Grammar Lesson

Today at lunch, Reese was enlightening us about that sometimes tricky silent "e" in words. Conveniently with regards to that particular lesson, all the kids have a silent "e" in their name.

She was trying to explain this to Drue, who just wasn't buying it. Drue was adamant, "No I don't. I do not have a silent 'e' in my name!".

They went back and forth for a few seconds when Drue triumphantly repeated again, "I do not have a silent 'e' in my name....D-R-U-E....see, I heard it!".

Sweet Afternoon

On Sunday, a rare moment occurred.

David was at work.

Reese had gone home with her little friend after church.

Tate was napping.

That left Drue...and me...together...just the two of us.

I started my seemingly endless task of picking up the house and cleaning bits and pieces, but I just couldn't get those big hazel eyes out of my mind. My middle child who never gets me all to herself.

I snatched her out of the basement where she was playing and we proceeded to play a Candyland tournament. Well, it didn't start out being a tournament. It started out as, "Hey Drue, do you want to play Candyland with me?" and one game turned into another and so on.

There were no squabbles about who got to go first. There was no throwing of the plastic pieces across the room. There were no mini people coming and stealing the cards, then running off laughing maniacally.

It was a peaceful couple of hours for the two of us. Each time Drue got even one space ahead of me on the board she would say confidently, "I am SO going to win this!".

Then my big 4 year old, who no longer takes naps, crawled up on the couch next to me, slithered under my blanket and fell asleep...

Pumpkin Patch

122. That's how many pictures I took at the pumpkin patch! It certainly didn't seem like it at the time. Well, not to me, anyway. David and the kids were less than thrilled when I kept snapping away and would try and pose everyone just so. Drue won my "best poser" of the day award. She was always willing to stop and smile sweetly for the camera. Until the very end of our afternoon there when the sun was in her eyes and I was trying to get a cute one of all of them in a pile of pumpkins.

 

 

 

 

It was a beautiful day for our outing. Last year they were in long sleeves, hats, sweaters, etc. They all loved the huge homemade slides this year. They are built into the sides of hills. Half my pictures were taken of them sliding down these slides. But a lot were blurry and didn't quite catch the excitement of the moment like I wanted them too.

We attempted to go through the haunted barn. But as Tate can't even go by the halloween decorations at the store without getting scared, he only last about a foot into the barn. He, Drue, and I hightailed it back out to wait for Reese and David. Who surprised my by coming out not 5 seconds after us. Not quite ready for that yet.

I am still loving their ages right now. Everything is still so exciting for them. I told the girls we were going to a super secret special surprise place when David got home from work. So, of course, all day they were trying to drag it out of me. I was surprised they didn't get tipped off when I dressed them all in their Halloween shirts. I played it off by saying, "Let's put on our new shirts for Daddy!".

Tate had a constant grin plastered on his face at all times as usual. I hope he stays that happy and excited forever. He tries to be such a big boy...but as the wagon ride lurched us out to the patch, he reached over and grabbed my hand for a little extra support, squealing with delight.

It was a fun afternoon. Just a bit tiring as we were being pulled in three different directions by little hands that each wanted to explore a different area of the place simultaneously.

 

 

This was a zip cord swing or something along those lines. Reese was able to do it by herself but kids under 5 had to have a parent run along beside them. But Tate and Drue did really well hanging on.

 

 

Because of the lack of beaches here in Kansas, we have to resort to burying ourselves in corn.

 

More slide action. I wish this picture had turned out better. They all looked so cute...you can still sort of see Tate's excited expression.

 

I just thought this was sweet. Tate looked so content on David's shoulder.

 

My little stair steps...

 

Those Crazy Commercials

Last night the kids and I popped a big bowl of popcorn and settled in to watch a little TV before bed. I can usually find a show on the Disney channel that I enjoy watching with them, however, last night there wasn't much on.

So I surfed around a bit and found a rerun of one of the earlier episodes of the Cosby Show. I LOVED the Cosby show growing up so I thought it would be neat for the kids to see. They were a bit skeptical at first but liked little Rudy so they decided to keep watching. (Reese and Drue also like watching an occasional episode of Full House when we can find one).

As always, the commercials are atrociously loud so I mute them the second they come on. If I'm not paying attention, or leave to do something, Reese is quick to holler at me when the show is back or just unmute it herself.

We were talking during the commercials last night when Reese glanced up at the screen and announced, "IT'S BACK!". I went to grab the remote as I looked at the screen as well, and was surprised to find, not a young Bill Cosby on the screen, but a political ad for Barack Obama!

During the next set of commercials, still laughing at Reese's mix up, I muted them again. A Jenny Craig commercial came on and she informed me, "Mom...you should listen to that...it's about losing weight!".

And that took care of the laughing....

Boy oh Boy

The other day the girls were dancing together in the kitchen, round and round, holding hands.

Tate was in there also dancing on the sidelines.

I heard Reese say sincerely, "Come on...let's let Tate in. Even though you're a boy...you're part of this family."