Tuesday, October 21, 2008

UEA Happenings

With the kids out of school for the UEA/Fall break we made our annual visit to see the witches at Gardener Village. The kids love to do this every year and this year we had great weather and great family too. This year Gardener Village had a scavanger hunt for the kids. The kids had to find certain witches and write down where they found them to get a cookie at the bakery for 25 cents. Thanks to grandma who filled in everyones papers! We enjoyed a packed lunch, watching the ducks and fish in the pond, and a trip to the candy shop. Mmmmm! Samples of yummy fudge(Luckily Riley didn't want his so I got 2!) and I let the kids get a treat too.
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Later that day Ben and I took the kids to the pumpkin patch next to the boys school and they picked out their pumpkins. Our pumpkins in our garden didn't do well this year. I was too busy growing a baby. Something had to be sacraficed!
Next year I'll do better. It's hard to spend money on something you know will be thrown away in a couple of weeks. They had fun running around with Riley chasing after them yelling "wait,wait!" We only gave them one rule for choosing their pumpkins and that was - they had to carry it back to the car themselves. Jake ended up rolling his all the way. It was fun and they have already thought of what they want to carve in them.
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Jocelyns birthday was friday. I took her to grandmas so that she could see Jocelyn open her present. Earlier Jocleyn had said that she wanted polly pockets and barbie for her birthday so I told her about grandmas barbies that she has had since she was little. So when we got to grandmas that was one of the first things she asked for. I thought they would be deep in storage but not so grandma grabbed them from downstairs and Jocelyn and I had a moment with grandma looking through her barbies. Afterwards we went to walmart to get a few birthday things and of course to look at the toys. Jocleyn found wedding barbie-just like grandmas-and after a long decision between cheerleader barbie or wedding barbie- she picked wedding barbie. Just like grandmas she said. I had Ben pick it up for her later. She was pretty excited. She got what she wanted-barbie and polly pockets. She also got to choose which resteraunt to go to. She picked "the place where you pick your own food" which converts to chuck-a-rama. So after opening presents we all headed to chuck-a-rama for dinner. The kids all did great and we actually had a peaceful dinner. I guess it helps when Riley can have a plate of fruit and veggies and goldfish crackers! On sunday we sang happy birthday and had her purple butterfly cake. She is just so excited to be four.
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Our saturday was full of yard work for Ben. He got alot done in the garden. The kids enjoyed the warm weather with friends. Also 3 years ago Ben planted a tree just next to our porch which I have never liked only because I knew it would get too big and block the house and also because when I sit on the porch I have hard time seeing into the cul-de-sac where the kids usually play. So finally after years of little comments from me and our neighbor Laurie-mostly joking about it being moved- he decided that it was getting bigger than he thought it would and it needed to be moved!!! With our neighbor Johns help, it was moved to the back corner of our lot. Hopefuly to provide some shade for the swingset. There have been a few of these big tree moments in our marriage and luckily we have learned to recognize them and laugh about them, and Ben usually ends up saying "I should have listened to you". Which isn't too bad to hear every once in a while!
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Friday, October 10, 2008

It's girl time!

Lately Jocelyn has been very attached to me and being at home. We have played babies and barbies everyday. She doesn't seem to mind that she does all the work since I'm usually feeding a baby. Although it wears me out after so many hours of her chattering but at the same time she is so funny to listen to. She usually pulls the baby doll from me and says "ah cute, now she needs a shot I will take her to the nursery". And so it begins the poor baby endures every test that our newborn Owen endured thru his first few days of life. Including the circumcision- yes, I informed her that girls do not get that done she always replys "This baby does". Needless to say she has been very entertaining. So yesterday I was a little suprised when we didn't play babies. Just after Owen and Riley were down for naps she came down stairs with her container of hair clippies and announced "It's girl time". I was actually relieved to be doing something remotley differtent from playing babies- it has been feeling like ground hog day around here with repeating a babies birth everyday! So I turned on a movie for us and she went crazy. Luckily I have a hard head and can handle all of the combing and clipping. After she was done she wanted to take a picture. She was pretty proud of how good I looked. So I guess for all those times I have done her hair-cute or crazy- she has done the same to me numerous times. Oh the things moms endure to creates good memories!
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They could be mother and daughter...

Yesterday Laura and I were talking on the phone and somehow started talking about the show on tv about the Dugger family. You know the ones with 17-and counting kids?!!! Laura mentioned how the oldest boy was engaged and how the fiance dressed and looked like the rest of the Duggers with her clothes and hair. It reminded me of some pictures I had of Jocelyn. These are for Laura- I told her I would blog them only because we were laughing so hard about the dugger hair that there was no way to explain how close Jocelyn looked like them also. On this day, I had put little buns across the top of Jocelyns hair and she thought she looked like Hannah Montanna which she may have in the beginning but in the end she just looked like mama Dugger. How funny! I wonder if Hannah Montanna looks like mama Dugger after a good long concert!!?! If only we had pictures of that!
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