We're so done with kindergarten germs around here. The kids spent much of October taking turns having various illnesses. However, don't worry too much about them - they have discovered unlimited tv time and popsicles and being the sick child is a coveted position around here.
However, it did mean I had to stay home with sick Eleanor one evening while the boys got to participate in a very exciting pancake dinner and book fair at Bradley's school. Bradley can't even believe all the cool perks of going to elementary school, he's having a blast.
And we're trying to get in some good swing time before the weather turns on us.
Nathan told me the kids had a new favorite way to be pushed on the swing and I didn't know that he meant crazy spinning until I watched the videos he took.
Note: Patrick is the least fun child to push on the swing. Ever. He yells at you unless you do everything to his exact preference and unfortunately for me I haven't ever seemed to be able to do that for him.
It turns out Nathan knows how to make him happy though, it's by sending him on a psychotic thrill ride version of swinging.
How cuddly are these children? It's just beyond precious at times.
Bradley didn't want to leave the cuddles to go back on the swing.
Halloween was so exciting this year. Patrick thought it was a little too exciting when we went to Nathan's office to trick or treat. Nothing like a screaming tantrum in the main lobby on the way in.
But fortunately, fun and candy won out and Patrick recovered his good spirits soon enough.
Bradley has a T-Rex cape on. I love costumes that my children can put on themselves and that they won't outgrow.
We eventually even got Patrick to wear his cape. And can I mention how this is my favorite kind of trick or treating? Warm and cozy indoors and with a fireplace to eat our treats in front of. Perfection.
The next day was Saturday and Nathan was fairly impressive carving pumpkins with the kids.
And then Halloween came! Patrick spent a lovely morning with his friend Mabel at a kid museum.
And we braved the kindergarten class party, where Eleanor and Patrick made sure they were included on each and every activity that took place.
Halloween night was cold, windy, and there had even been a chance of snow right around when we were supposed to go out - so Nathan and I pulled a genius parenting move and dressed the kids up and put on Halloween shows for them. Whenever a trick-or-treater arrived at our house the kids got to go grab a piece of candy out of our candy bowl along with the trick-or-treaters.
It was so nice and fun, especially since friends kept coming by our house and warming themselves for a minute so the kids still got to see everyone they wanted to see and admire a lot of costumes.
Patrick and his buddy Marcus were both superman. It was too adorable.
With all of these fun activities going on, it's no wonder that I have a plethora of napping Eleanor pics from the past few weeks.
Here Eleanor is, living the dream.
Sometimes she even makes her poor tired daddy fall asleep too.
No wonder she keeps not wanting to go to bed at the right time at night ...
Bradley has gotten pretty good at climbing trees all on his own!
I really like Patrick yelling in the foreground. The facial expressions for each child in this pic are just so correct for where they're at right now.
We made a fun trip to Scheel's last weekend and I discovered they give out free tokens for Ferris Wheel rides in the shoe department! Score!
Bradley caught a stomach bug last week and so we got out some ginger ale (a rare occurrence around here) and we might have to give the kids soda more often because Patrick kept calling his ginger ale "beer." Nathan may have to stop having a beer with his meal in the evenings because Patrick's exact quote was "I like beer, Mommy! Cheers!"
Cheers!
And Eleanor keeps moving over to sit by Patrick on the bench, which leaves her younger brother beyond delighted.
I don't really police kids playing with their food because it's so ridiculously cute when they do.
Bradley made Eleanor into a Christmas tree the other day.
We love his stories - even if they frighten us at times. Well, not his siblings. But I have no idea where he picks this stuff up.
Here's a cute photo of Eleanor at preschool during song time.
And exciting news, Patrick just started to go to the same preschool one day per week! Here are some first day of school pictures.
Everyone was rather excited about the big news. Next time we're not doing the group picture in front of a mirror. It seems to be too distracting for ballerina Eleanor.
Bradley demanded a picture of himself as well. It was picture day for him!
Patrick was so excited and was very pleased that I took more pictures of him in front of the house before leaving.
He kept demanding new picture locations.
He could hardly wait to ditch me at school, a lot of his favorite buddies are in the class with him and they do arts and crafts and have snack and recess and it's pretty much everything a little guy could hope and want.
We moved all the kids into Bradley's room because we discovered on the Idaho trip that they like to sleep together. Also, we want Patrick to stop coming into the master bedroom in the night because he's lonesome.
As I was cleaning up some items on the floor I opened a drawer under the bed and discovered a few of Eleanor's dresses and pairs of underwear. The kids informed me that Bradley had given Eleanor a drawer in his room so she could have her clothes there too ... because it was such a big move and apparently going all the way down the hall for her clothes is too far. It was good to see she had taken the essentials with her.
We helped out at a foster care ministry night at the nearby church the day we did the bedroom conversion and shocker, if your kids run around wildly for three hours straight and then go to sleep an hour past their normal bedtime they sleep hard.
And here is the sleeping bit. So tired.
Unfortunately, more recent nights with less tired children have resulted in more bedtime horseplay and it seems Patrick often ends up in bed with the big kids. Because it's just too much fun.
Bradley is a champ and sleeps through much of these shenanigans.
After the photo above I walked in to check on them a bit later and only the 2.5 year old was awake. It was 9:20 at this point, I believe. He was a little tired and crabby the next morning. But at least he stayed out of the master bedroom until it was daytime!
Luckily for Patrick, he can always count on his loving siblings to cheer him up.
As long as he does what Eleanor says ...
And Bradley has learned that an instant way to be in Patrick's good favor is to give him pony rides.
I call this photo: the kindergartener. He makes me so happy.
He spent this past Saturday around the house working on his projects. This was while he was making a police car costume out of a cardboard box.
Bradley loves his new KC hat, here he is hanging out in the trunk of the minivan with a blanket to stay warm while watching his siblings play in the driveway. As you do. He's wearing a bow tie because he is indescribably cute and wanted to wear it for school picture day.
Patrick really likes to copy Bradley and lately has been drawing or cutting things out and bringing them over to show me. Bradley often points out how they aren't very good, but he's a pretty good sport about the whole thing.
And our puppet collection is finally being put to good use! Patrick has been loving them and I would sit and listen to him tell stories for forever if I could.
Eleanor is in charge of a lot of things in this house and I'm taking notes because this girl knows how to get things done. Yesterday she wanted a toy from Patrick so she said "Sharing is one of Jesus loves. So give it to me RIGHT NOW!" Unfortunately for her, Patrick was on to her tricksy ways.
Here they are decorating rocks. I love how much Patrick makes sure he is in on everything the big kids do.
Can you handle how much pink is in this picture? We get compliments wherever we go.
And Eleanor is really into her friends these days. She was adamant about still going to preschool next week, even while grandparents are visiting. And we have been organizing a fair number of play dates with her best friends, which she never wants to end and generally she cries and asks if we can just take her friend home with us or something. I was trying to console her a couple days ago and told her "Sure! We'll just sneak Ava away with us when her mommy isn't looking! Hahaha!!" and not only did this cheer her up, Eleanor turned it into an elaborate kidnapping scheme involving running away with a number of her friends and moving to another state "where their mommies will never find them." Oh my. Somehow I feel Nathan is going to blame me for this one ...
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