Halloween 2011

Halloween is a busy day around here.  There's a preschool trick-or-treat around the downtown stores, and then in the evening we always trick or treat around our neighborhood.  This year was no exception, although it's hard to believe that after six years, this will be my last year taking a child around downtown.  These kiddos are getting big!

This year Caroline was a character from her newest favorite book, Ladybug Girl.  The girl in the book is even named Lulu, and since we call our girl Carol-lou, or Lou, or Lula, she seems like a perfect match.  Caroline was extra excited because she had outgrown her rainboots last year, and we've been waiting for her size to come in at the army surplus store down the street--and on the weekend before Halloween they finally did: so my ladybug girl had ladybug rainboots to wear just like the ones in the story.  I don't think you can see them in any of these pictures, but they might make it into some other photos this winter. 

Jack was a pirate again this year, with the addition of his talking parrot, which was fun to take to school.  He was wanting to be something scary, and we decided that the parrot startling people would be scary enough (just ask Grandma Jo--once the parrot said something when she was babysitting and the power had unexpectedly gone out.  That parrot can be scary!)

The rest of the pictures tell the story of our day.  First we have Caroline with her best monkey friend Marilyn, ready to go visit the downtown shops.

 

  

 Lindsey, Graham, Marilyn, Caroline and I.  Check out the next picture for an explanation of my outfit.  I am awfully lucky to have such a close friend who lives so near, and with kids similar ages.  Marilyn and Caroline also go to preschool together, and they're such good friends that Linds and I have both mistakenly called them Mar-oline and Car-ilyn.

 Caroline as a pumpkin. 

 Do we look alike?  Could we be sisters?  We were Waldo for Halloween--or actually one of the other girls at the store, Khrista, was Waldo, and we were the imitators.  Or maybe we were Wenda?

  Two kiddos ready to go trick or treating around the neighborhood.  Doesn't that pirate look tough?  He's pretty good at saying "Arrrgh matey," "batten down the hatches," and "shiver me timbers."  Trace even taught him a pirate joke: where do all pirates come from?  Arrrrgh-kansas.  I'm not sure Jack knows why it's funny, but he repeats it with a nice growl!

Oh, in the middle of the day Caroline had her Monday ballet practice.  In the midst of getting two kids, their costumes, and a Halloween snack for Jack's class (this was easy and cute, but time-consuming), I forgot Caroline's ballet bag with her ballet and tap shoes in it.  The first part of her class is ballet, and then the last fifteen minutes they work on their tap moves.  I ran home and got her shoes, so I missed the ballet, but I thought I'd share this video I took of the little girls, in costume, practicing their tap to Kermit the Frog's Happy Feet.  Too cute!

Our week . . .or so

Well this is an assortment of pictures which I've been meaning to put on the blog, but I've been too busy to do more than take the pictures. So here's an mixture of photos for your perusing pleasure -- especially for Grandma Jo who enjoys seeing her grandkids even without description. I'm posting this on my phone, so I can't see the pictures right now. Here's what I think they're about.
Jack has started t-ball practice, and he loves it! It is such a delight for this mama to see how eager and confident he is. He runs to help the coach, and to pick up a bucket of balls after throwing them all. For hitting practice they hit off a tee into a chainlink fence, and last Wednesday Jack hit the ball so hard that it went through the fence. His favorite part of practice is throwing -- I think he could do it all day. He can throw further than I can!
There are also pictures of both kids making cookies, a photo of Jack's muddy back at the park one day, and reading together on the couch.

The video is of my crazy kiddos jumping barefoot into the snow.

Oh and the funny faces are eating kumquats. Although both kids like citrus, kumquats were not a hit, as you can see.

In other news, Trace has acute pneumonia and he's been at home on the couch all week, so it's been rather chaotic around here. Actually I think the chaos might be entirely in my own brain, from lack of sleep. My sweet girl has also had a cough at night, so she comes to our bed in the middle of the night -- and as my husband aptly described, I become the middle of a cough sandwich. On a positive note, they are both definitely improving daily. I might even start speaking complete sentences again soon!

Until then, goodnight.

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Crazy kids

This video wouldn't upload to the last post, so I'm trying it in its own post. Let's see if it works!

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Jack has a new haircut

I do realize that all of my posts have been about Jackson lately, but he really did get a new haircut that he wants to show off. He was so cute this morning when I woke him up to get ready for preschool. I told him that it was time to take a shower, and he told me that he needed to put gel in his hair first! The hairdresser yesterday styled his hair with gel after his "Andrew cut"/crew cut, and he was determined that it look just as cool today. Four year olds are too cute! I did explain that the gel would come after the shower, so he was okay with that. We borrowed some of dad's so that Jack could have "poky" hair again, just like yesterday. He calls it an Andrew cut because he wanted it cut just like his big brother Andrew.

The rest of the story of these pictures is that we went for a walk to the creek that's across the street from our house. Caroline wanted to leave from our house, and to bring Sam (our dog), and Jack wanted to find water, so this satisfied everyone, to Jack's surprise. He had forgotten about this creek. It's probably at least a half mile from our house, so they did a good job hiking there and back, especially with their wet shoes and clothes on the uphill track that is the way home. They both got in the water, which is a perfect 4-6 inches deep where we were, yet with a few deeper holes so that Sam could swim. Fun was had by everyone!

I'll close with a video of each of them wading in/across the creek. They're not great videos, but they do show how much fun they were both having, and they want to share them. Don't you love the sound of running water?

Making Cookies

Yesterday the kids and I were talking about cookies, and I told them that we could go to the grocery store tomorrow and buy some ingredients--well really just chocolate chips, since that's all we were missing. In case my timeline is confusing, that means that we made chocolate chip cookies today. Both kids were excited to help, and washed their hands and climbed on a stool to help measure the flour and sugar. We were taking turns stirring the dry ingredients when I got a phone call from the store that necessitated a couple more quick phones calls. In the middle of talking to Aunt Becky, I turned around and Caroline had both hands in the flour, taking pinches and spreading them on the counter. I removed the bowl, and let my tactile girl play with the mess already there: soon enough Jack added his own touch, and a monster truck toy was making tracks through the white powder. I snapped a few pictures before we continued with the cookies:

I also took two videos of the kids putting the dough on a cookie sheet: mostly because Caroline was having so much fun playing with the dough. Jackson, true to his personality, was carefully rolling the cookies into balls and placing them on the tray. Caroline, on the other hand, was smashing them and squishing them in her hand. Lots of fun for both of them!

Caroline thought I was taking a picture, and kept saying "cheese." You have to catch her unawares for a good picture, and it's hard to do!

As a side note, we were praying before bed tonight, and we always ask for sweet dreams and a good nights sleep (what mom doesn't?!), but then Jack prayed for bad dreams for Caroline. I told him that wasn't very kind, but he responded that God loves bad things too, like bad people. It still didn't sound very kind to me, so he thought about it, and then prayed for wild dreams for his sister instead. "That would be fun Mom," he assured me. I guess wild dreams are okay with me, as long as they lead to sound sleep!

For Anna and Josie

We spent quite some time this afternoon watching Anna and Josie videos, as Caroline calls them. We even went way back and watched one of Anna dancing, doing "real ballet," with her yellow wings. Miss Caroline wanted to show her cousins her "real ballet," so we went directly to my room, where there was already kids music playing, and took a video of her dancing, to share. Here's the video, which includes a lot of twirling, and even an arabesque and a pirouette, straight out the the ballet ABC book we keep getting at the library (I think this is the third time now). Enjoy!

The Race

Jackson and Caroline have an amazing amount of energy. Oh my goodness, they spent twenty minutes this evening (at least it felt that long) racing around the island, while all of us sitting at the dinner table watched and laughed. It was Monday Night Dinner, so they had quite an audience. One of them would shout "I'm in the lead" until the other caught up, or until they caught up again. Trace was trying to get Sam out of their way, which caused additional confusion. I was definitely jiggling the camera when Caroline would come past and flash a smile as she ran. She's quite the little ham. She was also getting out of Jack's way when he caught up with her: she learned her lesson after he accidentally knocked her down. They're pretty cute, but as a warning, this is a long video, suitable especially for grandmothers!

Water Video

I took this video a few weeks ago, but I never got around to posting it. I just re-watched it and laughed aloud, so I thought I'd share. I was inside washing dishes when all this began, so here's the story as I got it from Trace, who was outside. Jack went to get something out of his kiddie pool (which is currently full of water and dirt, just the way they like it), and fell in. Trace said he could keep playing, since he was already wet. Apparently Trace encouraged Caroline to go in. They were having a lot of fun, fully clothed, in their pool. The evening ended with a bath, of course, and two happy kiddos. Enjoy!

I also took a few pictures of the two of them playing. The last picture is of Jack before he came in for his bath. I'm not sure exactly how his face got so dirty, but I think he looked like a raccoon, albeit a tired one!

Keeping Busy on Hot Summer Days

That's what we've been doing lately. Going nonstop, as evidenced by my lack of blog posts. We've been doing things like going to Chuck and Caroline's to swim, and sitting inside and reading books. Picking our wild strawberries outside, working late, celebrating Ted and Trace's birthdays with a joint party at Chuck and Caroline's. Trace last week was both roaster and chef, since Andrew was out of town, and that kept us all busy. These pictures are a quick synopsis of our activities the last week or so.

Caroline has been practicing going on the potty. Last Saturday she woke up and the first thing she said was: "I want to go poop on the potty mom." And indeed she did. In fact all day last Saturday she used her own potty, and we even took it with us to Grandma and Grandpa's. No accidents. However since then it's been hit or miss, so to speak. But we're working on it.

We've definitely spent some time in the swimming pool in the last two weeks. Caroline loves the water, and will "swim" and float with anyone. Jackson, on the other hand, is willing to put his feet in the water. He'll play in the hot tub all day, or even his kiddie pool, but the big pool is scary. Next week we're going to start basic swim lessons for him, so we'll see if that helps his fear.Isn't this a cute picture of Becky and Dave? They came over to Chuck and Caroline's to go swimming with us one day, and we all cooled off in the pool.

Other than that, we've been reading our favorite book. Caroline especially likes the page with the birthday party: she even reads it herself to her baby dolls. Yes, this is the book Aunt Katie and Uncle Mitch made for us, and we read it a lot.

Jack took a picture of Caroline's favorite page and told me to show everyone.

Finally we finish with a video of Caroline swimming with Trace. She truly loves the water. Jack loves the toys that float, including the life vest. We've been having a great summer!

Oh, and as a postscript, thanks to Katie for the Orange Julius recipe(http://www.laughterintheclementhouse.blogspot.com). We've been enjoying it!

A Trip to the River

It's been pretty hot around here for the last week or so, so Tuesday after work we all went to the river. Actually Andrew was working, so it was Trace, Will, Jackson, Caroline and I. We packed a picnic dinner, Trace bought Jack his own fishing pole, and off we went. It was absolutely perfect weather. Trace and Will fished, and the kids and I played in the water: swimming, throwing rocks in, rescuing ladybugs, and for me, taking pictures. Here's a few of the pictures I took. The water was as clear as could be.Will, Jackson and Caroline. The kids were being "really quiet," so Will could fish. Jackson trying out his fishing pole. He's quite proud of it. Caroline swimming. Jack and Caroline in the water. We called this spot our own private swimming pool, because it was the perfect depth for the two kids to play in, and deep enough for me to sit in too. It stayed in the sunshine all evening too, so they played in it until almost dark, with stops now and then to warm up on the rocks (we forgot towels).

I took three short videos, at the kids request, that they wanted Anna and Josie to see. The first is of Jackson jumping into the water from a rock, and then there's one of Caroline "swimming," and one of Jack "swimming."

While we were having all this fun in the water (and it was fun for all three of us: sitting in the water up to my waist I felt like the temperature was the same from the water and the air. Lovely.), Trace and Will had wandered upstream and were doing some fishing.

We stopped and shared a picnic dinner together, around seven, and then as the light changed, I took a few pictures of the reflections, the kids got dressed again, and we packed up. Trace and Will fished their way down to a bridge a little ways downstream, and we picked them up there. The kids finished throwing rocks off the bridge, and we all drove home. What a great way to spend a warm summer afternoon! Reflections in the water as the light waned.

KinderKonzert

On Thursday of this week I took Jackson and Caroline to the annual Music in the Mountains KinderKonzert, an hour long performance of classical music geared toward children. We went with my friend Betsy, her daughter Elizabeth, her five month old son Andrew, and her mom. The kids loved it!

We sat at a table in the very front row, so the kids could really see the instruments. Jackson and Elizabeth were especially enthralled, while Caroline was equally interested in the music and in the people around her. She wandered around a little, but she always stopped to clap when each piece ended.

Afterwards we found a shady spot on the grass at the fairgrounds, and Jackson and Caroline and I had a picnic. It was our treat while Trace, Andrew, and Will had a day fishing. I think we all enjoyed our days!

The little kids spent the end of the day running through the sprinklers in the front yard, while I tried to figure out why some of my flowers weren't getting watered. Jack wore goggles (no glass in them--it was just for fun) and got soaked, while Caroline was much more timid and was barely damp after a half hour of playing. I took a few pictures, and a short video:

Jackson with his goggles on.

Caroline is actually very carefully standing just on the other side of the sprinklers reach.

I included this picture, even though Caroline is in the shadow, because just behind her is the set of three aspen trees we gave Trace for father's day. So that's where we planted them, for those who asked.

Andrew and Jackson

Last night Andrew, Jackson, Caroline and I went on a walk. At least Caroline and I walked. Well actually Caroline was mostly running, trying to catch up to Andrew and Jack, until she got too tired and I carried her. She and I ended our walk after that, but the other two kept going: Andrew on his longboard, and Jackson on his bicycle. They were so cute headed down the street together, with Jack pedalling as fast as he could, and Andrew slowly gliding on his longboard, that I came inside, got my camera, and took a video of them. Caroline came back outside with me, so she's in the movie too. It was getting pretty dark, so even though I've increased the brightness, it's not a great video, but Jack wanted to share it with you all anyway. The first few seconds, you really can't see anything, but I promise that if you keep watching, Jackson and Andrew will appear!

Car Climbing Again

Okay, I finally figured out how to rotate the original video, so for your viewing enjoyment, here is the video (the right way around) that I first took of the kids climbing into the car. You can definitely see how hard Caroline works in this one, and it's pretty amazing that they do it at the same time. Enjoy!

Rock Climbing . . . errr, Car Climbing?

Well my kids were playing outside today, in the front yard, while I was working on dinner (disclaimer: this really only happens about once a week: mostly Trace makes our meals). I had the front door open so I could hear them, and all of a sudden Jack called out and said that he and Caroline had climbed into my car. Now I drive a Ford Expedition, pretty big, and all the doors were close, with only the front driver's window open. I looked out the front door and sure enough, both kids were in my car and all four doors were still closed. They had both scrambled up the side of the vehicle! Later Becky and Tiffany were over for dinner, and I asked the kids to show us how they did it, with video camera in hand. Here's how:

This was actually the third time we watched them do it, since I took the first one sideways, and the second one I cut off in the middle. They would have kept going, but it was time for dinner.

Jack's Birthday Morning

One in a series of posts I intend to do about Jack's birthday, simply because it's a busy week, and I don't have time to upload more than five pictures (that's all it lets you do at a time). So for those who have been waiting to see the four year old, here he is on his birthday. Caroline woke up first on Tuesday morning, and she wrapped and colored a gift for her brother. When Jack got up, he immediately opened the gift she gave him (a ten pack of hot wheel cars--true joy for a four year old boy).

Then Lupe stopped by and brought more gifts for Mr. Jackson. Caroline was delighted to help him open them!Next we went to the store, where Aunt Becky and the girls had decorated the kids office, with streamers, balloons, and party toys all ready to go. That was a true delight for both kiddos!

Okay, I have to post this video, even though I have no way to turn it around, because it's so cute of Jack blowing on the whajamacallit (I truly do not know the name of those things), but both kids really liked them. Thanks to Becky for the toys and the video!

Finally, a taste of what is to come: when Jack got home, Trace gave him a present of thirty balloons, and I don't think Jack's ever seen anything better in his life. Pictures of the party will come another day, but it was a great day. Happy birthday Jackson!

Tuesday: Becky's Birthday

Well I don't know how you like to celebrate birthdays in your family, but in our family we like to have friends over and share a meal. I think we should have been born Italian. Yesterday was Aunt Becky's birthday, and boy did we eat. She had talked to Trace earlier in the day about her favorite foods, and I think he cooked them all. At least it seemed like it halfway through the meal! For those of you who weren't there, enjoy the pictures of the party:

Jackson helping me make the cake. I had to include this picture because it is the first time Jack has been allowed to use a sharp knife, and he was concentrating so hard, and being so careful--good job Jack!

Eating the appetizer Becky requested: roasted garlic, warm Brie, carmelized onions, and a fresh baguette.

Trace, the creator of all the wonderful food, working at the barbeque. I'm pretty sure he cooked for about four hours straight, and maybe more. Thanks babe!

The first course was spinach salad with a warm poached egg on top, bacon, onion, and fresh goat cheese. The egg becomes part of the dressing, if you haven't tried it before. Becky and Tiffany definitely look ready to dig in.

Then we had roasted artichokes with a red pepper aioli in the center.

After that . . . well after that came the big lull. We hadn't even had the main meal yet, but no one was very hungry, since we'd had three courses already. So while Trace barbequed the meat and I worked on the cake, the rest of the guests rested. Some literally . . . I'm pretty sure Andrew fell asleep. Then we gathered around the table again for the finale: grilled air-chilled chicken, T-bone steaks, grilled mixed vegetables, and fresh corn with roasted poblano chiles.

Finally it was time for dessert. It was a modified strawberry shortcake, made with vanilla cake, strawberries, and whipped cream. Yum.

The candles are significant, because if you read the small print, it's a 24 pack. That means that Becky, on her 25th birthday, is a two pack girl. Of candles that is.

Perhaps the funniest moment of the evening came as we were all giving hugs to Becky as she and Tiffany and Tracy gathered their stuff to go home. I looked for Jackson and Caroline to have them say goodbye too, and was I surprised when I saw them on the counter (not more than two feet away--I just wasn't paying attention), putting candles back in the remains of the cake. Any that they accidentally put in upside down they were licking the whip cream off and trying again. I grabbed the video camera and took a quick video of their shenanigans. In case you're wondering, they used all the candles they could find, and the quarter of the cake ended up with 43 candles in it. Who knew you could fit so many in a cake?

Happy Birthday Becky!