Gavin's Tall Tale

Gavin is quite a story teller, but usually he tells you things that are very plausible. So when his preschool teachers told me he told them that the police had been to our house, I was a little worried what he'd said. I was relieved when they revealed that the reason Gavin gave for the police visit was "aliens".

Global Warming is Welcome Here

It's November 20th and at one pt my thermometer read 70 degrees. After getting new appliances in the kitchen and laundry this morning, we took advantage of the gorgeous weather.

Jacob pogo sticking.

Gavin scooting.

Wyatt scooting.

Hot (and itchy) Christmas Sweaters

Just got back from a weekend at scrapbook camp at Camp Lebanon, by Upsala, MN. It was a great break. I did a little crafting, a lot of chatting, and even more eating. Plus they feed your soul a bit too, and always in a very entertaining way. It's great to get away and good to be back home with hopefully more patience and energy than before I left, though that's not always how it works. At camp there is always a theme to Saturday night, this year it was Christmas - we chose ugly sweaters. The fact that mine was too short added to the effect.

 

Eva, Alyss, and Me in our lovely sweaters.

 

While I was gone the boys had a fun weekend too. They went to a movie on Friday night and to a trampoline park on Saturday. Sounds like the boys were good for Fred, Gavin who usually won't go to Sunday School unless I am teaching even went to Sunday School on his own. I guess I should go away more often.

Halloween (at last)

We started off Halloween "celebrations" with Trunk or Treat at our church. Jacob dressed up in a Star Wars costume that looked more like a ninja, Gavin was Iron Man, and Wyatt refused to put on the super cute Spider costume that Isaac and Gavin have both worn. At church the kids get to do crafts, hear a story, eat some snacks and then trick-or-treat from trunk to trunk in the parking lot. Fred and the boys had a great time decorating the van to look like a pet cemetary (with stuffed animals) and I had a good time making candy corn inspired cupcakes (sorry I didn't get a picture of my finished product - think multi-colored frosting mounded on top of cupcakes).  





Jacob, Gavin and Wyatt working on a craft.

Gavin and Wyatt out to Trunk-or-Treat.

Fred with the boys in front of our "trunk".

 

On Halloween day my parents came down to go to the Minnesota Zoo. I thought they would have some fun stuff going on, but I didn't see anything special of Halloween that day. It was still a fun day to see the animals without any crowds. We rode the monorail, saw the new tiger cubs, watched the bears cuddle in for a nap, and checked out the animals on the tropics and Minnesota trails.

Wyatt with Grandma and Grandpa.

Wyatt and Grandma on the monorail.

  

Gavin got to have 2 parties at school, one with the AM class and one with the PM class (since he stays all day), so he got lots of fun loot. Jacob got to dress up as a super hero - the only one we had that fit him was Superman and luckily he's my easy kid (in the what am I going to be for Halloween category) and was good with that. Gavin had a dozen costumes to choose from and just couldn't decide on which his favorite was to wear. He ended up as Mario, which is very fitting for the Wii obsessed child. Wyatt would still not put on any costume, not even his spider hat with eyes. We made the round around our cul-de-sac and got lots of candy, unfortunately I bought too much candy and so we ended up with way too much candy.

Mario, Wyatt, and Superman ready to trick-or -treat

Signature Jacob

Jacob is not our most observant child. This was clearly pointed out today when he came home from school. His bus dropped him off about 15 minutes later than usual, I was starting to make calls as to where his bus was. He got off and handed me a slip that said his bus had been in an "accident" and that he'd been checked out, but was fine. I asked him if his bus was in an accident and he had no idea what I was talking about and didn't remember anyone looking him over to see if he was OK. After further prodding and questioning he did recall a time when he fell out of his seat (didn't really know why), but he was too busy talking to take notice of anything else. Sigh. My mom tells me this is karma for how much I shared with my family when I was younger - they have since trained me to be a better observer and reporter (but I am sure they'd still say I'm not very good).

In other news.

*I had my first mid-term today in Calc 1. I think I did pretty well. I was stumped by the first question for a little while, which made me very scared. But after I went through the rest of the test with no big challenges I returned to the first question and did my best guess, which turns out was right. Yeah!

*Wyatt finally got a full sized mattress for his crib that has now been converted to a full-size bed. He thinks its a big trampoline and still ends up sleeping on the floor. I think he thinks its unfair that the other two boys get to sleep in the same room. Maybe one of these nights we'll try him out in the other room and let Jacob or Gavin have a room to themselves for the night - though I am not sure either of them want to sleep alone either.

*Wyatt calls Jacob 'Jay-bop', I know soon enough he'll figure out how to say Jacob and I don't want to forget that.

Pumpkin Patch

We finally made our annual pumpkin patch visit today. We have gone to Peter's Pumpkins with the Silvestains for 4 of the last 5 years, that one year it was raining (and Wyatt was a baby) and we just picked up pumpkins from a pre-picked stand. We made it to the far ends of the pumpkin patch this year, as we are late in the season and a lot of the good pumpkins have been picked and there were lots of rotten pumpkins out there. The kids always like the hunt for their pumpkin, though Gavin's criteria this year was that the pumpkin be clean. Finding a pumpking without dirt on it in the field was tricky. Wyatt loved just running through the field. Jacob and Kyle enjoyed the challenge of pulling the wagons along the field roads/trails.

 



Wyatt getting a ride out of the field with the pumpkins. 

 

Kyle and Avery helped get the boys laughing for this photo.

Jacob and Kyle - Jacob not so happy to be the "girl".

 

Caught a smile from Avery and a goofy grin from Gavin.

Football Season

Jacob is trying out football this fall. This is his first football team and they are the "Packers". It's flag football and they get a chance to try out all the positions. Jacob really wants to be a quarterback, but he hasn't had much opportunity to pass the ball. He's on a winning team thanks to the "Atteberry Twins" - mini sport phenoms, as brothers they have lots of practice together and they are often throwing deep passes to each other or making interceptions. We've played against them in soccer and basketball and I can say its much better to play with them than against them. Jacob has been on enough losing teams to appreciate the ability to win games, but he's also realizing that then you might not get as much action. He has made one touchdown - rushing the full length of the field. Of course, it was a cold morning and I stayed home with Gavin and Wyatt and missed this amazing run. I have seen many great blocks on his part and I try to remind him that its a team sport and it takes the whole team to score a touchdown or win the game.

 



Jacob (in maroon sweatshirt) with his team.

Jacob running with the ball.

The footballer.