Let the sugar parade begin…

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Eve’s class did a Halloween parade at school today.  The class is held at a high school so they went trick-or-treating around the school.  I thought it was cute idea and figured she would come home with a few pieces of candy, but she got a ton!  I was shocked!  She got more candy on this parade then she got trick-or-treating last year… and both kids shared that!  It occurred to me that her pumpkin is already half full (like the “pumpkins” we made for trick-or-treating?) and she will still be getting candy at Alan’s office party tomorrow, on the haunted train ride on Saturday, and THEN trick-or-treating on Sunday!  Oof!

A weekend getaway

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We took a last minute trip to Franklin this week while the kids had a few days off from school.  Everyone had a blast.

A tough Tuesday

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After a super busy week and a traveling weekend, Lex surprised me by going to school happily on Monday morning.  He was eager to show off his new lunch box carrier.  Monday night he went to bed saying he was too tired to go to school on Tuesday, but he woke up this morning and remembered it was library day and went to school.  I thought things were going well, but then he came home with this:

frowny face

His teacher sends home a chart every day with a smiley, “straight” face, or frowny.  So far he has always gotten a smiley and only twice before has he ever received a “code.”  Codes give the parents more info on why the kids got less than a smiley.  Every day after school I ask if he had a good day and every day he says “Yes, I did!”  One day he even said, “Mom, you don’t have to ask me, I always have a good day.”  Today after school when I asked the usual question he said, “Oh, I don’t think so,” followed quickly by “but don’t look at my chart today.”  Of course I looked!

He had a dentist appointment after school and was very nervous about it.  I think that combined with the busy weekend caught up to him in school.  I was happy he was doing well and made it to school, but perhaps he would have done better taking a day off.  Sigh.  You just never know with kids.

After the dentist we ran a few errands, including a trip to the toy store to buy a birthday present for a party this weekend, and the kids were both super well behaved!  Then we came home, had dinner at 4:30, bath, stories, and bed.  They were both asleep by 6:15pm!  Yay!  Hopefully that helps make tomorrow a better day at school.

Smart days

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The kids have been having serious smart bursts lately. Eve has been doing a lot with letters and sounds, taking a real interest in learning them. Lex has been rediscovering games he hasn’t played in awhile and doing some great drawings. They amaze me daily!

Word whammer

Eve has been spending some serious time with the Word Whammer lately. She's really getting in to letters and sounds.

Word whammer - p2

Sometimes she even lets Lex help.

White board

Lex has been doing a ton of drawing on the Doodle Pro and white board lately. I wish he would draw on paper so I could save it, but probably it's better to save it as photo anyway. Here he drew a house on the top and a"Map of the Earth" on the bottom.

Silly sentences

On Sunday the kids spent a ton of time in the living room, Lex playing games by himself and Eve doing puzzles. Alan was in there too, working on the computer. It was a quiet day.

Puzzle

Eve has been super into puzzles lately. She even does them over and over sometimes. She did this one four or five times before moving on to another one.

Silly sentences by Lex

Lex laughed and laughed and LAUGHED at the silly sentences he made. Then he asked if he could take a picture :)

A great structure

Eve picked out this weird craft thing from the craft store the other day. She kind of likes it, but Lex loves it. You dampen the little pieces and then press them together. Lex has been working on this structure for a few days now. He wants to build it to the ceiling.

my craft project

My craft project. More on this later.

Eve

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Running through the leaves:

Raking the leaves:

This is a song that Eve learned in school. It’s so funny. Especially purple. I can post a transcript if necessary:

Playing firefighter. The blanket is her seatbelt and the flower is the steering wheel. I feel safer with Firefighter Eve protecting me!
Firefighter Eve - p1

Firefighter Eve - p2

More about Lex

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Here are two more quick thoughts about Lex. Have I mentioned him lately? He amazes me and amuses me daily.

This morning Eve, as she often does, was being stubborn and refusing to get herself dressed. Sometimes I do it for her and sometimes I leave her alone in the bathroom for hours (ok, more like tens of minutes) until she gets unstubborn and gets herself dressed. This morning, however, Lex offered to get her dressed. She loved the idea. He’s such a fun big brother!

dressing eve

She chose the skirt over pants, and laughed at how high he pulled it up :)

socks on

Socks on. (PS. My bathroom looks awful in pictures. I fear these bathroom photos will come back to haunt me in the future.)

Also, his class photos came in today. Yay! I love the class photo and am excited to now be able to put faces with names. Although, I realized that I could name about half of the class and those were the kids he always talks about. When he told me the rest of the names they were all kids he has rarely mentioned. So I guess I’m doing ok on knowing his friends :) Anyway, I ordered the smallest package this year, mostly because I just wanted that class picture, but for some reason they gave me two packets. Slightly different poses. I stopped in at the office on my way out and told them I got two. The lady said “Lucky you!” I asked if I was supposed to choose one and return the other or something and she said, “Nope. If they sent you two, you get to keep two.” Sweet! Both poses are kind of goofy, but that’s Lex. I love him!

school pictures

School pictures

Time to clean the bathrooms

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While making idle conversation with the kids in the tub tonight I said, “Eve, I think tomorrow you and I will be cleaning bathrooms!” She looked shocked and said, “AGAIN?!?!” Hahaha… this is funny because (a) it has been awhile (a long while!) since we last cleaned bathrooms and (b) that’s just how I feel! Again!?!? Didn’t we just do that last month?! I often have similar feelings around meals (didn’t I just feed you last night?!) and dishes.

My current favorite apple treat

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I came across a recipe for Baked Apple “Donut” Muffins the other day and despite my hesitation to bake these days… well, I had to make these!  They are sooo delicious!!

muffins

Pure yumminess!

This recipe is based on the one I found at Frugality and Crunchiness with Christy.  I made some modifications below.

Baked Apple “Donut” Muffins
(makes about 24)

Muffins
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup sugar
1 TBS baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 tsp nutmeg
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 large eggs – beaten
1 cup milk
2 cups cored and finely diced apples

Topping
1/2 cup (1 stick of butter) – I used about 3/4 of the stick
1 cup sugar – I used about 3/4 c
2 tsp ground cinnamon – I just threw a bunch in! Tired of measuring by this point :)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a 12 cup muffin tin. (I made mini muffins and ended up with 48 of them, plus 6 regular sized muffins)
2. In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and nutmeg using a fork. Add the oil and work into the mixture using a fork or pastry blender until the mixture looks like coarse crumbs.
3. Combine eggs, milk, and apples. Add to the flour mixture, stir just until blended.
4. Spoon batter into the muffin cups (The KAF cookie scoop is super handy here!)
5. While the donuts are baking, melt the butter in a small bowl. Mix the cinnamon/sugar combo into another bowl.
6. Let the muffins cool slightly then dunk them first in the melted butter and then in the cinnamon/sugar mixture.

So yummy! Lex requested some without topping (he doesn’t generally like toppings, even if it’s just cinnamon and sugar!) so we have some topped and some plain. Both are yummy, but of course the cinnamon sugar adds a nice sweetness :)

A beautiful day!

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Today was a beautiful day. Perfect fall weather, busy but not stressed, an outdoor afternoon. Just perfect.

I spent the morning running around, dropping kids at school, awesome workout at the gym, back to pick up Eve, shower and back to the gym (for a session on goal setting!), a little shopping and home in time to meet Lex at the bus stop. That was hectic, but Eve was in great spirits so it went well. After a quick snack we headed outside. The sun was beautiful, the leaves were abundant and I couldn’t put the camera down! (you can click on these images to see them bigger)