Super Hero Preschool

We hosted our first preschool at our house last week and had such a fun time!  Our theme was super heroes and community heroes.  We started with a super hero training obstacle course.

We talked a lot about firefighters.  We finger painted with red and yellow paint to make fires, and then built firetrucks out of shapes.  

The kids favorite part by far was doing a firefighter relay and putting out the chalk fire with spray bottles.

We're in for a fun year!

Back on my Feet

So it's been a week now since my surgery that I've been back to all of my responsibilities since my surgery.  For 6 weeks we had my mom or my mother-in-law, Karen here helping us out so much!  I have never had so much service performed for me in my adult life and I am so appreciative of it.  Sometimes I felt so guilty, but I'm not sure how I could have done it without help.

The first few days after Karen went home felt a little overwhelming.  I was missing an extra set of hands, the boys were missing the attention from their Grandma.  The first day I had a few errands to run including a quick trip to the fabric store.  Well of course the boys had to use the bathroom once we got there, 3 different times!  And of course Caden has to take off his shoes when he uses public restrooms.  So of course after I paid and was loading the boys in the car I realized Caden had no shoes (his socks were black so I didn't notice).  We all headed back into the store and found them in the restroom.  That same day Caden was using his normal excited voice (which is loud) and an old man came around the corner and just shouted "hey" at us.  It scared us all to death, he then said, "if you can holler why can't I?"  Oh my.  I was wishing about then that Karen would turn around and come back!  

Being down for 6 weeks did clip my wings a bit.  I'm a person that likes to be on the go, my mom calls me a bum.  However, having a little slower pace gave me time to read a lot of books to the boys.  We read our first chapter book together, "Charlotte's Web."  They loved it.  We rented the movie from the library and I kept telling them we had to finish the book before we could watch the movie.  We finished at 10:00 a.m. and popped popcorn and started our movie party immediately after!

Then we finished "The Mysterious Journey of Edward Tulane."  The boys loved this one too.  Since Ethan lost his original Brown Dog he could relate to the story and we kept making up little side adventures imagining where his stuffed animal ended up.

We just started "Matilda."  Do any of you have any recommendations for read alouds for ages 5 and 3?

I hope I learned a few things while recovering from surgery.  I hope I can remember that it's okay to slow down a bit and stop and smell the roses.

(Pictures from a fun outing while Grandma Karen was here to Fort Collins to watch Monster's University at the dollar theater and a walk around the campus garden).

10 Month Old Quinn - The Dancer

Oh how I love this sweet little Quinn.  His first year is flying by!  At 10 months old he is standing and walking along furniture most of his waking hours.  He loves when someone will hold his hands and take him walking.  He attempts to take steps on his own regularly, I think his record is about 6 steps, he has a few little bruises on his bottom because of this.

His hair was getting into his eyes so I gave him his first haircut while Clark held him still.  It turned out to be more of a bang trim/mullet maker...after I did the front he was done, so it's still long around the ears and in back.

He gets to go to soccer practice and loves being outside.

He is playful.  He loves reaching out and honking my nose...if I snort he giggles.  He loves to crawl as fast as he can into the bathroom or other forbidden places, he looks over his shoulder to see if we will chase him and then cracks up.  He loves playing with his brothers and just acts like his one of the boys.

My favorite new trick of his are his mad dancing skills!  Lately if he hears music he cannot not dance.  If he is standing he will shake his little hips and drop his booty to the floor.  If he is crawling he head bangs, or sits up and pats his legs.  This little guy feels the music in his bones!  I think because he heard his brothers singing (if you can call it that) while he was in the womb, "Baby You're a Firework," that songs revs him up...he loves it and will sing along and dance.

All 3 Boys Dancing to the Smurfs Dance Game

A few little dancing videos.

Ring Around the Rosie is his favorite!

Love my dancing Quinn!

High Waters

I've been meaning for months now to make sure we have emergency supplies in order and a good storage of water so that our family will be prepared when a natural disaster hits.  Yesterday I watched news accounts in the morning of the horrible flooding going on all around us, water treatment plants being shut down, people being stranded in their homes, and cars washed away.  I definitely had the thought at that time to get some supplies and make sure we have enough water just in case.  Even at this point I wasn't feeling panicked and waited until Quinn woke up from his nap to head to Sam's Club.  When we got there it was packed and everyone was leaving the store with their carts filled with bottled water.  I met a lady who had been evacuated and while at Sam's Club received a phone call telling her that her home had been washed away.

Later that evening, as we saw news of the mobile homes in a trailer park just a few miles from us being swept through the water like logs in a river and I started getting texts from people saying that our water would be shut off, I started to get a little nervous wondering if we were prepared enough.  I had Clark stop by a grocery store on his way home to get a little more water and a few more supplies, he discovered that there was no water left at any store in Greeley.  It is crazy to me how fast a store can run out of things.  I have a goal now of being more prepared.

Caden was thrilled that there was still "Raider-gator" left at the stores, and told me this morning that if we run out of water he will take a bath with raider-gator.  Glad he's got that figured out.

At this point our home is dry, our water is still on, we are doing fine...our only flooding was caused by our 3 year old and involved a toilet.  Oh dear.

The Genius Starts Preschool

Tonight while we were cleaning up the playroom I asked Caden to go put on his pajamas.  He said, "no, I'm still cleaning up."  I replied, "you aren't cleaning up, you are just sitting there messing around."  Caden answered, "I'm not sitting here messing around, I'm just sitting here being a genius."

And that pretty much sums Caden right up.  He's a smarty pants, and it is exasperating!  Today he was pretty excited to start his first day of preschool.  We are participating in another home preschool co-op this  year with 5 other moms, it is just one day a week, I think it will be pretty fun!

I cracked him up when I said, "say Perry goes to preschool."

When I picked him up I saw a row of perfectly put together Mr. Potato Head pictures, and one that looked a little more creative.  The "teacher" informed me right away that Caden insisted on doing his ALL by HIMSELF with no help.  I was not at all surprised, I loved his fun picture.

Even though he was a little nervous to get dropped off at an unfamiliar house he did great, when I picked him up he informed me that he had an "excellent time."  His little independent streak is so different from his older brother.  They also differ in the fact that Caden talked my ear off after preschool to tell me every detail, with Ethan it is like pulling teeth to find out a few facts about his Kindergarten day.

I just gotta love my independent, low talking genius!

Funny Family Night

I love the little moments that come with three fun little boys.  Last night at family night we discovered that Quinn loves playing Ring Around The Rosie.  It is so cute, he marches around in the circle, tries to sing along, and just grins the whole time.  It is pretty sweet.

Later that night as Clark was showing the boys a picture that depicts the parable of Jesus and the 10 lepers he asked the boys if they knew who was in the picture.  Ethan immediately responded that it was Jesus and the leprechauns.  Sometimes it is so hard not to laugh!

Love being a mom to these little boys.

Lovely Labor Day

We had a fabulous weekend celebrating time together this Labor Day!  Saturday evening we headed to Windsor Lake for the Harvest Festival.  The boys had some fun swimming in the lake, riding the water trike, and playing in the sand.

When the sun set we enjoyed our picnic and listening to the pretty impressive Elvis impersonator concert going on in the park.

We also had a little fun playing tag on the beach.  Quinn loves to be "it."

The game of tag was going great until Elvis started singing "Viva Las Vegas," well Clark and the boys love that song on Just Dance so the dance moves came out.  I kept shouting, "hold on Quinn, hold on!"

Why oh why did I not take a video of these dance moves.  So funny!

We finally moseyed our way to the stage of the concert so the boys could bust a move, while we waited for the fireworks to start.

Today we headed back to the festival for the parade and some fun at the park.  Such a fun weekend!

Quinn wooed everyone at the festival with his gorgeous eyelashes.  He was a little trooper all day!

Love Labor Day!