Cole and I walk past this house every day as we go to the bus stop to pick up Franny.  He has been absolutely fascinated with it, as well as all the other spooky things related to Halloween.  Skeletons are definitely his main focus, although mummies, ghosts, and frankensteins are big interests, as well.  This particular display has two tombstones with skeletons and then the series of skeleton hands sticking up out of the ground.  He really likes it in the daylight, but tonight he was able to see it all lit up in the dark.   He really got a big kick out of it.  He has such a different perspective and focus of Halloween than Franny does.  I don’t know if it is just the inherent differences between boys and girls or just Cole,  between boys and girls, but it is definitely interesting to see.  When he gets older, I have a suspicion that he is going to really like going to a haunted house!  Thankfully, I think we have a few years of tame Halloweens left ahead of us before that happens!

It was a Happy Halloween for everyone today—from painting pumpkins to making jack-o-lantern pizzas to trick or treating to giving out candy, Franny, Cole, and Delaney had a wonderful time.  It didn’t take them long to get into the trick or treating.  After ‘trick or treat’ and ‘thank you’  Cole followed up at each house with an enthusiastic ‘Happy Halloween, Stinky Face!’ . Some probably didn’t know what to make of it (it’s from his book Happy Halloween Stinky Face) but, really—I can’t imagine anyone could really take offense from such an adorable lion!  And, it was meant in a very nice way, anyway.  In the end, it was a great time for everyone and the perfect ending to a very busy—but, very fun—Halloween week.

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Congratulations to Franny for scoring her first goal of the season!  Great job, Franny!

Franny’s school had their annual Halloween Festival on Friday evening.  One of the fun activities they had was a pumpkin decorating contest.  They provided all sorts of paint and craft supplies for the kids to use.  Franny and Cole shared a pumpkin for the contest.  They both worked with very intense concentration painting, gluing, and sprinkling glitter.  I was surprised at how willing Franny was to share her pumpkin; she was also very sweet in helping Cole find supplies, green paint, and skeleton heads.  I loved their end result—it was not a traditional ‘face’ pumpkin, but it was a great effort.  And, while their creation didn’t win the top prize for the kindergarten group, they definitely deserve a ‘good sportsmanship’ award.  And, in my mind, that is the most important thing of all.   

Cole had his school Halloween party today.  After years of being tagging along to Franny’s parties, he finally had one of his own.  He was very excited about it—he kept asking if it was his party and if Daddy was going to be there.  It was only a little over an hour, but he had a great time.  He had lunch with his friends and then played with his best friend Temny.  But, the best part for Cole was when Rick arrived (he was a little late due to work)—his face lit up and he sat and talked with him and then wanted him to be with him for the rest of the party.   As Franny gets older, and I can see how we gradually have to let her grow up and do more things independent of us and how she wants to things independent of us, it makes me cherish these small, simple parties.  A little routine playtime with a friend, a bagel and a cookie, and his family coming to be with him, and Cole thought this was the best.  And, I think I would have to agree with him.

This month’s school spirit day is Homemade Wacky Hat Day for the Heavenly Hats Foundation., which donates hats to cancer patients all over the world.  Franny was really excited to make her hat, which basically consists of all the leftover supplies from her various art projects over the last year mounted on her pink cowboy hat.  There are stickers, pipe cleaners, tissue paper, ribbon, paper flowers, and a felt ladybug on a popsicle stick.  Franny’s hat won’t actually be donated, but each student can make a $1 donation that will benefit the Foundation.  Although Franny doesn’t really understand the meaning behind her project, I thought it was a great thing to get the kids thinking of others and how they can help and make a difference.

Today has been the second day that Delaney has been sick with a relatively high fever.  She has had a few moments where she has rallied with good spirits, but for the most part she is very unhappy, cries a lot (which is very uncharacteristic of Delaney), and needs to be held almost constantly.  Fortunately for Rick, while I had faces like this all day…

…Delaney gave him lots of smiles (and no crying!) before she finally headed off to bed.  Either the Tylenol finally gave her some relief or she was just waiting and saving them up for him all day.  I’m hoping that tomorrow I get at least of couple of these kinds of smiles!

Our new fence has been in for a number of weeks now, and it has definitely brought us some peace of mind.  The kids were pretty good about staying away from the edge (except Delaney, that is) and we never left them unsupervised, but the potential of one of them falling at just the right spot to cause a fall off the rock wall was great enough to cause of us some uneasiness this summer.  But, the fence is up and we can all relax a little more and enjoy our time outside.  Delaney, however, has now taken to running up the sidewalk, but we’ll just have to deal with that one!

This morning was one of the few Saturdays that we haven’t taken the morning for errands.  Instead, the kids got to play together all morning and I think they enjoyed the novelty of not having to do something or go somewhere.  We try to keep a healthy balance with the kids’ free time and scheduled time, but with three kids the days fill up fast with activities and events.  Amazingly, we even have one more day without commitments before we start another busy week with an extremely busy weekend.  Time goes so fast.  It makes a not-so-special day like today actually seem very special. 

This was Franny’s sixth week of soccer.  She is having a really good time, and her soccer skills have improved a lot since they began back in mid September.  It’s also extra special for her to have her daddy coaching and Grandma and Grandpa watching on the sidelines.  But, I think maybe her favorite part is playing on the playground after it’s all over!

This week, Bliss Cupcakes visited Cole’s preschool and made cupcakes with all the kids.  Cole really enjoyed making his, but I am curious if he actually ate it.  For Cole, as well as for Franny, there is always a great deal of enjoyment in the making, but not always in the eating.  Regardless, it was great fun and we are all excited to use the 20% off coupon they sent home!  Yum!

It has been wonderful to have the most beautiful weather, this week.  The kids have been playing outside every minute possible.  And, sweet Delaney got the chance to wear her favorite dress one more time.  It’s a little small, but I just couldn’t deny her since the weather was so accommodating.  Being outside has become so routine for everyone, it is hard to imagine what we’ll do when the rains drive us back indoors.  Unfortunately, we’ll find out very soon, I am sure!  Until then, however, we are maximizing every ray of sunshine we can!

I like to make little cards to put in Franny’s lunchbox.  They’re not fancy, but they give me chance to tell her how much I love her when I can’t be with her.  And, I know she really likes them so that it makes it even more fun for me.  Yesterday, Franny made me this card for me and left it on my nightstand.  It’s a picture of our afternoon together—raking leaves in the front yard.  I thought it was so very sweet.  I don’t know if it was my notes to her that gave her the idea to leave one for me, but I do hope that mine make her as happy as her card made me.

Since he has very little, it was obvious that Cole had a strong connection to music.  Fortunately, Franny was in music classes when he was born, so he had a lot of early exposure to music, rhythm, and dancing.  I still remember taking him along to her classes, carrying him in the sling, and having him smile up at me the whole time.  Head bobbing and rocking soon became his next step, followed by very exuberant dancing from the moment he was able.  Now, I love to listen him as he sings to his songs—he is really very impressive.  We recently resumed his music classes, after a summer hiatus.  He is having a great time (as is Delaney!) and really gets a lot out of them.  I know that interests change, and Cole is only three years old, but it hard to imagine music not always being a big part of him.  For now, I’m just going to enjoy watching him sing and dance his way through his days.  It’s just too much fun!

Cole loves Grandpa’s shop.  All those incredible tools is just heaven for Cole. Then, add one of his favorite people in the world, and few things can top it.   If there was any question about that, it was put to rest on our last trip to Disneyland.   After our first day, we asked Cole are you ready for another day in Disneyland?!  His response was I want to go to Grandpa’s shop. 

I took this picture sometime this summer or early fall.  I absolutely love it, but for whatever reason never posted it previous to today.  I ultimately decided that it is never too late to post a picture as special as this one.  So, here it is!

How does Auntie Noelle balance three young kids all competing for her affection?  With lots of love and patience.  It’s no wonder they adore her so!

When the weekend’s wet weather turned unexpectedly sunny late Sunday, we decided to take advantage of the break and head out to Kruger Farms for our Halloween pumpkins.  It was definitely muddy—we all went home with mud on our shoes and clothes and Cole was muddy head to toe!  But, we had a lot of fun and found some very nice pumpkins.  Cole’s pick outweighed him at a hefty 44 pounds!  Our other pumpkins were smaller, but all had their individual character—carving them sometime in the upcoming weeks should be a lot of fun!

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For Franny, being the big sister seems to be a role that she takes to very naturally.  She is so sweet and nurturing (most of the time) that I sometimes forget she is just five and a half. I love “looking in” on these three together.  They have such special relationships and that is largely due to Franny and her love for her siblings.  I never tire of seeing them laugh together, play together, or walk together hand in hand.  It is one of my favorite joys of parenthood.  

Cole may like to color in just one simple color, but his thoughts are anything but simple!  With Franny in school everyday, we have been doing a lot of reading together in the morning.  He asks a lot of questions about the books he chooses.  And, they are really good questions—it is obvious that he is really thinking about all the stories and the pictures.  He will take one picture and analyze down to the smallest details, and then create his own mini story to go along with it.  And, I can’t give him simple responses to his questions—he takes everything in very seriously.  We will spend a lot of time on one part of the book, move on, and then he will want to go back to that same page for further scrutiny.  When he first started this, I would get somewhat impatient with all the questions because it seemed we couldn’t get through a book!  Fortunately, I  quickly realized that it didn’t matter how we read the book, just as long as he enjoyed it and processed it in a way that made sense to him.  There are definitely parts of each book that he finds very intriguing and will take up the majority of the time we spend reading, and it is quite intriguing to me, what will capture his attention next!