My Little Pumpkins

We haven't been able to do all the fall festive things I like to do this time of year with John traveling so much (he's in MN this week), but we did make time for a quick trip out to the pumpkin patch. The kids and I love this trip. Plus this would be Lily's first visit so I was super excited. I don't know why pumpkin patches make the cutest photo backdrops but I love getting pics outside during fall. However, my better half was not up to photos so we'll have to try to catch some great family shots next year when everyone is a bit older and will sit for a picture with a little less effort. Never less, I still captured some great individual shots and we all had a blast!
Abby is really into flowers at the moment and wanted her picture taken with all that she found. However, she would look at the flowers vs. the camera and say "cheese". Goofy girl!
(the flowers just made Jake sneeze, lol)
The kids loved the pint sized pumpkins. They each picked one out and we decorated it on Monday (perfect rainy day activity, another post coming about that).
Abby tried to pick the big pumpkins up too, but found it was much easier to roll them.
Jake LOVES the windmill this place has. At one point, he found a place to sit and just plopped down and watched the windmill.

Everyone was less than thrilled to try to get a family shot.

And my littlest pumpkin...too cute!

Video Game Junkies

My kids are video game junkies already (well, really iPhone junkies). I was so excited when I got my iPhone and quickly discovered there were "Educational" games for toddlers I could download for the kids. Great for when I need to distract them in the checkout line, at the doctors office, when I'm on the phone, or even changing a diaper and need them to lay still. Well, the kids fell in love with them and want to play them all the time. I have several games and we loaded John's old iPhone up so we have 2 to play with. They already have claimed a phone too. Jake gets mine, Abby gets John's old one. Jake is our true junkie and already knows his way around my iPhone just about as well as I do.

I'm going to have to watch how much time they play on the phone and I'm going to start using them as rewards for diff. things such as cleaning toys, good behavior, etc. (at least for Jake).

I think they're learning stuff too. The games we have are all about shapes, colors, animals, ABCs and even spelling simple words. Ask Jake how to spell Train, Cake, Bird, Duck, Plane or Keys.

John isn't happy I've started this little habit and the phones are not allowed in the kids' hands when he's around, but they do really great with them. They know they must sit and play. No moving around with the phone, running, fighting, etc. or they get taken away immediately.

I think we have the youngest iPhone users out there!

The State Fair

John got back in town Friday evening and was super excited to do something with the kids. He was on a 13 hour time difference and just got off a 17 hour flight so I figured the fatigue would set in soon. However, I played along and said sure, we could plan something for Saturday. He wanted to go to the State Fair. It was the last weekend, but it was also the Texas v OU game and I knew traffic would be horrible, but I played along. We were going to go during the game hoping most would be in the cotton bowl so we could walk around and enjoy the fair. I even snagged free tickets from a friend of mine and we were set. When I got back to the house Saturday morning though with the tickets, John was still asleep (it was almost lunch time :-). He was exhausted and asked if we could go Sunday instead. I said yes as I didn't figure he'd really make it to the fair Saturday anyway. He slept most of the day and the kids and I enjoyed the fabulous weather outside.
On Sunday, John got up, dressed and walked into the kitchen as we were finishing breakfast and asks if I'm ready to go. What? Where? To the fair of course. So I quickly get dressed, get the diaper bag ready to go and load everyone. We were on the road by 9:15.
We got there just in time I think. Everything opened at 10 and we got a great parking spot. We quickly made our way to the kids corner and did a few things.
First up was the "Farm" experience. The kids got to help out with various things such as feeding chickens, watering trees, even planting seeds. At the end of the experience, they were paid for their work. Then they made their way to the country store to buy either crackers or juice snacks with their money. It was a lot of fun and FREE! The kids loved it, but they were on the move so I didn't get too many pictures (if hubby could handle both kids at once I could sit back with Lily and take pics :-). Also, you'll notice many of the pics are perfectly clear EXCEPT for my children! I hate it when that happens!!!


After the farm we went to watch a dog show. The kids love dogs and I thought they'd enjoy watching them do tricks too. Jake got really into it and clapped after each trick. He didn't want to sit on my lap though, he wanted to sit on the row below us like a big boy. He did great sitting there, watching the dogs and clapping. He was really enjoying it. Abby on the other hand decided she'd rather run up and down the stairs. After a while I sort-of got her calmed down to watch the dogs, but by then Jake had had enough and was ready to go. I didn't think we'd make the full show anyway so we packed everyone up and headed back out to our next adventure.

We decided to go to the petting zoo. We didn't buy food hoping our kids wouldn't notice and be happy with just petting the animals, but they quickly realized everyone else had cups of food to feed the animals and wanted some. However, my two are VERY resourceful and searched for feed on the ground or in the animals feed buckets to feed the animals. At one point though they tried to feed a camel wood chips - it was not impressed.
(I felt so bad for this little guy - he was sitting there shaking so much. Not sure if he was cold or scared. It was so sad!)
After the animals, it was time to grab some lunch. Nothing but fried foods so we grabbed a hot dog for Abby and corn dogs for the rest of us. However, the corn dogs were SO HOT! We had to break them apart and wait for what felt like 30 minutes with an unhappy little boy. He didn't understand that Abby could eat her hot dog while he just had to STARE at his corn dog. Life is so unfair!
After lunch we checked out the rides for the little ones, but opted to skip those for now. They didn't look too safe and they were so expensive. We did grab some cotton candy though. John said no fair trip was complete without cotton candy. They kids were a little confused about eating this cotton stuff but quickly decided they liked it. I kept the bag and cut them off after a few bites.
It was almost 2 and we decided it was probably time to leave. Abby was getting REALLY tired. She even turned down the cotton candy at one point and looked like she was about to fall over asleep. We headed out to the car and got everyone changed and loaded in their car seats. About 10 minutes after we hit the road the twins were out. Lily on the other hand was wide awake b/c she had slept most of the afternoon on me :-)
We had a great time at the fair and can't wait until next year when the twins will be able to enjoy it even more.

Lily's Growing So Fast

Lily is growing up so fast. This Wednesday she cut her first two teeth (on the bottom). You can just barely see them, but can feel them. I was hoping she'd be a late teether like the twins (they were 10 months), but she's cutting them at 6-1/2 months. As soon as they're up enough to see in pics, I'll snap a few.
She can also sit by herself (for a few second :-). Jake didn't sit until 8 months and Abby 9 but I remember how much they LOVED the world when they could sit. Everything looks so different from that position I guess. I'm horrible and haven't gotten a pic of that either yet, but I will def. get some soon so I have them for the baby book!

MDO

As many of you know we had some issues with the teacher at the MDO we started in September. My two are a handful, I know, but they were a bit much for the teacher and so after a meeting "in the principal's office", we decided it was best to pull them from the program. We still think it's important for them to be in school at this age and so we quickly enrolled them in same school they attended camp this summer. We had our first day Monday and all went well. We had a few issues, such as Abby talking to herself during nap time (imagine that :-) and Abby leaving the classroom to run up and down the hall (I was shocked Jake didn't do this), but overall, the teacher said it was a great first day. The kids didn't nap at the other school (they napped at home) so it's a big adjustment for us all, but I think it's the best thing for our kids. The teachers are great, the school is awesome and I love their curriculum. I wish we would have just gone here from the beginning.
One of my favorite things about this place is the "communication journal". It's a notebook that goes back and forth everyday from us to the teacher. The teacher writes what they did, how they did, etc. every day. I then read it at night and can also write any notes/questions in it for her. I LOVE this as you can't always talk to the teacher about everything you want during drop off and pick up times.
I'm anxious to see how today went but know we are in the right place now.