Tranquil Rainy Days

Not only was it spitting rain, it was cold enough to turn on the heat for the first time.  In the past, I would dread days like these.  On this particular day of the week, I used to drive around all day which meant I would be wet and cold all day and arrive home wet and cold.  But I don't dread these days anymore.

We started off with some hot cinnamon oatmeal for breakfast with some hot cocoa.  Then in the cheery warmth of candles and heat did our lessons.  At lunchtime, seeing no improvement in the weather, I decided a hot lunch was in order as well....comfort food- grilled cheese, carrots and dip and tomato soup.

After cleaning up lunch, we laid out newspaper on the table, put on some favorite tunes and began painting.  We used corks today to make some truly beautiful fall trees.  Dylan really enjoyed this and yelled "Dot! Dot!" after each dab.  Ryan also painted some suncatchers--but I was a little too afraid of Dylan getting this on his clothes, so he and I did stamps instead.  It was a truly fun "bad weather" day, rounded off with delving into our giant bag of books from the library.

Fighting?

 Fighting definitely happens between brothers-- even the best of brothers every once in a while.  I am happy to report that usually it's not my oldest who starts said fights, but the youngest, who doesn't really know better yet (but who is well on his way to knowing better).  But sometimes two brothers just need some good old fashioned play-fighting.

Predictably, the youngest started it--while his nemesis was laid low on the ground none-the-less.  I asked him what he thought he was doing.

Mid swipe, he cheerfully responded that he was "fighting" while  Ryan deployed defensive blocks and attempted to bring Dylan down.

It's pretty amazing that while Dylan is smaller and more wiry, he holds his own pretty well (it does help that Ryan is a good big brother and is usually pretty gentle).

For a few seconds it looked like Ryan would be the victor this time. 

But something happened....I'm not quite sure how....it happened so fast....But Dylan was up and Ryan was the one on the ground. 

After that with both of them giggling this little play fight was over and they went off to play something else.  Boys are so much fun. 

Zoo-Boo

Well, it's "that" time of year again-time for halloween and zoo fun! My kids love the zoo and we like how family oriented the zoo-boo activities are. The kids dress up in their costumes and trick-or-treat around the zoo, while still enjoying the animals.

We were blessed to have Aunt Alicia join us for zoo-boo again this year.  I had hoped to continue dressing the kids in themed costumes (for example last year Ryan was batman and Dylan was Robin).  It just didn't work out this year.  Ryan wanted to be a knight and Dylan picked out a Mike Wazouski costume (this kid loves Monsters Inc.)  

 Ryan and Dylan both loved this fog machine which produced bubbles which when popped burst into a puff of smoke.

We had packed a picnic lunch, which we sat down to eat 3/4ths of the way through the zoo.  At that point it started to rain.  We decided we had enough of the zoo for the day and went home to warm up with some pop-corn, blankets and a family movie.

Changes in the kids

 Fall is full blown these days.  The change between seasons is so beautiful.  Like the changing seasons, I continue to be amazed at the small changes in the boys also.  Dylan has graduated from the baby swing to being able to sit in the big swing while being pushed.

 Ryan has been practicing and practicing for months, but just recently he discovered he can go across the monkey bars all by himself!  

 Dylan has been hanging off of playground items for ages.  He is just getting more daring--hanging and swinging higher and higher up.  My little monkey. 

Pumpkin Patch

 

The minute rounded the bend, arriving at the farm, my husband groaned loudly and announced he wanted to leave immediately.  We had glimpsed three cars ahead of us, being directed by a staff-member into a field we had henceforth never parked in.  We had never parked in this lot because we had never been to this farm when it was busy....ever. We had also never had to wait in a line three cars long to wait to park...ever.  So, right away, my husband wanted to leave.  But my husband also loves me very much and knew me well enough enough to know that leaving at that point simply was not an option (not to mention the two excited kids and one teenager in the backseat).  Besides, we had already driven 40+ minutes to get there, so busy or not, we were staying to pick pumpkins. 

The first thing we did was see the haunted boo-barn.   Ryan was very impressed with the scenes of witches, ghosts and ghouls and no one was a bit scared.   Secondly, we looked at all the cute farm animals: calf, ducklings and pig.  Dylan finally met his hero and legend: Ole' McDonald. 

This place had an enormous pumpkin-head movie/nursery-rhyme display.  It was fun to challenge the kid (and teenager) to guess what characters were depicted.  

We gave them this one for free since they have never seen this movie.  Can you guess what movie this is from? 

From there we stood in an enormous line to hitch a ride up to the pumpkin patch.   We saw a few ghosts and ghouls and a few pilgrims and Indians along the way. 

Ryan was determined to pick the "BIGGEST PUMPKIN" ever.  Fearing that he would pick one that would be a HUGE pain to carry back to the wagon we added one stipulation--he had to be able to carry it himself.  He took his time.  Carefully, he searched far and wide through the field for the perfect one.   He finally came to us with this beauty: 

He carried that sucker back to the wagon ALL by HIMSELF.  Dylan, taking his cue from his big brother attempted to drag pumpkins as big as himself, but he broke his pumpkin's stem, making it a lot harder to drag.

It was so busy and so crowded that three wagons passed us by before we were able to get on one to take us back down to the festival.  That is an awfully long time for a little boy holding a heavy pumpkin.  It's a good thing big pumpkins also make good seats.

  After all that work, we were all a little hot and thirsty and hungry.  So, we treated the kids to some candy apples, kettle corn and a special soda.

Since it is a festival, there was no shortage of fun, over-stimulating things for young children to enjoy.  One of Ryan's favorite activities was a giant tube slide made extremely slippery by sitting on a burlap sack.

One of Dylan's favorite activities was using a water-pump to made rubber duck's swim.

We had brought my husband's sister Cassie with us, and I'm not sure what her favorite activity was, although if I had to take a guess, I would imagine it was the quality sibling bonding time with her brother. 

The things they say

The other day, I shouted

 to Ryan from the other room, "I love you!" to which he responded with a hearty, "AWWWWWE." 

A few weeks ago, while driving, we ran across someone dressed as Santa holding a promotional sign.  Ryan was initially excited about seeing Santa.  Then he said, "That's a crazy Santa.  It's not Christmas yet." After a moment he then reflected, " Mom, I don't think that's the real Santa.  I think it's a crazy guy dressed up as Santa." 

I was trying to have a heart-to-heart talk with Ryan while stopped at a light. I finished my schpiel.  He then said, "Mom, that stoplight looks like blood."  I doubt that child heard one word I said. 

Ryan recently wanted to know where the foam bracelet with the googly-eyes he made me went and why I wasn't wearing it.  He then encouraged me to wear it because I would be beautiful if I wore it and all the people would tell me I was beautiful, except bad boys who would throw rocks at me. 

This kid's trademark phrases are:

"It SO SO AWESOME!"  (usually in reference to something with sharp teeth, or something daring he just did).

He enjoys pretending his toys bite him.  "HE BITE ME." (he also usually yells everything he says).  Conversely, he likes to bite parts off his rubber/plastic toy animals.  It has been a source of significant turmoil in his and my relationship of late.

If he sees an animal with sharp teeth, or a bad guy in a movie, he will shout, " HE SO SCARY!"

His arguably most favorite phrase, " STOP it RYYyyyyAn"

Oh, the things they say.