Ethan's hats

I realized today, after coming upon this draft, that I never published this post.



To. My. Shame.

One of the funniest moments we had at Indy Beach this summer--May I present.....

....Ethan In Hats.

There is a cute little gift shop that has all kinds of 'crazy hats'....well, Grandma MJ and I went a bit 'crazy' ourselves on poor little Ethan.

The Jester

The Spider (?)

The Wolf

The Hamburger

The Peguin

("Where's baby E?" we kept saying...Ethan got suck a kick out of it, he was laughing hysterically under the hat)

The 10 (more like 100) gallon hat

One of my favorites...the Pizza

And, last but not least, The Hot Dog

I'm so glad I came across that post.....*giggle*

The Letter "C"

Onward we go in the alphabet....



And, I must say, Colin is improving each time he does a new project. We are way ahead of this in actual letter learning (he is up to writing and learning phonics on "K", if anyone cares) but we are a little slower doing these projects because they take quite a bit of time.



Everyday when we do learning time, though, I can see (if even slight) improvements in his grasp of things. Here is what he came up with for "C":

• Cats
• Car
• Coats
• Carrot
• Cookie
• Clock
• Cup
• Calendar
• Capri Sun

I must say, I was most impressed with Calendar and Capri Sun. :-) I know he knew what a calendar was, but I didn't think he would recognize it. Sooner or later, I am going to realize he knows more than I do....

Did I mention that Colin loves scissors? He would play with them all day if I let him! *grin* And no paper would go unsnipped.....

Beautiful days

Tuesday--Election day--was one of the most gorgeous Fall days we have had this year. About 74 degrees, just a nice little breeze, and as sunny as it could possibly be.



Of course, with bikes and new scooters simply calling their names from outside.....we just had to go out and take advantage of what will probably be the last of these for a while.

Colin loves his new scooter/helmet/elbow pads. And, he is pretty good at that thing too, if I do say so myself!

By the way--I personally have not tried that crazy thing, and most certainly did not almost fall off and nearly severely injure myself. *Ahem*.
My little BMX stunt man :-)

And this little stink....would not look at me for anything while I was trying to get a cute one of him on his bike. He was so doing it on purpose, too.

"Ethan! Ethan....say 'cheese'! Look at Mommy, buddy....Ethan....ETHAN!? Honey, mommy just wants one good one....Ethan? Eeeeeethaaaaaan!? Oh, WHATever."

And then, of course, with the leaves now a different color than they were 3 weeks ago....I just had to get updated tree pictures!

Sweet Cameron

My boys....the Little and the Big

My sweet, always-willing-to-be-mommy's-photo-subject, 5-year-old baby

Our Tree--told you it was a new color! It is so beautiful this time of year; the outside is reddish purple, but inside (as you can see in the above pictures) it's yellow

Too bad the election results weren't as beautiful as the actual Election Day, huh?

Please pray

Please, if you have a moment....go and visit my friend Kathy. And, please--let her know you will pray for her and her family. And then, go and pray for them.

Thanks.

Three big boys....three big beds

Well, we finally did it.

It was a day I was dreading, for more than one reason.

Significance reasons....."we're all done with the crib...."

*sniff, sniff*

Practical reasons......"now Ethan can climb out of his bed when he wakes up at 6:45 a.m. and I actually will have to get up with him at that hour....."

*sniff, sniff harder*

But, today, we decided, was the day. Time to turn Ethan's crib into a toddler bed.

I was dreading nap time from about 9:30 a.m. on.

But....

I'm happy to report....

....it went swimmingly.

If I believed in omens, I would hope that this was a good omen.

We walked in to his bedroom; I asked him if he was ready to take his rest in his big-boy bed; he nodded *grin*; I laid him down, and told him that he was to stay put in his bed, and not get up. He laughed and giggled quite a bit--I imagine thinking that this was the coolest thing ever.

Five minutes later....

....I had two sleeping boys and one semi-resting boy. Most importantly: Ethan was sleeping, and he had barely moved two inches, let alone gotten up.

(Colin--top bed; Cam--trundle; E--toddler bed)

Now, we'll just see what happens tonight at bedtime--when he isn't quite so tired.....

Colin's birthday party

Outside, before the 'festivities' began.

Colin was peeking at me around my *half-dead* mums

Ah, my less-than-beautiful homemade cake.

Hey, get off me....baking isn't my specialty.

It's sewing. * HA! *

Blowing out the candles (with a little help from brothers and cousins!)

Sharing some cake with Grandpa

Time for presents! Grandma MJ got him a Razor scooter....

....and Grandma and Grandpa got him a new helmet and elbow pads!

**Um, may I just say here that those have both already come in extremely useful**

Ethan decided right away to see how well the helmet worked by banging his cars on Col's head as hard as he could

Meanwhile, Cameron was busy during all the present opening with one of his own--a new Semi and matchbox cars from Grandma and Grandpa!

Outside, to try out all the new goodies....I think the look on his face tells how happy he was with his gifts!

Cameron, doing some 'stunts' for Grandma and Grandpa.
(Cam is probably going to be my BMX'er.
The missing tooth goes well with that idea, don't you think?)

Grandma and Grandpa, in turn, laughing at Cameron and his stunts. This--laughing at Cam, I mean--is a very common occurrence around our house

Ethan loves his bike, too. I love the look on his face in this picture!
Not quite sure what he was thinking....
Some soccer with Grandma, Daddy, and Cameron.....

.....Grandpa played goalie with Ethan....

....while Mommy and Grandma MJ sat on the sidelines and ate cake :-).

Happy birthday, sweet Colin! We all love you very much.

Just DO it

We have amazing freedoms in our country--and voting is certainly one of them!

Please, make sure you excerise your right today!

(Belated) Happy Halloween!!

From Franklin, a scary "Sharp Tooth" dinosaur, and a very 'jumpy' Frog.

(Belated) Halloween humor

HA! This one was so funny, I had to post it myself. Thanks for the laugh Shelly!