Costume Fun

This year I have a ninja, cowgirl, and a pumpkin. We have had lots of chances to wear our costumes this year...trick-or-treating at the zoo, trunk-or-treat at church, library party, Halloween night, and our annual party.

Owen loves Ashleigh's hat which is so ironic because I really wanted him to be a cowboy with her, but thought it made more economical sense to wear Trenton's old costume. Maybe next year I'll get my cowboy.

Ta da!! I am so proud of this vest that I made myself for only $3 (including the patch)...with a glue gun!! I really wanted Ashleigh to have a vest to complete her costume, but I couldn't find one anywhere. I decided to make one and since I can't sew, I used a glue gun. I think it turned out beautifully. It is surprisingly very sturdy and should last a long time thanks to the ribbon. What do you think?

My Helper...sort of

Owen loves to be by my side at all times. Today he helped me with laundry. He started out sorting out all of Ashleigh's socks (which he identified by the pink on them), but then got carried away with the fun of emptying all of the socks.



He picked out all of his socks (very smart) and carried them to his room. Here he is showing me his pile.



Later, Owen wanted to help with dinner, only he got hungry. He dumped out a box of Lucky Charms on the floor to search for marshmallows. Too bad his older brother and sister had already eaten every single marshmallow...sad, I know. At least I don't have to worry about buying that cereal ever again.

I gave him a dust pan and broom to sweep up his mess and he gave it a good try.

Next, Owen moved on to his favorite drawer...the miscellaneous kitchen drawer. He thought emptying a bag of skewers looked like fun. However, he did put them all back when he was done. Note...don't eat kabobs at the Borders' house because the sticks have been all over the floor.

He then moved on to taking pictures with our camera. He is getting pretty good at it. Here's one he took of Ashleigh. Maybe a photographer in the making.

The Latest

Here is what we are up to these days:

Owen is such a fun little boy. He jabbers all day long and is talking pretty well. He just learned how to say "poop" yesterday which makes us all laugh. He prefers to be the center of attention and somehow always manages to be. He and Ashleigh are still the best of friends always playing together when she gets home from school. Yesterday while Ashleigh was at school Owen played "baby" in her room. His "baby" was a Raggedy Ann doll that he fed in her high chair. Too cute!

Here's Owen enjoying his first ice cream cone.

Ashleigh has caught the school bug. She loves it so much. As soon as she comes home from school, she wants to play school and often sits at the table for hours at a time coloring and singing songs she learned at school. She reminds me of myself. She is such a social girl, but likes to be in charge which can be a problem. She loves to help me with chores while Owen naps. Recently she has become obsessed with horses. She loves them and just brought a book home from the library about horses. She is going to be a cow girl for Halloween. Do all girls go through this phase? I just hope she never asks for a pony!

Trenton has turned into a bookworm. He reads whenever he has free time, which again reminds me of myself as a child. He finished "The Invention of Hugo Cabret" in three or four days even though it has 550 pages! He couldn't put it down. He also spends a lot of free time drawing ships and airplanes. Webkinz are still very fascinating to him, but they come third to his other interests. He continues to love Cub Scouts and is excited about becoming a Bear in just a month or so. Flag football is not nearly as exciting to him as it was in the beginning, but he is sticking with it.

Nathan is busy as ever with work. He is just flourishing here and seems less stressed about work than he used to be. He handles the stress of a sales career beautifully which helps me to relax about it as well. He is quite the handy man as he just finished installing a brand new furnace and thermostat for us by himself! He has also replaced several faucets, light fixtures, locks, and the list goes on and on. It's great to have a handy man...now if I could only get him to learn how to build a rolling can holder for my food storage :)

Ashleigh enjoyed playing in the empty furnace box.

I am knee deep in PTA stuff at both schools. I am managing fine and I really love meeting lots of other moms and staff. The schools are so big here that it is hard to be known, but with my big tasks at both schools, we are starting to be recognized. Yeah! In my other free time I am working very hard to get our family totally prepared for emergencies. With our power outage a few weeks ago, I discovered how much I still need to do. My eyes were opened to how self-reliant I need to be because people are not friendly during emergencies. Everyone went into panic mode here which was really scary. I want us to be able to be completely prepared so that we wouldn't have to leave our house if necessary. Stay tuned for updates on my progress. There have been several community and church meetings about this since the big blackout which have been really informative.

Carnival fun

Trenton's school held their annual fall carnival last weekend, which was a lot of fun for Trenton and Ashleigh. Somehow I got stuck working the velcro wall by myself for two hours, so the kids had to do the carnival by themselves. Trenton decided to try out the velcro wall on one of his check-ins. You put on a heavy velcro suit and then jump onto a velcro wall where you literally hang until you pull yourself off. Ridiculous, but very popular! I had a huge line the entire time I worked.
Here is Trenton stuck to the velcro wall. It is hard to actually get off the ground because the suit is so heavy and awkward to jump in.

I had to stop working the velcro wall for a second to snap this picture of my kids eating dinner together next to my booth. They rarely spend time together with just the two of them, so I thought this was so sweet. Trenton totally took care of Ashleigh during the night. They even pooled their tickets together and took turns playing games.

Storytime

I signed Owen and I up for a toddler storytime at the library. It is the greatest program! We have 15 minutes of singing and reading followed by 15 minutes of free play every week. I love having quality one-on-one time with Owen that he rarely gets as we shuffle around everyday doing things for Trenton and Ashleigh. Owen is hysterical during free play because all he wants are the balls. He spends the entire 15 minutes collecting all the balls and randomly throwing them at the moms when they least expect it. Here he is trying to coax one of the little twins in our group to give up his ball. We have two sets of twins in our group!

Here's Owen content that he got the balls that he wanted.