Leaves, a princess, and a fort…

“Leaves leave this world in beautiful fall colors and songs.”
―Debasish Mridha

James’ class at school started doing some art out of leaves and went on a small leaf hunt at recess.  James was so good at finding them that his teacher asked him to find more when he got one.  So off we went, bag and buckets in tow, to hunt for leaves in the neighborhood.  James hunted like a pro and even attracted the attention of neighborhood kids who came out to join him.   The venture was successful and when we dropped James off at school on Monday the front window was covered with the results of his exploits.

Ashlyn had another birthday party this weekend, this time at a princess dress up place.  I was unfortunately unable to attend so I could watch the other two, which is a shame because being surrounded by screaming girls wearing pink and blue dresses sounded like a blast.  Maybe next time.  Ashlyn had a great time, even without me, and she has a certificate to prove she’s a princess.  As if she needed it.

James moved to a new swim class this past weekend and he was nervous about the new class and teacher.  Through a combination of bribes and threats he was able to muster up the courage to join the class without a fuss.  As a reward, we stopped by McDonald’s to play on the playground and have an ice cream cone.

At home the kids are learning to be more productive members of society.  Well, maybe not society in general but at least more helpful around the house.  Even Isla got in on the clothes folding action.

And finally, the rains came in this weekend which forced the kids indoors.  Not to let that deter them, our living room became an impromptu fort and couch cushions became a train (complete we Isla almost falling off on multiple occasions).  Hopefully the rains will let up because I don’t think our furniture can take this abuse much longer.

Hair and costumes…

"If human beings had genuine courage, they'd wear their costumes every day of the year, not just on Halloween."
-Douglas Coupland

Ashlyn is doing really well in her Spanish immersion class.  She’s coming home every day with new words, but it also means we have to double up our teaching at home to ensure she keeps up with her English reading.  Luckily for us Ashlyn is always up for lessons as long as they’re fun, and Mommy as teacher seems to work for her.

Her class got together at the park this weekend and of course she wanted to attend.  She did, and as a reward for learning Spanish and memorizing all her English sight words Ashlyn got to pick out some ice cream.  James was more than happy to join her.

Isla’s new fascination this week is with Ashlyn’s hair.  Any time Ashlyn sits down on the couch in the book room to do art you would find Isla sitting right behind her trying to fix her hair.  Ashlyn is a good sport about it as long as Isla doesn’t try to pull her hair out.

Halloween is approaching and we already had Isla’s costume.  We put it on her and of course the older kids wanted to go out and buy theirs.  We took a picture of Isla’s, but in case there’s a law that states you can’t be seen before the big day (like a wedding) I blurred out the cuteness.  You’ll just have to wait for Halloween to see it.

While we were waiting for the store to open to get the kids costumes we hung out at McDonald’s.  While the food was the “quality” it always is, it at least gave the kids something to do.  James ruled the playground and Isla generally fell off everything and tried to climb up the slide the wrong way.

A 50 year celebration…

"A wedding anniversary is the celebration of love, trust, partnership, tolerance and tenacity. The order varies for any given year."
-Paul Sweeney

When you’re throwing a 50th anniversary party, you don’t have much time to take pictures.  And when you don’t take many pictures, a blog like this is not easy to do.  Most likely I’ll come back and update this post at some point to include pictures taken by others but for now you get what you get.

Any good party needs preparation and this now apparently includes painting Isla’s nails.  I’m not sure if all of them were painted before she wondered off to throw something at a cat, but the ones that were painted looked really nice.

This is the part where the pictures are woefully short since we spent most of the evening chasing children and helping with the party.  The party itself was a lot of fun, and it was great to celebrate Grandma and Grampa’s 50th anniversary with friends and family.  We stayed past the kids’ normal bedtime and I had hoped that it would mean they would be tired and want to get to bed as soon as we got home.  Instead they wanted a quick snack.  Sure, what could go wrong with giving them a little yogurt before bed?  I realized my mistake when Ashlyn said “Daddy, Isla is painting the wall with yogurt.”  While I’m glad Ashlyn let me know, I would have liked it even better had she told me before Isla had painted the blinds, table, floor, and herself.

We managed to get Isla cleaned up and the kids in bed, which was good because the next day we went over to Grandma and Grampa’s house to visit with some of the family who came in town.  It will take some time for our ears to recover from the near constant screaming of a herd of children running throughout the house.  I’m fairly sure random children from the neighborhood snuck in because there’s no way that amount of noise could have come from the kids who were supposed to be there.

The point of the weekend was to celebrate the amazing 50 years of marriage shared by Grandma and Grampa.  And I think we did that in fine style.  Congratulations!!

A scavenger hunt and and an amusement park…

Mom:  "What do you think the tooth fairy does with teeth?" 
Ashlyn:  "Maybe she builds a castle out of them.  I hope she puts this one next to my other one."

Our house is filled with toys.  Toys in rooms, on shelves, under furniture, and even in beds.  Despite this, or maybe because of this, it was a box and a chair that provided the most entertainment for the kids this week.  A box became a boat, complete with James in the back keeping the beat for the two girls manning the oars.  And an office chair became a spinner which sent Isla into hysterical laughter.

With Ashlyn now in Spanish immersion it’s even more important to practice reading in English.  To help make reading more interesting we created a scavenger hunt around the house that could only be solved by reading the clues.  It was a fun activity, and while it took a little bit to write out and hide all the clues, it’s something we will definitely do again.

We also took advantage of the Labor Day sale at Six Flags to buy seasons passes.  While Nina and Papa played with Isla, we took James and Ashlyn to go on some rides.  James was a little unsure at first but ended up screaming more than anyone.

Also, Ashlyn lost tooth #4 this week.  Other teeth are getting loose so it won’t be long before she has a mouth full of adult chompers.