Being Helpful

The weather around here has been fantastic this week! Because of that, and the fact that I know it won't last ;), we've been trying to sneak in some fun, outside time during our school day. A couple of days ago while I was working with Brandon, Nick and Megan stepped outside for a bit. While Brandon was completing his work, I stepped into the kitchen to check on Nick and Megan and this is what I saw:

 There are monkey bars that go across the top of our swing set. Apparently, Megan was trying to swing from one of the rungs and drop down into the pile of leaves they had raked.  Since it isn't in Megan nature to be daring, I decided to watch ;)

 Nicholas showing her how it's done :)

She sat there for a long time contemplating whether or not this was a wise decision.

 Nicholas climbed up to help her.

It was such a sweet thought! He was so gentle and encouraging to his little sister :) She still wasn't persuaded though so he made her a pile of leaves at the bottom of the slide and she played there. Smart girl ;)

Applebutter Day

Todd took the boys to Applebutter Day yesterday. This is a cubscout event at one of the boyscout camps where they have all kinds of boy-things--bow shooting, tomahawk throwing, leather branding, BB guns--you name it! Not to mention time with Dad! Todd snapped a few pics with his phone:

They have such an interest in archery and handle a bow very well.Do we have more hunters on our hands?? (NO!)

Trick-or-Treat!

Our kids had so much fun last night! They've been looking forward to getting dressed up all week and finally it was the night! It was really a crazy  day though with co-op being all day then we have some friends over right after for a bit. Whew! We also had basketball evaluations last night! It was busy but fun and everything went off without a hitch!

The wood sprite:

 The Despicable Me minion, Dave:

 The ninja:

 What a cute group!

Brandon took them all around our two culdesacs then they came home so we could get to basketball evaluations!

On the way, we stopped by Larry's (my mom takes care of him) to surprise Grandma!

While we were there, we helped pass out candy:

And arm-wrestled Larry ;)

 So much fun! Our candy gathering isn't over though ;) We still have some fun events coming up this weekend! The party just never ends :)

Enjoying Fall

I do not ever look forward to fall. I used to when I was younger, but I haven't for a really long time. Although I'm not sure when, exactly, the change in my attitude happened, I believe I can attribute it to the fact that cold, short days follow it and the more kids we had the worse my dread of winter became. I don't think I suffer from the disorder that affects some people in the winter, but I do long for summer all winter; maybe from the first day that is noticeably shorter. I miss the warm, sunny days. And I LOVE getting up in the morning, throwing on shorts, a tee, and a pair of flip-flops and being ready for the entire day! In the winter, it takes f-o-r-e-v-e-r to get everyone out the door only to be freezing cold. UGH! I think I live in the wrong part of the country ;)

But anyway, fall always sucks me in ;) I never look forward to it's arrival but it doesn't take me long to change my mind. I can't resist it's beauty! Gorgeous deep blue skies and trees full of color; it's just lovely.

And then this happens:

  Maybe fall's not so bad :)

Update!

Both boys had a great games!
Brandon scored a touchdown!
Nicholas caught a long pass!
Both boys pulled flags!

I can't wait to go next week!

He's a Big Deal

The boys are really loving Upwards Flag Football! They look forward to every practice and every game. Today is a big day for Nicholas. He's the defensive captain for his team! Last week, he pulled four flags! At the end of the game, he got the leadership award. I wish I had gotten a picture of the smile on his face. So proud! Here he is all ready for his game today. Can you tell it's early? Todd was trying to get him to give me a good pose but this is what I ended up getting:

 Our little guy is not a morning person ;)

I'll be missing his game this morning which is a bummer. Megan has her soccer award ceremony. I hate missing things but the overlapping is minimal. Starting next week, I won't miss a game!

Everyone Needs a Day Like This

I'm hoping to get a few things posted on here today! My "to-do" list is already filling up starting with a busy, sports-filled morning so we'll see ;) But! I'm up early since a certain wriggly someone crawled in our bed many times last night! I finally gave up trying to get her into her own bed and let her have mine ;) She's not a good bed-sharer!

Anyway...we'll start with yesterday. We went to the zoo with friends! We frequent our fantastic zoo often but tend to avoid it a bit in the summer. Not only is it way too hot to wander around to our heart's content but also it's crowded. Crowded means sharing and not spending time observing. You have to move to let the next group take a peek. We don't mind sharing so much but we really prefer taking our time and not being rushed. And that's what we did yesterday! We lingered where they wanted to linger and moved on when they were ready.

We were running a bit late so we met up with everyone at Asia. The monkeys were being quite entertaining, much to everyone's delight!

Of course we had to spend a few minutes here:

Still completely loving the tigers ;)

After that we headed to the polar bears. Unfortunately, they were not being as engaging as they were when we saw them back in the summer but the exhibit as a whole is so much fun! Since it wasn't horribly crowded, we finally got around to seeing the rest and spent quite a bit of time looking around.

Erin and Nicholas in the underwater viewing. No polar bears to be found :(  Lots of playing though!

Little cuties trapped under the ice!

Kyle and Megan. How many big brothers does this girl need? She's stealing them from other little girls now!

Much to Brandon's delight, we headed to the reptile house from here. He cannot visit the zoo without peeking in on the yucky snakes! See evidence below:

Looks like Zack has the same fasination!

We headed to Australia after that. A couple of little cuties were starting to get tired! We'd pretty much walked from one end of the zoo to the other!

Thanks for bringing that wonderful wagon Margot! What a great idea!

We sat for quite a while again watching the monkeys (in the exhibit and out ;)) and enjoying the company of our friends while they all snacked. how much food does it take to get eleven kids through the zoo?? ALOT!

We had a great view while we rested:

Nick took this one:

He was so excited to use the zoom! I was completely nervous that he might drop my camera. I would have cried for sure.

The whole gang minus adults:

We had so much fun! Thank you Angie and Margot for going with us! Jenny and Angi, you guys were missed. I hope your kids get better soon! There's still plenty of time to get to the zoo again before the cold weather!

Saturday's Flag Football

First game of the season was yesterday! Because of the storms last Thursday, practice was canceled so the boys were a bit nervous about not really knowing what to do. The rules are a bit different for flag football plus they still needed to learn how to deal with the flags.They had a really good time though and are looking forward to future practices and games :)

Brandon's team plays bright and early...8:45am to be exact. And as I posted before, this church isn't all that close to us! He did good though, grabbing a flag and stopping a player from getting a touchdown! (not in this picture. I was busy watching/cheering to snap a picture of that!)

Nicholas' team played right after Brandon's. Unfortunately this won't always be the case. Sometimes we will be hanging out there for an hour waiting for his team to play. That will stink.

Nicholas had the ball a few times. It was so fun to see him running it!

He even got to hike it!

I'm really loving these fall sports! It's really been a relaxing way to spend my Saturday mornings :)

Silliness...

We left the house early for our field trip Tuesday because I had a few stops to make. We still arrived at the orchard very early which gave us the time to just be silly :)

Everyone had to be a worm ;)

Only the girls wanted to be ladybugs ;)

Crazy little camera-hogs ;)