Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Pumpkin Art Night!

We are in full Halloween festivity mode in our house! Not only have we done leaf jumping and pumpkin picking and carving, but we did Malloween last weekend, along with Pumpkin Art Night. Pumpkin Art Night is another event in our area put on by our local family center. It's a fun night for kids of all ages to dress up in costume, carve and decorate pumpkins, make trick or treat bags, and just have a fun, festive time!

We have gone to this event for the past couple of years and it's always a great time! We didn't bother carving or decorating pumpkins this year since we had already done that at home, but the kids still had fun doing all of the other activities and seeing some of their friends.

We got all dressed up for the event, and we got SO many compliments on our costumes and the theme and idea! All 4 kiddos were ADORABLE!


A short time after we were at Pumpkin Art Night, Mason got sick. He had a snack when we got there, but when we sat down for the kids to start decorating a trick or treat bag, he kept asking for his costume to come off, or holding his belly. He let out a big burp and then threw up some on himself and his trick or treat bag. We thought it was just a bad gas bubble, and he had just ate so his snack wasn't fully digested and just came back up. He acted okay for a little while after that, enough to finish his trick or treat bag and go through the line to fill his bag with fun little toys, stickers, and other Halloween trinkets. 


After filling the kid's treat bags, we were trying to decide if we were going to stay for the special story time and sing a long that was coming up, or if we were ready to head home. While we were deciding that, Mason got sick again ALL. OVER. THE. FLOOR. And himself. I wisked him off to the bathroom to take his costume off and clean him up as best I could while Frank and our friend Ashley stayed with the other kids and got the floor cleaned up. Mason seemed fine after that, running around and playing like normal. 


We stayed for the story time and all of the kid's loved it. I think their favorite part though, was getting to pick two FREE books after the story time. There were SO many of their favorite books to choose from, so they were in Heaven! My kids LOVE LOVE LOVE books, and I am SO glad for that! They got some good ones too, such as Mason's favorite, "The Very Hungry Caterpillar." 

After we were done with that, we loaded everyone back in the van and stopped for take out on the way home. We got everyone home and sat down to eat, and it wasn't long after eating some of his dinner that Mason was sick again and threw up what he had just put down his mouth. Once again, after he was done throwing up he was running around, jumping, talking, yelling, and playing like his normal self. We eventually got everyone changed and in bed for the night, and Mason was fine all night and fine the rest of the weekend, so who knows what could have been wrong. I am chalking it up to something he ate just didn't settle right with him, or he swallowed something he shouldn't have (a pumpkin seed, perhaps?), and that just upset his little tummy. I don't care which was the cause, I am simply glad it wasn't any worse, he has been perfectly fine ever since, and nobody else has gotten sick! (Knock on wood). 

Throw up and all, Pumpkin Art Night was a success all around, and tons of fun, as always! We look forward to going next year!



Malloween 2013!

A mall in our area does a Halloween event every year, called Malloween! It's an event for children of all ages to come to the mall in costume, trick or treat at all of the stores, and participate in other events and get some other goodies. We have gone every year our kids have been born. Last year, Connor & Merasia even won the costume contest for their age group! 

Daddy stayed home this year, but our friend and neighbor went with us with her son, and we all had such a great time! We got there a little earlier because we had an errand to do in the area, and we know from experience in the past that the mall gets PACKED tight and it's hard to get around or do anything if you don't get there early enough. We went to every store in the mall for trick or treating, and the kids made out pretty well with all of their candy! 

A couple local radio stations broadcast and sponsor this event, and always hand out balloons, coloring and activity books, and other little Halloween prizes and trinkets. One cool thing we got this year was a coupon for a free pizza from Pizza Hut! The kiddos were pretty stoked for that! (And so was mama!) ;)

I think the best part of the day, though, was that Connor won the costume contest for best costume for his age group! I was SO, SO excited for him! Plus, it makes me feel good to know that all of the effort I put into their Halloween costumes and ideas is recognized in some way.

He received a $20 gift card to Walmart as his prize, and to a 4-year-old, that's like, a million dollars! 

I wish I would have gotten more photos from the day, but we were SO busy, we didn't even take ONE picture the whole time we were there!

Many more to come from tomorrow night's trick or treating though, promise!

Wednesday, October 23, 2013

Pumpkins and Leaves!

Our family has been fully enjoying fall and the end of the warm-ish weather. Winters can be hard here in Vermont, so we really need to soak up every little tiny second of sun and warmth as much as we can before the snow and below zero temperatures arrive.

A couple weeks ago we set out to get some pumpkins. The older kids have gotten pumpkins before, so they are always excited for this part of this time of the year, but we were also excited to get Kendall's very first pumpkin!



Merasia found her pumpkin right off. It was the smallest one out of everyone's that we got that day, and she called it her "baby pumpkin." 


Mason went through a couple of different pumpkins before he found his favorite, but he sure had fun going through all of them!


Connor picked a good one too. He was very proud of his choice!



Kendall had fun "checking out" the pumpkins, too. 



In the end, we walked away with 4 pumpkins. Connor, Merasia, and Mason each had their pumpkins, and we got one big one for Kendall's first. It was a great day!



Later that afternoon, we got the pumpkins ready to clean out and carve. The twins have only done this one other time in their life, when they were about two years old. Mason has never done it, so I was looking forward to seeing if he would dig right in and get dirty, or not really care for it.


I think it's safe to say, he loved it!




We cleaned out all of the seeds from all of the pumpkins so daddy could bake them up for a yummy snack later on, and got all of the pumpkin guts out so we could get everyone's pumpkin carved.




Each of the kids drew a face on their pumpkin when they were all cleared out, and then I set to carving their faces out for them!


For Kendall's pumpkin, we carved her nickname in it, Kiki. Then, it was picture time!!













As you can see from the pumpkin photos, we have tons and tons of leaves in our front yard. We took advantage of all of these leaves a few weeks ago, raked them up, and spent a couple of hours jumping and playing in them! This was the first time our children ever jumped and played in leaves, so it was such a fun memory for us to make together.

















As you can see, I got in on the fun too, along with our friends and neighbor. It was a great day, and we have made many new, fun fall memories. There is still some fall left to make memories in, but soon we will be making snowy, winter memories, and embarking on the busy-ness of Christmas and birthdays!

What are some of your families' favorite and most memorable fall activities? Feel free to share! I'd love to hear all about them!








Miss Kendall is 4 Months Old!

I can't believe this amazing little girl.....



is 4 MONTHS OLD! It doesn't seem possible that we welcomed her into our family 4 months ago...it feels like just yesterday!

She is such a sweet, sweet girl and such a joy! She is always happy, smiling and laughing at everyone and everything!



She eats about 7 ounces every 3 hours or so. Right after she turned 4 months old, we noticed she had a sudden interest in food. She would try to grab food out of the other kid's hands if they were snacking on something too close to her, and would watch me bring food from my plate to my mouth every time I would eat something. Our original plan was to wait until she was 6 months to introduce any food for her, but because she showed such a big interest in food already, we decided to try some and see what happened. We tried pears, and she didn't seem too impressed and a day or two later seemed to have a little poop issues, so we haven't tried those since.



We tried carrots after that, and she took to it right away! She barely let any get out of her mouth, she opened wide each time she saw the spoon coming closer to her mouth, and we couldn't get it in her mouth fast enough! She ate half a container the first time she tried them, and then for the two nights after that, she ate an ENIRE Gerber container of carrots each night at dinner! We tried sweet potatoes after that, and got the same reaction from her! We tried peas one night and she didn't seem like she was much of a fan and didn't like the thicker texture of them. Last night was her first time trying bananas, and I think it's safe to say those are her favorite so far! This girl LOVES to eat! None of our other children were ready or interested in food this early, so this is a bit different for us, but then again...Kendall has been different from all of the other children ever since she was conceived!





Kendall's bedtime routine is the same as it has been since she was only a few days old. She gets a bath, lotion massage, put in pajamas, and then a bottle before bed, gets put down in her crib with her paci, and she goes right to sleep. She is only waking up once a night now, usually around 12:30 or 12:45 for a feeding and diaper change, and goes right back to sleep for the rest of the night, until 6 or 7 a.m. She always wakes up in the mornings with a smile on her face, and I never get tired of peeking into her crib each morning to this:


Her favorite things to play with are her playmat, in her jumperoo, or just sitting in her high chair playing with a toy. She loves to hold toys and check them out, and prefers sitting up and looking at the world around her instead of laying on the floor, though she has gotten a little more tolerant of tummy time. ;)




Kendall amazes me every day. Just looking at her brings joy and warmth to my heart and I cannot believe how blessed we are to have the children God gave us in our lives. We are beyond lucky!