Now the grocery store is something all new everytime. Its a 3 ring circus that keep you constantly on your toes. Alice is one circle, Jude is another, and the actual shopping is the third. I am supposed to keep it all together. Sometimes I do a really good job and sometimes it all falls to bits in my hands. On this certain day things were going really well. The touch but no grab rule was having a really beating but they were keeping the other rules. No running, inside voice, and stay by mommy. The no grabbing rule is hard because they want so baddly to help. They see me grab things and put them in the cart, so they try and grab things to put in the cart. They see me open a frezzer door, so they open up a frezzer door, etc. About 75 percent of the time I would say our shopping trips go realy well and this was one of those times. Good job my darlings!

Anytime we go to pick something up at the store the kids insist on making a pumpkin pit stop. We have to set aside at least 5-10 minutes for them to looks, touch, and explore. The rule is that you can touch as much as you want but no picking up. I have to often remind them of this rule, but on this day they had just recieved a batch of mega pumpkins. They were all way to huge for a toddler to even think about hefting. So it was nice to just let them enjoy themsleves.

Another big bonk for Alice. We were running around having a good time playing and Alce trips and cracks her head open. Blood everywhere. Derek was the first to her rescue and he ended up with blood on his hands, on his shirt, and on the carpet underneath him. Alice also had a fair amount of blood on her hands, face, and shirt. Luckily head wounds always look worse then they really are. When we finally got her cleaned up and the bleeding stopped the cut was only about an inch. A cute little bandaide was all we needed to make it all better. Geez, Alice, be more careful!

It's that time of year. Spooky, scary and a whole lot of fun. The kids love hide and seek with a firey passion. We play it all the time and for them it never gets old. Well I wanted to give it a little twist. I waited until dark, turned off all the lights inthe house and gave the seeker a red flashlight. Thus flash light hide and seek was born!The kids were loving it to bits and pieces. We must have played 20 rounds. Even though our house is only 2 bedrooms there are a lot of places to hide. There were a couple times where Derek and I had the kids stumped. When that happened we would make ghost noises until they could find us.Such a perfectly spooky Halloween activity. YAY!! 

Pumpking carving! We let the kids pick there own pumpkins and everything. Our whole family went with sort of a oval theme it seems. Then I asked the kids and they designed their own pumpkins. They picked the eyes, and expression, everything. Well almost everything. As much as they wanted to do it themselves I handled the carving. I also helped with the scooping. Alice didn't mind getting right in there but Jude was feeling a little hesitant. I got a big hunk of pumpkin goo and shoved it into his hands. Oh I got in trouble. He did not like that. So in penance I finished cleaning out the rest of his pumpkin for him. We were carving well into the night and by the time we finished it was the perfect time to light them up. The kids were so excited. Still everytime we go out the door they have to go and look at their pumpkins. HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

WALLL BASHING!!! Oh this night was so much fun. Just a hoot and a half. It was Angie's birthday and tomorrow the contracter was coming to knock out the wall. Not if we got to it first. We had pizza, cake, presents, all the typical birthday fan fare and then. Oh boy and then. Out came the hammers. We let Angie have the first swing, it being her birthday and all but then it was a free for all. Kids, adults, grandparents everyone got a hammer, crowbar, sledge and started going for the wall. It was so much fun, there was dust flying everywhere and the holes were getting bigger and bigger.  We almost brought the whole wall down, but we saved some for the contracter. WAHOO!!

Jude, Alice and I go on many wanderings. Sometimes to old places and sometimes to new. Today was both. It was old place to me but had been built and redesigned to someplace new.  An old running trail that had a new highway built over it. Most of it was still there, like this bridge. It was neat for the kids to throw things off of it and to watch them splash into the river below. We walked for awhile and then turned back to go the other direction.

 We ended up under the highway. It was quite neat as the river ran perpindicular to the highway and was surronded by big rocks. The kids were throwing and tossing big rocks for big splashes and loving every moment. I had to keep telling them to back up, I was certian that they were going to fall in. We stayed until it was dark and even then the kids were reluctant to go.

When in rome....at least that is what Jude was thinking when were playing with all of Alice's new birthday presents. Alice doned a beautiful pink princess dress with matching princess shoes and trotted around the yard with her baby in the stroller.

Not one to be left out Jude grabbed himself a skirt, a cape, and his cowboy hat. And commenced to have tea party. Like I said, when in Rome... 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ALICE!!!!!!!! HAPPY PAINT PARTY ALICE!!!

We started the day getting everyone together at Tati's house, and just getting messy. The boys played in the mud and the girls went and had tea parties. I got the canvases ready by taping off their names then I let them paint. They were all getting very creative with use of color and tools. Some kids were using brushes, some fingers, and Jude even drove a truck over his painting. Some of the adults had to chip in and help a bit. They were quite big canvases. While we were letting those dry we were on to another activity. Andrea had come up with this really neat "science experiment" involving baking soda and colored vinegar. She spread lots of baking soda in a cookie sheet and then let the kids spray colors on to it. It made a really fun porus design in addition to being a great foamy mess. Some of the kids were even brave enough to taste it. Ollie and Jude didn't think to much of it but Alice was quite fond of it. Wierd kid. At least she will have whiter teeth.

Next was the best part of any party, THE CAKE!! And in keeping with the theme I brought out a completley white cake and let the kids decorate it. I had 10 different types of sprinkles and the kids went nuts. Before too long we couldn't even see cake. But all the better because that cake was scrumptious. After that Tati brought out the crayons and let us go to town on her wall. She was going to bust it down sometime soon to open up the house so why not. The kids really enjoyed this naughty activity, although they were having a rough time staying on the designated wall. Little sneaks did it right in front of our eyes. After that we did presents. Alice did really well at first but then she got so side tracked by the open presents that she didn't care much for the unopened ones. The older kids helped to open them for her and woah did Alice make out like a bandit! Happy two year old birthday baby girl!

Jude built the coolest train track and I just had to take a picture! It was looping around and under and just looked really cool.

This was the small present that we gave Alice for her birthday. It was a pack of bath dyes that were sure to be fun. And package delivered they were a hoot! We had a blue bath, the a purple bath, an orange bath then a pink bath.  The kids were getting so excited and they loved to "throw colors." Bath time can be such a hoot!

For Alice's Acual birth DAY it was mostly low key. A normal day with some special treatment and after dinner we took her out for a cupcake. We lit candles and sang her a  birthday song (the kids were so loud they were almost screaming) We gave her one of her smaller presents and then called it a night. Happy Birthday little girl!

 

Ducks on a rampage! If you look closely on the left you can see a duck taking a swipe at me. He might have been mean or maybe he just thuoght my hand was bread. Either way I think its funny!

Ducks Ducks Ducks!!! And they are friendly! Well it would be better to say that they were brave. They were coming right up out of the water and eating right out of our hands. The kids were loving it and Jude kept insiting "I need to pet a duck!" I tried to pet one though and he gave me a warning peck! I guess they aren't completely trusting. I didn't mind though, he was so cute!

 

Mark down the date. This happened October 8, 2012. Jude broke a mirror. And boy oh boy did he break it. It was an accident but it was because he was dinking around and climbing on something that he shouldn't have. I was super upset, especially while I was having to clean it up. But he gave me a vey sincere apology, it was quiet sweet and I was moved. Boys will be boys and besides the time out he got, breaking the mirror is his own punishment. 7 years bad luck. See you when you're 10 Jude.

BOUNCY HOUSE PARTY!!!!

Jude and Alice were really interested in the big smooth table, so I popped in a couple of quarters and they played a round of air hockey. They did it mostly all by themselves and they were loving it. Although most of the points were self scored, they loved to make their own goals. Then the kids dinked around on various arcade games. And then we got some hard core ink! They were selling press on tattoos for a quarter, and I have always thought that those are so silly and so fun. It was a get what you get scenario and Alice I got matching roses on a spiderweb, while Jude got a skull with some dice. As far as fake tattoos go the cheeser the better and these one were perfect. ERR!! We are so hardcore!

 

Today we wandered over to Tati's for an activity. We were supposed to go get snow cones but the kids ended up finding so many things to do that I didn't see a need to interupt them. Alice set up shop in the little house and started having a little tea party. She insisted that I go in and sit with her in the kids chair. It was a tight squeeze but totally worth it. Alice and I had our fist tea party! Mommy daughter milestone. Hooray!

Meanwhile in sports land junior pro golfer Jude has turned up on the scene. He was really impressing me with some of his swings. He was getting some ligitimate air. He was taking it all very seriously. This was no game for him. He would set down the ball and really carefully set himself before taking a massive swing.  Now I jut need to teach him to yell  "FORE"