potty training

Well we are 90% there. Thank heavens because Tank is a pooper, literally.  

dasher and prancer

Dasher and Prancer always come to visit us during the Christmas season. Visiting and feeding them has become one of our favorite Christmas activities. Although, last year, Tank did do some crying. This year he was a bit concerned at first, they really are quite large, but was assured that they could not escape and get him. They must have been well fed because we also could not quite coax them into eating our oats.

Dasher thinking about coming our way.

five

Somehow our Little Bug has turned 5! According to Bug, she has been waiting "forever!" In her mind, everything good happens when you turn 5, like driving (yes a car) and starting school.  I clarified the driving thing pretty quickly. The fact she would not be starting kindergarten the day she turned 5 took a little more explaining/convincing. All week long I heard Bug singing happy birthday to herself which prompted Tank to sing happy birthday to himself. It was quite the showdown for who's birthday it actually was. 

For her big day she wanted to go out for breakfast. (If you know Bug, she is not huge into eating, but you would not know that if you saw her at a breakfast place). For dinner she requested pizza,"crunchy" (uncooked) carrots, and marshmallows, a nicely balanced meal.  

She has been eyeing this fairy cake from the grocery store for about 6 months. Every time she would ask to buy it, I would tell her, 'for her birthday.' I do not know what I was thinking because Bug has one of the best memories. Maybe all kids do? A week before her birthday she reminded me of our cake conversations and I ended up caving. I think I may have opened a bag of worms I did not want opened...buying cakes for birthdays. At least she like it. I kept catching her gaze at it. Fortunately, and quite to our surprise, this cake actually tasted good. 

Waiting for our family guests to arrive.

She blew out all the candles by herself this year. 

And sent everyone home with one of her favorite candies, ring pops, which I just have to add that Tank refers to as "pacifier pops." 

fall leaves

The kids had a blast playing in our fall leaves this year. They both were pretty sad when Andrew hauled out the lawn mower and sucked them all up.

halloween

We had a pretty fun Halloween this year. Both of the kids were really excited about trick or treating and passing out candy to fellow kids. Originally, we were thinking of doing a family themed costume, but neither of the kids would have it. Little Bug was insistent that she be a beautiful fairy and Tank always shouted out his plans of being a car when asked. It was pretty fun putting together their costumes this year, especially when is came to building and creating Tank's.

camping

Andrew has been wanting to take Little Bug camping for a couple years now. I am not opposed to camping, in fact I think it is a lot of fun, I just never end up sleeping well and then you throw kids into the mix...it was hard for me to be convinced, but Andrew finally manged to persuaded me. We ended up going with some good friends and it was pretty fun and quite beautiful. All the fall colors and nearby river made for a nice landscape. The kids had a lot of fun. I was worried about them sleeping and getting cold at night, but they slept soundly. Instead, it was Andrew and I who got pretty cold. We will stick to summer time camping next year.  

The surrounding area. So pretty.

The highlight was having a campfire and of course the s'mores later that night.

Tank is not too into hats, but when we arrived at the campsite he wanted his hat on and did not take it off until the drive home. He also just loved the tent and all the sleeping bags and blankets. The tent was his favorite part. He cried pretty hard when Andrew took it down the following morning. 

Hiking around the next day.

Andrew is already trying to convince me to go for two nights next year.

pumpkin patch

We loved going to a local pumpkin patch with Little Bug's preschool this year. The kids got to go on a hayride, pick a pumpkin, climb a hay mountain and run through a hay maze. It was a very fun morning.

Bug with her little friend. These two are pretty cute. 

And Tank and Bug with their pumpkins. We had fun carving them a couple weeks later for Halloween.

cereal

This is typical Tank behavior; carrying a bag of cereal around the house wherever he goes, pretty much all the time. He has been doing this since he could walk over to the cereal cupboard and help himself. I guess he loves having a snack on hand. I hate to admit, but him not wearing clothes around here is also typical.  

praying mantis

We find praying mantises all the time in our yard. Little Bug got the courage to hold one this time and give it a pet. She then invited me to do the same and I just couldn't quite do it.

family room wall

We always have several house projects going on over here. I always imagined I would post pics of our projects and developments, but it just seems like none of them are quite done yet. One day they will all be done though or at least I tell myself this! 

However, I did just finish one of these said projects. Our family room wall.  I started this project last fall! The chalk wall part of it went up fast, we did it in a weekend. But figuring out what to put above it took quite a bit a time. I tried art, small mirrors, big mirrors and finally settled on a family picture wall. A few weeks ago, I finally got the last picture framed and am happy to have a completed project. Here is a pic of me starting to put on the chalk paint, at the time I was wondering what on earth I was doing actually painting the bottom one third of a pretty large wall in the home black. 

We love it! The only problem we have now is teaching Tank to only draw on the black wall. It is proving to be difficult. As of late he has taken to drawing on furniture. So far nothing has been scarred, but I know one of these times it is going to end poorly for me.