Stories

Alex wore his monkey costume for 3 of the 4 days of Halloween fun, but for Trick or Treating on Halloween day, he wore his Superman costume. He just got this costume as a party favor from his friend Ike at Ike's birthday party. How cool is that?!?

Do other kids ages 4.5-7 happily have photos taken of them? Do they like having photos taken? Or do they do this (make the above faces) when their mom tries to take photos of them?
Molly and Alex do not usually like to be photographed, and I'm realizing I don't take nearly as many photos as I used to.

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Stories:
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Tonight I made a delicous home-cooked dinner: Beef roast, baked sweet potatoes, Caesar salad with fresh home-made croutons, roasted carrots, and raw carrots (for those who did not care for roasted carrots or sweet potatoes).
Molly had helped herself to several leftover pancakes when she got home from school, so I chose not to put any kind of bread on the table. She's so picky, and I wanted her to eat something besides bread.
Molly was not impressed with the meal. She "tried" (licked) everything and declared that she did not like any of it.We told her she could not be excused until she ate 1 piece of something (anything) on her plate. Only 1!
She whined and pouted for quite a while.
When everybody was finished, she decided she better eat something. She asked if she could have 1 piece of plain lettuce (she didn't want any covered with dressing). I gave her a piece.
The faces and sounds she made as she ate that piece of Romaine lettuce were priceless. She acted as though we were forcing her to eat something out of Fear Factor. I started cracking up. She's so over-dramatic! Romaine lettuce. The horror.

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We woke up Saturday morning to SNOW! It was our first snowfall of the year, and we got a lot of it. Alex was the first one out of his bed, and he ran downstairs to grab his DS. Cory and I were awake, but still in bed. I heard Alex squealing downstairs. He ran upstairs and burst into our room. He pulled open the shades and said, "Look, it's snowing, It's snowing!" He was so excited. I was thankful for his joyful squeals and happy excitement. It made me happy about the snow, when normally I would not have felt that way. :)-----------------------------------

Alex's birthday is coming up, and he wants his party to have a Super Mario Bros theme. I bought some stick-on mustaches for the party, and Alex tried one out. Isn't it hilarious?

Alex wore the mustache one morning, and he was really excited to surprise the two girls in our carpool. Their father saw Alex and thought it was great. Alex looked at him and said, "I actually grew this myself." Hahahahaha!

Later, Alex wore the mustache to his friend's house. When he walked in the door, Molly told his friend Ru and her family that his mustache was fake. Alex said, "SHHHHHHHH! Don't tell them!" Ha!
I look forward to a lot more mustache fun this weekend at his party. :)

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Halloween Fun!

Molly (Rock Star) and Alex (Monkey)
We took the kids to 4 days of Halloween fun this year. On Thursday, we trick-or-treated at a nearby grocery store that was having a fun event. On Friday night, we went to a carnival at the church where we attend MOPS. On Saturday, we went to a big family fun event at a nearby park. On Sunday night, the kids got to trick-or-treat on our block and then hand out candy to kids who came to our door. They loved it!

Here is Molly with her microphone. She looks like more of a rock star with the microphone. :)

Alex loves the carnival games.

Alex and Molly had fun competing in this game.

Fall Fun

Wow... I didn't blog for all of October and half of November.
What can I say? Life is busy. I want to keep up on the blog, but sometimes I just don't take the time. I'll try to catch up. :)

One day Molly told me she wanted to learn Spanish. She wanted to learn some of it that very night, so I found an online site with some free Spanish lessons. After she went to bed, I found this clip board. She did this all by herself!

Bunnies! Last year Molly learned to use stretchy gloves to make bunny puppets. She taught Alex and our carpool friends, too. Now all the kids make bunnies and have their bunnies do funny things as we drive to school.

Molly and Alex loved raking leaves this fall.

Playing in the leaves was pretty fun, too!

Pierced Ears!

Molly got her ears pierced tonight!

Molly had started asking to have it done about 18 months ago. She begged and begged, and we agreed to let her have it done for her 6th birthday. She had to finish a reward chart to get it done, which she did. We watched YouTube videos of other little girls having their ears pierced. We discussed the whole process. She was determined she wanted it. Then about a week before her birthday she changed her mind. We told her that was fine and she could wait as long as she wanted. She decided she would get them done when she turned 7.
Then when her 7th birthday got closer, she decided she would wait until she turned 8.
Until this week. This week she came home from school insisting that she really wanted it done THIS WEEK.
It had to be this week. She did not want to wait for Christmas or any other special occasion. She wanted it now!
We agreed.

However, we guessed this was not going to be an easy thing to accomplish. After all of our drama at the dentist office where Molly is terrified of everything that might possibly cause pain, I was a little worried about how she'd do at getting her ears pirced.

I was right. The poor girl REALLY wanted it to happen, but she was terrified of the actual piercing process and freaked out anytime they touched her ear. I will save you all of the details and videos showing Molly flinching, then demanding to get another chance. It did take visits to two different stores and a LOT of time and patience, but it finally happened. She got it done, and she is SO happy. :)

Molly BEFORE getting her ears pierced.

Molly after!

She picked peridot studs (the August birth stone). Her earlobes look a little purple, but that is from the marker that they used to mark the spot where the earring would go.
Yay Molly! We're very happy you didn't have to go home sad and disappointed tonight! :) Great job being brave!

Alex's toys

A few days ago, Cory and I found this (above). Alex had placed his favorite and most recent toys in a symmetrical display right in the center of our living room rug. When we asked him about it, he asked us not to move it. He wanted his special things to be just like that in that place (and normally no toys are ever kept in our living room). Ha!

Molly got glasses!

Here is Molly with her new glasses.
One Sunday evening, she was doing her homework and then got up and walked across the kitchen to see the clock on the oven. I asked her what she was doing, and she told me it was blurry so she had to get closer to see it. Then she said, "Ever since 1st grade, when I look at something far away it is blurry." Wow. Well, thanks for telling us. :)

We took her to Costco, and she was VERY excited to have a vision exam and pick out glasses. On the way to Costco, she said, "I really hope they have iCarly glasses." She was so happy to see that they did have a few iCarly frames, including the ones she picked. Hers are dark purple metal frames with a few flowers on each temple.

I'm glad she loves them so much!

Alex at Edinborough

Alex LOVES these little hand pedal cars they have at the gym at Edinborough Park. He has so much fun zipping around the room. He plays hard and gets so sweaty. I love it!

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Alex is pretty witty. He makes us laugh a lot.
The other night, Molly was being rude to him. She was just in a really bad mood. After saying some unkind things, she stormed out of the room. Alex looked at Cory and I and said, "I guess we'll have to trade her in for a nicer girl." Haha!

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Today Alex said, "Mom, do you know that sound waves are something that we can hear, but we cannot see them or taste them?"
I said, "You're right, Alex. Where did you learn that?" He said, "Sid the Science Kid." Thank you PBS for having such great educational shows! My kids actually learn things when they watch TV. :)

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Alex has a change jar with a digital readout that tells how much money is inside the jar. He decided he really wanted to buy another Zhu Zhu pet (electronic hamster toy). Almost daily, he'd find a coin somewhere or earn some by helping out around the house, and he'd bring us his money jar and ask if it was enough for a Zhu Zhu pet. Finally on Tuesday he had enough, so I took him to Walmart (they have the lowest price and a good selection of the Kung Zhu battle hamsters for boys there). He was soooo excited to buy it. :)

Our kids just cannot get enough of these Zhu Zhu pets. I like that Molly and Alex play with them together.

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The other day, Alex brought a tupperware container with a vented lid and asked if he could use it for a cricket he and Molly had found. I said sure, but then I heard that there was something in the container. I asked if he already had the cricket in there, and he said, "No, it's just food." I asked him what he was feeding his cricket. He said, "frosted mini wheats."

It turned out to be a grasshopper and not a cricket, but Molly and Alex captured it and kept it for an afternoon. Then I guess the grasshopper was just too boring, so the lucky thing was released back into the back yard. :)

Twins Game!

We won free Twins tickets (great seats!) from my dentist, so we got to go to the Labor Day game. It was fun! It was the first time for any of us to see a game at the new stadium.

Go Twins!

I should have taken the camera and got a photo of Cory, but I didn't. Oops!

Molly watched part of the game, but this cute little bookworm takes a book with her everywhere she goes. She read that entire chapter book during the game. Oh, and notice her stylish garbage bag. It started raining! Weather.com said it would be done raining before the game and not start again until evening. WRONG. Oh well. Thankfully people near us had brought extra garbage bags and were kind enough to give us a few. :)

First Day of School!

Alex was nervous about his first day of Pre-K, even though he had gone to the same preschool last year. He woke up that morning and said he did NOT want to go. At one point in the morning, he even removed his school clothes and put his pajamas back on! It was a little crazy, but I finally convinced him that he was going. He still didn't want to smile for photos, so that is why he looks so grouchy here. As soon as he saw his class, he ran in and was happy to be there. He has loved every day of it and wishes he could go more.

Alex

Molly, ready for her first day of 2nd grade!

Molly is a pro at the school thing now. She was excited for 2nd grade and is loving it!

State Fair!

Molly and Alex both really love corn dogs, and at the State Fair the footlong ones do not cost much more than the normal ones. We got the kids the footlong ones, and they thought it was pretty great. :)

Alex ate more than Molly did! He finished at least 3/4 of that corn dog!

I tried to get photos of everybody going down the Giant Slide. I failed. Here Cory and Alex just made it to the bottom (they are on the red carpet, sitting on the burlap).

We had a great time at the fair, but I left my camera at home and didn't take many photos with my phone.

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On Monday, my dental office had a drawing on their facebook fan page. Anybody who uploaded a photo from State Fair got entered in the drawing for Twins tickets. I uploaded the photo of Alex with his giant corn dog, and I won! We got 4 tickets to the labor day Twins game! We haven't been to the new stadium yet, so we are really excited. Yay!

Happy Birthday Molly!

Molly is seven! Happy Birthday Molly!

Molly wanted to have a Tinkerbell-themed party at our house for her birthday. She invited all the girls from her class plus a few others, so we ended up with 12 girls as guests. They all were great, and had so much fun together!

I read a Tinkerbell story to the girls, they went on a treasure hunt, hit a pinata, made bead bracelets, played "Tinkerbell Says", enjoyed cake and ice cream, and watched Molly open presents. Molly loved it all!

Cake!

Here they are making sparkly bead bracelets.

Thanks for making Molly's birthday special!