Fall Festival

Saturday October 24th, the boys school had their annual fund raiser. They had a fall festival complete with bounce houses, doughnut walk, $ goat, lots of games, food, raffles, and other fun. A couple of days before the festival, John was asked to be the DJ. He has never done that before, but he did a great job and of course really enjoyed it. That left me to walk around the festival trying to keep track of the 5 kids. It actually went better than I expected and the boys all had a fun time, so I guess it was all good!



William running after the $ goat.


He got a dollar!


Jacob and Spencer lined up to try their hand at the $ goat.

Playing the games

Bryce loved hanging out with DJ Dad.

Kissing the DJ

Annalise of course was a very well behaved little

girl and spent most of the time hanging out in the stroller.

Bittersweet

Yesterday morning at 4 AM while I was up with Annalise, who thought that was a good time to play, something happened that was both wonderful and sad at the same time. I was watching my little girl and realized how big she is getting. She now rolls over and is beginning to scoot herself around a little bit. She was lying on her back and I handed her a toy. She took it and began playing with it, passing it from one hand to the other. I was smiling and so happy to see her progressing so well. Then a tinge of sadness hit me as I realized that she has now passed Bryce as to what he can do physically. He cannot roll over and he cannot hold up a toy and play with it while on his back. He can do less physically by himself than his 5 month old sister can! My joy turned to tears for my little boy. I also worry and wonder if Annalise will continue to grow and develop normally or if there will come a time for her that these great accomplishments that I am enjoying so much right now will be lost to her as well. It makes me so sad. I wish I could just enjoy my little girl and everything she is learning and doing at this time!

Schnepf farms

Last Saturday we went with our good friends, the Patton family, to Schnepf farms. I thought I better blog about it this morning before we go to the boy's fall carnival and have another big post to make! Although the high last week was 100 degrees (yes, ridiculous I know!) we had a wonderful time. It is always fun to see Mark, Shellie, and their boys.

This was Spencer's first trip on the roller coaster.
He was very excited at the beginning, but quickly
decided he did not want to ride again!


John waving. Jacob was sitting next to him and
William and Spencer are in the seat behind them.

Jacob on the plane ride

Spencer and William. They all loved this ride.

Kyle and Braydon

Spencer and William

It's hard to see in this picture, but this is John and

Bryce on the bumblebee ride.

William and Spencer

The huge slide

One of John's old buddies from Motorola was there

playing in the band.

roasting marshmallows

Jacob hanging out with the band.

Bryce and Annalise thoroughly enjoying life!

William, Ryan, and Kyle playing in the dirt while

we waited for the train. It was a long wait!

Finally, it's our turn on the train

Photo op!

Look at that one little princess surrounded by all

those boys!

Bryce loved the carousel. He went on it multiple times.

Playing on the hay bales

Sliding down the hay bales. Bryce watched the boys

doing this and just laughed and laughed.

Jacob's pumpkin pick

Spencer's pick

We actually didn't buy any pumpkins that night.

We decided to wait and buy some a little cheaper

at the store.

We were there way past bedtime. William was the

only one who seemed to notice. Here he is sleeping

on the tunnel in the play area while the other kids

played.

Sleeping on the hay

Nice pillow!


And of course the night had to end with fireworks.

Everyone except Bryce enjoyed these. The poor

boy jumped and clung to me every time one went

off. Overall, we all had a very good time.

Food Storage

Sometimes you wonder if your children are really understanding the lessons you are trying to teach them. Well tonight during FHE our boys showed us something that they seem to have learned quite well. Each week during Family Home Evening the boys get their allowance that they have earned for the week. Tonight Jacob brought his bank over and began to pull out...not money, but a bunch of granola bars and other snacks from inside of it. Many of these snacks looked an awful lot like the ones that I had recently filled our snack bucket with. John and I started questioning him about it and William piped up and informed us that he too had a stash of food in a bucket that he keeps hidden in the kitchen. He brought his over to show us. Sure enough, he also had a bunch of snacks tucked away. He said, "yeah Mom, you know how you have food storage. Well, this is like OUR food storage." So, I guess they have decided to have their own little containers of food storage items...just in case the snack bucket in the pantry ever runs dry!

New Bike

This week is fall break and the weather has been beautiful. The boys have spent a lot of time outside...which I love. At the beginning of the week, I realized that Spencer does not have a bike...he never has! I said something to him about it and he said, "Well, I don't have a bike, because I don't know how to ride one." Poor kid. I explained that we would get him one with training wheels and we could teach him how to ride it. He got so excited! But things happen and I didn't get out to get him one Monday, and then on Tuesday the three boys went down to get the mail. I saw them as they were coming back, William and Jacob on their bikes and Spencer running with all his might and totally out of breath trying to keep up with them. He never complained about it, but it did remind me that he needed a bike. Then Wednesday they had been outside playing when Spencer came in with his brothers right behind him saying, "it was an accident, it was an accident." He was crying. I looked and Spencer had some skinned knees and a bleeding elbow. I guess they had been riding bikes and poor Spencer was running with them, only this time he was running in front of them. I guess he didn't run quite fast enough and had a run in with on of the bikes. So...I decided it was really time for him to have a bike. As soon as John came home from work I left and stopped at Walmart to get him a bike before heading over to Bunco. They didn't have the bike in stock that I had seen and was planning on getting, but I didn't want him to have to wait any longer and so I spent an extra $10 and got him this one. I was so excited as I walked through the store with the bike, you would have thought it was for me. As soon as he woke up this morning I had him close his eyes and walk outside with me. He was so excited when he saw it and the boys have been riding bikes pretty much ever since then!



Yes, it was still dark when they began riding this
morning.








I like this picture even though it is a little blurry
because you can see in his face how hard he is working.


Sometimes you just need a little push from your
big brother! William and Jacob were both great
at helping Spencer this morning.


Spencer has become quite a great
bike rider today!


There is just nothing better than boys, bikes,
and fall break!!!