More kid weirdness

I just bought Molly this cute thermos hot food container for her school lunches.

Cory picked it up and noticed there was something inside. He opened it to find... THIS: A toy wheel, some green play doh (still soft), and half of a clementine. ?????

Nice collection of stuff, huh? Of course, Alex is the one who did it.

Today Cory went upstairs to find Alex in the bathroom. Alex was wetting wads of new toilet paper, squeezing them, and then putting the wet paper balls into a bag. I think I'm pretty close to needing to lock up the baggies! I feel like we find a new thing stuffed into them nearly every day!
This is the type of thing Alex enjoys doing, and this is what he does when he plays by himself. This is why it is so hard for me to figure out what toys to get him for his birthday or Christmas. He'd rather play with water, toilet paper, and baggies than his toys! Silly kid! :)

Fun times up north

Last weekend we went up north with friends to hang out at a cabin on the north shore of Lake Superior. It was a really fun weekend, and we are so thankful we were invited to go!


We didn't spend much time outside because it was so cold, but since the cabin was just a few feet from Lake Superior, we got some photos of Molly and Alex on the rocks.

Alex's birthday party

Alex decided he wanted a Diego-themed party to celebrate turning 3. He had a great time with his friends and loved his party.


Here the kids were playing "Lion, Lion, Elephant" (like Duck, Duck, Goose) because Alex said elephants and lions were his favorite animals. They also played "Diego Says" and an animal rescue game.

Alex's fun Diego cake that I made and decorated.

Mmm. Pizza!

Alex behind the jungle vines. Happy Birthday Alex!

Happy Birthday Alex!

It's Alex's 3rd Birthday Today!

Happy Birthday Alex! You are such a great little guy. You are funny, sweet, loving, silly, creative, and have more energy than anybody else I know. I'm so lucky you're my little boy!

Here's a little look back:


Here's Alex at 1 day old.

4 months

18 months

Today! Age 3!

Apparently we are all pigs... :)

I think Alex must be feeling like all the good food runs out before he gets his fill. Lately he has been really possessive about some things.

One evening, I finished a carton of cottage cheese. The next morning, Alex saw the carton on the counter and asked accusingly, "Is that gone? Did you eat all of it?!?" Yes I did. He was mad.

On Thursday last week, we stopped at a grocery store, and Alex picked out pretzel sticks to have for a snack. He couldn't wait to eat them, so I opened them when we got back to the van. We were driving, and Alex was eating the pretzels. I asked if I could have some, and he said, "No. You will eat them all. You can have two." He handed me two tiny pretzel sticks. Thanks.

Yesterday, Alex told Cory that the chocolate milk in the fridge was not for Daddies. Cory asked, "What about Mommies?" Alex said, "No. Chocolate milk is only for Alexes." Cory asked, "Just for Alex?" Alex then said that Molly could have the chocolate milk too. Lucky Molly.

Just now at dinner, I was eating carrot sticks. I grabbed a couple more from a large container FULL of them, and Alex said, "Don't eat all of the carrot sticks!!!!" He sounded quite alarmed. Yikes! Plus, he had not even touched the two on his plate! Seriously!!! LOL!

These are the countries in North America...

Here is my first attempt at adding VIDEO to the blog. Let me know if it works well for you all or if I should tweak the size or anything next time. Thanks!

Molly has been studying North America in kindergarten. Her teacher taught her class a great song that lists all of the countries in North America. Molly can even point them all out on a map!

Funny Stories

Last night, Alex had trouble falling asleep. He called for us, and when Cory went up to check what he needed, Alex said he was hungry and requested a cheese stick. Cory gave him one, and we didn't hear another peep from Alex.
When we were going to bed, Cory checked on Alex, and he saw the cheese stick still in the wrapper laying on Alex's pillow. He put it back in the fridge so it wouldn't go bad.
Then at 5:30am, we woke up to Alex yelling for "DADDDDDDDDYYYYY DAAAAADDDDY DADDY!" Guess what Alex wanted? His cheese stick. Apparently it had become a comfort item and not just a source of nourishment. Cory got Alex's cheese stick, and Alex fell back asleep (Praise God for that! I don't deal well with early mornings!).
When Alex woke up for the day, I went in his room to find him laying in bed still holding his precious cheese stick. How funny is that?
I grabbed the camera, and Alex was not happy about it. He promptly covered his face, but you can still see his cheese stick. :)
This photo also shows Alex's deep love for stripes. LOL!



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We were all in the car last night, and Molly and Alex were excited to see the moon. Molly has a thing for crescent moons for some reason, and she was very excited to see that last night's moon was a crescent moon.
Molly asked why the moon is sometimes a crescent and sometimes not. I went in to a simplified explanation of how it all depends on the position of the sun, moon, and earth. She thought that the moon's shape changed, and I told her the moon is always a sphere, but the amount that is lit up by the sun changes, etc. After we were done talking about it, she said, "Well, I still think the moon just lets out some of it's air."
I looked at Cory and said, "And THAT is why I do not homeschool." :)

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Cory and I are often amazed at the funny things Molly and Alex do, and how they can be so alike. They do have differences of course, but Alex does so many things just like Molly did at his age.
Do you remember how Molly went through a stage where she was obsessed with toothbrushes and would wash them in the bathroom sink? That ended quite a while ago. Now guess who can be found washing toothbrushes in the bathroom sink? Alex.
Molly went through a phase where she went through SOOOOO much paper, just putting a little scribble on each page. Molly also used to ball up paper and do odd things with it.
Guess what Alex is into now? See the photo below. He is going through pads of paper, writing a little scribble or drawing on it. Then he balls it up and gets nice, new ziplock baggies out and fills them with paper. Then he'll say, "I'm making this for Gideon" or something random. Ok, whatever. I think he made 4 or 5 of these bags of crumpled paper drawings today.
So... do all kids do these weird things? Or are my kids just weird and weirdly alike in their weirdness?

Happy Halloween II

Molly and Alex were very proud of their pumpkins. Here they are this afternoon right after Molly got home from school.
She made that cute bat hat at school today.

Remember how I wrote about my struggle with getting her white tights clean? THIS is how she comes home from school. See those pretty green knees? Any suggestions (other than no more white tights)?
Maybe I'll have to do some googling... Someone has to know of something that works!

Happy Halloween!

Molly and Alex were VERY excited to go Trick-or-Treating tonight. We did our block, and then we went to a party at the church where we attend MOPS.

At the church party, there were several games and fun things to do. They also had "Trunk-or-Treat" in their parking lot, where the kids could trick-or-treat from car trunk to car trunk.
Here Molly was IN a bubble, formed by a hoola hoop around her.

Molly played a game where she had to try to bite a chocolate-covered doughnut that was hanging by some yarn. It was hilarous to watch her try to get a bite!

Here are the pumpkins that Molly and Alex carved (with our help, of course). Happy Halloween!

More carving fun

Molly really got into the carving part this year. It is nice that they make the kid-safe pumpkin saws now so the kids can really do more themselves. Molly wanted her Jack O'Lantern to look scary.

Alex was sure he could do it all by himself. He kept telling Cory to step away from his pumpkin. It was funny.

Molly's finished Jack O'Lantern!

Alex by his finished Jack O'Lantern.
Tomorrow we'll try to get photos of them lit up with candles outside. :)

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Molly is so funny. Often I hear her telling me things I've told her.
Today she wore a white shirt and white tights with her school uniform jumper (some days she wears a burgundy shirt and burgundy tights), and, of course, she got a pretty grass stain on her thick white cotton tights.
Molly knows that I've been having quite a hard time with her white tights. Earlier this week she had asked me why she couldn't wear white. I told her it was because all of her white tights were soaking because I cannot get all of the stains out that she gets in them from recess.

Today, Molly said, "Mom, look. I got a grass stain on my tights. It's ok. You can just wash them. If it doesn't come out, you can soak them for a while and try again and again. If it doesn't come out, I just won't wear these tights anymore. "
She wasn't being bossy about it. She said it in the sweetest voice. It was just funny to hear all of her instructions.
Does anyone know of anything that works better on dirt and grass stains than oxyclean and spray 'n wash? Those are not cutting it, and just not wearing the tights isn't an option. :)

Pumpkin Carving Fun!

We had a few friends over to carve pumpkins tonight. We made some fun foods: brain (watermelon), monster bites (apples w/ almond sliver teeth), spiders (crackers with peanutbutter and pretzels and mini chocolate chip eyes - Molly made those!), "mummy" pizzas, and of course Halloween cupcakes. The kids especially all loved eating the brain. :)

Here Molly is carrying on with her tradition of protesting the scooping out the pumpkin guts part of the carving process. "Ick! I am not putting my hand in there!"

Alex dug in, though. :)

Fire House Fun!

Monday was Alex's friend Isaac's birthday, and to celebrate we got to go on a tour of a fire station. It was great!

The fireman, Chad, was really great with the kids. Here he was showing them all of the parts of his uniform, how he puts it on, and how it protects him.

Here he is in full gear!
Fireman Chad also let all the kids go in the cab of the firetruck. For some reason, Alex was scared and did not want to do that. He also didn't want to be in the first photo, and he purposely turned away from the camera. He was in an odd mood that morning. It was still really fun to have the tour. Happy Birthday Issac!

Happy (early) Halloween!

Molly and Alex were excited to dress up in costumes for a few events yesterday. I took them to Lunds (a grocery store) for their Halloween event (trick-or-treating around the store). Molly and Alex loved it. Alex dressed up as a doctor/surgeon, and Molly was a fairy princess (it's hard to see her wings, but she's wearing them).

Later in the afternoon, we went to Minnehaha Falls where they had a huge family fun Halloween party. The kids got to do some trick-or-treating along a trail, go on a hay ride, play some games, roast marshmallows, and more. Some of our friends went too, and the photo above is of the kids. From L to R: Kate, Luke, and Ella Thompson (the Thompson family went as the Simpsons - it was great!), Josiah, Molly, Alex, and Gideon.

More photos. I took these at home before going out. Do you think I could get ONE photo of them both looking at the camera and similing? No. Out of 10 photos, these are the best ones. :)

Happy Halloween!