Happy Halloween

Sad that this has taken me about 8 months to post this up but here it is. Halloween from LAST year. Pics soon to come if I can find any.







Halloween was fantastic. There was a Halloween party for preschool where the kids had a blast. They all get along so well that it was fun to see them play games and crafts together. My favorite was ghost, ghost, witch (like duck duck goose ^_^).  I think there was only one child that really knew how to play but most ended up running in circles. HAHA. I wish I had a video because it was awesome. Oh and we can't have a party without eating doughnuts on a string without hands, of course. Mads just grabbed it then dropped her hands quickly with a mischievous look in her eyes. One of the kids got pretty creative by getting the doughnut to lay on his chest so he can reach it without moving so much. Another was quite dedicated, no hands and last one standing, but she kept at it. Love these kids! After our party, a couple of the moms and I got together so our kids could go trick or treating. Luckily I made both kids take a nap before our candy trek and it was worth it.  We ended up with a pretty good loot. The neighborhood we went trick or treating had a much better Halloween spirit than ours. There was one street with a cul-de-sac that had all the neighbors together in the middle with a bonfire and a gazebo for a chili cook off that trick or treaters could help themselves to. It was really cool. It was hilarious too because one of Oliver's friend was getting really tired but the sound of chili gave her an extra skip in her step to keep on going. She's not willing to keep on trudging for candy, but for chili that's another story. It was really funny to watch. After begging for candy we came home and had some delicious hot apple cider waiting for us in the crockpot. The next day the kids didn't go too crazy with the candy which I was SOoooo grateful for because they can go nuts with just a small amount of sugar. Happy Halloween everybody. It had been a spooktacular night.

Camping

     After Weston's week of uninterrupted study time and a week of finals, he had about a week and a half of vacation time so what do we do? CAMPING!!!! A couple from church had recommended a few places that we could go to and we decided New River Gorge National River. It was a beautiful and magical place, at least to me. On the website it said that it was a primitive campsite so there was no running water but it was free. We were a little nervous that it would all be taken by the time we got there. Luckily we left during the week so we were actually just one of two campers. The campground was completely covered in sand and the kids enjoyed that a lot! The best part was how close we were to the river. If you don't already know this about Madeline, then I should let you know, she LOVES water. She wanted to go to it so badly. After setting up the tent, we went and Mads just had a blast. We knew the river would be close so we had packed our swimsuits but we never got in. The kids didn't have any life vests but I thought "we'll stay close to the kids, it'll be okay. It'll be fun!" but then I got too nervous. We settled for dipping our feet in the river instead. We, of course, had fun with our making of the campfire because it took FOREVER, but we still ended up with a delicious meal that was at least partially cooked. In the morning we went on our hike that was along Glade Creek. Our inclination of course is to go down to it and throw rocks at it, so we did. We kept adventuring through our trail and stopped at a small waterfall with a pool. Before we got there we found ourselves some awesome walking sticks, which came in very handy in our excursion through the rocky pool. We had a couple of fun slippery rocks that humbled our hiking egos, a couple of times. We took the hit, learned, then used the sticks to help.

Preschool

     This is clearly late ,but Oliver started preschool and it must be documented. His class consists of three other kids that he already knew, and I think that definitely helped with the adjustment of preschool.  He goes four times a week, Monday through Thursday from 9 am ttil 12:30pm. At first I was thinking this would be a lot for him all at once but he LOVED it.

     His first day was adorable. He was excited although a little dazed by how early, according to our standards of course, he needed to get up. And I've been learning a lot of who he is, things that I may have missed otherwise. For example, he's a perfectionist in little boy standards. This is probably common among other kids his age I don't know, but he really likes to have things a certain way.

This was from his first day and I was surprised by how clear and deliberate his placements were with his pasta. Who knew? I didn't. He also loves patterns.
     They also practice writing their names, which Oliver already knew how, but only with all caps. Every morning they have to write it properly and it has improved greatly. Before then I would try to help him do it lower case and he just didn't want to do it. I think he just needed someone that wasn't me.

He doesn't always talk about it but when I ask him if he wants to go to school in the morning it almost always with a very enthusiastic yes. I am so grateful for the mom in our ward who wanted to do this and for turning her home into a little preschool. She has been great teacher for him and is very patient with all of them. Couldn't have asked for a better first time experience of sending a child to school.

Pure Sugar Joy

Summer has come and ended but filled with lots of new memories. So over the next few posts I will try to go over all of favorite moments.

    First off lets start with Winston-Salem! Stephen, Deneka and Mama Beck came of visit us for a few days and we got to explore Winston-Salem with them.  We, of course, went to Krispey Kreme. After the kids had their first few bites it seemed as though sugar was directly poured into their system. Madeline and Oliver were smiling from ear to ear. With Madeline's small stature, the sugar hit her hard and fast. She just starts to spin, literally and then ran into a glass door! It was hilarious! We also got to see where Krispey Kreme had its first store and we found the kettle! We walked around Old Salem and tried their famous sugar cake. I don't think we capped our sugar limit yet though. Oliver also had the chance to show off his mad bicycle skills at the park and everyone were quite impressed. Oliver enjoyed have an audience.

Madeline eying the chocolate donut with sprinkles.

Happy child

               Craziness ensuing.

Pure sugar joy.

We found the kettle! Thanks Weston for finding it.

These were some tall corn stalks.

Weston is 30

I've been slacking and I realized that the next birthday in our family is tomorrow so I wanted to get this in before then.


     Weston is 30!! And we had a blast. We made our tradition of german chocolate cake. Originally it was supposed to be a Father's Day cake but Madeline's birthday will be so close to it and sometimes be on the day so we just scooted it down to Weston's birthday.
     So for his birthday I wanted to do a surprise camp out for him at the state park that he wanted but with last minute plans it didn't work out and I eventually needed some input from him. We searched for some close campgrounds close and found one about an hour away called Stone Mountain. It was pretty perfect. The road was called something like Frank parkway and the lot we reserved was 30. We had a blast and the kids just love to camp. We got to see a couple of rabbits scurry into the tall grass. Mads especially enjoyed that part. We set up our tent had ourselves some tinfoil dinners and then off to bed. Sometime during the night it began to dump rain and it didn't let up at all. Morning came and Oliver just had the biggest grin on his face and said, "We're camping outside in the rain!!" He absolutely loved it...because he was dry. Weston and I made the executive decision to go for the hike like we planned and Oliver didn't enjoy that very much. Lucky for him it was a short hike, about a mile long and it lead us to a beautiful waterfall which we didn't take any pictures of because my phone with the waterproof case was dead and we didn't want to take out the nice camera. But now its written down so we can remember. Overall, it was a wonderful pre-birthday celebration since his actually birthday was on a Sunday.
     Oliver, Madeline and I were trying to be sneaky about Weston's presents so they would be a surprise but he asks way too many questions. For his birthday he got a Tanuki, a Japanese figurine of a raccoon dog, i think. It's suppose to bring luck or something. Weston really likes the story behind it. He chose that one himself. I got him so a bike shirt and short for his commute to school so he wouldn't be so stanky. Now he can make friends without being too self conscious. ^_^
    Now for the mushy: Weston is the love of my life and I can't imagine my life without him. Yes it's cliche but it's true. He's kind and thoughtful and the only person that will laugh at my jokes. My jokes aren't that funny but for some reason he gets it. He's perfect! Am I right?  AND he's the best father a woman can ask for. The kids light up every time he comes home. And all the kids in the playground only ever want to play with him when he comes. He's the fun one. Which is fine by me. It's hard work being the fun one. He's a good man. I thank God everyday that he chose me to share the adventures of life.

Weston snickered a little after he took this picture and said, "well it's not the most flattering because of how you stuck out your hip." I couldn't be mad cause it was true. He did hesitate a little before he told me.

Summer + Pool Time = a nice break

Since we've been here the kids and I have been having a lot of fun going to the pools. At first it was hard to convince either Madeline or Oliver to dunk their heads underwater until we got goggles. Oh the magic of goggles. Oliver is a pro at it and he doesn't plug his nose. It might not seem like a big deal but Weston refuses, refuse is a strong word, but he really doesn't enjoy going underwater without plugging his nose. Anyway basically it's awesome that he doesn't plug his nose because then it makes teaching how to swim a little bit easier. We've been watching some youtube videos with astronauts explaining the changes and differences of being in space with the lack of gravity, and so he likes to think he's in space when he goes under and pretends to float. It's really cute. He also dances underwater. I would really like to capture that moment but it's a little difficult to get. Oh well. I'll just have to take a mental picture. Madeline likes to do it too but not nearly as much as Oliver. However, when they are taking a bath she's more apt to doing it. She must feel safer when it's not so deep, smart kid. On the awesome days that we do go swimming, the little people are so exhausted bedtime/naptime is a piece of cake. Then I get to have a nice, quiet, peaceful break. It really is quite nice. We love pools.

This is the only picture I got of them swimming. I need one of Mads.

Cow Appreciation Day

            It was cow appreciation day sometime ago at Chik-fil-A and it was so much fun. We had a friend tell us about it and basically you dress up as a cow and you get a free meal. So when we woke up we were excited to get our little get up together. However, when you procrastinate it's never looks the way you had imagined it in your head. Luckily I don't have harsh critics. They still enjoyed making the masks, dressing like cows and getting a free meal. A great day for cows and sharing it with new friends. MMOOoooOOO!

 Sadly I didn't take a lot of pictures but at least these ones look cute.