October Post

It's November already!! October was pretty mellow with some exciting moments thrown in.

There was a children's day in Sunken Gardens to benefit the new all inclusive playground being built. Kids had a blast. Bounce houses, inflatable slide, train, dunk tank, and a great picture of Lydia with her missing teeth. Everett got such a kick out of that dunk tank! He dunked one of the high school football coaches.

Cool baby. Cars baby.

Of course, Everett fell the night before picture day and hit his eye!! He was on the arm of the couch and hit the piano bench.

His picture looks pretty good, though!

Brian wanted to make a pumpkin pie, so we had almost-Thanksgiving-dinner on actual Canadian Thanksgiving.

Thanks to Daniel Tiger, Lydia calls Rozzy her "best friend." I wish she'd treat her like a best friend and not throw things at her head! That is the hardest thing about having more kids, keeping them safe from older siblings.

I decided to do a little photoshoot the day after Rosalind turned 2 months (third kid gets Mom's best effort). We have a couple of beautiful girls, that's for sure!

We went to Jack Creek Farm pumpkin patch with Lydia's Parent Participation class. She loves trains, so she had a blast on their wooden train. 

It's been such a big month for Lydia. She's loving Parent Participation. Brian's been taking her, and they have fun. The class has coincided with a huge increase in her language, which is great timing. 

Some of my favorite phrases are: "my help you?" (she loves being helpful--sweet girl!), "but my really really want to!" (how can you say "no" when she says that?!?), "but it's my favorite!" "I don't want to," "a little bit?" "one more minute?" "yeah sure," "whatcha doin'?" and so many more. She can basically say everything (indistinctly) and surprises us every day. This morning she was messing with a little thing of bubbles: "my break it? . . . my fix it." Right now, I'm editing the blog, and she just said, "go up! My see something!" 

Her potty training has been going really well too. It's not 100%, but we're getting there! I've gotten to a place where I'm not constantly worrying about accidents and I can clearly imagine a big girl future. But like I said last month, this process has been SO much different than potty training Everett.

She's so independent. When she wants something high up, she immediately goes for her stool. Last night, we were having dinner at my parents' house, and we kept telling her to ask for tangerines because her first instinct was to stand up in her chair and reach across the table. Why ask for help when you can do it yourself?! 

I'm done with Rosalind's scrapbook!! It's taken all of my free time lately, so I'm so relieved to be done. Here's a picture of Everett's book in sea foam, Lydia's book in teal with multicolored spots, and Rosalind's is purple. Unintentionally, they keep getting bigger!! I suppose it's because more siblings means more activities, and the books have a lot of "things we did while waiting for you" pages. 

We had a lot of fun at Colony Days this year. The parade was the perfect length, and we got to sit next to all of the Hunters! Plus Grandpa Phil was able to come! Last year was his last day of work at the winery. He always had to work during the parade because it's Harvest Fest.

Everett got really into Tent City this year. He was fascinated by the blacksmith and had a blast watching the pie eating contest!! Andy was so excited to participate! We found Kathy Clarke and enjoyed catching up.

Creepy carousel we happened upon when we were leaving. It was right next to the tunnel and seemed to appear out of nowhere. After the ride Brian asked Everett if he still had his soul.

Later the same day, Gretchen and Mark came into town! We're so grateful that they'll come up to visit us since traveling as a family is still a pretty stressful prospect for us.

Forcing screen time on the baby. And Lydia showing me she knows way more letters than I thought she did. She also counted them and knew their colors!

The things I resort to so I can get ready and keep Rosalind safe.

We're loving her new smiles so much!

Turns out there's really nice light in Everett's room in the morning. 

Lydia has been loving gymnastics. Phil and Gion take her and I get sent adorable pictures like this! 

The kids taking turns with the fur vest Auntie Katie sent. They think they're being werewolves.

Fun with the Asdel Grands, Roz being a model on my current crochet project, Everett painting his wooden models, and trying out the vampire look. Luckily he didn't insist on trick-or-treating like this and actually wore the costume I made him.

We can't get enough of Rozzy's looks! That tongue thing! If you stick out your tongue, she'll stick out hers. Obviously a genius 2-month-old.

We actually decorated this year! I had nothing to do with it. Gion got Everett excited about decorating and Brian helped him run with it.

Carving pumpkins at home and at Phil and Gion's. Everett made a pumpkin for himself, for Lydia (gap teeth), and for Roz (button nose).

After deciding his spider costume would be a deadly weapon on the playground, I convinced Everett to be Superman (from our dress-up bin) for school. It worked out well. Other kids were dressed as superheros too, and he had fun.

Costumes!! I'm amazed we got a theme costume together for the kids. Store bought and easy crafting classics for the win!

We went to Patterson Tedford's carnival the afternoon before Halloween. Grandma Kathie met us there. I dressed up as an entomologist. All I did was wear binoculars and draw bug bites on my arms. I wonder how many people I freaked out. I certainly freaked myself out over and over!

Halloween day!! First we went trick-or-treating at George and Kathie's. Sorry for the closed eyes shot Mom!

Then we went to Phil and Gion's for dinner and started our real trick-or-treating from there.

We were so happy Barbara and Bruce were home and entertaining a bunch of their family! It's fun trick-or-treating in that neighborhood. People are happy to see the kids, check out their costumes. They may be the only kids who come by.

Checking out the Halloween haul. Sorting and indulging. 

Quote from Facebook:    

Brian: did you get a book at the library today?

Everett: yes, Egg-napped.

Brian: That's fun. 

Everett: no. It's horrifying.