A Special Surprise

Ashleigh is obsessed with panda bears.  Half of her new school clothes have panda bears on them and her friends are always giving her little trinkets with panda bears on them.  She has several stuffed panda bears, so when we saw this giant panda bear today at Costco, we couldn't resist.  Since she doesn't look at the blog, I feel safe posting this picture, but don't tell her!  I am hoping Dallin forgets all about him, but he was very excited to get him for Ashleigh.  Everyone we passed in the store laughed or commented about the giant animal that took up the entire cart.  The man checking us out gave the giant bear a hug.  It is going to be very hard to keep it a secret until Christmas, but we will do our best.  We will be sure to have the video camera out when she finally sees it for the first time because she is going to go crazy!  Did you know that there are only four zoos in the United States that have panda bears?  I have been contemplating taking her to one of them next summer for her birthday, but we will have to see if she is still obsessed about them then.

Added note:  After letting Dallin sit with the bear for a little bit after we brought him home, I stuffed the giant bear into a huge trash bag.  It barely fit inside, but I managed to get him well enough to tie the bag shut.  Dallin was very confused about why I was throwing Ashleigh's bear in the trash.  In fact, the second Ashleigh walked in the door after school Dallin said to her, "Mommy threw your panda bear we bought at the store in the trash."  Nathan and I blew off the story since it sounded so crazy and we think she has forgotten about the whole thing.  We can't wait to tell her the story though after we give the bear to her.

Buckeyes!

 We discovered a couple of buckeye trees this past weekend in the woods at our campground.  We had a surprisingly fun time collecting them.  It was like a treasure hunt!  We collected over 100 with plans to make Ohio State buckeye necklaces with them.  Ashleigh even had plans to sell them, so when we got home I researched how to make buckeye necklaces that are so popular here.  The first step was to dry the buckeyes in the sun so that they won't mold.  Monday morning I laid them out in the sun to begin the drying process.

 Throughout the day I kept seeing this little chipmunk sticking his head out of his hole in our front landscaping.  The hole has been there for some time and we hadn't been sure what was living there, so I was surprised to see the little creature for the first time.  What was even stranger was that I kept seeing him ALL day long.  I thought, maybe he is enjoying this cool day since it has been unusually hot.  It puzzled me though why I was seeing so much of him in one day when I hadn't seen him at all in the month that the hole had been there.  It wasn't until Ashleigh got home and I was showing her the chipmunk who was now sitting on our front porch, that the puzzle was solved.  As we walked outside to place acorns, which we had also collected at the campground, next to his hole that we noticed the tray of buckeyes was half empty.  The cute little chipmunk is a thief!  He had been swiping buckeyes right from under my nose all day long.  Luckily Ashleigh handled the news well and we figured out that we still have enough buckeyes left to make five necklaces.  Not enough to sell this year, but this will give us practice for next year.  Nathan dug up the chipmunks hole hoping to find the stolen nuts, but it tunneled under our front porch.

Cornstarch Battle

Ashleigh and her friends got a little crazy at Activity Days this past week.  Their leader brought a 50 lb. bag of cornstarch to conduct science experiments with outside.  The girls had a lot of fun learning about the unique consistency of cornstarch.  At the end of the night, a cornstarch war broke out and I think Ashleigh lost by the looks of her.  It got all over the van and was very difficult to get out of her hair.  One thing I have learned though is that when kids get messy, they are having fun!

Brothers

 Aren't they the cutest in their matching pajamas?  I scored these on the Kohls' clearance rack for $4 a set.  I didn't think they would love the idea of having matching clothes, but for $4, I didn't care.  It turns out they were very excited to have matching pajamas.  They played Super Heros together after putting them on.

These two occasionally sit together like this when sharing an after school snack.  Today it was the candy corn I just bought.  I also wanted to post this picture as documentation of Dallin's eye progress.  His left eye continues to occasionally turn out like it is here in this picture instead of looking straight ahead.  It happens most often when he is looking across the room at something.  All we can do is continue to work on strengthening those muscles so that eye eventually works properly.

Dallin Starts School!

 Dallin started preschool this week.  He has been anxiously awaiting this day.  He has watched his brothers and sister go to school everyday for three weeks wondering when he would get to go to school too.  His teacher gave him a homework assignment for the first day of school.  We had to create a bee for his snack placemat since he is in the Busy Bee class.

 Dallin ran right for the tool bench when we got to school the first day.  He wasn't sure he wanted anyone else to play tools with him, but he made a few good attempts at sharing before the day was over.  He did not like the fact that I wasn't leaving him at school.  He kept telling me to "go home" and asking me when I was going to leave.  They have moms stay the first day to help the kiddos get acquainted, but Dallin did not need any adjusting.  He was ready for school a month ago!

 I couldn't get him to smile, but at least he let me take his picture.  He has been hiding from the camera more lately.

 Here are a few other pictures from earlier this week.  It's a long story as to how we ended up with this turkey hat, but it makes me laugh to see Dallin wearing it.  It's huge on his little head and the turkey bobs up and down when he shakes his head.