sunday movie

we gave daddy the afternoon off and i took the kids to see "planes fire and rescue" at the dollar theater after lunch. it was such an improvement over cars 2! i had wondered if it would be as scary (we had to leave the theater when we saw cars 2 because more than one child was sobbing in fear) but the kids all enjoyed it. fire is one of madelyn's phobias and she was crying to a point where she had to sit on my lap and hide her eyes for part of the movie. but even she said that it was a really good movie. such a nice treat! love.

last soccer game

today was the last game of the season - which is good because it is getting cold out there! (according to our weather app, it felt like 37 degrees at game time. we remembered gloves this week.)

mason makes a very intimidated 'charge' face when he runs to get the ball. he grits his teeth and even makes a growling or roaring sound sometimes! it is pretty scary for the other team and is so opposite his general disposition. it finally occurred to me today to try and get a video of it, but he didn't really do it today (of course). you can get a small taste of it as he runs towards the camera in this video.

and here is the final team huddle...

this has been a great season with the most well-balanced team we have had.  they love coach matt too!

rock-a-bye, baby

manning's brother's put him down for a nap today... they were very proud of their work. love.

play day

this week has just been crazy busy for me and i have been dragging the boys all over the place so this afternoon i took them to the park to play as long as they would like. it was good for all four of us. love.

kids are weird

so this is the face manning makes when he is 'holding' food in his mouth. it doesn't mean that he doesn't like the food either. he will just take a bite and then decide he doesn't want to swallow any more and, instead, holds it in his mouth until we notice. at first he would just open his mouth and let the dissolved food and saliva drain out all over with no effort to spit it out at all. we have now gotten to where he will attempt to spit it in a trash can. it is just so gross and sometimes it it long periods of time - i think once it was 30 minutes after lunch before i noticed the 'face'. kids are just weird. love.

snack friend

yesterday was a marathon day which included trying to pick up the supplies needed for maddux' 'd' week snack - "dinosaur dig." the problem ended up being the dinosaurs! i wasn't looking to spend a fortune on them. we had promised the kids that they could go to our local fire house open house so matt took them and i ran out to hunt for dinosaurs before racing back to pick up madelyn for swimming lessons. matt asked if i really needed to do this and i said that i was in too deep and didn't have time to think of something else - i was seeing it through! (i am so luck he loves me.)

you layer crushed oreos and graham crackers with chocolate and vanilla puddings to make dirt/rock layers to hide the dinosaurs under dyed coconut 'grass'.

and then maddux woke up with a low fever. sigh. he wasn't terribly sick, symptom-wise, but had that whiney, pitiful sort of face. the one where his chin quivers every time i make eye-contact with him. so he would miss out of enjoying his selected snack with his class. oh well, at least the other kids enjoyed it and there were enough left over for each of our kids to have one at home. love.

farm tour

madelyn brought home a flier from school about a free agricultural farm tour and i thought we should check it out since one of the four farms was a pumpkin patch i have heard about several times. we were longer at the safety center than i had expected so we decided to start with the pumpkin patch. we weren't sure what to expect and were pleasantly surprised! (and found the lighting to be fantastic for pictures!)

the kids loved the hay bale maze. 

a woman (dressed as a pumpkin and with a pumpkin painted on her face) saw that we were taking pictures and offered to take one of the whole family. yes, please! then she arranged the gourds and pumpkins to frame our family, lifted the boys up to sit on pumpkins and took both of these shots.

there were lots of little activities for us to enjoy.

we watched this air gun (paid) option where you could launch small squash, pumpkins and ears of corn at various targets in the field. 

unfortunately, we had too much fun and weren't able to make it to any of the other three farms - maybe next year. it was getting a little cold too. we love that free family fun! love.