Leaf Jumping

Javin's goal was to build the largest pile of leaves ever. We did pretty good. The pile was almost as tall as him. The best was jumping in. Oh the joys of doing a "cannonball" into a pile of leaves! Watch the video below and see him in action. Look carefully at the end and you will see Kailyn pop out of the pile.
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I love ballet video

I am loving video sharing!! How fun!!A 3 year old's song about her love for ballet...
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Dog Power

Here's a little clip of Molly pullng Javin on his scooter when we were at the Rails to Trails.

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Of Games and Story Hour and Leaves

One of Javin's goals in life must be to be able to play every game before the recommended age on the package! This week he added 2 new games to his repertoire of games - Rook and Speed Scrabble. Both games are for age 8 and up. He has played Hearts before so he had the concept of tricks already for Rook. He's got the name a bit skewed though; he calls it Brook. Speed Scrabble was played at a not so speedy rate, which was fine. I gave him some help but he understood the gist of it. He was coming up with words on his own. He loves words and does excellent on his spelling tests!

Kailyn loves to go to our little Story Hour program that is not so little any more. Well, the only little part about it is the space. Last week there were 20 kids and their moms and siblings packed into this tiny space. Such excitement over Story Hour. They sing songs, listen to stories and make crafts. She loves it!

The leaves are falling all around us this week,which provided us with some great leaf jumping opportunities. What a great childhood past time. I have many fond memories of jumping and burying myself in leaves as a kid. The funny thing is that now MY kids jump in the leaves that fall from the SAME trees that were there when I was a child. Isn't that weird?

Kailyn had some friends over to help in the leaf fun one day. The leaf-stuffed man also came out this fall. This year he is stationed at Mimi's house. I think he needs to go on a diet! He is looking kinda chubby.

October News

So I've got some catching up to do. Last weekend was quite different for us. Javin went camping with a friend. So it was just the girls at home. Javin had a great time, although I haven't got many details out of him. Males - they just don't think details are important! :) Kailyn and I had a fun shopping date on Saturday. We went to a restaurant and she was quite the social charmer, making friends with everyone around us.

When Javin returned we decided to enjoy the beautiful fall day at the rails to trails with Molly. Kailyn took her bike and Javin had his scooter. If we would have been tourists we would have hit it just right. But we are not, and all the buggies we met on the trail did not impress us. Kailyn freaked every time one passed us. We never last very long it seems. Kailyn got tired of riding after only a short distance and wanted to hold Molly. Well, they start running and Kailyn tripped and fell and it was all over. She cried and whined the whole way back to the car. Plan B kicked in and we headed to a playground to burn some more energy.

It is so easy to get frustrated when things don't go the way I plan. I'm envisioning a fun time enjoying God's creation and then I have to give myself a reality check. What's more important - having a good time at all costs or helping my child handle the bumps of life? Oh yeah...life's a journey; enjoy the process! I tend to get so focused on the end result that I can miss the point altogether. Does anyone else suffer from this disease?

Soccer Energy

The kids were sure blessed with great weather this soccer season. We have had a very mild fall so far. Javin has one game left, then soccer is officially over for this year. He has had a great time running up and down the field. This is truly a sport that Javin can readily apply all that energy that God has blessed him with. His favorite position to play is fullback. He played in the goalie position one time. He did well as goalie but had a hard time staying focused on his own game. He kept stealing a peak at Tre's game when the ball has at the other end.

The boys have had a fun time and have been improving too. We will be sad to see the soccer season end this year. Way to go Berlin Gray! We are not supposed to keep score but IF we were keeping score I think they only lost one game. ;)

Me and my little helper

Today I bravely took on the the task of painting my picnic table and chairs. Truthfully, I don't do well with big projects like this.

My first task with preparing the furniture. Okay, so I blasted it with the pressure washer. Well... I got the green buildup off and some old paint. Are all those wood splinters supposed to come off? Not a good sign! Then I got the paint from the hardware. No problems there. Thank goodness.

Today I finally had some time, but the weather called for rain. It didn't look very rainy and the radar showed the rain just missing us. So I decided to try it. Kailyn join in on the "fun". She was a really good helper, seriously. She just didn't last very long. The painting went alright until the rain came and I had to stop. Kailyn and I were a bit sloppy and got some paint on my patio. I figured it was water-base paint so it should wash up. Well it soaked into the concrete and DID NOT wash up fine.

After looking at the furniture tonight, I am definitely going to have to sand the seats down or we'll have splinters in our rears every time we eat outside. So, the job is not over yet.

Top Two Tips Today: Don't put me in charge of your next fixer-upper job. And you gotta watch Kailyn or she'll lick the paint! :) Better luck next time, I guess.