Day At The Zoo

During Vivi and Preston's Fall break, we spent one of the days at the zoo.  (They are so lucky to have two weeks of Fall break instead of just the one week the boys get.  But the boys get extra time off in the summer so I guess it's a fair trade.)  Anyway, we chose a really good day to go.  There was hardly anybody there that day.  It was at the end of October, and there was just a slight chill in the air.  We were plenty warm though with just a light jacket on.

I think it was the first time, in all of our years going to the zoo, that the kids didn't have to wait 10 minutes for a turn to get a picture with the bronze hippos, or have to wait in line forever to see how far they could jump.  We got to take our time with everything.  And there were tons of animals out and about that day.  The best part was getting to have a fun, wonderful day with my three littlest kiddos.  :)

Fall Break Continued...

The partying continues.  We started this week out by going to watch Vivi in her dance class on Monday.  This last month she and her class have been learning a tap dance to the "Purple People Eater" song to show the parents before Halloween. 

They got to come to class in their costumes.

They also got to show us some of the dance steps they have been learning in class.  Preston must have been paying really good attention because when we got home that afternoon, he kept saying, "Shuffle, ball change. Shuffle, ball change."  What a funny boy.  The girls got to bring in a treat to share, and they had a little Halloween party at the end of class.

Tuesday we went to the pumpkin patch at Nick's.  They always have fun things to do around Halloween.  The kids did the straw maze about 20 times.

They even had a hay ride, pulled by none other than a tractor.

So guess who is all talk and no show?  Preston!  If I had a dollar for every time I've heard him say he wants to drive a tractor, I would probably have a thousand extra dollars in my bank account right now.  So we get in the wagon being pulled by the tractor, and he won't sit anywhere other than my lap.  He was so nervous being that close to a tractor, and he was gripping my pointer fingers so tight, I thought they were going to fall off.  Yeah right, he'd drive a tractor.  He could hardly handle being in a wagon that was being pulled by a tractor.

  After the ride was over and we were a safe distance from the tractor, he looked up at me and said, "Mom!  That was awesome!"  What a nut!

He did have a super fun time scooping up corn kernels with these tractors though.

Can you tell Vivi and Preston are saying "cheese" for the picture?

Here is our "Mean Old Witch with a Hat".  She loves that song.  She sings it no less than 10 times a day.  Even Preston has it memorized now.

My cute little Pumpkins.

Trenton and Vivi had to get pictures in every one of these things.

Preston was content to just pull the wagon all through the pumpkin patch.  Luckily, he didn't run anyone over.  It has been known to happen.

The last couple of days we haven't done much other than try to stay warm.  We have gotten so much snow!  Trent and I were just watching the news, and it said 23"!

Trent doesn't mind though.  He loves being able to use the snow blower.  (Thanks heavens we have neighbors that don't mind sharing!  Thanks Hogeweides!)

All Preston talks about since the snow started is his snow shovel.  He loves being outside shoveling the snow!

Colson does too.  Any time it snows, he just can't wait to get out and shovel.  Now if we could just get his older brother to be that excited about it.

Vivi just likes being out in the snow to be out in the snow.  She just kind of runs around looking busy while everyone else is working.

After all of the fun in the snow, we came in and carved pumpkins.

Preston was pretty thrilled with the pumpkin carving.  He helped everyone scoop the "guts" out of all of their pumpkins.  He quite enjoyed that part of it.  Whatever cooks his goose I say.  It was a good thing too because the older boys are not very good about scooping pumpkin guts.  The first time Colson ever carved a pumpkin, he was 3.  I cut the top off of his pumpkin for him, then told him to stick his hand in the pumpkin, and pull all the insides out.  He put his hand in the pumpkin, felt around the inside for a second, turned really pale, then threw up all over the floor.  So as to not have a repeat of that, I have gutted his pumpkin every year since.  I told him he was on his own this year.  I did end up helping him a bit though.

Look at that concentration.

So focused.

  Things were pretty quiet at our house while the carving was going on.

Even Preston was quiet.  Only because he fell asleep on my lap halfway through the carving of his pumpkin.  That is not normal.  He must have been really, really tired.  All that shoveling wore him out I guess.

On a side note, here are a couple of my favorite outfits that Preston chose to wear today.  He insisted on having this life vest on.  It goes really well with the boots, don't you think?  He even had it on under his coat the whole time he was outside shoveling.

The last few nights he has been putting these kitty socks on over his pajamas.  I love that they go all the way up to his knees.

Just a few more days left of fall break, then the party will have to end.  For a little bit anyway.

Fall Break: Week 1

It has been a fun, and full, fall break for us Stocks.  We'll just start with the first week for this post.  Last week we went to the museum with both of the grandmas to see the Ghengis Khan exhibit that is there right now.

We learned lots of neat and interesting facts, that sadly I can't remember any more.  Maybe it has to do with the fact that I spent most of our time in the exhibit with Preston checking out the statue of a war horse carrying a soldier.  I would try and get him interested in looking at other things, but somehow we managed to end up next to the war horse again.  The boys, on the other hand, can tell you all sorts of things they learned.  We all enjoyed ourselves, except the kids were a little disgruntled by the fact that there is absolutely no food or water allowed, so of course I got to hear, "Mom, I'm starving!" no less than 1,000 times.  You think I'm joking.

Preston also loved the exhibits with all of the animals.  You know, the dead ones that have been stuffed.  At first he didn't get why the animals weren't moving, so we told him that the animals had died.  So after that, every animal he saw, he would say, "Yep, it's dead!"

All of the kids love to see the dinosaurs.  We can't ever go to the museum without seeing those.  We even got to see fossilized dino poo this time.  The older boys were thrilled!  Vivi was just mostly grossed out and stepped back several feet hearing that she was just mere inches away from dino poo.

Let's see, the kids also had play dates last week, sleepovers with grandma, movie nights, and a Halloween party.

I was lazy (and a little cheap... well, mostly cheap) this year and had them choose a costume out of the bazillion that they have in their costume box.  So this is what they chose to wear to the Halloween party we went to.  Do you love Preston's choice?  A sparkly, sequined little number.  He cracks me up.  Without any prompting from anyone, (yes, I was going to take him out in public like that... priceless I tell you) he changed his mind at the last minute and decided to be a gorilla, which he hasn't taken off since by the way.  I have been able to talk him out of wearing it to bed at least... and come to think of it, I don't think he has worn it at all today.  Trenton changed his mind at the last minute too.  We ended up safety pinning tons of Smarties to his pants because he is such a smarty pants, you know. ;)

You'd think they'd be worn out (heck, I am), but they are still going strong and are ready for more fun!