Wednesday, October 23, 2013

Grandpa and Grandma Idaho Come to Town

Grandpa and Grandma Idaho came to town to meet Henry--hurray!  And they brought Aunt Megan and her girls for a day--double hurray!  Tadd was out of town for 4 days, boo for him, hurray! for help for me while he was gone!  Do you think I could find a way to end this sentence with "hurray" and an exclamation point???  Nope.  Couldn't make it work. 
Every family needs an Aunt Megan*--she walked Henry, played with kids, directed clean up--and sent me off to Costco alone--as in, just me.  No kids, no baby, no brain.  Oh wait, the "no brain" part is my fault entirely--not hers. 
 That there little Mommy reading to her baby is just too cute for words.  I was so glad I could squeeze her for a day.
 My big kids took the day off of school and played nicely with their cousins.  They got out approximately 200 board games, mixed up all the pieces and created their own game--complete with a cash register and original system of commerce.  It was quite fascinating to watch.  I'm not sure where J's other foot is in this picture, but she can sit like that for long periods of time--and bend her foot up to scratch her cheek if need be.  That there is some talent!


 A gaggle of giggling girlies.
 Henry enjoyed many snuggles with Grandma over the week + she was able to spend here.  I missed all the shots of the dozens of games she played with each of the kids.  We had half days at school all week for parent-teacher conferences, so the kids got more time with Grandpa and Grandma than they would have otherwise--it worked out fabulously.  And it also meant that I could sneak upstairs to nap with Nora and Henry many afternoons.  Grandpa was our chauffeur for the week--and I greatly appreciated this service.  We all miss them.  No one misses them more than Nora who was so happy to have playmates during the day while her big brother and sister were gone.

 We got some shots of the four look alike boys together.  Since I am not a professional photographer--and not even a good casual photographer, the lighting is bad.  But you get the idea. 


 I was so glad that Henry was awake and happy. 
 The next day he even got dressed up in "day time clothes" as Nora calls them.  One day when I was bathing him and took off his sleeper she exclaimed "Are you going to put day time clothes on him???"  It's just that he looks so comfy and snuggly in sleepers.  I feel bad putting him in clothes with waist bands and buttons and zippers and hooks.  Plus, it's so easy to leave him in sleepers day and night and only change them when he wets through and spits up too much.  He does look awfully cute in his day time clothing, though, so I'm making an effort to do it more often.

 Grandma and her girls.

 Look at those big eyes!  His hair is starting to grow in and I think it might be lighter.  I'm still hoping it will stay dark.  And that his eyes will stay blue--but I'm not holding my breath on that one.  No matter what, he's my favorite little Henry in the whole world : ) 
*Don't worry Aunt Heather and Aunt Emily--I love you both just as much : )  Every family needs one of you as well--I just happened to have a picture and incident to relate about Aunt Megan at this point in time!

Tuesday, October 22, 2013

A Visit to the Pumpkin Patch

I posted some of these pictures on my fb account a week or so ago, so pardon the redundancy.
We took a trip to Bob's Corn Maze and Pumpkin Patch while Grandpa and Grandma Idaho were in town.  It was so much more fun going with an even number of adults and kids.  The 1:4 ratio just doesn't cut it.  
 I'll let the pumpkins and punkins tell the story...





 This was a corn cannon.  You aim for targets--and if you manage to hit one--you get a free pumpkin!
 Ezra just barely missed--twice.  Tadd missed by a mile--he nearly hit that road way out there, though.  I think it was the super powers he was getting from holding my diaper bag : ) 

 The girls were listening to the gal give them the directions to the corn maze...

 She was giving them in song.
 Next up:  a ride on the cow train!  Ezra took a ride in Milk Dud.
 Daddy and Nora rode in Lucey Goosey.  And I didn't catch the name of Caroline's cow.






 We enjoyed the hayride out to the big pumpkin patch.  But we didn't go pick out pumpkins.  Mommy and Daddy are too cheap.  Can't help it when you can get whatever pumpkin you want at the grocery store for $3.99.  Don't worry--Bob's got a lot of our money anyway--most of the activities came with a price.  And so did the treats we enjoyed.  I was devastated to learn that the country store did not have the chocolate I have dreamed about all year.  As soon as I pulled out of  Bob's parking lot last year I felt like I should go back and stock up on caramel apple milk chocolate bars--I should have listened to that feeling!








  And we even got a family picture with all six of us.  You have to look at two different pictures to see all of us looking at the camera.  Isn't that just the way it is these days?

A fun time was had by all. 
P.S.  Can't you just feel the desperation in my fingertips as I try to catch up with blogging?  I'm feeling the same way about every aspect of life right now.  I suppose it's the new normal for a while. 

Jog-a-Thon

A couple weeks ago our school had our annual "jog-a-thon" fundraiser.  It was a warm, sunny day at the end of September.  Nora decided that skipping nap time and walking to the school to cheer on her siblings was what she wanted to do!
Caroline's class took their 15 minute run first.  Caroline had planned to "beat all the boys" and run the whole time.  But when she realized it was warm...and 15 minutes is a long time to run....and a good friend was walking...and walking and chatting are much more fun...well, you see where this is going.  Henry was happy to come along for the ride in his Moby--but he was not willing to skip nap time.
We had a half hour break to play on the playground between classes.  Nora is working on her callouses--she wants to have as many as Caroline.
Ezra was in the middle of his concussion week.  The doctor said running was okay--and the school nurse said she was fine with it.  Poor kid had been sitting out recess in the library for a few days--so he was very excited to get a chance to go outside and use up some energy. 
Henry just kept sleeping.

He ran until his time was up.
And then the Littles and I had to walk back up the loooooong hill back home.  Nora skipping nap time meant that Mommy also had to miss rest time.  Boo!  But at least I got fresh air, exercise and some Vitamin D--three things I've been missing quite often these days.