Fall Break Fun

We had a lot of fun for our week off of school. We went to the pumpkin patch, rock climbing, the zoo, and lots of parks. We went for bike rides, did halloween crafts, and played a lot of games. It was great fun. No one wanted to go back to school.

The zoo has a bird house. We bought sticks with bird feed on them with hopes that the birds would land on the sticks. It worked a few times.

The zoo has a fun park with things to climb.

The spiderweb. They are good climbers. They've had a lot of practice rock climbing at the gym.

More bird house fun. We also bought a crimper, which the girls love. Mia and Justin keep asking me to "crimple" their hair, but chicken out when I put it close to their heads. I think they're scared of the heat.

The giraffes are the best part of the zoo. We feed them lettuce and get grossed out by their long tongues. We were underdressed. It was chilly.

The pumpkin patch in Black Forest is windy. We went on a tractor ride, down the slides, through the mazes, and picked out our pumpkins. Great fun.

Mia's Birthday Party

On Saturday, which happened to be Mia's actual birthday we had a party. It was a lot of fun. I had a lot of help from Hans and the girls and Justin and everyone was happy. I love parties like this one. We had a Mermaid party.

Mia hit the pinata with a lot of energy. She and Justin had a lot of fun picking this pinata out and then filling it with candy. It sat in our house waiting for a whole week.

Mia was spoiled by her friends. She got all princess related presents.

The girls had fun with pin the flowers on Ariels hair game. Ashley and Katelyn were in charge of this and did fabulously.

Party fun. Hans made a gluten free little mermaid cake.

I was impressed with the cake.

I'm not sure where all these dress-ups came from, but they found them in my basement. Cute princesses.

We started the party coloring in pictures and blowing these party favors.

At breakfast Mia opened her presents from me. An Ariel doll and some lip gloss.

She has been dying to get this lip gloss set from Walmart. I was happy it was only 3$.

She also celebrated her birthday at pre-school with this crown and some cupcakes.

Mia is 4!

Mia at 4! Love the smile.

Mia turns 3.

Mia is 2. (She still wears this leotard).

Mia at 1. She no longer lets me do her hair.

Mia is in the house. My 4 lb 12 oz baby, while still little, is growing up. Sigh.

It really is hard to believe that Mia is 4. She has been such a fun addition to our family and she is still our baby, although she is very much a four year old. She is into princesses, lip gloss, mermaids, purses, dress ups, and fashion. She recently perfected riding her two wheeler bike (with training wheels) and I chuckle every time she rides since it's a Thomas the train bike that we've put a Barbie bike bag on so it can be girly enough for her. She loves keeping up with her sisters and they are so good to play princesses and gymnastics with her. She started her first ballet class this fall and she loves it. She loves twirling around in her leotard. She wears her leotards or swimming suits year round and they are dress ups, regular clothes, and pajamas. They get washed often. She is a very energetic person and we love having her.

Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater

Justin had Mother Goose Day on Wednesday. He dressed up as Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater and did a wonderful job reciting the rhyme from memory. This came as quite a relief to me. He doesn't have the same natural ability the girls did at school and has been causing me some worry, but something finally clicked the last week and he is doing better at writing his letters and memorizing his phonograms. Phew. He used to just sloppily write a big J on his papers and assume that was close enough to his name. And any box or coat or anything that had a J anywhere on it he assumed was close enough to being his. His teacher assures me this is the difference between boys and girls and that he is doing just fine and now I agree with her. He is improving and he finally likes school. I can relax.

Garden of the Gods

The kids get out of school on Fridays at 12:15. We took advantage of a beautiful Friday to go hiking right after school. The girls were great sports about humoring me in this since they had both run 4 miles for the school's asthma run that day. I am happy when I am outside. Garden of the Gods is beautiful, the hiking trails are easy, the rocks are fun to climb and hide in, and the trading post has bathrooms and toys to look at. We were lucky enough to get passed by a big group on horses. This was definitely a highlight. It was the perfect afternoon.