October part dos

Just casually being 5 years old. I love what a voracious reader he is.

Getting all set to hopefully spend some days in the snow this winter!

The house is quiet and where do I find them? snuggled up reading together, thankfully

Michael's fourth birthday brought the end of all of our ages being prime numbers (31, 29, 7, 5, 3, and 2) I thought it was so cool all summer long while that was true, and it made me just a bit sad because it will never happen again. Numbers are cool, y'all.

Andrew nailed it with the cake, again.

Michael at four years old is silly and a friend to everyone. If we're at a park and someone walks by, Michael immediately shouts out a friendly "Hi!" He loves to giggle and make others laugh as well-often by saying ridiculous things. A couple quotes from him:

• "I know it's poop because it's darker than mud."
• Michael: "My favorite word is skaddle." Me: "Why's that?" Michael: "Because I like it very much."
• Around Father's Day I was asking the kids for examples of things that fathers do. Adaline and Matthew said things like, "they go to work, they give you blessings, the help you keep the commandments." Michael's responses were, "they don't hit you, they don't push you down in the water so you go down down, they don't punch you." 

Michael likes games but gets super frustrated when he can't quite play independently. He's awesome at puzzles and can listen to audio books or me reading books for hours. Speaking of which, he can answer pretty tough trivia questions about Harry Potter books 1-4 as he's listened to each one at least a couple times. He's a lot of fun to have around. We celebrated his birthday Covid style by staying home and eating cake. 

I can't begin to guess what started it, but one day I walked out to the garage and decided I needed to organize the whole thing. This is where I started from:

Along the way I was forced to take a few trips down memory lane: High honor roll plaques from 2nd-4th grade (why did I still have these??), nice notes/"love notes" from my years living at Belmont, and soo much more. 

Making progress? I think

Matthew lost his first tooth! It started wiggling when we were pick apples in South Dakota back in September. Funny enough, it finally came out a month and a half later just after biting into another apple.

Pretty good, right??

There's room for improvement, but I'll take any movement in the right direction.

We got to attend church in person! (less than an hour, spaced out, and with masks) The kids' favorite part was either running around in the chapel during the service or catching lizards outside with their friends afterward.

Sporting the shirt I bought from the gift shop after camping because Life really is better in the mountains.

Swimsuit, super hero mask, church shoes, and stuffed animals. He's all set.

Trying to learn some new hairdos

Then I had my hair done at a very exclusive salon

Prepping to decorate a whole lotta Halloween cookies with friends

Cleaning out a closet and found the baby carrier. I was surprised to find that Alex still loves to be carried in it and it holds his weight just fine. Who knew!

We finally got to start up our routine of playing at the park during Adaline's dance lesson

The library here is truly amazing. Every week they pick out books for us to check out and also send us home with crafts to do. This particular week had a superhero theme.

Thankfully, Adaline and Matthew have been able to attend their full semester of music class almost all in person (just virtual when we were out of town). Not only is that a huge blessing, but we also have a ritual of playing at the park during (for the younger two) and after. It's a favorite part of the week for all of us.

Making mummy dogs for Halloween/Matthew's school assignment.

My sweet kiddos are also picking pretty flowers for me

I have maybe way too many pictures of him sleeping, but he's only being so cute about it. Open books, sucking his thumb, and snuggling with his stuffed animals. I just can't handle it.

My attempt at a festive breakfast on Halloween morning

Decapitated ghost

For Halloween, we biked over to our church where they were handing out goody bags for the kids. It's about 4 miles and, while I thought we left in plenty of time, we got there barely before they packed up. Andrew biked home to get the car as it was pretty hot by this point. While they loaded up and drove home, I biked and almost made it back before they did. It was close.

That night, we had the kids wait in the garage while Andrew and I picked different doors to hid behind in the house. The kids came inside and had to knock on the doors until they found one with "somebody home" (me or Andrew) and then we gave them candy. Afterward we watched Harry Potter and had popcorn. I'm amazed by how little the kids cared that it wasn't normal trick-or-treating or any of the other usual activities. They are so resilient and easy to please.