At the Pumpkin Patch

One of our favorite things to do each fall is visit the local Pumpkin Patch. Will had been looking forward to it for a few weeks and Kate had no idea what she was in for! We went with our sweet friends and the kids had a blast together. This is the first year that I wasn't able to get as many pictures of Will ... he ran so fast from one thing to the next too excited to slow down for mama's camera. Don't worry - there are lots of pictures still, just 350 instead of my usual 500! Kate loved the animals until one Mr. Goat got a little too close and and was a little too grumpy. I hope she's not scarred for life! Will was really into the maze this year. His technique - run as fast as you can no matter what. Run like the wind to the the dead end and then turn around and run just as fast back! We all enjoyed the hay ride and picking out our favorite pumpkins. Sometimes, in the midst of enjoying such a wonderful day together, I stop and think about how fast time is flying. I wonder how many more trips to the pumpkin patch Will will really look forward to. Maybe this has to do with the picture that Will brought home from school this week - FROM A GIRL!

I'm okay. Really. For now, I'll treasure every moment.

Papa & Nana

Will and Kate (and John and I too!) had the best visit with Papa and Nana a few weeks ago. We went to the zoo, drove, to Kansas and back for a little ceremony (see post below), and played, and played, and played. They played baby dolls, coloring, and dress up with Kate and then switched to legos, animals, and UNO with Will. Everyone enjoyed the after dinner dance parties! Papa had Will laughing so hard one afternoon I thought Will would run out of breath. Kate LOVED playing ball with Nana. We can't wait until they come back!

Child's play

Is there anything better than watching your kids play ... like lost in their own imagination far away from any danger or bad thing, laughing, squealing, running, jumping, play? I love to sit back (a-n-d take pictures :o) while Will and Kate are playing. They bring me so much joy. I am one blessed mama!

"Behold, children are a gift of the LORD ..." Psalm 127:3

So long Captain's bars

Some of you probably know and lots of you probably don't, that John joined the Air Force Reserves last October. It was a difficult (more like, painful!) decision to separate in March of 2007. He spent 2 1/2 years convincing me that the Reserves was a good idea ... I wanted both feet in or both feet out. I don't know how he did it (just wore me down, I reckon!), but we decided to go for it last summer. He now serves one weekend a month and a couple of weeks during the year. Since leaving active duty, John had missed wearing the uniform (crazy, huh?), he'd missed the camaraderie of the AF life, and probably most of all, he'd missed the smell of jet fuel in the morning! Well, now we think we have the best of both worlds ... he's back in uniform (which doesn't have to be dry cleaned), wearing boots (that don't have to be shined!), and smelling like jet fuel (ew!) one weekend a month and the rest of the time he's at home working hard at our church. We found out in April that John was selected to promote from Captain to Major and he pinned on his new rank on October 2nd. John's parents made the trip out for his ceremony. I'm so proud of my airman, and if I do say so myself, he sure is handsome in that uniform!

All in a Day's Work

We (okay, I) volunteered to keep our friend's 3 kiddos while they were away celebrating their 10th anniversary. I heard myself saying to Jenn as I convinced her this was a good idea, "Oh, come on, it's just a couple of days ... how hard could it be?" I'm pretty sure that sometimes my thoughts don't match up to reality. BUT, it was for a great cause and so I jumped right on in. Really, we had a blast. The kids were great and loved (almost) every minute of it. Here are some observations I made over the 57 hour period (but who's counting!?!) of life with 5 kids:

• I said "no" or "no, no" at least 5,000 times. This is just an estimate, but I'm sure I said it to each kid at least 1,000 times particularly in the hour before dinner. "No, you cannot have a snack. No, you cannot have candy. No, you cannot have cheese crackers. No, you cannot have a banana. NO!"
• Two 6 year olds who have been at school ALL day are no more worn out than they were when they left that morning. Particularly when they return home to a 4 year old who has anxiously been waiting to play with them all day.
• When your 6 year old has friends over, you do not try to feed them grilled chicken and sauteed vegetables. You should stick with the list your 6 year old gave you : pb&j, tacos, pizza, spaghetti, chicken fingers, and pancakes!
• It's amazing how the two little girls (22mos. and 19 mos.) sounded like a group of 17 year old girls when we put them to bed the first night. They couldn't believe (and I really couldn't either!) that we put them in the same room ... the squealing and laughing lasted for over an hour, but they did sleep!
• There is no good place to pause Mario Galaxy 2 ... every time I needed the big kids to help with something and they were playing the wii, it was "Hold on, we're almost to the next star ... level ... bowser ... piranha plant." ***Side note, I tried to observe this game and I have no idea how they even know what direction they are headed in next.
• It is definitely a good idea to have the Daddy take all 5 kids outside to play after dinner. Even if they get soaked in the water table, muddy from digging in the dirt, and stinky from all that running around, bath time is coming (brace yourself!) and the kitchen gets cleaned in peace.
• You're pretty much always feeding someone or cleaning up from feeding someone. The pancakes that John made the week before and froze were a HUGE lifesaver. And everyone's lunch should be made the night before ... it's not a good idea to wait until the two little girls are crying at your feet to get out the jar of pb. Just sayin'.
  
• Call me crazy, but trying to do two different hw assignments with 2 1st graders is ALMOST impossible. Did you know they can hardly read a thing? :o) Actually, they are both very good students!!! It might have been the 2 little girls waiting (patiently, yes that's it!) for their snack or the 4 year old who had been waiting ALL day to play Mario Galaxy 2 (yes, I learned that the 2 is important in Mario Galaxy 2). Oh, and I'm pretty sure that none of them knew their Awana verse for this week. With 3 different ones to learn, they were all saying each other's but nobody could remember the right one! Aaaaahhhh!!!
• Bath/shower time was actually pretty good. The little girls loved it. Just so you know, it takes a 6 year old girl a whole lot longer to take a shower, put on pj's, brush teeth, and brush hair than a 6 year old boy. Some things never change!
• Thank you, John, for letting me get the minivan with the DVD player in it. We usually only watch movies on long trips. But it was a huge lifesaver with our hour long wait in two different carpools each day. I'm pretty sure I have memorized every line to "Curious George plays in the Snow." But I have slept since then, so please don't quiz me!
• Sleep! The first night I could not sleep. I was worried that one of the baby girls would wake up and then wake up the other baby and then they'd wake up the big kids and how in the world would I ever get them all back to sleep. The second night, John says I was snoring by 8:30 (yes, I had them all in bed by 8:30!!! Jenn, please don't ask what time we went to bed the first night!!!!)

I really enjoyed having a house full of kids (for a few days :o). They are great friends and I loved watching them have fun together. So, to all you moms out there of 3 or more ... I was already impressed, but NOW, you have achieved Yoshi status in my mind. (Okay, I don't really know what or who yoshi is, but it's something that is really cool on Mario Galaxy 2!)

It's a Date

Life. It's great, but it can sure get in the way sometimes. Seemed like John and I had been passing in the hallway lately, barely scraping together a conversation across the dinner table in between Kate's "more, more" and Will's knock-knock jokes. These are the days of our lives, and I love them. Really, I do. But then someone threw us a rope ... a chance to escape, get away. OU football tickets for the game vs. Air Force. A whole afternoon T-O-G-E-T-H-E-R. Just the two of us squished together in the middle of row 20, section 105 seats 15 and 16 for 4 whole hours. There was no deep discussion or a grand "light bulb moment" discovering the solution to our crazy days. But there was lots of laughing, cheering (I think John was silently cheering for AF even though he was wearing red), high-fiving, jumping up, sitting down, just being us ... not Mom and Dad, but John and Ans. I'm pretty crazy about him.

I'd like to buy a vowel ...

We've entered that phase where we are understanding a lot more of what Kate says to us. The average passer-by, however, would still not have a clue. So, in an effort to assist Kate in her progression of language skills, apparently John decided that she needed to work on her "diction" while he was getting her ready for bed last night. All day today, I've been listening to "booK", "ducK", "caT", "eaT" (with the occasional "no,no" thrown in just for fun). She's even adding "K's" and "T's" to other words ... "blankie - T", and "shoes - K". It was funny, for the first hour. Thanks honey!

*** The best thing I've taught her to say so far is "Da-ddy, where are you?" Now, if I could just get her to say that from her crib on Saturday mornings ...