The Good, The Bad, The New, and the Dead

We’ve had a great fall this year and had a lot of fun with the kids. They have a way of letting you know which events they really like, too, by asking to repeat them over and over again. We have a few such activities that have started to become annual events for us – giving ample opportunity for more adventures to find us.

The GOOD

One of the kids’ favorite events that we have gone to several times is at the hospital where we just got 3 new bellybuttons. Every spring and fall, they have a big FREE carnival, complete with bounce houses, all kinds of wild and domestic animals and free lunch. In the fall they give out free pumpkins, too (unfortunately 2 of the 4 have now disappeared). At the face painting booth, the kids were excited to make their choices. Alyssa requested an iguana and Lauren a flower. The boys got a little more unique with Jack requesting Elmo on his hand (so that he can see it) and Drew asked for a house (complete with a sidewalk, tree, sun and clouds). It was almost worth the hour wait to see that!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another highly requested tradition we started last year is a fall hike at a local park. It’s so exciting to go empty-handed now and leave the strollers behind! We went on a beautiful warm day with the leaves showing off their gorgeous colors. Back in the days when I was pregnant with Alyssa, the first shirt I bought her said “Hiker in Training.” Now I feel like we’ve lived up to it a little bit with our new tradition. We had a great time walking around, taking it all in, and nature put on quite a show for us (or we must have just been there at mealtime). We got to see a hawk make several unsuccessful bids to make a squirrel his next meal. We also got very close to another squirrel that was working very very hard to crack open a walnut for its chow.

Also, way back before we started having kids, we started visiting a local pumpkin patch every year (I went there as a young kid, too). Through the years, my Mom, sister and Dad have been able to come with us. This year my Dad joined us. We were able to enjoy our normal routine of taking a hayride out to the pumpkin patch, checking out the log cabin built in the 1850’s, petting the farm animals (and feeding a goat), and sitting in the “Cinderella carriage.” The kids seemed to have the most fun with the straw maze and bales of straw all stacked up for the kids to climb on. The triplets (minus poor allergic Jack) were able to try their first elephant ear this year. The first time we got one for Alyssa there a while back, she said, “Who would want to eat the ear of an elephant?” It was a big hit, though, and the kids had a great time.

THE NEW

This year we also got invited to a fall party at the place of one of my old high school friends. It was fun to see people I haven’t talked to in 20 year (where does the time go!?) and watch our kids play together. We also got to go on a hayride there and eat some good chow. But I think the highlight for us was seeing our first ever pumpkin cannon. Here’s a video for you to the “Punkin Chunkin” in action for yourself.

THE BAD AND THE DEAD

Some of you may remember this post about the annual field trip the preschool takes to the apple orchard. I don’t know what it is about that place, but I’m beginning to think all the preschool field trips there are cursed (good thing this year was the last one!). We were running a couple minutes late to leave the house and ut oh, the van door didn’t open. The battery was dead. In the garage. Someone had left the lights on. Poor Dave got a panicked call in the middle of a class he was teaching, asking him how to get the van into neutral. Long story short, my awesome neighbors rescued me. We never did get the van in neutral (and I even had to borrow one of my kids’ flashlights, because the batteries in mine were all dead, too!). We had to take a shelf off the wall just to pop the hood. The other side of the garage was full of all kinds of stuff we had to move out of the way to get my neighbor's truck in the garage. Our batteries were on opposite sides, so we strung 2 sets up jumper cables together. But we did get to our field trip – just in time for the trio’s class to get off the hay wagon and end the field trip. <sigh> So, I let the kids play on the playground for a bit to make up for it. Despite being told not to, they ended up stealing some apples off a nearby tree and 2 of them chomped away. When I told them we had to apologize to the cashier and pay for them, I immediately got tears from the nonconvicted thieves. Secretly, I was glad to see their repentant hearts, but I felt for them, as I remember well that pit in your stomach when you have to make amends. One kid told me he was afraid that the police would be called and haul them away. But, eventually, we made things right again and I bought some goodies for the neighbors that rescued me earlier. Always an adventure when we are around!

I have a ton of pictures from all of these events that I was going to put in a slideshow, but, let’s face it, I’m not going to get to it. I still have stuff from this summer I want to blog about like visits from family, the boys’ new room, the basement finally got finished (a YEAR ago), swim lessons, the big birthday party… Someday……

Hope you are enjoying what’s left of the fall and getting done the most important things – spending time with family.

God bless,

Amanda

http://four-and-no-more.blogspot.com/

Give Me Something Good to Eat

On Sunday night, as you would guess, there were lots of costumes being donned at our house. I started gathering up all the supplies, checking the stash in the attic and doing some borrowing way back in August, so we have been looking forward to this day for quite a while.

Gearing up for it the day before, Dave planned some fun pumpkin carving activities for the kids. Not only did the traditional carving of the jack-o-lantern take place, but they made some extra special spider pumpkins, too. Lucky for us, Dave’s science class had lots of leftovers from the previous days’ pumpkin drop that we could use. It’s amazing what you can do with some hollow pumpkins, a drill, glue, googly eyes, a black marker, pipe cleaners, and some cute ghost candles (thanks Grammy). I know I’m prejudiced, but I think they turned out pretty well.

Here are the models demonstrating their creations for you:

 

 

Then before we knew it, the time had come to light our pumpkins on the porch and go get some candy. The girls decided that as part of their costumes this year, they wanted to change their hair color. That added quite a bit to the adventure to the day (especially before bedtime) and was yet another learning experience for us. But, they seemed pretty happy with the results.

So this year, we had ended up with Buzz Lightyear (complete with laser shooting noises)……

Belle from Beauty and the Beast (pretend for me that her mom was able to find the brown hair coloring instead of black)…..

Redheaded Supergirl (and Superdog, whom we borrowed)….

and a dinosaur with a big ole tail and a mean growl.

And here’s what 4 kids look like that just want to get some treats instead of sitting and having their picture taken:

Every year, it seems like we walk a little farther in the neighborhood (which means collecting a little more candy, too). This year, one of the local police officers also gave out sweets (and apparently enjoyed a good sucker himself). Our kids were so excited to get their candy from him that they jumped into a picture that someone else was having taken with Mr. Officer. Here’s the evidence of our kids stealing from the police and getting their own picture taken with him as well.

Evidently, it’s harder work than I remember, walking around and carrying all that candy and all. Our crew tuckered out after a while, one by one. But lucky for Lauren, she has a Daddy that doesn’t mind carrying her home, where she could chow on her good eats.

Hope your tummy was filled with lots of yummies, too.

God bless,

Amanda

Just Another Day at the Orchard

What is better in the fall than visiting an apple orchard? Since I am blessed to get to stay home with our kiddos (a blessing I try not to take for granted), I was able to attend both of the kids' field trips out to a local apple orchard.

First, I went with Alyssa's class, and it was fun to meet her little friends that I had heard about. It was also the first time in a long time that I had been on a school bus!

It was a gorgeous fall day, and the kids got to sit on wooden crates in the middle of the orchard and sample different types of apples and drink some cider.

Then it was off on a wagon ride through the orchard and off to the pumpkin patch.

Their teachers got out and selected a pumpkin for the class.

Then they headed back inside to learn about how cider is made, and they got to see the orchard beehive up close.

Next, it was back outside to a picture perfect setting by the mums to learn about how corn is ground up and made in many different foods.

Finally, it was back to the bus, where Alyssa and her buddies held hands while they waited their turn (I am soaking up every second of this; I know it won't last much longer!)

Then, just a few days later, I was off with Lauren, Drew and Jack's preschool class to the same place for their first field trip ever. I won't say it was as bad as last year (especially since no one left bleeding), but I am beginning to think that there is some kind of curse on me going to this farm with preschool!

For starters, as we pulled into the parking lot, the raindrops started to fall and uncertainty reigned from there on out. After sitting out in the rain for about 15 minutes under our umbrellas, they finally ushered us inside to learn how cidar is made and how bees do their thing to make honey. As you can see, trying to get a bunch of 3 year olds to sit through this doesn't work so well.

Next, we were ushered into a corner of the garage where the kids got to learn about corn. They thought the scale was pretty cool, which I think kept them from wandering off.

Then, we headed out to the barn, where we sat on wooden benches covered with cardboard, so our pants wouldn't get wet. (Guess who got wet pants anyway, since the cardboard ran out?) We tried samples of different varieties of apples and cidar, as we listened to the rain pelt the tin roof.

As for the wagon rides, well, they had to cancel that. I'm sure the tractors would have gotten stuck in the mud. So, instead of going to the pumpkin patch, the teachers just picked a pumpkin off the wagon for the class.

Well, you win some, you lose some. Some field trips seem just perfect: the weather, good times with friends, even the pictures turn out better. Other days, you just show up, eat your food, and go home. Just like life, huh?

Here's to better luck next year!

God bless,

Amanda

The Ole Switcheroo

As people often do during this time of year, we have been asked frequently what costumes the kids will wear for trick or treating. Our answer has been Belle (from Beauty and the Beast), a flower, a dalmatian (or "Firehouse Dog" as the kids have been calling it), and a chicken. We actually got in the attic a few weeks ago (major planning ahead for me!) and got the costumes and trick or treat buckets out. The kids had fun unpacking the boxes and getting all of our fall decorations out. I got the costumes washed this week. Therefore, I thought we were all ready to go for tonight. Wrong.

I should have known Thursday morning. That was my first warning. Lauren, Drew and Jack had Storybook Day at preschool. The kids are supposed to dress up like their favorite storybook character and bring in the corresponding book to share with their class. Well, let's face it, my kids dressed up like whatever costume we had on hand, and I found a book to go along with it. So Lauren, as the flower, took "Planting a Rainbow" by Lois Ehlert. Jack was a dalmatian, and he took a touch and feel book about puppies. Drew said he wanted to be the chicken, so I packed "Chicken Little" in his backpack for him the night before. Sounds like a smooth plan, right? Wrong again!

At exactly 8:53 am Thursday (7 minutes before preschool starts), Drew threw off the chicken costume and declared he was refusing to wear it. He had wavered between the chicken and elephant costumes we had, so I offered the elephant one last time. To my surprise, he accepted. The bad news is that I couldn't think of a single book that we had containing an elephant. We got a fun book called "Elmer" by David McKee at the library a while back. But as luck would have it, the library was closed for a big software transition anyway! So I raced through the house, praying to find something with an elephant in it somewhere. Good ole Richard Scary came through for me, with an ABC book with an elephant in it. A far cry from Drew's favorite character, but I got "my" homework done, nonetheless. This would be a great place to insert pictures of what the kids looked like at preschool, huh? Well, due to my great elephant expedition, there was no time to take pictures!

So, as I mentioned, that was a great warm up for today. At approximately 4pm (2 hours before trick or treating starts), Alyssa proclaimed that she didn't want to be Belle anymore. She wanted to be a ballerina. Since the weather was going to be in the 40's tonight, I was very skeptical about this costume. But, after she agreed to 3 layers on top (and we made sure her leotard still fit on her), we were set (again!).

Lauren, upon hearing this, decided that she wanted to be a ballerina, too. After all, she does everything else her big sister does. So, we found a ballet outfit in our dress up box that would fit over her clothes, and she seemed content. While we were finding Lauren's costume, we also got Jack a fireman's hat. He had wanted to modify his costume to make it a dog from a fire station. That left Drew, who had already changed his mind on Thursday, so I thought I was done. Wrong AGAIN!

I took the girls upstairs to do their hair. Well, as careful as I was, Alyssa's ear took a hit off the curling iron (I think she flinched is all I can figure). So Lauren told me that she didn't want me to curl her hair, because she "didn't want to have to burn her ears". We did get her hair in pigtails for the first time, though! Guess who else chose pigtails earlier? Then, we scarfed down some awesome chili Dave made and came back upstairs to do the girls' makeup. Alyssa said the mascara "made her make tears", so she kept smearing it all over. I didn't think she wanted to be a racoon ballerina, so I had to keep wiping that up, which made our make up session take much longer than planned.

Meanwhile, it was about 10 minutes until 6pm, and Dave couldn't find Jack's costume or Drew's pants. I found Drew's pants, but the dalmatian was no where to be found. Dave made an executive decision that Jack would now be the chicken (the same thing he was last year), and surprisingly, Jack didn't throw a fit! Our friend Sue had shown up with her cousins by that point, but she's used to the insanity at our house by now (aren't they brave to want to go trick or treating with us?). After some digging, we finally found the missing pumpkin buckets, threw some shoes on and we were off.

Then we attempted the truly impossible: to get 6 kids to look at the camera at once!

We almost captured our 4 all looking at the camera and smiling!

Even just 3 people at a time proved too challenging.

  

I tried really hard to get some individual pictures, and here's the best the I could do. I should have captured them before we bundled up!

But the funnest part of all was to watch from behind. The waddle and the swaying tail were priceless.

Drew took a tumble and met the sidewalk with his forehead, but other than that the night went pretty smoothly. It was so fun to watch the kids react to how our neighbors celebrated the holiday. I think their favorite was the guy whose teeth lit up! The smoking graveyard was a close second.

Lots of candy. Lots of fun with friends. I think we'll do it again next year. Hopefully, this time without all the drama.

Also, thanks to Grammy for manning the fort for us while we were loading up on candy!

God bless,

Amanda