Row, Row, Row Your Boat

This is Brendan. There's a new version of Row Your Boat. The words are:

Row, row, row your boat,

Gently down the stream

If you see a crocodile,

Turn around and scream! 

Darby made it up at the dinner table. It is funny. In fact, everyone laughed at the lyrics. She's so silly!

Cute Girls

Just some pictures of the little girls that live in my house. I sure love them.

 Paigey has her arm around her daddy.

Eva is wearing her dad's hat, a gift from 3rd Group.

Enjoying a Fall day.

Paige found a spot at the food table before the prayer at our neighborhood Thanksgiving taste party.

Three little girls in a bed.

Timeout

Paige kept pushing buttons on the washer while I was doing laundry. After repeated "no's" and even moving her away from it, she kept at it. I told her she would be going to time out next. So she put herself in the timeout bench. I decided to roll with it. I mean she's approaching the age where timeouts could be used anyway.

Well she got out three times and had to be retrieved but then sat there (I only gave her a 20 second timeout).

And then she flashed this at me.

I told her "No buttons." She repeated it back to me and gave me a big hug. It's gonna be hard to be serious with this one. She already knows how to work the cute.

Brendan's (the restaurant)

A few nights ago Brendan set this up.

He told us that we were welcome to come eat at Brendan's. He even made a menu.

We ordered (he tried to use a French waiter accent) and then he would go into another room and "cook" some play food for us.

He also told me about the prices.

"Bills are less than usual in the fall. Your meal is ten bucks. And did you know that meals are free on Christmas? Except if your child eats more than 2 cookies it's a dollar per cookie."

I thought it was great! I love my son. :)

The Book on The Bedside Table

This is how you know you married an endo student.

Falling Leaves

Last weekend Eva came inside and asked for a rake. She wanted to make a pile of leaves to jump in.  I do love autumn around here!

Eva in Love

Eva decided to write a book. Brendan and I helped with spelling but she illustrated it. The title is "Eva in Love". Too many princess movies maybe? :)

It is about five pages long and the first 4 are all about how she is in love and wants to be out of it. Then there's the final page, after she has apparently overcame love.

It says, "That night Eva had a dream that she had fallen in love again. She hated it."

When I asked her why she didn't want to be in love she said, "So I can sleep." Seems reasonable. :)

My Eva, the romantic.

Veterans Day

Eva made this card days ago but waited for today to give it to her dad. When he came out of the bedroom for breakfast, the two oldest said, "Thank you Dad, for serving our country". It was pretty cute!

Happy Veterans Day! 

Door Signs

Most parents would get a "You're the meanest mom EVER!" but I don't get those from Brendan. Instead I get written and illustrated manifestos posted on his door.

The one on the bottom is the most recent.

And it seems that this behavior has rubbed off on Eva. Hers wasn't directed at me though, and she posted it on the fridge. I don't think she thoroughly understand the manifesto idea. :)

Due to kindergarten phonetic spelling allow me to translate: "No boys allowed only if they are my boyfriends" (and by that she means boys who are friends - thank goodness we haven't had THAT come up yet). 

While annoying and a wee bit hurtful, at least it's also a kind of funny way to argue with your parents. :)

Funny Pictures

I once heard someone say that the best camera is the one you have with you. In that respect, I am thankful that my phone has a camera. I mean, I LOVE my Nikon, but it can be cumbersome and is harder to use capturing spontaneous candids like these:

Paige wanted to be a "fwy" for days after Halloween. I had to hide the costume and hope she'd forget about it.

Who needs to sit in the actual seat part of a chair anyway? The arms do just fine, right?

This is her newest thing. I don't know why she likes to pull the arms out of her sleepers.

They pulled out every blanket we had before they settled on a sheet for their fort. I'm glad they have a daddy who plays like this with them but, all I know is, I won't be the one to fold them all back up.

Brendan made the Star Wars Clone Turbo Tank again. The first time he made it was when he was 5. Even now, he's a year younger than the age on the box.

This girl loves glasses. Here she is sporting Eva's. I'm kind of glad. Genetics are not on her side; she may end up with some of her own.

Awards Assemblies

The end of the first school quarter was last week. Brendan and Eva had awards assemblies this past Thursday but, due to Paige's croup, I couldn't go. They were disappointed when I told them. I asked a friend to take pictures of Eva at her assembly (she has a child in Eva's class) but I didn't know anyone else with a second grader well enough to ask them.
When I picked up the kids from school they told me about their assemblies. Eva got a perfect attendance award but didn't really know what it meant. She was just excited to go up on stage.

Brendan received three awards - perfect attendance, a character award for "respect" (which he said he "wasn't expecting") and a writing award, which he has been wanting since Kindergarten. I felt even worse that I wasn't there to clap.
Yesterday, I received an email from  lady in the ward. I know her but not extremely well. She wrote:

Hi Christine,

I didn't see you at the awards ceremony yesterday so I took a couple pictures of Brendan for you.

Tara

And she sent me two pictures of him receiving the awards he was most proud of.

 It touched my heart. She didn't have to do that. It was very thoughtful of her and made me a bit teary eyed. I thanked her profusely, and plan to again in person. What a nice woman.

And what a great job kiddos!!

That time of year again

Yep, it's cold season. Darby got it first. The fever, runny nose, cough and fatigue. She even fell asleep midday and she never does that. When I told her she had a fever she came back with a bandaid on her forehead. :)

Then Paige got it, and badly. Her cold became croup, that barking cough that wakes her up in the middle of the night. And that means I don't sleep since it also means wheezing and possible throat constriction cutting off her airway. And so she has been sleeping with us for the last two nights. I'm exhausted and she's miserable.

I can't wait until my littles are better.

How Daddy Studies

This is how Jason studies sometimes - child on lap, headphones on head, ipad on the counter. The other way is locked in the bedroom so the kids can't interrupt, but I think he misses us all when he has to stay in the "study hole" for too long. This is the compromise.

Happy Halloween

This Halloween's trick or treating was the most fun in a while, mostly due to the fact that we could all go out to participate. People started arriving in our neighborhood before dark so, as I finished getting the kids ready, Jason handed out candy. Actually he threw candy. He likes to do that with the older kids to see if they can catch a toss in their bag. He loves being the Candy Man.

We set out in the neighborhood around twilight. It was all just so cute!!

And introducing the secret weapon! Seriously, she got more candy than any of the others kids. She knows how to charm.

There were a few scary houses. This clown was especially creepy. The two oldest were hesitant but Darby saw the candy and went right up. Paigey too, since I don't think she knew to be scared of him. She even waved, "Bye-bye!"

Paige spent a good part of the night walking but she was so slow that the other kids were getting ahead of us. She ended up piggy backing Daddy for the last part.

We were gone a total of about 50 minutes. I could have gone longer, and I think Brendan could have too, but the girls all asked to go home.  It was quite a walk for small legs.

We had some candy left so Jason finished handing it out. Most trick or treaters were out of the neighborhood by 7:30 so the going was slow. He was playing a game on the iPad while he waited.

We let the kids enjoy a  piece of candy before bed. Darby is enjoying the fruit of her hard work.