Leaves and Gloop

Saturday afternoon playing outside turned into work.  K and J helped dad rake up the remaining leaves in the backyard, and T came inside to help me bake some M&M cookies.  We took a quick peek at the workers outside and snapped these from the dining room.  Looks like dad had lots of help whether he wanted it or not.  :)

Once we got to a good breaking point, we headed outside to share our newest baked good for everyone to come try.  J immediately saw us and started yelling mama at me.  He ran straight to my arms and was done working!  He must have been tired.

Because of J's excitement, K had the same reaction (the tend to follow each other's moods).  I just have to laugh at these next few pictures.  He was screaming mommy and just yelling his whole way over.  Such a goof!  

T stayed on the deck steps.  He didn't want anyone sneaking past until he made sure he was the one to tell about the cookies. He worked hard making sure each cookie had different combinations of M&M colors on it, and wanted to share that tidbit.  

After eating warm cookies, everyone dispersed for naps and quiet time.  Once we all got back together, T and I made some gloop together from a mad scientist experiment book he found at the library.  He has his top favorites picked out and was very excited to try his first project.

Once he got it going, K and dad were done with their quiet time and came over to experiment too.  They had fun adding more powder or more water to play with the consistency.  Everyone made a big mess, and it was a lot of fun.  

Definitely a great book find by Tyler! 

Playing ball

After watching some football, all the boys and dogs headed outside to play for awhile.  Tyler requested baseball and made sure to get his cleats, a baseball hat, and his baseball shirt on so he would look right.

Kevin was ready to play football and put on some "football shorts" and his Iowa shirt.  And grabbed his favorite football.

Jacob wasn't too sure what was happening but was thrilled to get out to play with daddy and his brothers, and headed out before he got his shoes on.  :)

It turned out that Carlie was JUST as excited as the boys and had a blast running around chasing dad and the football.  I just had to laugh when I saw the pictures and all of her jumping and chasing of him.  :)

At the point Kevin decided he wanted to bat a bit, all the stories of how Grandpa Vaughn took out my Uncle Kerry with a baseball bat came flooding back.  I was afraid the boys were going to reenact it!

Thankfully, Adam was watching too and was there to help out.

And now just a bunch of other photos I quickly took this morning before running back inside to enjoy the quiet and bake a bit.  :)  

Kevin and Carlie

Kevin and Carlie recently discovered that they can play together. Kevin is beyond excited and keeps sneaking dog toys out of the bin. And Carlie has started bringing him various toys randomly throughout the day. They are a great match up and it's so fun to watch them play tug or play catch. :)

Your brothers room is better.

After school we ventured up to T's room to play. Everyone has been super content. It's not normally this calm at this time of day so I was pretty shocked to see that it was already time for dinner. The afternoon just flew! I guess that playing in big brothers room is just very cool. :)







And a picture of T first thing this morning. Last night he finished the very last book in the Magic Tree House series. He has been reading these on his own and has just loved them. There are 47 books and he has now read them all...mostly on his own (as we have him read out loud to us for a bit each night). He was super excited at his accomplishment and this morning wrote this sign (instead of getting dressed like asked). But he was so pumped I took a picture. :). His sign says "I have read 47 book" and shortly after this picture he changed his sign to "I love reading." It took awhile it get him dressed and off to school this morning. ;)

A reading of "A Merucl"

While Jacob is napping, Adam is off at a work thing all day, and Kevin insists on watching football all day for daddy and not being disturbed, Tyler has been working on his book called "A Merucl." He wrote this story last night after having his very first substitute in class on Friday (a very exciting thing!).  

Today he cut and pasted his pictures and story into a book I sewed up for him.  Once he finished he wanted to put together a quick movie about his book and hence the video below.  

He posted pictures of each page of his book on his blog if you want to see each illustration.  Keep in mind that this year they are focusing on writing words as they hear them so some of the words may have to be sounded out to understand them. His blog is tthimmesch.blogspot.com.  Otherwise, his dramatic reading is below, with the help of his brother who took a quick break from the football game.

Exhausting day

I came downstairs to get J and K for bed and J already fell asleep snuggling with dad while they watched t.v. Too sweet.

Caught Mr. T Blogging

T working hard on a blog post. He had his very first substitute teacher today and at dinner came up with a story to write about it. So he is typing it up as a blog post. I'm watching him hunt and peck at the keyboard and its just too sweet. Had to take a picture. :)

Fun Outside and a trip to the Doctor

First, our morning started off with a little bit of excitement.  Not long after dropping T off at school, J managed to fall off the couch head first onto K's Hotwheel pile!  He was upset of course but really was pretty calm for getting a big gash on top of his head.  I debated taking him in because he seemed okay and wasn't bleeding much, but ultimately did.  I am glad I did too because his doctor thought it needed either a staple or glued back together.  Ultimately we decided on glue.  Here is a quick picture of him after the doctor!  He was a trooper while there, but so excited to get back into the car and to get his kitty back in his arms (he loves his kitty!).


Our afternoon was fairly quiet thank goodness!  And eventually we went and picked T up from school.  When we got home we had a snack and then headed out to play until it go dark.

T started off with his backpack gathering and looking for things to take to his next show and tell.  Everything in his treasure box is from Minnesota, so he was excited to find some things from Nebraska.  K and J played with a soccer ball, and I got the front lawn mowed up.

Once I was done we all broke out the chalk, trikes/bikes, and scooters and had a lot of fun.  It was just so nice out today!  

Here the boys are all working on chalk drawings.  J was in charge of handing out chalk. K was drawing a spider web to catch daddy's car and T was working on making a "beautiful garden to remind me of a pretty summer".




Once K got done with his web, he found a new game on the tricycle.  He discovered that if he goes up a house on the sidewalk and turns around he can let gravity pull him back down the hill while he puts his feet up.  He had a BLAST and by the end was going fast enough that a helmet will be required in the future.  But it was fun to watch him figure it out and even more fun listening to him giggle as he came racing back down. 

















Tyler stayed focused on his drawing.  

He paused for a picture in the middle of his drawing.  I like that the sun is behind a cloud since some clouds can be good on a warm day.  I also liked the size of his flower!  That is a heck of a garden.



He even got a helper to help him fill in at times.


J has also discovered gravity and our driveway.  Today he thought it was neat to get in his firetruck and race down towards the street.  He also thought it was cool to keep stealing the chalk from Tyler and putting it in his firetruck.  :)  


Definitely can't have a picture of your final project around here without a brother trying to block you out.  :)  


But we finally got a picture.  He just wrote "I love you mom forever" and was so proud that he sounded out the "u" and "forevr" by himself. His teacher is stressing letting him sound things out on his own to write and he gets so proud of himself when he attempts new words!


And he added us in at the last minute so I will never forget what a beautiful summer is like since winter is coming.  He likes to keep reminding us that winter and snow are almost here.  He is so ready.  We have snow in the forecast for Sunday so we will see if it happens (Saturday is supposed to be in the upper 70's).  But with as much as he is excited to see snow, I would love some flakes on Sunday for him.  Especially since they should melt quickly!  :)