Pumpkin Carving Time!

We sat down for FHE last night to carve our pumpkins that we picked up on Saturday.  The kids had such a fun time and really got into it this year.  Ron and I cut out the lids of everyone's pumpkins before turning it over to them to scoop out the pumpkin seeds and guts.   I was especially impressed with how much Ella did on her own.  She was so cute standing on her chair, totally focused, carefully dumping little spoonfuls of pumpkin guts into her discard bowl.  Oh, that girl.  She just thinks she is so much older than she is!  After madly carving my own pumpkin in about 60 seconds flat, I carved first Logan's and then Ella's.  Logan wanted a scary face and Ella wanted a silly one.  After Ron worked on his masterpiece for quite sometime, he assisted Lia in carving her pumpkin.  After everyone was done, we lit our pumpkins with the candles, turned off the lights, and listened to "Toccata and Fugue" in the dark while munching on freshly roasted, pumpkin seeds.  It was a pretty great way to end the evening!

Logan scooping away!

Lia hard at work on her pumpkin.

Big girl, Ella, legitimately cleaning out her pumpkin.

Two of my favorite pumpkins!

Mama and the gang stopping for a quick picture.

I fried up the pumpkin seeds with olive oil and seasonings for the first time this year and the kids loved it (much to my surprise).  Here they are munching away before we turned out the lights.

The children admiring the pumpkin line-up after we lit the candles.

Our jack-o-lantern family all lit up in a neat, little row.

From left to right:  Ella's, mom's, Logan's, Lia's, and Dad's.

Family Trip to the Pumpkin Patch

Although we have had torrential downpours on and off for the past week and a half, we lucked out today with blue skies when we headed out to Sumner for our annual trip to the pumpkin patch!  However, half the world decided to do the same thing since it had been the first nice down in awhile.  As a result, the pumpkin patch was the most crowded that we had ever seen it.  Regardless, we spent an enjoyable afternoon there with our kiddos and finished off the evening with dinner at Applebees.  I always love participating in this tradition each fall and watching the kids had so much fun.  We all picked out smaller pumpkins this year to save a little money and to make carving them on Monday a little quicker...especially since we now have 5 to carve in one sitting.  The kids didn't seem to mind and we had a good time enjoying the animals, fun activities, and overall Halloween atmosphere.  Until next year!

The kiddos lined up in one of the many picture cutouts throughout the farm.  Ella hadn't quite figured out which direction to look when I took this picture, but she got the hang of it by the end of the afternoon at the farm.

The kids sitting on some large pumpkins while trying to find the perfect ones.

Piling in the wheelbarrow before it got full of pumpkins.

Papa pushing the kiddos around.

The kids posing in another photo cutout.  Much better job, Ella!

We had to take our annual, family picture in the 'pumpkin house' that they decorate every year.  It's hard to believe that we have taken a picture in this house every year since 2010.

Logan had been asking about the duck races since the moment we stepped foot on the farm.  He was so excited to get going when we finally got to them!

Papa helping Ella while Lia and Logan manned their own water pump.

The girls and Logan sitting on some really BIG pumpkins!

We finished off the afternoon with a trip to the barn to check out the animals.  Here are Lia and Logan "milking" the fake cow, Bessie, who really shoots out water from her udder!

Ella and Logan trying out the tractors.

Ella an Logan looking at the piggies.

And the chickens and roosters.  

Logan's First Soccer Game

After watching his sister get dropped off and picked up from many activities and sports over the years, the time finally arrived for Logan to begin his first team this sport this fall!  I decided that in addition to putting him in swim lessons his entire PreK year, that he should try out the three basic team sports of soccer in the fall, basketball in the winter, and t-ball in the spring.  So I signed him up for indoor, rec soccer this past August and we waited for his first practice to begin.  Logan was very excited to start the season and was even more excited to go to the store and pick out his first pair of soccer shin guards and socks.  As a result, one could imagine my surprise when we showed up to his first practice three weeks ago to find a very timid, hesitant Logan who didn't even want to go out onto the court to kick a ball with the other kids before it started.  In fact, it took me many minutes of giving Logan a pep talk and bribing him with a treat afterwards before he even agreed to go out on the court and join the coach after he had officially started practice.  Oh dear.  I have learned over the years that very few things are easy with Logan the first time around.  He doesn't like change and he doesn't like unfamiliar surroundings.  He hung in there through the hour long practice, but once they switched to scrimmaging at the end, I could quickly see that Logan was the most timid of the bunch.  While all the other children were madly chasing after the ball and trying to kick it, Logan just slowly ran at the back of the group with no intention of getting to the front and kicking the ball.
Three weeks later, it is still pretty much the same thing.  We headed off to his first game today and Ron was very surprised to see how Logan played (since he had never attended one of his practices).  Ron and I found ourselves just hoping to see Logan's foot touch the ball one time during his 40-minute game....which luckily happened a couple of times.  This has come as a bit of a shock to us as Logan is such a wild and aggressive child at home, but there is something about putting him in a team sport environment that brings out the timid side.  Oh well.  Maybe team sports won't be his thing and individual sports will.  Or maybe he just needs to get a little older and more mature and then his confidence and competitiveness will grow.  Regardless, I am proud of my little guy for sticking it out through a long, 40-minute game and for running as much as he did behind the pack.  I know that it wasn't the funnest thing for him to do, but he never gave up.  We shall see how the rest of the season pans out...

Logan drinking his water from the sidelines before the game began.

Logan kicking the ball!

The "I'm-so-tired-of-this" face that Logan gave us quite a few times from the court.

My cute boy posing for the camera.

Logan trying to stop the ball as it came towards him.

Running after it!

One of Logan's teammate stopping the ball before a goal was scored by the other team.

Logan's assistant coach reminding him which way he should kick the ball during a break in the game.

Although this picture turned out blurry, I had to include it anyways because it is the only shot I got of the ball after Logan actually kicked it!  So exciting!

Logan and a pack of kids chasing down the ball.

And another.

A close-up of my cutie when the pack of kids ran right up to the parents while chasing the ball out of bounds.

Logan watching on as the other team kicks the ball.

A great picture of Logan running up to the ball.

Logan running behind the pack.

Logan got a bit bored by the end of the game and pulled up his shorts really high.  I thought it was super funny, but Ron did not.  Here is a classic picture I got of my boy rocking his high waisted shorts!

Game over!  Logan and his teammates giving high fives to the other team.

Good job, Logan!  

2 and 1/2 Years Old Today!

I can't believe that my baby girl is 2 and a half years old today!  Where or where has the time gone?  Well, for starters, you can see by the pictures that Ella got herself a big girl bike this week after figuring out how to ride her brother's without any help from anyone in the family!  I found the most adorable, Pinkalicious bike on Craig's List for only $15 and picked it up yesterday.  After Ron installed some training wheels on it last night, Ella was up and running and loves it.  Luckily, the sun came out today, so Logan and Ella were able to go out for some bike time on the sport's court before lunch.  I just can't get over how grown up she looks on it.  

As for the rest of Ella's life, she continues to be the biggest bundle of energy and nonstop motion that we have ever had in our family.  She is constantly on the go and still thinks that she can do everything that her older brother and sister do.  A few weeks ago, she figured out how to climb out of her crib (not fall out of her crib) and now climbs out of her bed every day after waking up in the morning and from her nap.  Neither one of our other two kids ever figured this out at such a young age!  The one downside to this is that I no longer have any control over when her nap "ends."  Instead of getting a few extra minutes of work time before going to get her out of her crib, Ella now just gets out the second she wakes up!  Oh well.  At least she is really good about staying in her bed after I first put her down for naptime and bedtime.  Ella continues to be the littlest one of our family which makes her craziness all the more funny and ironic.  Ella still comfortably fits in 24 month and 2T size clothing which was something that both Lia and Logan had long outgrown by this age.  

Ella loved the summer season that just ended and thoroughly enjoyed swimming in the water, playing on the beaches, sliding into our baby pool, playing at the parks, and riding her trike (and now bike) all over the place.  She also developed a total love for all things Elsa and Anna and can now sit down for a whoppin' 90 minutes and watch the entire movie, Frozen, without getting up which is a major accomplishment for her!  Ella has also really started to get into the Disney princess thing and has discovered the dress up box (that Ron brought up from the basement) in the past few weeks.  Almost every day, she can be found parading all over the house in a new princess dress.  She also quizzes me on a regular basis as to which princess is which when she sees their faces on a plate or in a book or on the magnets on the fridge.  She will ask the question, "Who's this?," over and over again.  It's quite funny.  Along with princesses, Ella has also discovered Lia's Barbie dolls in the past few weeks and can be found toting one around the house as much as her baby dolls.

Ella still takes a nice 2-3 hour nap every afternoon and easily goes to bed each night around 8 to 8:30.  She loves being read to and would spend an hour reading with me in her recliner chair if I let her every day.  She enjoys any attention from anyone and loves to sing in the car and dance in the house.  In fact, she discovered Lia's Girl Scout Christmas CD (that was still in my car) this summer and now we have to listen to Christmas songs everywhere we go!  Ella also loves doing puzzles, coloring, and riding her toy car around the house.  She is still a decent eater although she refuses meats and vegetables from time to time.  Ella runs where ever she goes instead of walking, she still sneaks her pacifier out of her crib on a regular basis, she loves sitting in my lap whenever I sit on the floor, she has a crazy, high-pitched scream that she hits when she is really upset about something, and her hair has somehow grown halfway down her back.  I don't know how that last one happened.  I honestly feel like one day her hair was shoulder length and the next day it was halfway down her back.  

Ella's vocabulary continues to improve although I still struggle to understand what she is saying from time to time.  The funniest word that she says at the current moment is "belly butt" which she says when she means belly button.  She also says "belly butt" when talking about a button on a piece of clothing.  We think it is so funny!  Ella also loves the word, "tiny," and uses it all of the time instead of the word small to describe herself or something "tiny" in her life (like her crib in comparison to her siblings' big kid beds).  Ella also LOVES saying prayers and dominates most meal time and family prayers.  In fact, she has been known to throw a huge tantrum if she doesn't get to say the prayer.  As a result, two prayers are sometimes offered on the food. :-)  However, the cutest thing is how she always says, "Christ, Amen," at the end of her prayer when copying one of us saying "In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen."  She also say "lollipop" for popcorn and "cean" for the word, clean.  She always asks me, "Is it cean?," when she wants to know if she can eat off of her princess plate or wear her princess nightgown to bed.  The other cute thing that she says on a daily basis is, "Ella wake up," whenever we first see her after she climbs out of the crib in the morning or after her nap.

Overall, we love our Ellie B and just can't get over how fast she is growing up!  We just think she is the cutest thing ever and are so grateful that she is part of our family!

Ella cruising along on her new big girl bike!

Stopping to give mommy an adorable smile.

Ella and the Big Bike!

It is no secret that our little Ella is hand's down the most adventurous, fearless, and coordinated of our kiddos.  She thinks she can do everything her older siblings do...and, most of the time, she's can!  So, I shouldn't have been surprised when I poked my head out last night to call the kids to dinner and found Ella riding around on Logan's big boy bike like it was no big deal!  But, I must admit, that my mouth totally dropped when I saw this!  I immediately turned to Lia and asked, "When did Ella start riding Logan's bike?" to which Lia casually responded, "Today."  Good grief!  Just that morning, I had been outside with Logan and Ella and was surprised to see that Ella had finally figured out how to pedal around on her Winnie the Pooh trike (all summer long, she had scooted around on it).  Within a matter of hours, she had graduated from trike to bike.  Good grief.
This may come as no big deal to some parents to have a two-year old cruising around on a bike with training wheels, but I didn't buy Lia's first big girl bike until she was four years old.  And that entire spring/summer, she would gingerly ride it around our flat cul-de-sac (only with a parent at her side) and would freak out every time there was the slightest of dip in the sidewalk.  With that previous experience in mind, one can understand my shock at seeing Ella proficiently pedal a big bike around our sport's court without a parent even helping her get up on the bike, no less teach her how to use the pedals.
Ever since this moment in time yesterday, Ella and Logan have been fighting like cats and dogs over his bike.  Ella is totally bored with her trike and wants to ride the big kid bike and Logan doesn't want anyone touching his bike.  I get it, I get.  I guess I'll be perusing Craig's List in the next day or two to find a suitable replacement for Ella's newly discovered interest!

Ella proudly showing off her new bike riding skills!

Pedaling away.

Flashing me her million dollar smile.

The cutest two-year old ever.

Logan's Big Boy Bed!

This post might come as a shock to the entire world to learn that our four-and-a-half year old boy was still sleeping in a crib until two nights ago.  Yes, you read right....but just let me explain!  One of the greatest pieces of advice that I learned years ago from my sister-in-law, Susie, was not to move Lia out of her crib and into an adorable, toddler bed at age two.  As cute as it looks, the events to follow are not!  I mean, who wants a two-year old crawling out of bed a hundred times of day, making a mess in their bedroom, sneaking our of their room, and, worst of all, kicking their afternoon nap to the curb!  I faithfully followed this counsel and did not move Lia out of her crib until she was three years and three months old.  It was one of the best decisions I ever made as she took naps until she was almost four years old and I vowed to repeat this same process with any children to follow.
Fast forward a few years, and we have a three-year old Logan who is wild and crazy and all over the place.  Due to the previously mentioned qualities, I needed him to take his afternoon nap as much as he did so that I could get a few hours of peace and quiet in the middle of the day.  In addition, Logan needed boundaries more than Lia ever did to just help him calm down and follow the routine of the day...and the crib provided these boundaries for him.  And although I put a stool next to his bed right after he turned three, the crib's bars just helped him to calm down and mellow out every time he layed inside them.  Plus, Logan never minded being in his crib and every time I talked about moving him into his big boy bed, I was met with resistance.  As much as other people thought I was crazy to do this, I have no regrets.  I am pretty confident that my four-and-half-year old boy was still napping on a daily basis until a month ago due to the fact that he was sleeping in a crib.  However, when the school year started a few weeks ago, I felt like it was time to make the transition.  Logan was starting PreK and was finally beginning to act older.  His tantrums have really started to decrease and he is doing really well in his primary class at church.  He also is starting to sit for long periods of time to "read" books and work on a coloring project.  Signs of Logan growing up can be seen every day.  Plus, I knew that he would be meeting and making some friends in his PreK class who we might end up inviting over for playdates this year and I didn't want them coming into Logan's room and making fun of the fact that he was still sleeping in his crib.  It was time to make the big change...
So, I had Ron buy Logan a new mattress and bunky board when he went to the furniture store at the end of August.  I then broke out all of the bedding that I bought for Logan's big boy bed when he was a newborn (after my mom had discovered a bedding set at Target that matched the colors and theme of his room perfectly) and washed it all.  Lastly, I got Ron to bring up the old headboard and footboard from the basement for me to paint.  I spent four afternoons in a row this past week sanding down and painting three coats of white paint to get Logan's bed looking shiny and new.  This headboard and footboard are identical to Lia's and were bought for my grandparent's Lake Samm cabin when they remodeled it in 1972.  After my parents decided to take them out of the cabin years ago, they held on to them until I was able to take them to use for future, children's beds.  I just love that these old pieces of family furniture are getting a second chance at life!
After getting everything ready, Ron helped me put the bed together yesterday.  He attached the headboard and the footboard to the bed frame and put the bunky board and mattress in place before taking Logan and Lia off to the fair for the next several hours.  While Ella napped, I worked in Logan's room and thoroughly vacuumed it, made the bed, and got everything washed and put away from his old crib and changing table.  When it was all done, Logan's room looked so dang cute!  I couldn't get over how perfect his bed looked tucked up against one side of his room and how perfectly his bedding matched the colors and jungle theme already on his walls!  I was so excited to show Logan and Lia when they got home and their reactions did not disappoint!  Logan loved it and was so excited to sleep in it that first night.  I can't get over how much my boy is growing up....

On Sept. 12th, I let Logan skip his nap and help me paint the first coat of white on his bed.  He had so much fun painting the headboard and footboard with me.  

Logan painting away!  We have similar pictures of Lia helping us do the same thing with her bed.

One more picture for Logan's sake!

On Friday night, September 16th, Logan slept in his crib for the last time.  Here are some pictures of my boy cuddling in for one last night's sleep inside his "bars."

Since I washed the sheets, blanket, and bedspread for Logan's bed a few days earlier, Logan discovered his new, big blanket and immediately fell in love with it because it is so soft and cozy.  As a result, he started sleeping with it in the crib a few nights before he moved into his bed.  Here he is with his big blanket underneath him and his baby quilt that his grandmother made on top of him.

One last shot of my cutie before turning off the lights and going to bed!

And here it is!  A freshly bathed Logan dressed in his pj's and ready to spend his first night in his new bed.  Doesn't it look so cute?!

My cute boy posing away.

A close-up of Logan once he had climbed into his jungle sheets.

Another shot of his cute sheets and reversible bedspread.

Ta-da!  A proud boy showing off his awesome bed before spending the first of many good nights' sleep in it.  Love you, Logie Boy!