Enjoying Every Little Thing

It never ceases to amaze me how the littlest thing can cause so much excitement for kids.  We had our first snow of the season recently and luckily it was on a Saturday so we could fully enjoy it!  The kids could not wait to get out side and check it out.  They were sure they could build a snowman.  Unfortunately, we didn't even have a full inch of snow and it was already hard and icy so a snowman just wasn't happening.

One of the places that got the largest accumulation of snow was on the bumper of Daddy's truck and the kids had to tell him all about the "mustache" that his truck had as soon as they saw it.  Big time excitement there.  Even without the snowman we had a lot of fun crunching through the snow and ice and throwing frozen snow chunks at each other.

After our outdoor adventure, McKenzie was still hooked on making a snowman so we settled for the next best thing to real snow - play dough.  She loves to create all sorts of things with her play dough and is never ready to put it away when it's time.  Ben on the other hand still has a very short attention span for play dough and will come and go to other things while McKenzie works away on her creations.  Here she has made an entire family of multicolored snow men!

Leaf Me Alone

While we do hear an assortment of the standard sibling lines about leaving each other alone or a classic for our house "I need some 'lone time".  Kenzie and Ben do actually get along very well and enjoy doing things together.  Lately, McKenzie has even been getting frustrated when Ben wants to do something besides what she is doing.  It's funny to hear her come to me and basically tell on him for not playing with her.  One of my favorite lines that covers either issue is "Work it out please." Takes me out of the equation and helps with their decision making skills.

This was a beautiful Sunday afternoon a few weeks ago when we worked together to rake up all the leaves in the front yard and carted them into the backyard to cover up our garden for the winter.  I really should get out and take a picture of the garden so I can have pictures from every season.  I am already dreaming up next years garden.  I have a drastically different plan from this year forming in my mind.  I know whatever I plant it will teach me something new and I'll find a way to "work it out" because that's how I roll.

Never Lose That Sparkle!

I love the sparkle that just comes naturally in McKenzie's smile and I hope she never loses it.  I look at this picture and it scares me to think that in less than fourteen years she'll be off to college.  I am so looking forward to all the fun to be had helping her grow up - I can wait to see who this girl becomes!  I'm enjoying the journey.

Let's Get Some More!

The weekend before Halloween we took the kids to a low scare haunted house which turned out to be very fun.  They were so interested in all the strange scenes inside but lucky for us the lights were on and all the residents of the haunted house were friendly and giving out candy.  The only one that really worried Kenzie was a little boy who was in a cage rattling the bars.  She wanted to know why he was in there and why no one would let him out.  

The kids were so excited to wear their costumes to the haunted house.  As you can see Ben was Scooby Doo and McKenzie was Rapunzel, with the long long hair.

On Halloween the kids were so excited to get started on Trick Or Treating, so it was a good thing it got dark around six.  When we headed out of the house Ben kept saying "It's dark.  It's dark."  Guess we really don't get out much after dark at our house.  After the first house Ben had the drill dow. They alternated ringing the doorbells or in many cases each took a turn and then Ben would let Kenzie do the initial talking but then would say his thank you immediately followed by "Let's get some more!"  It was a great time with both kids trick or treating this year.  

Here is a good view of the long, long hair.  That is how McKenzie refers to her costume - not just Rapunzel but also the hair.

Practicing our door knocking skills - Kenzie is a seasoned professional at trick or treating!

Out with Daddy in his Halo costume in the dark.  They are figuring out which house to go to next.  I was dressed in my trusty gorilla costume not a great idea for both parents to wear costumes with full masks.  Next year I'm thinking a family themed costume is in order.

Scooby Doo and Rapunzel with cousin Claire the Strawberry Fairy - too cute!

Frighteningly Fun

October came and went in a flash with all the fun events we found to enjoy.  Each year we seem to add on one more activity to our list of must do things.  This year in addition to our trip to Bob's Corn Patch we also visited Craven Farms for a birthday party.  Craven is another amazing pumpkin patch with so much more to see and do.  We never even made it out to the pumpkins because there was so much going on in and around the barns.  The kids loved exploring all their interesting equipment, vehicles and pumpkin scenes.  There were so many places to climb.  I think the only time they stopped moving was when they were eating cupcakes at the party.

Here are the kids checking out who's driving this old truck.  They thought it was so cool that you could look at it and touch it.  There were several other vehicles like this around the farm - so cool for kids!

McKenzie cannot say no to having her face painted - she always wants something bigger and more colorful each time.  Pretty soon she'll end up with the whole thing painted.

 This was Ben's first time getting his face painted.  He took forever to pick what he wanted and finally decided on a spider.  He was very interested in touching his face so I was glad he had far less paint than McKenzie.

This was also the first year that Ben got to participate in carving the pumpkins as the last two years we put him to bed and just carved with Kenzie.  He was very excited to get started but then when he actually touched the pumpkin seeds and guts he was less than excited and opted to watch some Scooby Doo instead.  Kenzie dug into her pumpkin without any hesitation and did a great job cleaning it out and saving seeds to roast and some for our garden for next year.  

Our 2011 pumpkins - from left to right: Daddy's, Mommy's, Ben's and McKenzie's

Lots of excitement about having the pumpkins on the front porch.

I Can Do It!

This Fall McKenzie started in PreK at school so she is in the same classroom all year with the same kids rather than moving into the next class at age intervals.  She has a great group of kids in her class and it's been fun to watch them grow together and hit new stages.  Recently, the big thing with the girls in her class was Twinkle Toe shoes which have blinky lights when you walk.  We didn't object to getting her the shoes and it was the fact that they only came with laces.  So in order to get to wear her new shoes to school McKenzie has been learning to tie her shoes.  It's been an interesting test of will power both on our side and hers to stick with it and get her doing it on her own.  Thank goodness for Google where parents can learn good techniques for teaching kids how to tie shoes.  We used the 'bunny ear' approach since it seemed the easiest route for now.

We have her practice every time she wears the shoes and she's getting it down slowly but surely.  She can do the knot all the time but gets frustrated easily with the bunny ears.  She was getting her shoes on one day last week and she started yelling, "I can do it!"  We came to check it and sure enough she had done it!  She tied her shoe all on her own.  It was an amazing moment because I know she may need some more help but she can and will be tying those shoes all on her own before I know it.  Check out that smile.  I'm looking forward to seeing that more and more as she sets goals and achieves them in life.

Here she is at school with her friends Meadow and Somer and their matching Twinkle Toes!

Fall Fun With Our Friends

Another Fall season, another great trip out to Bob's Corn Maze with our favorite friends to enjoy the season and pick out our perfect pumpkins.  We had quite the crew this year with Carrie's family, Gina's family and our newest addition to the annual tradition with Rachel's family.  There is always so much to see.  I know we miss half of it but as the kids get older and their attention spans get longer and we'll soon be spending longer and longer each year.  We have also decided that next year we need to plan our visit in the morning and then head back to our house for more fun since we have everyone together already.

McKenzie is as pink as the pumpkins were orange.  She loves looking for her perfect pumpkin!

Ben with his golden coin waiting in line to ride the cow train.  We practically filled the whole train up with our group alone. 

Kenzie in her cow  named Bob.  She waved at everybody for the entire ride.

Ben and Mom on the cow train.  Next year he'll be big enough to ride alone.

Taking pictures of the whole group is hard but it seems I made it harder on myself by not standing where they were all looking.   Keaton is a lucky man with all the ladies helping to hold him up.  

Ben taking a rest while searching for his perfect pumpkin.  

Here's our group of barnyard animals enjoying their day on the farm.

Attempt at a family pictures, we always have to have someone clowning around!