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!

You're Gonna Freeze Your Tail Off!

Lovely weather we are having here.  Just lovely.

So of course Preston insists on having his swimsuit on all day.  Why, do you ask?  How in Heaven's name should I know.  Maybe just because he is the most stubborn and obstinate child I have ever known.  After hearing him say, "Mom, I'm freezing." for the 10,923,872,932 time, I finally convinced him to put his swim suit on over a pair of pajamas.

Super stylin', I know.  Whatever keeps him happy... and warm. :)

What Happened Here?

This is ridiculous!  How do my counter tops get like this?!  They didn't look like this 2 or 3 days ago.  I think I can only see a few inches total of counter top.   After spending the better part of my day throwing away millions of school papers (I love when my kids just empty there backpacks right onto the counter), going through mail, having kids put their lunch boxes and toys back where they go, and finding places for all the misc. crud that somehow ended up on the counters, I could finally see my counters again.

Ahhhhhhhh... that's better.  It looks like I'm going to have to turn into the counter top Nazi again because if I find one more Lego or bouncy ball on my counters, I just might accidentally let the garbage disposal eat them up!

Contrary to Popular Belief...

Preston does have his quiet moments.  Although when he's quiet, we never know whether to be apprehensive about it, or thrilled.  Tonight we were thrilled.  I found him lying on his tummy in the kitchen, coloring away.  And as a double bonus, he was even coloring on paper and not on the furniture, floors, or walls. (Which happens frequently... Why did I just spend all that money to have my house repainted?)  Quiet + no destruction = happy me!

He worked on that picture for quite a while.

He finally noticed that I was taking pictures of him.

 

I can't get over how cute this kid is.  Love him to pieces!

And He Still Gets to Keep His Man License

Today I introduced Trent to one of life's simple pleasures... a pedicure.  And yes, he thoroughly enjoyed it, sans nail polish of course.

I'm a Mean Old Witch...

Vivi had her Halloween party at school today.  Seriously, so cute!  I've said it before, but we just adore Miss Jen.  Vivi has had such a great preschool experience thanks to such a wonderful teacher.  Anyway, so the parents got to go in at the end of class to watch a costume parade, listen to some songs the kids have been practicing (my favorite was the Mean Old Witch song), and have yummy treats.  Vivi of course dressed up as a princess.  She only has about 30 princess dresses in her costume box in the basement.

Here they all are.  What a cute bunch of kids!

Anna, Claire, and Vivi.  They all look like they could be sisters with their blond hair and blue eyes.

I tried to get a picture of Vivi with one of her best buds, Joseph, but he wasn't in a picture taking mood today.  Ah well, we'll get him next time.

They made these witches today for their Halloween craft.  Miss Jen always comes up with something fun for them to do.  I just love this little Princess.  Don't know what I'd do without her.

Look Mom!

Preston is 100% completely in love and obsessed with tractors. It is not a good car ride if we don't see at least one tractor when we go out to run errands. This is typical of our conversations when we are in the car.

Preston: Where da tractor mommy? Where?

Me: I don't know buds, just keep your eyes peeled.

Preston: Where da tractor go mom?

Me: There's bound to be one around here somewhere. Just keep looking buds.

Preston: I want da tractor! Where da tractor?

Me: No Comment

Preston: WHERE?!!! DA?!!! TRACTOR?!!!!!

Me: I DON'T KNOW.

Preston: Mommy! A TRACTOR! I see it! A Tractor mommy! Yea! A TRACTOR! Mommy, I drive da tractor. I DRIVE IT DA TRACTOR!

Me: Preston, mommy doesn't have keys to drive the tractor, and if she did, she wouldn't know the first thing to do to get it moving.

Preston: Mommy, I drive da tractor right now!

Me: Whatever...

Needless to say, if he actually got to sit in a tractor while it was moving, it would probably be the highlight of his life, up until now anyway. Does anyone know where one would go for a ride on a tractor? If you did, I would be forever grateful. Although, who knows, that might just be fueling the fire.

Get to Work!

We had a fun time tonight over at grandma and grandpa Stock's. They had invited us over for Sunday dinner, which I am always up for because it not only means we get to spend some quality time with the grandparents, but it also means that I don't have to cook. We arrived a little early, so I headed to the kitchen to help out with any last minute things that needed to be done. Trenton, who has recently found that he loves cooking and helping out in the kitchen, promptly volunteered his services as well. Grandma put him to work making some muffins, and after several minutes of measuring and mixing, he looked down into the family room and noticed grandpa sitting in the chair watching football. Apparently, this was not acceptable to Trenton because next thing you know, we hear, "Grandpa! Stop being such a couch potato!" Now if there is anything that Trent's dad is not, it's a couch potato. Plus there was also the fact that grandpa had just barely sat down not two minutes before Trenton's snappy little comment.

Grandpa continued to stare fixedly at the TV screen, apparently unaware of his grandson's insolence. Well, in Trenton's mind, this just would not do, so he started in again with, "Geez grandpa, can't you at least set the table?" Poor, poor grandpa. All he wanted was a few minutes of R&R, and do you think he could get any? Thank goodness he has such a good sense of humor. He got some jabs in at Trenton though, don't you worry.

As Trenton put oven mitts on his hands to pull the muffins out of the oven, grandpa said, "Oh look, we've got Mrs. Trenton helping out in the kitchen tonight."

They affectionately became known as "Couch Potato" and "Mrs. Trenton" to each other for the rest of the night. All I know is, Trenton better watch out because I've never known anyone to come up with better nicknames than grandpa Stock. :)

Positively Wicked!

Trent and I got to have a night out on the town the other night. We headed downtown to go to dinner and to see "Wicked", along with our good friends Mike and Ginny. After having sick kids for two weeks, it was so nice get out!

We got the tickets for "Wicked" this past April, and I have been waiting on pins and needles to go see it again. It was phenomenal! I loved it just as much this time as the last time I saw it.

While we were waiting for the show to begin, Trent happened to glance over and noticed a guy doing push ups against one of the half walls. We thought this was a little funny, and then looked again and he was doing calf raises. Did the guy not have time to get his workout in earlier, so he figured he might as well get it in while he was waiting? Or does he have a goal to do so many push ups and calf raises by the end of the year? Or did he simply have some major ants in is pants and just couldn't stand sitting (isn't that an oxymoron?) still for that long? We'll never know. I just kept waiting for him to break into a run, cruising up and down all the aisles. If that wasn't enough, he went through the whole thing again during intermission. Needless to say, we got a really good laugh in that night, which I am very grateful to that guy for because I needed some laughing.


We had a great night out with the Jeppesen's, and can't wait until we can do it again!