Happy Birthday!

(Huh, that posted just the title when I hit the wrong button, who knew!)

Happy Birthday to Eric today! We have been cooking up surprises and special things for him all day so hopefully he can see how special we think he is! I'm off to start his special evening extravaganza! HA! Just kidding, but I do have some special things for him that I have to get started now that he is on his way home from work, more later!

Happy Veterans Day

This week maybe I have been a little stressed. Eric's birthday is tomorrow and I have been secretly working on some stuff for him, most of which Gwen knows about, sadly. Why do I say sadly, because the kid is 3 and can't keep a secret. Fortunately, she hasn't spilled all the beans on everything we've worked on. But conveniently for me she spilled the beans on this: I think she would have kept the quiet on the quilt, except that someone decided to surprise us and come home early and not give us a call. So, Gwen says "Daddy, Mommy has been working secretly on your quilt, see its over there." Which I guess is good because I was able to finish it in peace, see I have been working on it during naps and I wasn't finished, I had to attach the bottom row and like 3 tshirts on the 4th row. Hopefully now that it is done, I will be less stressed about finishing the top and hopefully this means Gwen will be less crazy, but you never know.
We are currently under lots and lots of rain. We are surviving just fine, but sadly I had to go to the grocery store and we got really wet. The kids didn't care, and I really didn't, but some of the groceries won't be the same. To counteract the rains we have some pictures from before Halloween, we had some beautiful evenings so we decided to eat in the back, (well really the side) and we thought to document the fabulousness of eating outside.

Oh and thanks to our Veterans for serving in the military!

Today

is Tuesday, did you know that? It is my day to meet with my exercise buddy, I noticed it was raining so I contacted my friend and she said she was coming, but I guess she didn't read my email that said it was raining, how do you feel about that. About 15 minutes before we were about to leave she called and said she wasn't coming because it was raining. I was a little frustrated because that is why I contacted her in the first place and if she didn't want to go in the rain, then could she have told me earlier, before I got everyone ready. This put me in a bad mood for the rest of the day. I was already on tender hooks as it was; today also being my Dad's birthday and Gwen being a real pain, everything was an issue today. Everything I asked her todo was met with "NO" and whining/crying. GRRR!
So today, I leave with picture of my sweet boy, I am still trying to figure out if he is smart or not so smart. I mean he seems to learn things quickly but then doesn't figure out things like, DON'T CLIMB UP IF YOU CAN'T GET DOWN. So, here's my boy, hasn't quite figured out that he shouldn't climb up on the chair when it is pushed under the table.

I don't know what Gwen is trying to do here, but I don't think it is going to be helpful.

But, look, isn't he cute.

Memories Monday

We had a very fun and long day yesterday, well, not really long for us, but I think for the kids it was long, but more on that later, when I download the pictures. So today, we are going to look at pictures from September, Grandmom's visit. This is from our visit to the Museum of Natural Sciences. We love that museum, its free and lots of big stuff to look at, we've been there a lot, (I would say 3 times since we moved here would be a lot, don't you think?)
Here are Grandmom & Gwen looking at the a snake in the butterfly exhibit, well, it was in a cage!
Nate, in the butterfly case! HI!

Nate and Daddy in the dinosaur exhibit. Nate liked this exhibit, we completely missed it the first time.

Gwen listening to something, I don't know what, I guess I should check that stuff out, but I am hoping the content isn't too much for a 3 year old...

Grandmom decided Gwen MUST ride the horse and cart, here she is checking with Gwen to see if she was ok with taking the ride by herself.

For the record, Gwen was fine with the ride, she told Grandmom she was like a princess riding on her pony.

While Gwen was on her ride, Nate made himself at home...seriously just copped a squat.

Still riding

Outside the museum Gwen and Daddy check out the big bell out front, a replica of the Liberty bell...

Nate checking out the bell

Nate checking out underneath, I love the squat they do when they are Nate's age.

I totally stole this idea from Beth.

Yesterday, Saturday!

We have these 2 huge trees in our front yard. This makes for a new fun time for us outside. For a while these leaves have been piling up in our front yard (ok, I have been raking them into a pile in the front yard!) The kids, Eric and I have been playing in this pile...
Raking it, laying in it. The kids don't really get the idea of jumping into the pile this year, they like to walk through it.

Yesterday, Eric, Gwen, and I decided to finally get rid of the pile. The neighbors down the street are trying to sell their house and I feel like a big pile of leaves in our front yard looks trashy.

After Eric had been working for a while, Gwen decided to pull out her wheel barrow and help...

Of course, she doesn't really have the technique down, but she's trying.

(I'm thinking the leaves are probably more tolerable than our molded pumpkin, but I am afraid to touch it now!) Gwen's wheelbarrow pile, not much, but that is all she could tolerate, have I mentioned this girl needs a nap!

Off she goes...

Daddy found a stowaway...

and the rake...

The next batches of leaves Eric did, he had to do with Gwen in the wheelbarrow...

She didn't seem to mind

What did we do with all these leaves, you might ask? I read in one of my magazines that leaves are good for mulch, especially in places you are going to garden, as long as you cut them up first. The article suggested piling leaves up in rows, mowing over them and then using them as mulch. That is why Eric moved about half of them to the back yard, where my garden is going to be next year. We (and by we I mean he) mowed the leaves and I raked them up and used them as mulch in the front, in the back we piled some of them up, the rest we just left to decompose in with the grass. We still have more leaves to drop, but it is nice to get rid of the pile for a little while, the grass underneath was none to happy about that! I am thinking next time we try this project we should have both kids napping, not just the one!

Yesterday

was a busy day. I got up early with the kids so we could be on time for the school tour. We were 10 minutes early, go us! There was a woman there that volunteers to watch kids while the principal, Sr Catherine (haha!) gave a speech on the school and stuff. My kids didn't care at all, had a great time playing with the lady in the "after school" room. I took them with me on the tour. The facility is going through much construction to make the school "better, not bigger". I don't know, there is just something about stepping onto the campus and the feeling of community. I can't describe it to Eric, he went to public school! The kindergartners even sang us a song they sing to learn their vowels. Cute! We'll see what happens. I think I am going to have to do some major volunteering at the new Church (not that I mind) so that I can get Gwen in and financial aid. The kids got pretty bored by the end of the tour, plus Nate was pretty tired, fell asleep on his way home. I almost forgot to mention that Nate pointed to a picture of the Pope and said "Daddy" of course is at that stage where he LOVES Daddy and wants nothing to do with me when Daddy is around. Gwen has also noticed this shift and she has become very Mommy centered, after 2 years of "Daddy, Daddy, Daddy", I am not sure I am used to this shift!

I can't remember what else we did, but that seemed like alot for us.

Today we got these fancy aprons in the mail. Cool huh?

Gwen has been "cooking" in her kitchen all afternoon!

Then she figured out the string comes out and pulled it apart, but it is an easy fix. We will be the most stylish cookers on the block. Gwen did want to know where Daddy and Nate's matching aprons were! Thanks Mom, they've been a big hit.

Busy October

We were very busy in Sept/Oct. We had a visit from Grandmom, Grandma, Eric, Brooke, Uncle Tim & Aunt Mary; all in about 6 weeks! Busy, busy. Gwen now calls the guest room "Grandmom, Grandma, and Uncle Eric and Brooke's room" on occasion. We had a nice visit with all our respective visitors. Sadly during most of the visits I took very few pictures. But I think all visits have at least 1 picture, so we can say see, they were here! The first visit I am going to show pictures from is "Uncle Eric & Broke" They came for a weekend and we had a nice time. Sadly I think terrible movies were watched, but really some people should know better! We made it to a corn maze, it was quite terrible and sadly I forgot my camera. But, the kids enjoyed themselves, so that is great! The maze was rather easy and the corn wasn't very high, apparently mazes in MD, way more fun. We are going to have to do more research next time!
One evening before the kids went to bed Eric and Brooke did some guest reading. This next picture is not of that at all, but I just thought Nate looked so funny!
I know Brooke looks bored in this picture, but I assure you she is not...you'll see!

A close-up of Eric and Nate.

So these next 2 pictures show Brooke reading, can you tell she is a pre-school worker? She totally gets into it and I couldn't get a very good picture of her, but they are funny

and sweet!

Sadly Gwen was sitting next to her and didn't notice the expressions, but the meanings were conveyed with her tone rather nicely, I thought.