Indian Summer

So it is 6 weeks until Christmas and here we are getting tan in our tank tops and some of us are even running around naked!  The weather is lovely and I was telling John after walking Grace to school in the very warm (I had on a t shirt!) morning, that every day like this feels like a gift.  He replyed "That is why they call it the present!" Anyone who has seen Kung Fu Panda as many times as we have would know who says that:))
The day was beautiful and the kids ended up playing outside until dark.  I even sat Henry out there in his little chair without a shirt on.  He loves to sit and watch his siblings play.  Every once in a while one of then will come up to him and hold his hand or give him a toy (I can see all of this from the kitchen window where I am making dinner).  Once he has Henry's full attention, Judah almost always sing Jingle Bells to him in the sweetest, silliest voice.  Henry of course watches Judah in awe and then kicks his feet vigorously and squeals in response.
I needed to take a few pictures of the family to show some friends and this came out pretty good for being on the spur of the moment.  

Halloween Events

So we had a crazy Halloween weekend. Friday night was the church pumpkin party which was very fun for all involved. Saturday was the school Halloween jamboree and Sunday was the actually "holiday" however we hosted 60...yes 60! people including 25 kids for our Octoberfest celebration.  I have never been a fan of Halloween (though I loved trick or treating).  When Halloween was over I would always breath an inner sigh of relief.  Something about all of the evilness and darkness just bugs me.  I would rather focus on the coziness of the indoors and the shorter, cooler days of fall. I love that our family does Octoberfest...beer is something I can celebrate:)

Here Judah dressed up all by himself as a knight while watching a fairy tale.  He very much identifies with the lead male role in most stories and movies.  After this he decided to be a knight for Halloween. However, as you will see, he ended up not liking the knight gear as it was too cumbersome when playing games at the pumpkin party and he chose a different theme.

As you can see the knight is down to his sword and scabbard only.  Face painter Aunt Hannah added the beard since she knows that Judah wanted a beard like his Papa.  When the kids filed past the microphone and told the audience what they were dressed as for Halloween, Judah, who knew he was no longer in his original costume, said "Um....I'm a....I'm a....bad guy!"

Princess Jasmin (Grace) took a turn doing face pain on Aunt Hannah.

This requires serious concentration.

A princess.

Beautiful girls.

Grace the Inventor, Judah the Tester

Here is a working prototype for a new machine to clean the streets.  It is constructed from the highest quality plastic, adhesive strip (tape) and imported fiber bristle brushes.  It is very environmentally friendly as it is completely foot powered.  While it is quite slow on the road and the brush has no manual control and drags behind the car in a "haphazard" way, the driver is a very happy one and often operates the vehicle nude. This is of course to contribute to the "green" energy source as it is easy to over heat when you are driving the street-sweeper with body power alone.  The inventor of this new prototype poses with her newest work.

We Have a Thumbsucker Folks

Henry is pretty good at soothing himself.  Although its pretty easy to be happy when your Papa is holding you.  Here is a cute picture of him with John doing some Fantasy Baseball before bed.

Buddies

Darragh was gone all night and all day today.  She went with Grandma over to Davis to babysit Oliver.  While I heard that she had a good time, we missed her greatly!  I have to admit, there was more peace around here than usual.  Darragh tends to stir things up, for good as well as bad and it was nice to have a little change in the atmosphere.  Juday and Darragh are very close.  With Grace at school and me having to deal with Henry often, the two middle children have become thick as thieves as they say.  They often play well together for hours on end but there are days when they seem to do nothing but fight!  This is maddening as I hate to hear them hurt each other as much as I hate having to stop whatever I am endeavoring to do every 2 minutes in order to be judge and jury.

Here they are having a peaceful moment.  They both love books and will sit quietly looking at them for long periods of time.  Darragh, who is quickly learning to read, has begun doing a mix of reading and remembering books out loud to Judah.  Moments like these make my heart bubble.

End of Summer Garden

These photos are from the last day in September. We still had several tomato plants growing that were laden with slowly ripening tomatoes. They were delicious and the kids loved picking them and eating.

Judah just loves to be naked as do most 2 year olds. Here he put water in the digging area with the hose. He went tearing into the house almost knocking me down in his drive to make a newly conceived idea a reality and returned with the little dinghies from the pirate ship lego set. He and Darragh tested them out in the water for a long time and sailed bits of dirt and leaves in them across the "pond".

Laundry Day

So here are some snap shots from a typical afternoon for me at home. I was folding two loads of laundry on my bed and Henry just loves to sit and look at me (its so nice having someone completely and utterly in love with me...well John says he is in love with me and I believe him but he is too busy to stare at and smile at me all day). Judah climbed up and started reading on of his favorite books to Henry. He knows the whole story and pretty much can correctly tell it from beginning to end. Henry was reaching for the book and Judah would lift it up to show him the pictures.

Grace was sitting at my feet doing homework. My dad always had a rule that we had to sit at tables or desks in order to to our homework. I may enforce that some day but for now she is motivated to doing her work and seems to do better wherever I am so that she can ask questions and be with me. Her printing is getting very good and I love to see what ideas she comes up with when having to make up and write sentences with her weekly spelling words. It is hard to read the page but this is an example of what she writes. She is not timid to just start writing and depends on inventive spelling unless she knows the word.

Here is how he takes a study break...she even taped a bell to the ceiling at the top of the door jam so she could climb up and ding the bell.