The week before fall break

Tomorrow is Spencer's last day of school until October 16th.  It feels like he JUST started school.  I'm having a hard time believing that we're actually 10 weeks into the school year and starting fall break.

 

My goal for next week- take a lot of pictures of Spencer because, jeez, he's totally missing from the recap of the week.  I guess that is to be expected since he is gone for 7 hours every weekday.

 

I did laundry on Monday.  Elliott likes to wear the laundry hamper once everything is in the washing machine.  

I worked on Tuesday and Michael was home so, GASP!, no pictures.

 

Wednesday brought some slightly cooler morning temperatures, so Elliott and I played outside.  We had a whole set-up in the shade under the big tree in the backyard.

 

Ginger wanted nothing to do with the shade.  She prefers hyperthermia and heatstroke.

Wednesday afternoon we went to Sprouts and Home Goods.  I bought a bag of coffee ice cream flavored coffee.  We were all obsessed with the smell. 

Elliott is totally into coloring.  He can sit on our laps for 30 minutes coloring with crayons.  He needs a little more practice in pressing harder.

The mornings are getting darker and darker.  One of the first things we do in the morning is change Elliott's diaper.  I hate turning on the overhead light because he is laying on his back looking up at it, but it's now too dark to have no light at all.

 

I stopped at Hobby Lobby on my way home from work today and found this lamp for $10.  It was 66% off.  66%?  Why not just make it 70%?

I bought a $2 roll of blue ribbon and glued it around the edge to make it a little more "young boy".  We already had the little green dinosaur.

 

I don't love it, actually.  I will be on the lookout for a new, cheap shade.

Oh, and how great are the dinosaur street signs? They are from the dollar section at Target.

 

We made pumpkin muffins after dinner tonight.  We're taking some to Spencer's school tomorrow, some are for us and some are for Kathy and Bobby's party on Saturday.

 

The kids were mad about the batter. 

 

I see my dermatologist tomorrow.  Let's hope I don't have to have 760 million more biopsies.

Just a few more birthday things

September is almost over.  I can't believe it.

 

I wanted to post this before the birthday month is finished and we move on to leaves, pumpkins and ghosts and people are like, "what?  You're still talking about your birthdays?"

 

Spencer-

5 years 1 month (top left corner) and then going clockwise to 6 in the middle.

 

If you want to see all of his previous collages you can go HERE.

 

We also did his birthday interview this week.  I was a little late, but I don't think his answers were all that different from what they would have been 3 weeks ago.  Michael thinks all of the "ums" are annoying.  I type excactly what he says though because I think it will be interesting to see how he changes and develops doing the same interview year after year.  I thought that I posted his 5 year old interview last year, but when I went back to find the link I can't find the post.  If anybody just can't live without reading it I'll email it to you.

 

 

6 year old interview

 

1.      How old are you?

Six

 

2.      Who is your best friend?

What do you mean? From school? (Yeah- whoever  you consider to be your best friend.  From school or not) Well, I can’t really answer that.  Well, Sydney, let’s say. 

 

3.      What is your favorite thing to do?

Um, swim.

 

4.      What is your favorite color?

Blue

 

5.      What is your favorite food?

Um, raspberries.

 

6.      What do you like to do with your family?

Um,( tongue click), go to Tucson.

 

7.      What is your favorite toy?

Um-ah (lip smack), Ooh, that is very hard.  Um, I would say my trains.

 

8.      What do you want to be when you grow up?

Mmmmm. A train driver.  No, actually I do not.  I want  to be an astronaut.

 

9.      What makes you happy?

Um, OK.  When I get candy.

 

10.  What makes you sad?

Um. When I don’t feel well.

 

11.  What is your favorite show to watch?

Um, Blue’s Clues.  (NOTE: He hasn't watched Blue's Clues in months.  We have no idea why he said that).

 

12.  What is your favorite book?

Um, chapter books.  (Do you have a favorite chapter book?)  Good Morning Gorillas.

 

13.  What do you love to learn about?

Um, mmmmmm.  Math and science.

 

14.  What was the best part of your birthday?

Um, getting to play with everyone.

 

15.  Where do you like to go?

Um, to the park.

 

16.  Who is your teacher?

Mrs. (I edited this for privacy)

 

17.  What is your favorite treat?

Um, dessert. (Do you have a favorite one?) No, I don’t.

 

18.  What do you think about before you fall asleep?

Um,  I think that I’m going to go somewhere that’s far away from home.

 

19.  If you could meet someone famous, who would it be?

A artist. (Do you know any artists?) No.

 

20.  What was your favorite birthday present?

Everything.  (Can you pick just one?) My iron man shooter thing.

 

Spencer wanted to add these questions: 

21.  What is your favorite part of the house?

Um, my favorite part of the house is my room because it’s a outer space room.

 

22.   What’s the funniest thing in your house?

When I make my brother laugh.

 

23.  What is your favorite letter?

S

 

Birthdays and Jammies

Our sitter, Dorothy, had her birthday on Saturday.  There was talk of doing brunch with her and Megan and her family (Megan and I share Dorothy), but all of the plans fell through.  We didn't get or give her a present last week thinking we might see her on Saturday so we needed to buy one for her before Thursday. 

 

We were also invited to the double birthday party of our friends Bobby and Kathy when they came to Spencer's party a few weeks ago.  It's on Saturday evening.

 

Then, on top of that, Spencer was invited to the birthday party of a classmate for Saturday morning. 

 

We have a pretty busy week, including two morning doctor appointments for me, so I wanted to get all of the birthday gift buying done on Monday.

 

Elliott and I went to Hobby Lobby as soon as they opened at 9 and bought Dorothy her present.  We got some really cute Halloween decorations that are already wrapped, so I can't show you.

 

Then we headed to Target to shop for Bobby and Kathy.

 

I got Kathy a bag of Pumpkin Pie Spice coffee,

and the matching coffee syrup.

I'm also going to bake pumpkin muffins to give to her.  It's a triple pumpkin gift.

Bobby was in an awful, terrible, horrible car accident almost two weeks ago.  He was hit, head-on, while driving on the highway.  The other driver did not survive.  He has a broken spine (in three places), broken legs, a shattered foot and a broken nose.  He is home from the hospital, but will be in a hospital bed at home for a long time.  He has to wear one of those full body braces for his back whenever he does anything but lay flat on his back.  He also has to have surgery on his foot, but the doctors are waiting for the swelling to go down first.

 

We thought some Superman boxers would be an appropriate gift given the circumstances.

We picked Spencer up from school in the afternoon and headed to Walmart.  Before shopping we stopped at the in-store McDonald's where I ordered "2 small vanilla ice creams, one in a cone and one in a cup".  And then the McDonald's lady acted pissy that I was annoyed and surprised when she tried to hand me two chocolate dipped cones. 

 

We bought this Superman shooter for Spencer's school friend.  We also got him a monster truck hot wheels.

 

We were headed to the grocery section to look for canned pumpkin when we made the mistake of checking out the pajamas.  Spencer can always use new pajamas.  He's really hard on his with all the eczema stuff we put on him at night.

 

And wouldn't you know it.  They had Snoopy Halloween jammies for $6 a pair.

 

We turned down the AC before dinner so we could do a jammie photo shoot after dinner.  But first Elliott wanted to watch the screensaver slide show on the computer.  He will happily stand there for 20 minutes looking at the pictures.

 

They are pretty cute, these boys of mine.

 

 

I was excited enough about the Halloween jammies, but then I started thinking that up next are Christmas jammies and I got REALLY excited.  And then I got sad thinking that Elliott could wear his Christmas jammies in the hospital for his liver biopsy.

 

But, I put the thought out of my mind and focused on the baby dancing.

 

They both like to "play" on mommy and daddy's bed after dinner.  This consists of them walking around on the bed (while we have a heart attack about Elliott falling off every 4.2 seconds) and falling over into the pillows and blankets.

 

They also like it when we knock them down.

A family of superheroes and other randomness

This is a screen shot of the program I use to download pictures from my camera to the computer.  I've done really well in September.  The 3rd was a bit of a blip, but I worked that day and Michael has already hit his quota of taking 6 pictures in 2013. 

 

And then we get to the 17th, 18th and 19th.  What happened?  Could I have been any lazier last week?

I broke out of my picture funk on Thursday.  Elliott was adorable and it had to be documented.

 

A little background first.

 

Spencer dressed up as Superman for Halloween when he was two.  He didn't ask to be Superman, we just picked it because it was cheap and easy.....no mask, no hat, no fuss. We didn't go to a party and we didn't even really go trick-or-treating, but we can say he participated in Halloween.

We went trick-or-treating at my grandma's house.  I think she gave him four pieces of candy.  That's enough when you're two. 

Back to almost present day.

 

Spencer is now really into super heroes and is going to be Spiderman for Halloween.  We already bought his costume in August. 

We decided the easiest thing for Elliott this year, at almost age two, is to be Superman.  For the same reasons it was the best idea for Spencer....no mask, no hat, no extras. 

 

Continuing with the easy plan, I'm going to be Wonder Woman, 

 

and Michael is going to be Batman. 

I've been on the lookout for a Superman costume for Elliott because I was sure that Spencer's old costume (that has been in the garage for 4 years) would be too small for him.  I've had no luck in finding one that is small enough and cheap enough though, so last Thursday I decided to break out the old one and take it for a spin.

 

It's actually plenty roomy. 

 

He was even able to show off his best dance moves.

I told myself I wasn't going to do anything until next weekend, but I hung up some fall wreaths yesterday.  This is our first fall/Halloween/Thanksgiving to decorate in this house and I'm pretty excited.  There will be a full post with 1,785 pictures coming soon.

 

We had a busy Saturday, including a fun dinner with John and Maryellen, but again, no pictures were taken.

 

I made up for it, again, today.

 

The kids chased each other in their underoos.  It's one of their favorite activities.

The weather was also lovely this afternoon.  Lovely enough that we could actually play outside.

Elliott likes to walk back and forth on the bricks.  He might have a future in tightrope walking.

Just in case you were wondering, Megan, this is not the shirt you gave Elliott two years ago.  It IS the shirt that you gave SPENCER two years ago.

Elliott is able to blow his own bubbles now.  Every time he does it it is a fluke, but he'll probably be a pro by next week.

 I bought a julienne peeler last week.....

specifically so I could make zucchini noodles.  They are actually pretty delicious.  I want to julienne cut everything now.