Rocky Mountain Pumpkin Ranch

They are being zombies, of course.  And also here's a preview of our play room.  I haven't taken official "after" photos yet, b/c it's still not done.  I am in love with my green floral mid-century modern chair.  John not so much.

And here's your first glimpse of Charlotte's cut.  This is before the glue fell off. 

Jeffrey is teaching Charlotte about his video game, and she's serious about learning.

I liked Charlotte's smile in this one.

And...Arabelle's preschool class had a field trip to the Rocky Mountain Pumpkin Ranch.  I found it a little strange that in no place could one see any pumpkins actually growing in their natural environment--I thought that would have kind of been the point of a pumpkin "ranch".  There were, however, a large selection of pumpkins available as well as other attractions, including a corn maze, a hay maze, "pumpkin painting" (see below), and choosing a pumpkin.  The kids especially seemed to love running through the mazes.  They weren't too long or difficult, but were long enough that the kids thought they were "cool". 

 The kids got to go into this petting zoo with a sheep, a calf, a llama, and lots of goats.    The goats must have been well-fed because they weren't pushy like other goats I've encountered.

Feeling the woolly sheep.

I also liked Charlotte's face in this one.  She thinks what she's doing is so cool.

Arabelle had rapport with this goat.  She said it liked her dress.

This was Charlotte's favorite goat.  She had me take lots of formal pictures with it. Poor Charlotte is stuck with the band-aid head for a while.  I'm refusing to expose it to sunlight as that can cause hyper pigmentation of the scar.

 

Arabelle is a true lover of animals.

Big animals seem to be able to withstand her affection more so than smaller ones like Elsie.

Arabelle refused to wear this dress last Fall.  I'm glad it still fits this year!

Class photo.  That is Arabelle's crush in the blue striped hoodie next to her.

They advertised "pumpkin painting".   Well, this is not exactly what I was expecting.  Oil pastels on a picture of a pumpkin...

another class photo, not sure why the kids refused to look out the windows.

Charlotte had not slept well the night before so I was somewhat dreading bringing her with me, but I was required to bring Arabelle myself, plus I wanted to be there.  Charlotte behaved worse than I expected.  In the little over one hour we were there, there were 3 major fits where I had to carry her away from the group and just let her scream for a while.  In most cases I knew what she wanted, but it was impossible for me to let her have it.  First she didn't want any of the preschoolers to lean against the yellow train car of the train they were supposed to line up and wait next to ("yeyo" being her favorite color).   Another time she threw a fit because she wanted the specific pumpkin that another student had already chosen.  The third fit...your guess is as good as mine.  I managed to get her in the car to go home by letting her have three tiny pumpkins.  It's hard to be two especially when you're one of me and John's kids, evidently.

More September

Arabelle stole Jeffrey's blanket off his bed the other night, and when Jeffrey asked politely if he could have it back, Arabelle said,  "I'm won't give it back until you beg for it!"



Jeffrey has been in a phase lately where he asks lots of questions, most of them in-answerable either because they are unintelligible because he just really is still not constructing his sentences very well, or because they just don't really have answers.
Some recent examples are:
"Are kangaroos not afraid of heights?"
"Do spiders eat 2 flies for breakfast?"



After Charlotte's recent head injury, I have been trying to keep a special watch over her so that she doesn't burst open her wound or worse yet, acquire another one!  It makes me realize what a clumsy little daredevil she is.  She is constantly running around, jumping off the back of the couch yelling "cannonball!" or hanging by her feet from the back of the desk chair.  Last night she was running around the house in circles (with most of the lights off).  I was worrying about her doing this because I didn't want her to run into anything, and then I hear from the kitchen, mid-run, "Can't catch me, I the gingewbwed man!"



Charlotte was very over-tired yesterday because of her refusal to take a nap, and last night shortly after I put her to bed I heard her crying.  I went in to check on her and she was sitting up with her pillow/blanket in disarray and she told me despondently, "Piwow not working, bwankie not working, juice not working!"  I think we all know that feeling.



Jeffrey:I didn't finish this worksheet because I was in speech.
Arabelle: That's okay because you're still the best boy in the world.

And...here's our latest traumatic event.  Last Friday Charlotte tripped in the front room and as I tried to catch her she hit her forehead on the corner of a speaker.  I picked her up expecting her to be no worse for wear because the fall didn't seem that bad.  Imagine my horror when I saw a gaping 3/4 inch cut that obviously required stitches.  I had all of my kids plus one extra that I was babysitting.  I had to keep pressure on the wound to prevent bleeding and knew that it would take John too long to get home from work 30+ minutes away and then drive with me to Urgent Care in Loveland.  So I called Sister Hawkins in the Relief Society Presidency who I know quite well, and she arranged for Sis. Huff the Relief Society President to drive me and all the kids to Urgent Care.  There really are few ladies in the ward that don't work or have various kids at home.  Then Sis. Huff took the 3 older kids to the park and to get ice cream.  John met me at the Urgent Care and it's a good thing because it was quite a traumatic experience as I knew it would be.  The doctor told us that stitches would provide better closure and a thinner scar but that it's a lot more painful for the kids than simply gluing.  We decided to give the stitches a try, but after getting 4 shots to numb the area, Charlotte was so angry and upset that the doctor said he wouldn't do the stitches.  John and I both agreed that we think the doctor gave up too easily .  We were quite confident that John could have held her still enough to do the stitches, especially since she was already numb at that point, but we had to do what the doctor was willing to do.  I felt horrible about the whole thing because I felt like I could have prevented what happened since I was right there and I felt like I had ruined her perfect little face.  I'm unwilling to remove the band-aid to take a picture of the actual wound, but this will give you an idea of the placement.

More bathtub art.  Arabelle always impresses me with her creativity and perfect symmetry.

Arabelle continues to torture Elsie and then ask me to take pictures of it.  Arabelle got in Elsie's face on Sunday when Elsie was really agitated about a squirrel in a tree, and Elsie bit her nose, but despite a couple of small cuts on, this has not deterred Arabelle in the slightest.

a cooking class with Corinne

school outfit

Some messes are creative...this went all the way around the house.  Arabelle said she was making a "trail".

September

Arabelle's second day of preschool.  Another outfit she put together herself.  Still hoping she will let me have a say in at least some of her outfits this year...

Can anyone guess what the monocle is?  Also it went freakishly well with her pirate PJs.

The band-aid phase was a rather annoying (and expensive) one.  She would find every tiny mark, freckle, etc on her skin and then freak out until it was covered by a band-aid.

We had just bought the Jake and the Neverland Pirates band-aids at the store and Charlotte was very excited about them.   I left her alone for a couple minutes while I made dinner, and I came back to find this...I was really amazed that she could open all those herself, let alone so expeditiously.

Poor Elsie

Arabelle wants to grow her bangs out.  I make her wear a hair clip when she goes to school/church, but it's driving me nuts, so not sure how long before the bangs are back.

Arabelle wanted me to post this picture.

Mermaid wearing a wig, talking on a cellphone and carrying a wand and a cherry purse?  Check.

They were so excited when Emery finally got her own mermaid costume!

She was hip before she knew what it meant to be hip.

Arabelle's First Day of Preschool

Arabelle finally started preschool, and she could not have been more ready!  She has been asking about it all summer and has been bugging me constantly since Jeffrey got to start a couple weeks before her.  When I gave Arabelle her sign and started taking her picture, Charlotte immediately ran to the craft table and grabbed this paper with random stickers on it so that she could have a sign too.  And she's got her backpack of course.

I had actually bought Arabelle a special outfit to wear on the first day of school, but before I even got up this morning, Arabelle had put together this ensemble, tights and all.  She was so pleased with her choices that I had to let her wear it.  When she finally gets around to the outfit I chose, I will be sure to take a another picture.  Arabelle really enjoyed her first day.  Afterward she bragged to Jeffrey, "My preschool is so sooo fun!"

This was to show off the backpacks.

Yes, Arabelle is wearing a Barbie Princess dress and a coontail cap.

This swing that John made is quite dangerous because the kids seem to be constantly ramming into the fence, etc.

School Begins

Jeffrey has now completed 3 days of first grade.  After his first day, he said that his favorite thing was that "at his new school he actually had time to eat everything that he wanted to out of his lunch!  He seemed to be completely amazed that this blessing was even possible.  It made me wonder what was going on with the lunch period over at Loveland Classical, because I certainly did not pack large lunches.  Anyway, I think Jeffrey is going to have a really good year because he seems to have a really good teacher.  She actually has been doing fun stuff with the kids, like having them write letters on the desks in shaving cream, and painting with chocolate pudding.  I realize this may be just her starting the year out with a bang, but I hope it will at least continue occasionally.  I think a lot of Jeffrey's ability to succeed in school will depend on his attitude, and right now he is happy about going to school because he says that it is fun.  He says he has made a couple of friends in class but he doesn't know their names.  I also noted that there are !two! boys maybe a quarter inch shorter than him in his class!  Of course, Jeffrey could be up to a full year older than them, but still, it will be good for his morale.

After uploading my photos onto the computer, I discovered the following selfies:

Sometimes the messes these kids create are more than I think I can bear to deal with.  Taking a picture really does help.  She was fine with the mess, she is crying because I told her she had to stop.  These were supposedly "washable" markers, but they seemed to absorb right into Charlotte's skin.  I scrubbed her in the tub and was able to get the color to about half this original potency.

Aaaaaand some kids quotes:


Arabelle:  I want to go to a store that is called "It's filled with puppies and baskets and that's it."

(After a fight) Arabelle: Jeffrey!  I don't want you to be in the family anymore!
Jeffrey:  Arabelle, you know Mommy won't let you do that because Mommy loves me.

A Princess on a movie the kids were watching:  You know how sometimes you want a dream so much that you can feel it in your heart?
 Charlotte (very emphatically):  Yeah!!!

(a year or so ago a few weeks after I got a speeding ticket).  Arabelle:  I wish I were a super hero so that I could kill all the polices so they wouldn't give Mommy tickets and make her sad.


Also from a while back, but I don't think I ever got around to writing it down:

Arabelle had a Dora the Explorer "Backpack" toy that she wanted me to find so she could play with it.  I couldn't find it and realized there was a possibility I had gotten rid of it.  As luck would have it a week or two later we ran into one at a thrift store for a dollar so I bought the replacement.  Arabelle was very happy until she realized that there was some minor difference between this backpack and the original backpack.  She said she wanted the old one and I told her I wasn't sure where it was, but maybe it was somewhere in the basement but I couldn't find it.  That night after the kids were supposed to be asleep I heard Arabelle crying in her room.  I went in and asked Arabelle what was wrong, to which she replied, very dramatically and between tears, "I'm just thinking of my backpack, all alone in the basement, lost and damaged!"  I think she was just tired and I know that she didn't care that much about that toy.  Such a drama queen!