The rest of October

They wanted to go outside one drizzly afternoon.  Emmy stayed mostly dry.

 Cadence did not.  :)

 She is fond of dressing up in all the dress up at once.  And she was giving "Bocca" a stroller ride.

 And then it snowed.  In the middle of October. Emmy was so excited: "It's almost Christmas!"  Not quite kiddo... 

 She helped herself to an apple one morning. My ah-pul.  

 We went to the farm one evening to celebrate Gideon's 2nd birthday.  I think he liked the school bus we gave him- "oh my!"  Hehe.  Cadence was a little jealous of his school bus and talked about it every time she saw it in my closet- "Didi-don shool. buh-sch."   

 So grocery pickup has been amazing the last two months.  Not having to wrestle two kids and a cart while feeling crummy is so nice.  However, the girls think they need suckers every time now...

 It was Red ribbon week at school and the dress up days were a little ridiculous this time.  I think Cecily only participated in 3 of the 7 days because they were just really weird/difficult.  She did do the future careers day- she went as a librarian with a cardigan and my old glasses frames sans lenses.  Cadence thought they were pretty cool too.

 When you're the middle child and you always get hand-me-downs while Cecily gets new clothes (so she thinks) and you're really jealous of her new (more tasteful) unicorn print nightgown and your mom feels sorry for you and this is the only unicorn pj's in your size... she buys you the gaudy sparkly unicorn nightgown and you LOVE it and the world is good again.  

 Cecily built a model of Redwall Abbey complete with table and chairs inside (after this picture was taken).  Because every seven year old is familiar with the Redwall books.  (#Bobsfault)

 But I don't want to go to bed yet!

 So we had a slightly busy week and ate McDonald's for lunch 3 times.... yikes, I'm a failure.  
The first time was because I had to do an early glucose test because my midwife is paranoid (it was normal, no surprise).
Then the next day we took Emmy to a Pediatric dentist because she has four cavities.  Poor kid.  However, the office was really cool (movies on the ceiling!) and she thought it was the best thing ever so she's going to be pretty let down when we go back to our boring regular dentist.  haha.  Also, I realize I should not be letting her drink pop right after getting four cavities confirmed, buuuut..... somehow those cavities materialized in the six months between her regular dental checkups and she's been drinking pop a lot longer than six months, so....  They're baby teeth anyway, right?     

 Our third McDonald's trip was because Cecily had the day off for conferences on Friday and she is always sad she doesn't get to eat McDonald's with us when she's at school.  So.  You can't say I never did anything fun for you, girls.
Cecily's doing just fine in school, although she is still obsessed with cats.  Her leaf is special because it's shaped like a cat.  Poor kid.  No luck on the perfect country house or land yet, so no cats yet, woe is her.

 When you say "don't jump in the crib" and they don't think you reeealllly mean it.  *sigh*  This does explain why Cadence ends up in some really funny sleeping positions.  Also, it's really easy to get replacement parts- so fear not, she won't be sleeping on this for long.

 We made it to one wiener roast this year, which is more than plenty for me.  The girls had a blast on Dave and June's new zipline and climbing the hill and the hay rack ride.  Cadence also got ketchup, baked beans, cocoa, and lemonade all over her coat.  Reason number something why I dislike wiener roasts, or just eating off of laps in general.
There once was an Indian maid, a shy little prairie maid.... she smeared muddy finger prints on her face and it looked like war paint, then she built me a "fire hot" with sticks.  

 I finally had enough energy/ motivation to thin the turnips a little bit and harvested a lot of greens.  I'm not sure if that will be enough... ha.  Actually, the first time we ate them this fall I didn't leave enough in the pan for Cecily to have seconds and there were tears.  Odd child.

 They have been begging to carve pumpkins for a while and we finally got some carving pumpkins.  Cecily helped clean hers out, Emmy didn't want to get dirty.

 Cecily drew a scary face and Emmy drew a happy face (right on the field spot, oh well).  

 They got these butterfly wings for Christmas last year and they wanted to use them for Halloween.  That was completely fine with me- it doesn't get much easier than that!  Cecily is a luna moth and Emmy is a tiger swallowtail.  They were glad to pose for pictures.

 Cadence refused to cooperate at all.  I convinced her to put her ladybug wings on by bribing her with a snack.

 We just walked up and down our road before supper- Cadence sat in the stroller and let the big girls bring her candy.  Then she wouldn't put it in her bag, she wanted it on the stroller tray where she could see it.

 She did get out to go to Marci's door because she loves Marci.  Unfortunately that picture was blurry.  She wouldn't stand still for a picture back at our house either.  My three silly little bugs.

This morning Cecily woke up and threw up a couple of times.  woot.  She was feeling better by lunch time though, so it was probably "just something she ate"... or too much Halloween.  
Blessings.

Flotsam and Jetsam

It's been quiet around here, which we love.  It's supposed to be fall now though it hasn't really felt like it.

They should probably spend more time outside while it's nice, but sometimes I'm just lazy and don't want to go out. Or I have things to get done inside... and they refuse to go outside with me.  

 There's always an audience for Cecily's piano lesson.  When they start to get too involved and loud they get to fry their brains on the tablet... so it's pretty much a win win for the younger two.

 Aunt Shelly went to Tanner's and brought us back cider doughnuts.  Cadence is very happy: favorite shirt and a doughnut, life is good.

 Pretty sure I can no longer be expected to go in my basement or do laundry ever again.  (Thankfully, I've only seen two of this nasty large variety this year... wolf spiders are so awful.) Also, it's vindication for not letting the girls leave blankets/ couch cushions on the floor downstairs- see what could be lurking underneath!??

 I have a goal of reading at least 12 books this year (I've surpassed it- more on that later...).  This one was finally available at the library and it was well worth the wait.  Such a good read.

 The older girls got to bounce on the inflatables after the walk-a-thon.  It took Emmy a little bit to warm up.

 Cecily didn't stop moving the whole time.

 Bob wanted to camp with the girls so we set the tent up that afternoon.  

 They were soooo excited, and if tents had walls they would have been bouncing off of them.

 We burned some of our firewood from our tree felling adventure last year.

 Hot dogs over the fire for supper...

 and S'mores later. Well sort of.  They take after me and don't really like warm marshmallows.  Basically they'd rather just eat chocolate.  Also, all we had were chocolate graham crackers and strawberry marshmallows (Emmy is fond of the pink ones.).  I thought it was a good combo.

 It was supposed to get down into the low 50's that night so we bundled them up for bed and took out extra bedding. Things went down hill at bedtime... first there was an incident with a flashlight that caused a bloody nose.  Then Cecily chickened out.  And Cadence refused to settle down.  So they ended up inside in their beds with me.  Emmy and Bob braved the cold and made it outside the whole night! 
The next day was garage sale day, which we didn't go to any... but the neighbor had this on their sale and I just couldn't pass it up.  I don't know where we'll put it yet... but.... it's so cute!

The big girls got to go play at Hanna and Eva's house for a few hours.  They had so much fun and didn't want to come home.

 It has been so warm... they want to wear their fall church dresses with the sweaters but it's not sweater weather.  Then we had a chilly Sunday so I said they could, but by the time church was over it was back up in the 80's and they were hot.  And before anyone calls them 'prairie dresses',  they're not.  Probably best described as 'modern vintage' or 'classic English.'  Because there's a difference.  Haha.  So far Emmy's the only one who looks like she stepped out of "the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society" (also a great read), but hopefully when the other girls will agree to wear actual shoes they will too.    

 That evening we all met Jake and Rachel halfway in Galesburg for supper and birthdays.  Cecily was very touched by her birthday card... and looooved all of her presents.  

 When you turn 30, the presents aren't as exciting, unfortunately.  Jake got jerky from us.  Since I'm not exactly the best gift giver.

 Cadence kept busy during Emmy's story hour.  She found a spot for all of the reading buddies to sit.

 We picked up Griffin for a few hours after story hour, but he didn't get to stay long enough to see Cecily on her birthday.  
She requested a heart cake with chocolate cake and chocolate frosting; super easy, which I love. And my mom just happened to have heart cake pans.  I really didn't put a lot of effort into making it look nice, obviously, but she thought it was soooo pretty.

 How is she 7 already?

 Bob has been raving/hinting about a chocolate mousse cake someone brought to work, so I filled it with chocolate mousse.  It was delicious...

 So excited to open presents!

 She's pretty spoiled, even if she doesn't think so.

 Friday was a half day of school so we girls went to the farm for lunch.  It was wet, so no combining, but we got to meet baby Aurelia.  Cecily was the only one interested in holding her.  She's so tiny!  

 Cadence dressed herself that morning.  #notworththefight 

 So last year there was a pumpkin field next to Dad's corn field and we rescued a few that had grown into the corn one windy day.  Michelle saved the seeds and planted them so she grew a bunch of Libby's pumpkins this year and let me have one. It was big.

 And I ended up with 22 cups of puree.  Not sure what I will do with all of this since I'm not really a big pumpkin everything (or anything)fan.  I'll just be bringing pumpkin pie to every event in the next year. Seriously though, apple everything is just so much better.  

Blessings.

Life lately

We've had a string of fairly empty weeks, which is nice.  Bob has had some late nights though, so that makes for long days for me... 

These two are just drawn to water.  Empty bucket? Lets fill it! And pick flowers to put in it!

 Cecily finally caught a butterfly (that "played" with them for a few hours and then went back into the wild).  She was super excited. Also note the weedy garden, pumpkin vine that's taking over everything and the jungle that is the fence.  

 Seriously, I think they've spent more time swimming in their clothes in this pool than in their swimsuits. 

 Little Emmy reallllly wanted to make salsa.  I don't think she will eat any of it, but she had to help.  We made a very small batch from a mix we bought at the grocery store.

 Cadence entertains herself fairly well.

Attempt number two at getting two year pictures went a little bit better.  We went prepared with her favorite song, "Tractor, Tractor," smarties, videos of Gideon, and Grandma.  Still, she didn't really cooperate until she found the little bathtub with fake bubbles for baby pictures.  Then we finally got some good shots of her throwing the 'balls' at the photographer.  *sigh*    

This is just a silly age... 

 We made no plans Labor day weekend- other than to spend some time at the farm with Jake and Rachel.  It was a pretty nice quiet relaxing weekend.  Bob even got to test out his latest board game that Lena suggested with his favorite game testers.
The little girls and I spent a morning and part of the afternoon helping Shelly with her baby quilt.  She likes triangles and patterns that make my head hurt... or at least require a lot of thought to get lined up correctly.
Since the girls have been so into butterflies lately, we ordered some caterpillars and got to watch them make cocoons.  When they emerged it happened so fast that we missed it.  But it's still cool to see them drying their wings. 

 We let them go by the flowers after a couple of days.

 Bi-eeeee buh-fly!  

Otherwise it's been pretty quiet around here, other than the fighting... and "Tractor, Tractor" on repeat... and Cecily practicing her new piano songs... so not really quiet.  Uneventful.  Which we love.
Blessings.