Friday dinners with my parents. My mom made some cute little pants with an attached skirt for Juliet. She was thrilled and insisted on wearing them over her unicorn outfit.
We play games with my parents after dinner and I told Juliet to tell Grandpa that she was egregiously offended at something he said - and so she repeated me exactly but in two year old style. It was the cutest thing ever and we laughed a ton and this has encouraged me way too much to have my child repeat ridiculous things after me.
Grandpa got to come to Patrick's final few soccer games.
Watching Patrick play is something else. We didn't get any videos of his goals but this is a glimpse of how he always ends up being where the ball is. This kid should be wrecked after each of his games. But he isn't, because my run the child parenting philosophy has resulted in way too much endurance. It's a blessing and a curse.
Patrick was so proud of this medal.
And Nathan and I got in an actual date afternoon to Top Golf! Many thanks to my parents for babysitting. It had probably been since our anniversary in May since we had gotten in a solo outing for the two of us.
And Eleanor and I checked out a new coffee shop together. It's called Jinkies and it has Scooby-Doo themed drinks and it's basically our dream come true.
Eleanor got a Velma lemonade which was Strawberry-Orange lemonade. And we played Cat Stax. We both can't wait to go back.
This just in - Juliet is cutest when she's being a little naughty.
She had found a piece of candy in Eleanor's closet while "helping" her clean.
She did not tell Eleanor about the theft of said candy.
I was adding in some commentary to the princess book about how they all wished they had Meg as their very own kitty and Juliet had some feelings about the alternate reading of the book.
Gymnastics in a Halloween costume! Luckily we had some Jasmine pajamas for Juliet and they were cute and comfy and perfect for gymnastics.
I know I'm biased - but oh my goodness how cute is this kid?
Making a smoochie face at me.
Her official Halloween costume - a kitty outfit that was two sizes too small but she squished herself into anyway because it was so beautiful.
She could have worn this adorable Elsa costume that actually fits her - but that didn't make any sense and I'm told it was a foolish idea.
Sookie has started to sleep in Patrick's bed at night and he loves it so much. One more he came down and drew a big picture with a clock that said 6:42 on it and he said it was because that was how long Sookie stayed in his bed with him.
Juliet opted out of taking her nap after gymnastics class and then dressed herself and this happened while I had her in the car to pick up the big kids from school. This is perhaps the most perfectly 2 year old picture I've ever taken of Juliet.
It rained a bunch leading up to Halloween and Juliet was excited to play outside with her umbrella.
She also loves tablet time while I get in my morning workout and shower.
Then we cozied up after the rain stopped to go for a walk in the park.
She was on a quest for puddles and let me know that not just any puddle would do.
Good news, we found the best one of all time.
Here she is roasting a marshmallow over the fire that is the hedge apple.
Eventually, the inevitable occurred.
It did not diminish the puddle fun in the least. In fact, her poor boots kept falling off over and over again after this and she had to pour out water time after time again.
She went home and got in a bath. Then I took her to the kids' very cold Halloween parade at school. We had another Friday dinner at my parents' house with early trick or treating from the giant Skittles they were handing out!
Patrick had his final soccer game the next day. I have an entire series of photos of him acting like a giant goofball while I tried to take his picture with my dad. This is the only photo that turned out halfway normal.
Here is the favorite photo. Oh Patrick.
We went to our church trunk or treat that afternoon. Nathan helped with parking, we decorated a trunk, and I made chili for the first time to contribute to the dinner. I barely saw our children.
But when I did see them, I took a picture! Here are the girls in front of our Happy Catoween trunk! Juliet decided last minute that her Jasmine outfit was the best costume ever and I was not about to argue with a 2 year old.
The kids had their first caramel apples. It was a really fun event.
Nathan had feelings about the amount of volunteer work we did and how much he was stuck at the car and didn't get to talk to friends or hang out with his kids. We may scale back next year ...
But everyone had a fun time and the kids certainly got enough candy.
Nathan carved pumpkins with the kids the next morning.
And check out the fancy work I did on Eleanor's kitty makeup for Halloween! I did cats eye eyeliner and it worked out so well!
She and I went to yet another trunk or treat, this one for Girl Scouts.
Meanwhile, Juliet got in a much needed nap so she could make it through the Halloween events for the rest of the day.
Eleanor with her friends Mabel and Lauren - also dressed as kitties!
The Happy Catween trunk was a hit - which was good because it was very last minute. I reused our anniversary decorations and Nathan changed "Anniversary" to "Catoween" and we were all set!
The crew ready to head out on Halloween night!
Girl crew! Before Eleanor ditched us to go with her friend Ava and Nathan took the two boys over to a party with friends.
Eleanor joined the party when it was time to watch a movie together.
The cute crew! Apparently the boys' hands got very cold because they wouldn't stop eating candy and put their hands under a blanket. But it was a warm night and the kids had a blast and no one threw up from all the candy they ate! Great success!
