Not much

Ryan stayed home sick on Monday. He was bored and left to his own devices, which isn't generally a good thing. Alas, he once again decided his bangs were too long and proceeded to 'trim' (I don't know that cutting hair to the root is a trim...) a goodly portion off, smack dab front and center. Once discovered, he had to sit down for a patch up hair cut. Oh, his beautiful hair! If you know hair trimmers then you will understand that I when I tried to salvage it with a 4 comb and a 6 comb that that is rather longish for a boy's cut, but that wasn't going to get the job done. And so I took the 2 comb and buzzed it all off. Really, he needed it shorter, but I was merciful. He was so disappointed. 'Please, mom, don't cut off my hair. I look stupid. Couldn't we just comb over my other hair to hide where I cut it?' When asked did he remember doing this before he looked genuinely surprised and said, 'Oh, I forgot that.'

I didn't get an after picture, but there is one below. To finish the hair cut story I have to tell about the next day. So, Tuesday morning I cajole and marshal my troops out the back door and wave them off since they walk to school on their own. Ryan was being reluctant and Alex left him in the alley. Unbeknownst to me, Ryan just hung out in the alley for 30 minutes. He finally came back inside. Once he did I was surprised and asked him why he was home. 'Everyone is going to laugh at me.' He broke down in tears and pleaded, 'Please, Mom. Don't make me go!'
Of course I did and when he got home he said that it was OK and then informed me that everyone had laughed at another girl in class (he never said why) but that he didn't laugh at her. There you have it. A bad moment for Ryan equals empathy for another child.
Below is my crew watching SpongeBob Squarepants. The boys DO watch Elmo with sister, but it is nice that all of them can watch something together and laugh.

'It's Autumn time, It's Autumn time, the leaves are falling down.'

A beautiful view out the windows and down the street. There was a pleasant little rain yesterday evening and so Macey and I got our rain gear on and splashed in the street. She was so cute in her galoshes, raincoat, and bright green umbrella. The neighbor came out and enjoyed watching us play in the rain.

Of course our mighty Oak trees will loose their leaves and their acorns, so there is work coming on. But hard work is character building, and with 3 children in our house, character building is essential!

The One Halloween Picture

Thanks to a new acquaintance, I've got this one picture of us on Halloween.

Halloween

I am so depressed this morning because when I went to download our pictures, the camera deleted the pictures without downloading them! What sorrow! Perhaps a friend took a picture of us; I shall try to locate a picture today. Alex said he would be willing to go get pictures taken because I was so sad this morning. Ah, but will Macey?
I shall try to capture our memories without the images... I realize that this will be less exciting, but I must record it for our family record!
From the previous post you know that we were characters from Harry Potter. Dan was Tom Riddle, I was Moaning Myrtle, Alex was Harry Potter Quidditch, Ryan was Harry Potter School robes, and Macey was Hedwig the owl (oh, and she was so precious). The boys were so handsome with their spray painted black hair and red scars. Macey was never a willing participant in the getting ready department. After coaxing her into her piggy tails, I painted her face. The mistake I made was when I showed her in the mirror how cute she was. She wailed and wailed (and smeared that make-up). But, it was still cute.
We got dressed up and went to Trunk or Treat at our church building. The 3 wards met there for a mad dash of candy grabbing! It was fun to see our new friends dressed up. My friend Marcella shared our trunk, so I wasn't alone handing out candy while Dan took the kids around. Once Macey figured out the whole get candy for being dressed silly, she was delighted to be an owl! Ryan is a complete nut: he would go down a row and then come back and show me what he got. Then he would go for more and come back. He lost Dan and co. and was just going at it haphazardly. At the end Dan and Alex were harassing him that he could have gotten so much more, but I said, 'Leave him alone. He had a great time! He isn't disappointed at all that he didn't do it your way.'
At 6:30pm we were in a race to get home. One of Alex's friends and family and one of Ryan's friends and family were meeting us at our house for dinner. We had pizza and healthy fruits and veggies to try to balance out the sugar intake. As soon as Macey was done eating she begged for her owl costume. Hooray! She was ready to go out for some more.

After a round of family pictures (now lost in a digital graveyard) we took off to trick or treat in the neighborhood. Our neighborhood was great for trick or treating. The boys found friends along the way besides the ones that came with us. And the weather was fantastic. A perfect holiday! Ryan was in a race to get down the street the fastest. And, oh, this is where my heart breaks that the camera was broken. My sweet 2 year old owl would walk daintily up the sidewalks and wait her turn to get to say trick or treat, all on her own and come slowly (so she wouldn't fall) back down the sidewalk. Her silhouette was so precious; this little bitty girl holding up her pumpkin to the great big adults. Oh, joy of joys!

We finished our rounds at about 8pm with a stop next door so Macey could play with Megan for a minute. The boys were showered and in bed by 8:30, just like usual. I think they had a wonderful night. And our haul of candy must be some where around 8lbs.

More October

Our Cub Scout Pack organized (well, not really organized, more like had the idea and then followed through in a so-so sort of fashion) a Space Derby. I had never been to one before, and I guess neither had anyone else. But the boys enjoyed putting their rockets on the line and watching them zoom across the gym.

Here is Alex with his 'Best Rocket'.

Here is our Pack, which is three wards combined! Two of these boys are my Bear Den. And three other boys are in my CTR7 class.

I saw a great idea online for a Lego table. I was thinking it would be a fun family project or an excellent Christmas gift. Instead, we just went to Ikea and bought a table and storage bin. I was planning to glue the large building plates down, but I think I won't now. The boys are happy with the table and have been making movies with the Lego guys on it.

I went through and sorted the Legos. Why? I don't know exactly. But they did enjoy having all the people and accessories in one bucket for that one day...

There was a quidditch match played on this particular day. I still need to create a back drop so the movies are a little easier to watch. Oh, and I need to teach the boys how to make a movie with out making the viewer sea sick!

This last Saturday was a very busy day for us. Alex had his last soccer game of the season in the morning. They lost all the games they played (they did win on a forfeit game). But the team improved so much over the season. They really were hard workers. If they stick together for a few more seasons they will be really great.
After the game we came home and carved pumpkins. Macey carved a pumpkin pie pumpkin. Here is a girl not afraid to get dirty! Of course we had the usual whining from Alex and enthusiasm from Ryan.

Ah, and then the real fun for the day. I teach the CTR7 Primary class, which is Sunday School for the 7-8 year olds. We have 7 students in our class and a few have some very unique personalities, so I have been working on a reward chart to help them earn a class party. I pushed them to earn it so I could give them a Halloween party, and they did it!
Here are my two Harry Potters: school and quidditch.

Here are I am as Moaning Myrtle.

Here is my class minus one girl and add one of Alex's soccer friends.

We played Spooky Picitionary Man. Dan made a treasure Hunt. We decorated Halloween cookies.

And we decorated tiny pumpkins.

Here are the class' pumpkins.

Mini Fall Break

Our school district set up a mini fall break this last weekend. Friday was parent/teacher conferences and the boys got Monday off. The school makes it sound like they are so generous. Uh, don't they just tack the day on somewhere else? And wouldn't a short respite for the teachers and students be better than a one day longer summer vacation? Anyway, we used the time to work on Alex's space derby rocket. With the paints, I went ahead and had the other kids paint too.

Macey enjoyed painting. Hm, if I let my little girl paint everyday for the next 2.5 years until Kindergarten, what sort of artist would I have? It is something I am considering. She loves to color, draw and paint. It would be a great opportunity for her, if she enjoys it.

Moving on to our Monday. We went to the Dallas/Ft Worth zoo. And it was awesome! There were hardly any other guests. We mostly had it all to ourselves. It started out foggy and brisk, but ended up being a perfectly warm fall day. We started by taking the train up to the 'Texas Wild' section.

Here they had the 5 different terrains of Texas separated so you could study the animals, plants and industry of each section. The kids are in the hayloft.

The swamp section had this fabulous alligator.

The woodlands had this beautiful eagle.

As we journeyed through the rest of the zoo we found this parakeet palace. For $1 you could feed the birds. Here Alex has a clutch of cockatiels.

Ryan went to the farthest reaches of the place to find a hoard of parakeets.

Of course Ryan would find a way to get a bird to climb on him.

And then there was this white Bengal tiger which we will all be hearing about for the rest of our lives whenever a zoo is mentioned. He was up to the glass peering at the kids. He would put his large paws on the glass and scratch at it. Macey thought he was playing patty cake with her! He really liked Ryan's stripes and sat nice and close to him.

He, however, did not like Alex's blue shirt coming straight at him. He gave a nice roar right as Alex approached him. This frightened Alex a good deal. I don't know if he'll become more interested in tigers or just afraid of them.

By 1:30 everyone was tired, but we still had so much more to see! But we finished off our adventure and headed home.

Our last stop was to the gift shop where we came home with a penguin, a tiger, and a football (for sister).

October Happenings

Although Texas is in a drought, it still rains here more than in the desert. We wake up to thunderstorms quite often. And we have a reason to own galoshes. Macey loves her galoshes. On this day we went for a puddle stomp and nature walk.

We've got a great puddle spot right out front of our house.

Splish spalsh!

As we walked to the end of our street we saw a hawk perched in a tree. The birds we usually see are blue jays, blackbirds, and crows. We regularly see rabbits and squirrels scampering about. Our neighbors have seen a bobcat; one was captured two streets over.

On this journey we only found a creepy crawly creature. A worm! Sister picked it up and held it for a few seconds.

Slimey!

Ryan is obsessed with the girls next door. Mostly with the toys the girls next door have that he doesn't. Will he ever out grow his gimmes and coveting? Last Saturday the mom set up this cafe in between our houses. The 2 year olds cooked in the kitchen and the others ran the restaurant.

Macey loves to play with Megan next door.

Megan came to play on Friday morning. I found the girls sitting on my bed reading books together.

Alex will be racing in the space derby this week in scouts. Here he is sanding down his rocket. Macey was helping him while he worked. She was holding that sippy cup with the straw up to his mouth for sips of water.