Jakers Jack O Lantern

We went twice to Jakers JackO Lantern in Springville, because Anna didn't get to go with us the first time. It's probably the best pumpkin patch experience you can get for the money with kids this age. It was $1 each and Calvin was free. But if you go on a weekday before 2 pm, it's free. I can't believe they do that.

Anyway, Calvin loved everything about it, pumpkin farm, hay ride, corn pit: jackpot.
The girls liked most of it, showing about half the enthusiasm that Calvin did.

Hayriders:

Jumping in the corn pit:

Being the last Saturday before Halloween, the corn pit was extra crowded, but even with my agoraphobia we had a good time.

Toddler Bed Time

This has been one of the most tortured decisions I have made as a parent. Moving a perfectly happy, solid sleeping, mischievous boy from a crib (aka baby cage) that he wouldn't climb out of into a cage free, totally open toddler bed. This move also meant moving him from his own room to a room shared with his big sister Anna.

But he is 3 now and at some point that becomes cruelty. So I made up his bed for him in the morning, I tucked in his toys, Hobbes, Cat the Cat and Pete the Cat so that he would be used to the idea by bedtime.

As soon as I showed him the adorableness, he promptly tossed all the stuffed animals onto the ground and climbed in to get cozy with his blankets. "I need to sleep!" at 10:30 am.

Fortunately, things are going very well. Pairing him with Anna has been a great fit as she has enough mischief in her that she isn't bothered by his. She keeps him occupied and in the room. He is still excited about it. He even took a nap in the bed the next day. 

It's going so well, maybe I should try potty training...maybe not.

Fall Gingerbread

I was determined to make a fall gingerbread house this year. When we couldn't find a single boxed kit, I took it upon myself to bake it ourselves.

The girls were excited to play with the dough and cut out some cookies. For some reason we don't have any halloween cookie cutters so we had to get creative, Eliza did some stars.

Here are our baked walls with stained glass windows.

Some of our other cookies. Crabs, ninjas, sharks, a snowman. You know, the essentials.

Here is our assembled house, this was fraught with peril as I had not considered how it was all supposed to go together before I started icing it and was wrong 3-4 times before I finally figured it out. Still, gaps and all but not too bad looking I think.

Here it is all decorated, this picture is right after it started falling apart and right before I told them all to stop touching it and go away. It has survived somehow and it was fun and exhausting to make.

Time\teleport machine

This guest blog post was written by Anna Gaines.

I made a teleport time machine this after noon. I don't now if it works yet.

It looks like this.

this is the computer.it is connected to the teleportor.

I hope it works.

Camping Out

Thursday night we camped out in the yard. We had a small fire and roasted hot dogs and marshmallows. Then we set up the tent in the dark, the girls found flashlights. We set up the sleeping bags and got all ready for bed then watched The Lorax on the Ipad in the tent. It was not as stressful as I thought, but my hands were busy enough that I did not take any pictures. Either that or Calvin had my phone for a lot of the activities.
Sleeping was difficult for me, Anna slept very well. I ended up back in my bed at 2am and Eliza found me there 4 hours later. She was a little upset to be left in the tent without me.
We spent Friday recovering from our adventure.

Ben was working late/sick so he missed out on all the fun. poor guy.

written by Toni, Anna, and Eliza

Fall Times

We survived Eliza's 5th birthday. It finally came and went and she was outstandingly spoiled by everyone. She got a new twin bed so that Calvin can take over her toddler bed (a task which fills me with immense dread and has not yet been tried)

I took the kids and one friend to Kangaroo Zoo for an hour after school, same as last year. We came back to the house for pizza and cake with family.

She really liked helping with this pathetic pink butterfly cake. I do not have lofty ambitions in cake decor. We couldn't find any candles, though I'm sure they are hidden somewhere. She didn't notice at the time thankfully.

The bat costume she got as a present, she wears it recreationally around the house. Often.

We have been busy visiting all the parks in the area: My kids just figured out that playing at parks is a fun distraction designed for children, it has been so nice to take them and not have to show them what to do and that they are all old enough to not get hurt.
One day it was so beautiful Eliza suggested we have a picnic out on the grass, which was a genius-level idea. Which brings me to the other outstanding breakthrough -

After watching my poor lawn struggle all summer despite almost daily watering, it finally occurred to me that the water must not be getting through to the roots. So I encouraged the participation of basically my whole family to rent an aerator and reap the benefits. My saintly parents spent a Saturday driving this monster machine all over the valley to 4 different houses and we all shared the cost. And GUESS WHAT?! My lawn was resurrected to a state better than we have seen since we moved in and it only took a week. I am so happy about it, I tell everyone who ever saw my poor dead lawn this summer. Maybe I take lawn care a little too seriously, but having a happy, green, well mown lawn brings joy to my little heart.