Through the eyes of a [Child]

[halloween 09]

I'm well aware that it is November already, however, if I don't document Halloween now I'm afraid I never will. 

The week leading up to Halloween was a tough one.  Starting the Wednesday before (10-28) we had our first snow day of the year.  To be quite honest, I believe this was our first snow day ever since we moved back in 2007.  But of course it didn't stop there.  We had snow days for the next two days after that!  One of those days (10-30) was supposed to be the kids' Halloween parties at school.  Of course, being a room mom, my initial reaction was to be upset because of all the preparation that went into it.  Halfway through the day, though, I made peace with it and decided everything could be saved for next year for whoevers class I was room mom for.  But we got the word late that night that they still wanted to continue with the parties the following week!  More on that later....

So, needless to say, my kids were looking forward to actual Halloween day since their dress up days were cancelled at dance (snow days for them too) and their parties were 'postponed' at school.  The night of the 30th, we carved our pumpkins.  I spent that afternoon cleaning them out so we could get right to the carving once Daddy came home. 

Then on Halloween day we had our ward Trunk or Treat party and the kids went trick-or-treating in the evening.  I will say this about the Colorado weather...I'm impressed that it cleared up nicely, just in time for the festivities!! 

Here are the pictures of the kids through out the various activities:

 

Oh, and I almost forgot...Olivia Mae lost her very first tooth on Friday, Oct. 30th!!  It had been pretty wiggly for a week or so and she was very devoted to wiggling as much as she could.  So much so, that she pushed that little baby tooth right out with her tongue!!  She's not even 5 1/2 yet!!  Zoe didn't lose her first tooth until she'd turned 6 and was in the 1st grade!  Needless to say, she was pretty excited!!

And there you have it...our October!!  Now...it's on to Thanksgiving! :o)

[snow day, sugar cookies, & snow pants]

Okay...this was NOT the October I signed up for!  Hmph!!!

Yesterday was an official snow day....meaning school was cancelled and dance, too!!  The first half of the day seemed okay.  The kids did pretty well entertaining themselves, as did I with doing laundry!  Yuck...but I guess it needed to be done so that was a bit of divine intervention, I'm sure of it! ;o)  But once naptime hit, the little ones weren't havin' it!!  I think they lasted about an hour or so and they were done!  Didn't quite take up the chunk of day I was hoping for!  That's when the stir-craziness set in.  I decided to make Halloween sugar cookies and let the kids decorate them.  I was a bit apprehensive since I'd just thoroughly cleaned my house two days before and all I could imagine was frosting and sprinkles as far as the eye could see!  I bucked up and thought: "this is just one day, Holly" (boy did I speak too soon on that), and let them have at it!  I wasn't going to, but decided to snap some pictures of the kids because I'm not sure I've ever let them decorate their own cookies before (I know...call CPS, I'm a terrible mother) so I had to document it somehow!  Here they are:

The cookie decorating lasted well into the late afternoon...nothing like draggin' something out! ;o)  So much so, that we didn't realize how late it was until Daddy walked through the door, home from work!!  And, he came bearing gifts!  He had stopped at Target on the way home and picked the kids up some SNOW PANTS!!!  Let me back up...for some reason, or another my kids have never owned a pair of snow pant!  In all honesty, I always thought they were just for kids that skied!  Funny, huh!  Anyway...I've always just bundle my kids best I could and sent them out in the snow to play, only to have them return 10 minutes later crying their eyes out!  Again...terrible mom...who let me have this job anyway?!  Of course, now, they wanted to play outside in their new snow pants while Daddy snow-blowed the driveway (....and the neigbor's driveway....and the sidewalks as far as the eye could see -- he thinks it's a big toy!).  I'm so glad I decided to hang on to old winter coats/mitten/hats (I usually donate them and get new ones as they grow)...because we were set with everything we needed!  I wish I could say that I stayed inside to have some peace and quiet, but I headed outside (in improper snow gear) to take some pictures of the kids:

(Zoe actually shoveled that whole sidewalk behind her...nice, huh!?) :o)

So, with that day behind us, Jeff informs me, in the middle of the night no less, that today is another snow day!! *sigh* 

[snowy pumpkins]

Yesterday was took our (almost) annunal trip to the Littleton Historical Museum for their Harvest Festival and Pumpkin Sale.  The kids were looking forward to it since we were unable to go last year with Zoe having walking pneumonia and it being 40 degrees outside.  Little did we know that this year would bring snow and 20 degree weather.  We decided to suck it up and go!  Well, one good thing about the day was that the crowds were sure down from years before!  It's the silver lining, people!! ;o)  We lasted only about an hour.  Once we picked out our pumpkins we did the little cornmaze, visited the old schoolhouse, had a few bites of our pumpkin pie and sips our the hot apple cider and we were on our way!  Alex pretty much cried the entire time because he was cold (and sick, as we later found out...), and Olivia forgot her coat, but we were lucky enough to have found an old sweater of hers in the back of the car.  Good times!  We look forward to next year....snow or shine!

 

[what happened to fall?]

Summer was great.  I would even say mild because of all the rain we got.  So once the weather started to get a little bit cooler I was so terribly excited for fall.  The leaves started to change which made me giddy.  Oh how I love fall in Colorado with the cool mornings, warm (not hot) afternoons and clear evenings.  But then....bam....cold weather, and possibly snow this weekend!!  What the....?  What happened to fall???  I want it back, just for a little bit...please?

I took the kids out yesterday morning to try and get a few pictures of them with some of the changing leaves, but I got a whole lotta complaining about how cold it was, so we only got a few!  Here's some of them:

 

So, if you see Fall, tell her I'm lookin' for her....and I'm none too happy! Hmph! ;o)

[muffin tin monday: no theme]

It's Monday again, and I'm back to the muffin tin lunches!  I skipped last week because I couldn't pull it together.  The kids were excited to see it's return this week!!  I'm averaging about every other week participating, but still lots of fun!  This week there is no theme, which I find pretty easy to make work!  ;o) Here's a picture of today's lunch:

We've got L-R: Pizza Goldfish, Turkey Pepperoni, cut up cheddar cheese slices

                           Grapes, Watermelon Go-Gurt (out of the tube), mini rainbow-chip cookies

Have a good Monday! :o)

[back to school still on the brain]

The kids have been back to school well over a month, but I decided I wanted to scrap their back to school pictures!  There are so many CUTE digital kits for BTS, Fall, and even Halloween out there right now!  So here are the two pages I've done in the last week or so:

(kit: It's Elementary)

(kit: It's Elementary; template: by Chrissy W.)

And, not only those, but I created new flashcards for Olivia using the High Frequency Words for Kindergarten.  I used the Back to School collab kit again to make the cute cards!!  There are journaling blocks included in that kit, so I searched for the words online and opened them up in PSE and added the journaling blocks behind the word, printed them out, laminated them, and put them on a ring!  Now we can take them with us where ever we go and Olivia can work on them!! Here's the picture:

I love doing fun, creative digi stuff! :o)  Makes me happy!

[muffin tin monday: apples]

We're back to doing MTM here!  We took a break last week since it was Labor Day and we weren't home during lunch time!

This weeks theme is Apples!  Here's my take on it:  Apple butter and cream cheese sandwiches on Cinnamon Swirl bread, Apple Jacks, apple slices and caramel, and Yoplait's Apple Turnover yogurt. :o)

 

[hybrid kid: back to school]

Mel Wilson, from The Hybrid Kid, along with Mari Koegelenberg from  The Digi Chick, collaborated on a new kit called  Back to School for digital scrapping and hybrid projects!  I was lucky enough to receive this kit to play with and let me tell you....it is the best!  First off, it's huge...so many papers & elements to choose from and there are a ton of really cool and really easy hybrid projects such as lunch box labels, lunch bag toppers, mini albums, school supplies printables!   So fun!!  Go check it out!

I put together a digital layout, yesterday, using the kit!  And I plan on doing some of the digital projects this weekend!  Here's the layout, and I'll be sure to post my other projects, once they're done!  Thanks for looking! :o)

[labor day]

Yesterday, I suppose, was the final goodbye to summer....though it was like 90 degrees outside and sunny as can be.  We had a nice relaxing day spending it with Grandpa Child at his house!  He BBQ'd for us and we spent the day hanging out in the yard and just doing nothing in particular.

Jeff's dad has a lawnmower,which he calls a "tractor" and the kids all wanted a chance to take a ride on it!  Alex was completely obsessed!  Even after Jeff had taken everyone around on it and parked it back in the garage, Alex convinced Grandpa to get it out again and give him just one more ride!!  Of course, Grandpa obliged! ;o)  Here are some pictures:

We then moved to the backyard for the kids to play near the pond!  Grandpa had found a frog earlier and so we went searching for it!  We eventually found it and tried our darndest to get it out of the pond but it was incredibly fast!  Daddy finally got it, put it out on the grass and we watched the kids try to catch it to hold!  The frog was always one hop ahead!
 
Oh, and Zoe spent a lot of time practicing her arials in a big open space!

[muffin tin mondays: circus]

So last week I stumbled across this blog and loved the idea of Muffin Tin Monday -- the idea being that you fill little muffin cups with finger foods and such for lunch!  I'd seen something like this on other blogs I read quite a while ago, but never jumped on board!  So, I gave it a try last week, sort of a trial run, to see if the Olivia and Alex would dig this or not!  Well, I'm happy to say that the did!!  Olivia just kept saying "this is so cute!"  And Alex calls it the "fun lunch".

This blog also comes up with themes for each Monday, and this week it was "Circus".  This is what I came up with:

 

L-R: Teddy Grahams (bears at circus), Fruit Rings (3-ring circus), Oreo Cakester,
        String Cheese Twists (stripes on the big top), hot dogs (typical circus food)
        and vanilla yogurt with colored sprinkles.

Cute, huh?!  Here are a few other pictures (sorry, they're all a little out of focus...don't know what my deal was):

Can't wait to see what next week brings! :o)