Fun at the park

It seems odd to be writing about gorgeous fall days when it is -24 degrees F outside with 5 inches of snow on the ground.  I guess that is another reason I should get caught up.  In the middle of September we decided to go for a picnic dinner at a local park to enjoy some very nice weather.

Brooklyn enjoying some pizza and a juice box:

Making a train on the slide: Brooklyn, Reed, Alan, Conner and Micah as the caboose

Micah would fly down the slide - he looks a little concerned about his speed:

Brooklyn LOVES slides:

We love this big slide:

Then we had fun jumping from one tire to another and running between them:

I miss these warm days!

All about Micah

 Okay, here are some random facts about our newest 3 year old: 
- He loves "hotmeal" (oatmeal).  He asks for it every morning, even when we are having cold cereal or pancakes.  He also asks for it as a snack and today he wanted it for dinner. 

- He doesn't like to wear shoes.  More than once I have been rushing everyone out to the car and got everyone strapped in and then I realize that Micah is not wearing any shoes.  In fact, he trick or treated down town without wearing shoes.  I had finally got everyone in their costumes, and everyone had a bucket or bag and I remembered the stroller for Brooklyn and we had an extra friend with us so I was feeling pretty good that I got everyone there in time to do a little trick or treating.  We drove there and went to Reed's work first.  We walked in and I suddenly noticed that Micah was not wearing shoes!  Ahhh!!!  If we had turned around and went home we would have missed the trick or treating so he went shoeless.  I carried him over any wet places and he never complained that his feet were cold.  At least his socks matched his outfit. 

- He has turned into quite the conversationalist.  He loves to ask "Why?"

- He loves ninjas.  He likes to pretend to be a ninja and he will yell "Ninjago!" and pretend to spin around because he and his brothers like to watch Ninjago.  There was a short phase where he would clean up really good if I asked him to ninja-clean. 

- He loves his toy "guys".  Lego guys, imaginext guys, army guys, he likes any kind of action figure guy but his favorite are the little knights at my parents house.

- Speaking of grandmas and grandpas, this little guy LOVES to visit his grandparents or have them come visit him.  He gets so excited when we tell him about an upcoming visit.

- Bedtime is getting better.  It used to be so hard to put him to bed.  He would talk and kick the walls and try to get out of his room for an hour or more each night.  Now he usually goes to bed without too much of a fight.  Oddly enough, he has always been a good napper and he still is.  He will usually fall asleep for a nap by 11:30 or 12:00, so we eat lunch early.  Many days he will bring me his blanket and I will ask if he is really to lay down on his bed and he will just smile and nod. 

This is a fairly common sight - falling asleep while eating lunch:

- A weird fact - Micah likes to chew his bread products and then he presses it against the roof of his mouth and stores it there....for a long time.  It is pretty gross.  I have to be careful to make him spit it out before he falls asleep for his nap.

- About a month before his birthday we were in Walmart and I saw a baby doll so I thought I would get it for Brooklyn.  Well, Micah saw it and instantly claimed it as his.  He has enjoyed having a baby to play with.

Micah and Brooklyn with their babies:

- Micah likes to play outside, especially in the dirt or sand:

- Micah is a terrible mess-maker.  At the beginning of September we had ice cream sundaes for family home evening treat.  I left the chocolate sauce and sprinkles on the table as we got the kids ready for bed.  Reed was putting Alan and Conner to bed and I was getting Brooklyn ready for bed and Micah was just playing quietly on the floor (he has a slightly later bed time because he still takes afternoon naps).  After I put Brooklyn to bed I came down stairs and found Micah pouring chocolate sauce all over the carpet.  He had covered a patch about 1 1/2 feet wide and 8 feet long, going from our computer desk all the way under our dining room table.  I was so mad!  I tried to have him help me clean it up but he just made a bigger mess and I was too angry to be patient.  So Reed put him to bed and I cleaned up.  It took forever and as I cleaned I realized that he had poured pink and orange sprinkles on top of the chocolate sauce.  So our carpet has some slight stains of brown, pink and orange patches. 

Another mess - this time he accidentally dropped the box of legos down the stairs.  There were hundreds of legos spread across most of the stairs and scattered across the entry way.  He helped me clean this mess up and it took a long time:

- he likes to help his dad

Micah watching while Reed works on the chicken coop:

 

- Micah likes to pretend to vacuum with his popper whenever he sees me vacuum:

We sure love this little boy and are glad he is in our family!

Micah turns 3!

Micah turned 3 in September.  We had a fun family party.  I had a hard time figuring out what to do for Micah's birthday dinner.  Usually I make the person's favorite dinner but Micah is kind of a picky eater.  Finally I settled on hot dogs, fresh veggies and dip and apple racers.  He seemed to enjoy it:

Micah really likes cars so I made a race car cake.  Micah wanted it to look like one of his favorite cars - blue with orange flames.  I added a 3 out of M and M's:

Make a wish!  He had a hard time blowing out his candles but he eventually got all of them:

Delicious!

Then we opened presents - thank you hug for Alan:

Micah loves this game:

After we were done opening presents we went to a local interpretive center and made comets that we could race.  We also learned more about meteors and comets.  It was a great, fun-filled evening!  Happy Birthday Micah!

1st Day of School

School started at the end of August.  Conner started kindergarten this year.  He had mixed feelings - I think he was kind of curious (especially after we said all the nice things about it) but he just wasn't super excited about it.  We got there the first morning and he looked pretty nervous.  Luckily there was a girl in his class that he knows from church and that helped a lot.  He went and sat by her and let us leave:

Alan started second grade and he was excited to be back at school:

I ordered the boys' backpacks and I happened to order Micah a pair of pants from the same place.  He was so thrilled to get his picture taken with his pants, just like his older brothers got their pictures taken with their backpacks:

I forgot to take a picture of Alan and Conner together on the first day so I did the following week:

Alan has enjoyed second grade.  Conner has...come to enjoy it most of the time.  For the first while he wasn't very positive about school.  After the first day he came home super tired (he goes to all day kindergarten) and said that is was okay.  That night as I tucked him into bed I said something like he needed to get a good sleep so he would be ready for school the next day and he got a shocked/horrified look on his face and burst out "I have to go tomorrow too?!?"  Whoops, I guess we didn't warn him that school is every day.  He was not happy about that.

Over the summer I tried to wean him off of afternoon naps but he was still napping twice a week.  If I didn't give him a nap and he need it this is what would happen - he would just fall asleep where ever he was:

So, for the first month he was really tired.  His teacher said that he would ask if he could nap in class.  A few times he would fall asleep at his table and then the teacher moved him to the carpet and let him nap - he would come home so happy and perky and tell me about how he woke up on the carpet (that was really funny to him).  But he hasn't napped at school for a while now and he is generally pretty happy to go to school - Hooray!  Life has been pretty quiet for Micah, Brooklyn and I at home.

Summer Fun

Here are a bunch of random pictures that capture some of the slow, regular days of summer:

Brooklyn enjoying a slice of watermelon.  It was hard to stop her from eating the rind:

Micah enjoying some watermelon:

Alan wanted a big slice:

So did Conner:

The boys love to get dirty:

I told them that was okay, as long as they cleaned it up (including scrubbing their clothes in the bath tub)

They only did this once (thank goodness!)

There was mud everywhere - inside ears, in hair and on eyelids:

"Am I clean yet?" - Nope, try again:

Alan loves to give notes:

Conner is a very talented builder:

This little boy hated to wear his sandals.  I would constantly find him like this and have to ask "Where are your sandals?!?" to which he would respond with one of his cute, mischievous smiles and then point back the way he had come.  This happened a lot - on the walk home from school, at the grocery store, at the park...

crazy picture of Alan playing in a box:

The boys built a wall out of bricks and mud across our back steps.  They were very proud of it:

I found a package of brownie pops for sale so we had to try them:

Everyone enjoyed them:

It is too hard for me to take all the kids to the pool so we cool off in the backyard:

Grandma and Grandpa Bassett came to visit.  We got some painting time in:

Micah painting with Grandma (we were potty training - thus no pants):

Conner's painting:

One day the kids decided to do a lemonade stand.  They were pretty cute.  We have some very generous people around here and they made a lot of money.

I love summer time!