Happy Halloween!

Batman - finally!

So - last year we had a bit of drama over Sam's Halloween costume. (see here and here.)

But this year we finally got our Batman!

The carving

I have decided carving pumpkins is over-rated.

Too much work for the adults, not enough for the small children to actually do.

So - I put my dad and Joe in charge while I went to the grocery store.

Papa and Daddy's Handiwork

The turtle never dies

This is the third Halloween the turtle has been with us. (Though at least this year it is on a different kid - but only because Sam couldn't squeeze himself into it anymore.)

My current favorite photo

More catching up to come later - got to go check on Joe in the recovery room. :)

The package from Grandmommie and Granddaddy

This post is for Joe's parents. As you can see, the package was a hit!

They tore into it as soon as we walked in the door. (Actually, Sam tried to open it outside on the front steps, but the tape deterred him.)
And it is keeping them busy!

The lost shall be found

I looked out the back window the other day and saw this.

It made me smile. Sam and Sadie were laughing...and conspiring....though I wasn't sure what exactly they were conspiring on.

Then he started climbing.


It was all a search for this.
As you can see, it wasn't in the tree, even though they claimed they had heard it land amongst the branches.

Good thing Mom is tall enough to see over the fence.

Officially smarter than me

My 4-year-old is officially smarter than me.

Thanks to Joe's parents supplying a host of solar-system related educational materials, Sam can now say the planets in order *much* faster than his mom can.

Here's how I found him the other night, a good hour after I thought he had fallen asleep.

What's he doing?

Looking at his solar system book, comparing them to the planet models hanging from his ceiling.

A little bit of creativity

A friend of mine posted on her blog a few months ago about her love of chalkboard paint, and it inspired me to paint a section of the wall in our entryway.

I am now officially in love with chalkboard paint as well.

As are my children.

Thank you, Hayley!

My little firefighters

With the windy weather the past couple days, we have been forced inside to play a bit more than usual.

I casually mentioned to Sam that we needed to clean up the basement (after a long summer of my depositing all sorts of things at the bottom of the stairs which had rendered the passageway to the play area impassable). I had planned on accomplishing most of the work while they were at school, but my eager helpers made me tackle it a bit sooner.

The kids were playing nicely together.

Without any mom-participation.

And fairly quietly.

It was lovely.

I was going on not a lot of sleep after two nights Sam being hard to put to bed combined with Sadie's middle-of-the-night need for comfort during really loud wind and storms and was about to capitalize on the rare opportunity to lay down on the couch and perhaps rest my eyelids for a few moments.

Then Sam exclaimed "Mom - we were going to clean the basement - remember?!"

And I said, "Oh, yes, Sam. I can't wait to clean the basement with you and Sadie helping me!"

OK, maybe not.

But I managed to fight the urge to say "Wouldn't you just like to keep playing while I take a little nap?"

Because, while there are a lot of things I have done that wouldn't be classified as world's-best-parenting, I do have enough of my mother in me to not actively discourage my children from cleaning.

Especially when they are volunteering to clean up a mess that I made.

So we headed down. They were in heaven re-discovering all the basement had to offer, and I even managed to get a few things organized amidst the chaos.

One of their discoveries prompted a new round of fire-fighting.

(Sam was on a fire-fighter kick a couple years ago, which seemed to have been left behind with the discovery of superheroes. Since then I have had to make up new superheroes on a near-daily basis to pretend to be - he isn't happy pretending your run-of-the-mill Batman and Spiderman - and I am quite excited not to be coming up with "Bubble Girl" or "Foam Man" and naming their related powers for a few days.)

Here are my little firefighters on their way into Sadie's room to get the most recently called-in fire.

Every firefighter uses a drill and a noodle-hose, right?

Sadie seems to think snowpants and dress-up high heels are part of the uniform.

(And she reads on the job.)

Sam needed to be reminded the hose is to be used on the fire, not his fellow firefighter.

The cycle continues....

The great blog catch-up begins.

(I seem to say that a lot.)

Every time I get freelance work, my blogging suffers. I've managed to post a few things along the way, but I have lots of pictures that I need to get on here.

I have a couple hours of uninterrupted time while Joe gets more kidney stones blasted (his 4th time in the last 12 months), and thanks to the hospital wifi no longer blocking blog sites, I can actually use it productively.

(Instead of wasting my time on some news site actually learning something like I had to do last time I was here.)

(And they are still blocking Facebook, so I won't be tempted with that....)

So I'll start with the most recent pictures from my camera and work back to mid-Septemberish.

We don't need to listen to this!

Sam has recently become acutely aware of the Holy Spirit. (See this post.)

On Sunday, the two of us were exiting church for a potty break (him - not me) during the Apostle's Creed: the part where it says "I believe in the Holy Spirit..."

He says - not so discreetly - "It's okay we're leaving. We don't need to listen to this. We already know about the Holy Spirit."

My little night owl

This is what Sam is doing right now. (Thank you Grandmommie for the busy-work supplies!)
And this is what time it is.

In the p.m. part of the day.

Or rather, night.
Think somebody is just a little excited that his daddy is coming home tonight after a week away?

Handsome boys

I don't even know what to title this one....

Maybe "My little Viking"?

And yes, we eat spaghetti topless around here.

Well, the kids. Not me.

It saves me about half a bottle of spray-and-wash.

LaLa - this shirt's for you!

Doesn't she look cooperative? :)

Stayin' Alive

(As a bit of reference, somewhere along the line Sam has heard that exercising helps you live longer. )

Our conversation tonight:
Sam: Mom, what was your favorite part of today?

Me: Helping you rearrange your room to get it how you like it.

Sam: Because it was exercising?

Me: (slightly confused but just wanting the conversation to be over because he was supposed to be asleep nearly 2 hours ago) Sure.

Sam: Because you like to stay alive?

Me: Yeah...something like that.

A new kind of tattling

We read from a preschool devotion book every night at supper. Tonight's was about the gift of the Holy Spirit, and it explained that the Holy Spirit helps us know right from wrong. I expanded on the explanation a little, telling Sam "You know when you are just about to hit Sadie over the head and you think 'Maybe I shouldn't do this?' - that's the Holy Spirit."

Not more than two minutes later the kids are playing in the family room and Sam comes over me: "Mom, Sadie sat on my leg. She forgot about the Holy Spirit."

And then a couple minutes later, I overheard him tell her "Sadie, don't do that. Remember the Holy Spirit."

I wonder what his preschool teacher will think of all this.... :)

The lifecycle, according to Sam

We recently had a retirement party for my dad. The week before, I was busy getting things ready for "Papa's party," and apparently neglected to explain what it was for.

Sam: We are going to Papa's dedication party, right?

Jane: (Realizing the last party we went to was for our niece's baby dedication) No - Lily's party was called a dedication. Papa's is for retiring. It's a retirement party.

Sam: Oh. Dedication is for babies. Retirement is for when you are old. Then you die.

Jane: Well, we hope there's a lot of time between those last two.

It depends on your definition of "babysit"

I informed Sam the neighbor girl would be coming over to babysit him and Sadie while I took my brother and family to the airport.

"Mom - don't you mean big-kid-sit?"

Happy Sadie Day!

Two years ago today, we had the joy of meeting Sadie. So, today we celebrate Happy Sadie Day!

(Isn't the outfit lovely? It fits her well - Sam's superhero shirt shows her love of her big brother and all things his, her "crazy skirt" shows her zest for life, and the pretty sandals that don't match her clothing show her strong will to do what she wants and not care a bit about what anyone else thinks (well...mostly what her mother thinks! It will serve her well someday, right?)

Here was last year's picture.
And this is my favorite picture from the day we met.

This pretty much sums up Sadie today....

Guess who wouldn't go to bed tonight?

Lego Maniac