Wordless Wednesday: Pumpkin Edition

Friday Fill Ins

1. Oh, that d@%^ squirrel!! Ate our pumpkins on the porch!!
2. It's a sure sign of Fall when the chilly winds start blowing!
3. Are we having rain again??!.
4. My heart was warmed last night by the sight of the boys snuggling with their Daddy and watching TV together when I walked in the door.
5. Do you believe in Santa? I do!
6. I'm a kid at heart.
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to movie night (and Daddy gets to participate!!), tomorrow my plans include soccer game and meetup with Stacey and kids and Sunday, I want to go to Mass and then relax!

 

An Ode to Socks

 Socks.

I love you, socks. 

You keep us warm.

You make us laugh with your catchy designs and colors.

I can go to work in professional attire and still have a little bit of silly with me.

Socks can be fuzzy,

Or separate your toes.

Socks can be hidden inside your shoes,

Or be shown off all the way up to your knees.

You can celebrate your favorite holidays!

You can make a statement with your feet.

(But still keep your feet covered, because unless you're a baby, no one really wants to see your feet!)

You keep our shoes from becoming disgusting.

But, socks, you and laundry have got to figure out this game!

All of the searching through drawers

And digging through baskets.

Socks? 

Why can't the pair of you ever stick together and hop in the same load of laundry?

Why do some of you disappear completely,

Only to reappear two weeks after I finally give in and throw your mate in the trash?

Why do I forget that even though it is fun to have matching socks for my kids, 

It is not fun to try and find the barely discernible difference in two differently sized socks?

If I only ever wear you as a pair, why does one of you get a hole before the other?

Darn it!

But I can't really darn it, 

Because then you feel lumpy on my foot

And that's not cool.

Socks!

I love you.

(But I also kinda hate you a little bit too.)

10 on Tuesday: Things I am Behind On

10 Things I am Behind on This Week

1. Writing this post (since it's Wednesday and all...)
2. Laundry
3. Restaraunt database for fundraisers
4. Typing minutes from last PTA meeting
5. Ordering supplies at work
6. Sleep
7. Money
8. My Bones episodes
9. My daily steps
10. Blogging in general

Wordless Wednesday: I Love My Job edition

Carter Mountain Apple Orchard

This Saturday we made our annual trip to Carter Mountain Apple Orchard to pick apples.  My friend Stacey introduced us a few years ago, and we have gone back every year since. The drive over was BEAUTIFUL!!  The leaves are really changing and they are so many different colors. We took the long way there instead of the interstate so we could have a chance to enjoy the beautiful scenery.  When we got there it was crowded! I assume there were a lot of people who wanted to take advantage of the weather.

We had brought supplies for a picnic lunch, but there were no tables left. We decided to just sit down on the grass to eat. It was quite windy up there and Henry complained that he was cold.  When I realized that I forgotten his jacket in the car, Ken went back to get it and I stayed with the kids to make sandwiches. Frances and Henry were sitting with me and Benjamin was wandering around. I was keeping an eye on him, but turned to look at something (a sandwich, probably) and lost track of him.  When I turned to look for him he was standing in front of a huge puddle with a delirious little glint in his eye.  Just as I started to yell to him, he got this huge grin on his face and *jump* *jump* *jump* went right through that puddle!! Frances and Henry started freaking out out! "MOMMY! Look.at.Benjamin.He's.jumping.in.the.mud!!!!!" I look back at Benjamin and he had turned around and *jump* *jump* *jump* through the puddle again.  He looked so happy (and so soaking wet and muddy)! I figured what's done, is done and decided to just watch him jump his little heart out.  I can't decide if I want to laugh or cry thinking back on it.  I debated pulling out my camera, but I didn't want to encourage the behavior, so I decided not to.  I could just kick myself now for that decision.
By this time, Ken was walking back to us. I saw him as he first cleared the hill and he was walking towards us in a nonchalant manner. I could tell the exact instant that he saw Benjamin because his face contorted and he started to run. "NO!! Benjamin!!"  I yelled to Ken to leave him alone and explained my "what's done is done" philosophy.
After we ate lunch, I walked back to the van and grabbed Henry's soccer shorts and a spare pair sandals from the van.  The shorts were long enough to be almost pants and the waist was elastic, so they stayed up fine.  We got a map of the apples and headed out to pick some Fujis.  The rest of the trip was pretty ordinary. We picked about 23 pounds of apples, enjoyed some apple cider doughnuts, and drove home in time for Ken to fry up some catfish for dinner!
Want pics?

We didn't bring a pillow, so Ken improvised.

I have to trick Benjamin into getting a family photo!

Read to Dream

I had my second PTA meeting last night at the kids' school.  We had a bunch of different stuff all going on at the same time, so I had asked a student of mine to take the boys out to dinner while Ken had Frances and I was at the meeting.  I had talked all week to the boys about Miss Deserae coming to take them out to dinner.  They were really excited to go to McDonald's.  I had even told them that Deserae was going to take my car so we didn't have to move car seats. I was slightly worried that Benjamin wouldn't want to go, so I kept going over the plans. I thought I had been pretty thorough, but when we pulled up next to Deserae's car in the school parking lot Benjamin looked out the window and yelled, "Dis not McDonnels!!!" and started crying!  Thankfully Deserae said he calmed down as soon as he saw a "skoo bus" on the way to dinner and he was fine the rest of the night.

Henry is a full head shorter than all of his classmates!

The kids' school is a Title 1 school which means that they receive federal funds for their programming. In return for the funds they are required to put on several programs during the school year for parents. Thursday was the first one, entitled: "Read to Dream Literacy Night."  The kids and teachers all wore their pajamas along with bathrobes and slippers.  The kids sang some songs and recited a story and the principal read everyone a bedtime story. Then students were invited back to their own classrooms to do some "make it/take it" projects.

First we went down to Henry's classroom where the kids got to color two snakes with the alphabet written on them. One snake is the game board and the other you cut out to create a letter or sound matching game. The kids shared the coloring responsibilities.
Then we went to Frances' classroom where they kids each got to make a bookmark and decorate it with yarn and stickers.  Benjamin went to town with the stickers!

The kids also got a free book as they were leaving. We were among the last to leave (SHOCKING!!) and I vaguely remember rolling my eyes as I heard one of the teachers telling Henry, "Yes. You can have two books."  In the car he showed me both of his books.  

"Look, Mommy! I got the attic book and a Robin Hood book!"

As we were driving home, I told the kids we would finish up one story and go to bed (BONUS: They were already in their pajamas!)  Of course, Henry had to push things, "Can we read my attic book too, Mommy?"  I said, "OK, fine. We'll finish the monster book and read your attic book."  And he says, "What about Benjamin's book?" But I don't remember Benjamin getting a book, so I'm not sure how I can read it.  Henry says, "He has the Robin Hood book!"

The jury is still out on whether Henry tricked everyone into giving him two books by saying one was for Benjamin, or whether he really did get the book for Benjamin.  I'll leave it up to you to decide.

Friday Fill Ins

Happy Friday!!

1. I hope I can get my van completely cleaned out tonight.
2. What to do when you need a break, but don't have time for one!?!
3. Boy I sure did enjoy the kids' program last night.
4. Remind me to call Sarah about lunch next week.
5. What does the weather think its doing lately?? A thunderstorm in late October?!
6. It makes me luagh to see how impatient people get when a website doesn't load instantly.
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to movie night with the kids, tomorrow my plans include going to the apple orchard and Sunday, I want to go to Mass and then relax!

You can play along here: 

Magic WordsBanned Words

My kids are in no way perfect, but I have to say that my kids are pretty good about using their manners.  They know when to say "please" or "thank you" and usually do so without being prompted. Why, just last night at dinner, I told Benjamin to finish his food and he very politely said, "No tank you."
I find that we now need to work on the forbidden words.

NO!! Not those kind of words.  Regular, everyday words that we just can't say around here. Some of these words refer to places: "park" or "Gaga's house" for example. Mention one of these words and inevitably someone runs to the door ready to go. I imagine this is what people laugh at their dogs for doing when they pick up a leash.
Some of the words are activity related. For example if you say "walk" or "bike" someone heads for the door expecting to take part in said activity.  Additionally, if you say "TV' they run to the couch and start arguing about what show to watch. Even if your comment is, "The TV is broken. What shall we do?"  All the kids heard was the word "TV."
The worst offenders are the food-related words.  The kids are allowed one piece of candy after dinner if they finish their dinner.  Benjamin rarely finishes his dinner, so he doesn't often get a piece of candy.  To limit strife, we are trying to limit the use of the word "candy" at our house.  A typical after-dinner conversation goes like this:

FJ: Mommy, I ate all my dinner. Can I have C-A-N-D-Y?

Me: Take your plate to the sink and go ahead.

HC: Mommy, I ate all my dinner. Can I have C-D-N-Y?

Me: {grinning} Yes, you can. Take your plate to the kitchen.

Problem is, Benjamin has caught on to what is going on and now after this exchange, he starts yelling, "I want canny! I want canny!!"

Other food related words are forbidden as well: ice cream, cracker, snack, goldfish, etc. They all start a war because for some reason my children believe that just by mentioning the word, the desired food will magically materialize in the kitchen.

FJ: Mom, do we have any popcorn?
Me: No, I forgot to buy some at the store.
HC: Popcorn?!?!
BA: I want hopcorn!!  Mommy, I want hopcorn!!
Me: We don't have popcorn, guys. I'm sorry!!
{children dissolve into miserable tears}

 So while we work on our manners and using nice words, we also work on not mentioning these banned words. It helps to alleviate some of the chaos in our house.

Who am I kidding!?! No it doesn't!!

This was an outtake from our photo shoot that I couldn't resist posting.

Happy Dictionary Day!!

In honor of Noah Webster's birthday, today is "National Dictionary Day!" I took this list from "mental_floss" of 35 Modern Words Recently Added to the Dictionary to see what kind of a post I could write.

So chillax your crunk self and check out this droolworthy post.  Unless you are an illterati, you know there has been lots of discussion on the news lately about "Frankenfood."  Our family has been trying to eat healthier and therefore we have become a bit more locovoracious (I took some liberties there, obvs).  The kids totes enjoy eating vegetables and are fairly easy to convince when trying new foods.  I enjoy not worrying about a muffin top and whatevs.
Since I am totes a noob at textspeak, this post has been a bit difficult to write.  I hope you aren't haters at this point and that none of you feel the need to unfriend me.  If you have considered sending the po-po after me, please consider the truthiness of this: I did not attempt to use the words guyliner, jeggings, mankini, or sexting. (Mainly because I really didn't want to go in that direction!)
I am truly of the mind that if this is the direction in which our lexicon is headed, then OMG, I am very afraid for our future!
What say you?

*wink**wink*

Henry brought this home from school today.
HC: Mommy, look what I made at school!! {pause}. His other eye fell off, so I'm winkin'!

Pumpkin Patch, Take 3

Benjamin had a field trip to the pumpkin patch two weeks ago and Henry went last week.  Frances realizes that she is outgrowing the "field trip" part of the pumpkin patch, but she still really wanted to go.  I was worried because Ken's schedule has been really tight lately and I didn't think we'd get to go as a family.  He happened to mention something on the way to church Sunday and I realized he had the day off, so we planned a last-minute trip to go pick some pumpkins.
While Frances was in Sunday school, we went to the grocery store. We got the essentials for the week as week as some picnic stuff.  We made a quick trip home to put away the perishables and then picked up Frances from Sunday school on the way to the pumpkin patch.
We wanted to picnic at the tables they have available, but apparently they don't allow outside food or drink (unless you are part of a field trip) so we went back out by the van and ate our lunch in the grassy parking area.

 When we got inside, the kids had some time to play. They tried to lasso each other a cow.

 Then they went down the 20 foot slide (twice).

 We found some photo-ops.

 And Benjamin learned to slam dunk (with a little help from Daddy).

 The kids made their way through the cat's cradle maze.  Benjamin just walked under everything. He was the first one out and he yelled, "I did it!!"

 Then we tackled the actual corn maze.

 We let Benjamin decide which direction to go at each of the crossroads.

 Much, much later, we managed to find our way out!! And then we went to pick pumpkins.

We were all pretty exhausted when we got home. No one complained after dinner, when I sent everyone to bed 30 minutes early!  I'm so glad we had this unplanned excursion!

T.R.O.U.B.L.E.

Henry got in trouble at school yesterday. The kind of trouble where the teacher calls you at work, trouble.  He was using his hands instead of his words on more than one occasion.  When I got the call, it took me a minute to place the caller's name. When it hit me what was going on, my mommy brain started going haywire. Henry's been cranky lately.  I've been telling Ken that he is overtired and needs a nap. Unfortunately, he doesn't ever get a nap. Truth be told, he really hasn't napped for a while, but over the summer, I sent his to his room for a break every afternoon.  Now he doesn't even get that.  He's in Kindergarten until 3ish and then his afterschool program until 5:30 at which point we come home, eat dinner, straighten up, get ready for the next day and go to bed. The kids go to sleep are put to bed between 8 and 8:30 every night. They wake up at 7.  I don't know how he's not getting enough sleep, unless the issue comes down to quality of sleep.
Truly, though, when you are on the phone with your Kindergartener in the middle of the day because he's been hitting people, it doesn't really matter if he's been sleeping well or not.  What matters is that he sees the look through the phone lines and straightens up for the rest of the day! He wouldn't talk to me on the phone which simultaneously made me more upset with him and more guilty about scolding him. 
I thought about it off and on for the rest of the day.  I felt bad that my little boy was dealing with something that he couldn't put into words.  I also felt bad that he was causing trouble in his classroom and hurting his classmates.  I was angry with him because, really, I feel like he should know better. I was trying to figure out how to handle it when I picked him up--4 or 5 hours after the transgression.
Ultimately, I'm glad I spoke with him on the phone. I was able to communicate to him that I was aware of the situation and not happy about it. I also got some time to calmly think about it and come up with a solution for later. I also called his afterschool program and asked them to give him an extra hug when he got there.  I didn't want him to have a crappy day there too!
When I picked him up he seemed very clingy. He wanted to hold my hand all the way to the car and even as I was trying to buckle him.  I took him home (Frances had violin and ballet, so she was with Ken) and sat him on the couch. I explained that I was upset with him and his behavior. I explained that it was not ever okay to hit his friends or any other people around him.  I explained that God had given me a big important job in being his mommy and part of that job is to make sure he grows up to be a nice person who is kind to others.  I also explained that if I ever got a report like this from school again that he would be punished.  And that punishment means something you don't like: like no TV, no soccer, etc.
After I had him repeat back to me what we had talked about to ensure that he understood, I said, "OK. Now we're done.  I'm going to tell Daddy that you had a bad day at school, but he is not going to punish you or talk to you about it.  This is over. Let's put it in the past and be done with it. We won't talk about it anymore."
Then I gave him a big hug and sent him to the bathtub to play while I made dinner.  Later on, I told him that he was going to bed early-not as a punishment, but because he had been tired and cranky lately and some extra sleep would make him feel better and happier. He didn't put up any kind of fight, which just reassured me that I was right and he went to bed at 7:30.
I cleaned out his backpack after he was in bed and I found this project from school.

I admit, it made me cry a little bit.  I was feeling unsure as a parent about the whole situation, but when I saw this, it reminded me of what a gift Henry is. Even though he messes up (don't we all!), he is a gift. We gave him an important name-after his great-grandfather, his grandfather and his father-because he is an important kid. And I am glad that God gave me the responsibility of making sure he turns out well.

Friday Fill-Ins

1. If I switch out the kids' summer clothes, it will get warm again.
2. When am I going to get a chance to make some cookie dough??
3. Why is there another puddle on the floor in the kitchen!?!?!
4. Soon the cold weather will be here.
5. Wow! The leaves are really looking beautiful around here .
6. You said you wanted raisins in your oatmeal and then you said raisins were yucky! Make up your mind, Henry!!
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to not having plans, tomorrow my plans include Henry's soccer game and getting together for my dad's birthday party and Sunday, I want to teach Henry's Sunday school class and (hopefully) doing the seasonal clothing switcheroo!

Play along here:   

Field Trip to the Pumpkin Patch

Henry had his first Kindergarten field trip yesterday. He was very excited about it. He mentioned it Tuesday night at dinner and I asked him if he knew who was going with him.  He yelled, "DADDY!! 'Cause Daddy goes on all the field trips!"  I think Ken smelled an onion (or had a sudden allergy attack) at that comment.  I told Henry that I was going too and he was very excited. (I don't think I have been on a field trip since Frances was in Kindergarten.)
The sad thing is Henry woke up Wednesday morning very excited about his trip to the pumpkin patch, and then freaked out when I kissed him goodbye to go to work. I think he thought I was going to school with him. I had to explain that I would meet him at school for the trip. *(As a side note-I love this pumpkin patch for field trips. Other pumpkin patches in the area are great for families, but too overwhelming for a whole classroom. This one has a great amount of stuff to keep the kids occupied without making a teacher or parent paranoid about losing kids)
 I got to the school as the kids were doing the pre-trip bathroom break.  We helped them get loaded on to the bus and then drove over in the truck.   We were introduced to three stations and each class started at a different one.  Our group started at the story-telling station.

The host re-tells the story ofThe Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything.
(PS-If you click that link and buy the book, I will get a commission, just FYI)

I love that story. The host gets kids to come up and act out the parts of the boots, pants, shirt, gloves, hat, and scary pumpkin head as well as the little old lady.  Henry got to be the gloves that go "clap, clap."

 After the kids retold the story, we got to go over and stuff our own scarecrow. Mrs. Burgess had brought a shirt and pants and we stuffed it full of straw and fixed it together. 

Then we got to go see the pigs and feed the baby cows.

Next we took a hay ride up to the pumpkin patch. 

 The kids all got to search around to find a pumpkin to take home. They just had to find one they could carry.  Henry inspected practically every pumpkin up there!!

 He finally settled on this tall, skinny one.

Then we had to wait around for a bit because the tractor had broken down. Some of the kids decided to dog pile Ken, which was quite amusing and I got a great picture of it that I can't really post (because I don't have parental permission).  In my head, I titled the picture "Daddy's Last Field Trip!"

We managed to get back across the creek and have lunch before sending the kids back to school.  We followed the bus back to school and helped the classes to get unloaded.  I held the door as the kids were going inside because they all had their hands full of pumpkin.  One little girl was lagging behind, so I called her name (I could see it written on her pumpkin) to catch up to her class.  This started a chain of little 5-year olds telling me their names.  One little boy walked past me and with a completely serious face says, "My name's Batman."  Of course, I responded, "Nice to meet you, Batman."

We had a great time at the pumpkin patch and I hope I get to go on another field trip soon!