Look Who's Three!

Last week our sweet Davis turned three! Amazing that it has been three years already! Davis is a loving, kind, coy, observant boy. He enjoys playing with his brother, digging in the dirt , hiding from his dad and with a little imagination he can turn anything into a gun (oh, you know this thrills me to NO end!).

For his special day Jed and I gave him a Tonka Bounce Back Racer, which kept both he and Owen busy for most of the morning. He was also showered with gifts from other family, neighbors and friends (thank you all for loving our boy!). In the afternoon he shared some time and cake with some of his favorite little buddies. Then for dinner Owen suggested that we all go to Applebees (no cooking! Sign me up!) where he remembered that on his third birthday they rang a loud bell and sang to him, of course with a dish of ice cream in hand as well. Davis loved the ice cream, but, and this is one way he differs from Owen, he told me that he was hiding when they were singing because he was embarrassed. He actually didn't even blow out his candles in front of everyone earlier in the day either...once again he was too shy. What can I say, not all of us are built for the spotlight. At any rate we love this boy and know that good things are going to come from him!

Carving the Pumpkins...

I just looked out the window and noticed that it was raining...not a surprise for this time of the year, but it reminded me of what we were doing at this time last Sunday...we were all sitting outside carving pumpkins! It was so BEAUTIFUL--79 degrees--I just wanted to freeze these moments in time. Then, after we were done, we cut up a watermelon that our neighbor had brought only hours before. Are we sure this was really October? I want to rewind to last week!!! The giant pumpkin was also given to us by our neighbors, Joe and Shirley. They are always so generous and provide us with our best pumpkins. That one was carved with the Batman symbol. The others were the boys own designs. Too fun.

Halloween 2008

Halloween seemed to last for weeks this year. I'll admit that when it was over I gave a huge sigh of relief. This doesn't mean that we didn't have fun though...Owen and Davis changed their minds at the last minute and decided that they wanted to be SPIES. Is anyone surprised? I threw together what I had for a couple of Halloween parties, including one at the church on the 30th (Those of you from Dr. Hurley's office will be proud to know that I went as a dental assistant, creative, eh? And those of you from OHS will be happy to know that Jed wore my football jersey and went as a Mustang!). You will notice, however, that I have also posted a picture of Davis as Superman. Let's just say that Davis is fickle these days and decided on Halloween morning to wear Owen's Superman PJs and dress up as the Superhero! Whatever works, I just go with the flow...

Owen, AKA Agent OO5

Eli--Davis--Owen (They call themselves the "12-9-12ers". A spy team name derived from their shoe sizes. I love when they told me that--I think it is such an insight into their minds), playing in the leaves, with a black cat, before trick-or treating. We have gone trick-or-treating with Eli's family (my 2nd cousins--or something like that) every year since we moved here.

From Superhero to....

Super Spy!...Agent OO6

Happy Ballerina Girl! And this was BEFORE the candy. Oh, boy did she love trick-or-treating! Have you ever seen anything cuter than a little tu-tu toddling from door to door, thrilled to be getting candy for just standing there?

I hate to brag, but she was really precious!

Pumpkin Pictures at Home

Here are a few pictures I took today after church...

Pandemonium at the Pumpkin Patch

Okay, so I am not sure that "Pandemonium" is really the right word, but in looking for a title for my post, it seemed to fit the bill to a degree and went well with "Pumpkin Patch". My English teachers would be so pleased that I am trying to use alliteration in my blogging...

So as any good photo happy mother would be, I was so excited when the day came for Owen's preschool field trip to the pumpkin patch. The kids were all dressed in Fall colors that would look good next to the bright orange pumpkins. The perfect bow was selected for Kate's hair. The camera batteries were charged. I was READY. I had committed to driving one other boy from the class with us that morning, so we loaded up the three boys and Kate and headed down the road. By the time we got there it was evident that something was off with Davis. He is generally pretty easy going, but he battled with me to put on his jacket and expressed 200 pleas to "hold me". I quick touch of the forehead and I knew that he had a fever and was not going to be pleasant. Poor boy. So I gave him some Motrin and we decided to make the best of the morning. Then it came time to get on the hay ride. Normally this would have been the highlight of the week, but this boy whaled as if I were making him ride on the Screaming Banchi from the Movie "Mater and the Ghostlight". Lucky for me one of Owen's teachers took Kate and Owen was content to hang with his friends and act like he didn't know that screaming boy or the crazy lady holding him. Eventually, the Motrin kicked in and Davis got a snack and was feeling much better--even on the verge of happy. In the end, however, all my dreams of the perfect picture of my three kids together in the pumpkin patch, were disinigrated. Oh well, above you can see my feeble attempt at perfection...don't let Davis' cheesy smile fool you...

One more milestone...

Last week Owen was playing at his friend, Eli's, house. When we left he said, "Mom can we go home right now and take the training wheels off my bike? Eli is four and I am five and he can ride without his training wheels." Talk about peer pressure, eh? I hadn't really even thought about taking his training wheels off. Well, he kept insisting, aka nagging, so we went home and took the wheels off right away. I was amazed. I ran along side him and let go and off he rode. Of course he crashed soon after that, but got up and went again and again and again. That night when Jed came home he was so proud to show off his new trick. Jed spent a lot of time with him giving him pointers and now he rides everywhere. I think it is funny, but when he has me start him he says, "Mom you have to say, 'peddle like crazy!', that's what Daddy always says." Such a big kid.

Catching up through pictures...

This week's Sunday post is all about pictures (you gotta love the one above of Kate eating a snack today after church...lately I am all about the fun tights!), but before I do that I thought I would note a couple of things:

Davis has a new joke: What is a boy's favorite lunch? Answer: Popcorn! I don't know why that is funny, but, just ask him, it is HILARIOUS!!!

Owen and Davis have been concocting tricks for Jed all week...salt in his ice water, a plastic spider in a piece of ice, etc. Owen was upset with me because I wouldn't put the riding lawn mower on the roof of the house. I told him that it was too heavy for me to which he replied with pleading eyes, "Please just try Mom." I wonder where they get this from. :) And now for the pictures...

Kate + A big pink bowl= loads of entertainment, fun and giggles!

A morning with three FIREMEN!

Owen's school had a visit from the local fire department last week. What a thrill to see all of the firemen in their gear, to hear how the oxygen masks sound when they are on, etc. Owen was captivated.

The kids were amazed every time the firemen opened a new compartment on the truck, "WOW!", they would all say in unison. I loved being there to experience the magic of the day with them.
One thing I love about our little town is that the kids have so many opportunities to sit in fire trucks and do things that I know aren't easily available everywhere. This is probably Owen's fourth time in a fire truck, but he still finds it "AWESOME".
I had a friend watch Kate (thank you Erika!) so that Davis could come too. He was too bashful to climb into the truck or do much of anything, but loved being there with the big kids and the big TRUCK!