leafed out

Leaves, leaves, leaves... everywhere. Today was all about leaves and I am not kidding. It started with a leaf hunt suggested by Jaiden, enthusiastically agreed by Alyssa and me... wishfully thinking this will wear them out and return to a 3 hour nap... sigh, didn't work. But we had lots of fun in the wind, collecting leaves around the neighborhood and stopping for a short break to enjoy apple juice.

Closely examining his leaf!

Digging for her apple juice!

And then later in the evening, I worked on my preschool homework... cutting out leaves! I don't know how many I did but they were awfully cute. I am curious to see what they will do with them in class. I will try to remember to fill all of you in once I know.

And to top the night off... after I finished cutting them, I decided to toss them all up into the air. Now, that was pretty cool and fun ... off I go to pick them up!

fingerprint art

An afternoon of fingerprint art... one of Jaiden's favorite things to do lately. He did this dragon almost entirely by himself. He has started drawing in all his own faces, feet, and toes in this case. It is incredible to watch him figure this out. He studies the instructions and goes step by by step just as the book demonstrates. I will have to scan in a few so you can see his detail. It's adorable.

Alyssa's version of dragon. Top photo has her fingerprints and she is drawing the face. Bottom photo is all the smoke from the fire that the dragon breathed... and then he ate the baby.

sit, lilly, SIT!

"Sit, lilly, sit, sit... sssiiiittt, that's right, just like that. Good girl. Now lay down, lay doooowwwnnn, yes, lay down. Good girl. Here's your yummy food. Sleep good tonight." says Alyssa to her fish, Lilly.

garden friends

The afternoon started out with me on the phone and the kids outside playing when I turned to look out at them and noticed two grasshoppers were sitting inside my house in the sun near the open door. I yelled "Jaiden, come get these grasshoppers" and thus began an afternoon adventure of finding grasshoppers.
Jaiden was delighted, Alyssa hesitant but intrigued and just enough curious (and trusting of her big brother) to get in on the action and me ... I preferred to take on the role of photographer with the hopes that I wouldn't be asked for any other form of help. I even put on the telephoto zooms lense to ensure my safety... I mean seriously, what if it landed on me?

In the end I think my job was the hardest, afterall, I had to narrow down my favorites and create this collage! The middle photograph was one of my favorites and has not been cropped. While I was adjusting the lense, I looked up just in time to see Jaiden and Alyssa each with their very own grasshoppers residing on their bellies. Honestly, how cute to see them checking each other's out and of course, naming them... if only I could remember what Alyssa called hers but Jaiden's was Jacob because only Jacob comes to play with him. How does one explain the rest of the grasshoppers in our yard? Well, Jaiden says they are Jacob's brothers and sisters, friends and neighbors but Jacob loves Jaiden and is loyal to him, isn't that obvious Mommy?

projects

Projects and lots of them. Alyssa and I made a trip to a couple of fabric stores (but this time I made a list so I could be super fast if necessary) and this is my pile of projects! It seems silly but I am very excited about each of them, most are Halloween costumes (the black boas, orange and white fabrics... even the hot pink material), others are gifts, fun cooking aprons for the kids and me, camera straps and more... I can't wait until tomorrow when I get 2 hours to start cutting out the projects.

On a different note, Dennis asked why I didn't include a photo of Jaiden's bike the day he was sooo determined to ride in the rain. Honestly, it was because it was pouring and I didn't dare take my new camera with me (I am a little paranoid). However, when I picked him up on Monday, the rain had let up enough for me to bring the camera and took this photo.

The story behind the photo is that Jaiden was very concerned his bike might rust in the rain. I tried to explain it would take longer than that for it to rust but he was insistent he had seen rusty bikes and didn't want to ruin his. So I brought garbage bags and coverd his handle bars to his seat and then the entire chain. It was pretty cute. Also, I should note that we rarely and I mean, rarely get rain like this. We get some insane number of days of sunshine (like 325) and the rest are either overcast or snowy. So this rain is pretty uncommon but we are loving the puddles!

determined

Yep, determined pretty much sums up this morning. Today was the kick-off for the SOAR program (step often and ride) and we were going to register Jaiden for his Freikometer (keeps track of how often you ride or walk to school). It just so happens the front came in and we were soaked in with rain clouds.

Alyssa getting ready for the rain... surprisingly not an ALL pink outfit. I gave her choice of candy top with pink pants OR pink top with candy pants. Her reply "candy top AND candy pants!" The pink candy must count in her mind towards an all pink outfit, plus she does have pink rainboots and pink raincoat... go figure?!

Getting ready to go. I made him stop because I couldn't take the camera with me (it's not waterproof).

Mommy even got suited up in her cute rainboots (thanks to yaya!).

Off he went.

delightful weekend

Where do I start? This weekend was packed (as usual) with hilarious happenings, sweet moments and just plain everyday cuteness. One of my favorite moments happened last night. I was planning to recreate but it just wasn't the same. So instead I will tell you a story about a little girl who screamed her head off when we attached the tag-along bike to Daddy's bike (it's like having a tandem bicycle but the back bicycle is built for kid size), put her on it and away he rode. Dennis feebly looked back at me while I shouted "keep going" hoping she'd stop her hysterical screaming. For a brief moment but only to catch her breath, she became quiet with enough time for Jaiden to say "good job Alyssa, you stopped crying!" The wailing started, the three of us roared in laughter, our neighbors chuckling and finally, we put her out of her misery where she comfortably got on the back of mommy's bike and finished our evening bike ride. I so wished I had a movie of this moment.

It just wouldn't be a weekend blog without at least one photo from his soccer game.

Jaiden was all set to score a goal (the ball was just kicked by him) when the girl from the other team kicked it in for him.

Caught red-handed... Jaiden and Alyssa were playing in Mommy and Daddy's room. I walked in while talking to Yaya on the phone (it was unusually quiet upstairs) to find Jaiden pretending to be on the phone! He waved "hi" to me and continued his conversation with whoever he thinks he was talking to. Alyssa was struggling to dress up in some crazy outfit (see below) for her evening bike ride.
In the end her outfit entailed pink bone pajamas, a pink twirly twirly, pink helmet, pink shoes on a pink bike... I am wondering how long she will be this into PINK! especially coming from a mommy who said I am not dressing her always in pink. I want her to wear other pretty colors! Those words are pretty tasty in my mouth when everywhere I turn I am blinded by bright blonde hair, a huge white toothy grin and pink from head to toe!

tummy aches

It almost appears I have been lost in cyberspace but sadly, I was taking care of this little peach who has been dreadfully sick with a tummy flu. It's been an exhausting past two days with lots and lots of cuddles, tears, vomiting, crying, lying and sitting around. I'll spare all of you the details but promise to be up and running again soon. Today is looking better than it did the past two days. Jaiden's been a trooper and done a good job of helping Mommy out. He's off for an afternoon with Daddy at Oskar Blue's... now just how does Dennis convince the kids going to the local pub is fun?

cwaft time

Alyssa and I spent time doing "cwafts" together. We started working on her mini album from our summer vacation. She was hilarious as she decorated pages, she would use the entire sticker sheet (note to self: cut up sheets with lots of stickers into smaller sheets) and tell a story about the stickers she was adding to her page.

On this page she talked about it raining on the ladybugs and dragonfly and there was a big puddle that they swam in before the sun came out! She finished 4 pages before she got hungry and decided she needed to do something else!

rocket ship park

An afternoon spent at one of our favorite parks. The kids ran and played while I had fun playing with my zoom lense. Here are a few of my favorites from the afternoon.

Caught both of them in action on the slide... this was pure luck.

Mommy, please push me!

Jaiden doing his own version of rocket swinging which is side to side and actually quite crazy to watch. I keep thinking he's going to hurt himself, but he doesn't and the thrill of scaring mommy is quite appealing these days.

None of my big swing pushes worked as I could only get her so high and run far enough away before she was no longer high enough but I think her face is just adorable in this photo.

Jaiden can pump himself on the swing so he again delighted in scaring Mommy although this time it was a fun photo op for me. Good thing I was playing or I probably would have said something like "not so high, Jaiden" followed with wicked laughter from him.

Trying to push her new bunny baby (new to her but oldish since Grandma made it and gave it to her a few years ago. I just kept it up high until she could really enjoy it. Now is the perfect time).

PS. Don't forget if the photos look small in the blog, you can always click on them to enlarge them. It will redirect your web connection but you can always hit the back arrow to return.

and he scores!

And he really did! His was the first goal for his team. If you look closely, you can see the ball in the net! I missed his expression after he did it... he looked shocked and pleased at the same time.

I included a few more photos from his first game. He is in the U6 (under 6) group so rules are minimal, no goalies and only 3 team members playing at a time (against 3 others). He was chosen to start along with John and Lauren, two of his friends from church and preschool.

One of his action shots.

And this one was right before he made his first goal. He really enjoyed the game even though it was pouring rain and he kept slipping in the wet grass. I am so impressed with his sportsmanship. He would fall, pick himself up and keep going. I loved watching him be so intent in the game and afterwards, recount his excitement of playing. (And yes, I am sure there will be a post each week about his games as I have the same excitement for him).

pretty hair

Such a silly little girl... she came downstairs to show me her pretty hair. Later, I caught Daddy getting a hair makeover as well. A nice faux tortoise shell clip looks pretty good on him!

the end of an era

"Mommy, I only want white socks now. No colored socks...."


"Alyssa, do you want my colored socks? I have red, purple, turquoise, skeletons?"
"Yes, oh, yes I do"

it's official

... Jaiden had his first soccer practice today. He was so excited to wear his new soccer gear, which entailed shorts, socks, shin guards, and cleats. He also has a new jersery for the games, but a muscle shirt was more appropriate for practice!

Doing drills of red light, green light. I was surprised how he kept up and often was at the front either 1st or 2nd!

And he scores... not really, but check out his form! Quite impressive since I had no idea he knew what he was doing.

Charging again with the ball. Practice ended as a big thunderstorm encroached and Jaiden ran up and said "Mommy, we're done for today. I want to do this again next season!" We've barely begun this season?!

We made a pitstop at 7-11 for slurpees (thanks to Daddy for introducing them) but just how lucky am I to see these two cuties in my rearview mirror? Don't worry I wasn't driving when I took the photo. Oh, and does this mean I am now a soccer mom?