Halloween Baking Fun

Our friends came over yesterday and Chris whipped up some cookies for us to decorate. Notice I say Chris because I cannot bake! He made cookies from scratch and different colored frosting.

It was nice to do something different. The kids each had their own work station with chocolate chips and M&M's. Many of those were eaten before they were placed on their cookies ;)

Of course, we sent Sarah home with many, many cookies! Our kids had quite their share that day!

3 Years + 1 Month Old and a Ped Visit

We took the kids for their 3 year check-up today. The kids did great while in the waiting room and then when getting weighed and having their height checked. They were due to have 2 shots and a flu mist.

The doc came in and checked each child individually. Josh was up first and did great. The doc checked his ear, nose, eyes, etc. and he was just smiling. Not so much for the next up, Abby. Or for Jack. These 2 cried the entire time even though there was absolutely no pain involved. All 3 also had to sit still to get their blood pressure taken. That was tricky!

Then it was time for the shots. This time we left one in the room with one of us and a nurse and dr. The other two waited outside and looked at stickers. Jack cried terribly. Abby did the same. Josh cried when it happened as well. Can't blame them. All the tears dried up quickly once they were out. Poor Josh said, "Daddy, they hurt me!" Awwwww!

We made sure to treat them to some ice-cream afterwards!

The stats:

Josh: 35.6 lbs (75%) Height 38 1/3" (70%)

Abby: 29.5 lbs (35%) Height 38" (70%)

Jack: 33.8 lbs (55%) Height 38" (60%)

Here's what's going on individually:

Josh: Still amazes me with what he talks about and the sentences he puts together. Fantastic! So proud of that kid! He tends to want to do big kid stuff and help out around the house. His appetite is growing. Joshy always is snacking and drinking something. The biggest problem with Josh is that he thinks he owns his brother and sister's things. Like a juicebox for example. He'll just go up and drink out of theirs. That doesn't go over so well around here!

Abby: My baby is getting so big! She loves her mommy best of all. Chris constantly hears, "only Mommy" whenever he tries to help with anything. She loves hugs and kisses from me and is always saying, "I love you Mommy". Abs is speaking up more and I just love her pretend play. Her puppy is still her favorite. She enjoys hanging out with her brothers, even though they can be a little rough with her.

Jack: He's my happy go lucky kid. He is always playing and loves to try new things. He gets along great with both Abby and Josh. Jacky still has some accidents because he just doesn't want to stop playing to go to the bathroom. Sometimes I have to force him to stop and go! I love that he stills wants to be cuddled! Patrick is still his favorite toy and he enjoys riding his car around.

Overall, there is nothing that we enjoy more than hearing the kids talk amongst each other. It is hilarious. They are always calling each other silly and making up their own words. They are so grown up!

We are looking forward to visiting as many pumpkin farms as we can as fall is our favorite time of year. The kids are super excited for Halloween and their costumes!

Annual Labor Day Parade

We ventured out on a chilly morning with the promise of candy. This time we parked at our friend's house and got there right on time. Everyone was there, including Great Grandma Cleys. I love the tent that they have set up with food, drinks (alcoholic & others) and everything else. All the cousins were there, even those in college.

We came equipped with our potty. And bags for candy!

The kids weren't too interested in all the fire trucks that start out the parade. They just wanted candy.
Especially this one:
Josh stopped putting in the effort after awhile. And really, every single person around us just walked over handfuls of candy and plopped it right into their bags. What is that teaching my kids ;)

Cousin Kylie even stopped by for a visit. So great just chatting with everyone!
Our section seemed to know everyone in the parade and therefore ran right up to the floats and grabbed bags of candy to hand out. You do not even understand how much candy they threw out at this parade. It puts my hometown parade to shame! There was candy just laying all around us and we didn't even feel the need to collect it!
And then, Lizzie volunteered to pull them to the car. Really?! It's like built in babysitters! She is the best with kids!
Now, of course they ate like a ton of candy that day. And that night, we hid it all. I occasionally pull some out if we need it. But mostly it's become Mommy's secret stash ;)

Santa's Village without Santa

People were always telling us to take the kids to Santa's Village. It recently reopened and is totally centered around 3 year olds. Since we didn't get around to it when it was open weekdays, we decided to go the last Friday it was open. Of course, today was one of the hottest ones in a while. Only good thing, the park was almost empty and the big kids were in school!

We started with the balloon ride. You should have heard the kids laughing. Chris went on it with them and you couldn't help but laugh with them! I think they liked it ;)

Then we headed over to the cars. The kids were excited to pick their own cars. This time, as opposed to Pirate's Cove, the kids showed so much emotion. They were smiling and laughing the whole time! The man just kept the ride going because no one was waiting.
I love how they always look for one another!
Then they went on the giant slide. Chris even joined them!
We then went over to the giant truck train ride. Chris went with Abby and the boys sat together. This one was a bit hot as it was directly in the sun.

The kids were almost too tall for the swings! The entire ride was a bit small.
Abby and Jack sat together in this ferris wheel and Josh was by himself. They kept looking up at each other and just laughing and laughing. I am convinced that multiples have more fun!
This next ride you could only go on with an adult. Chris just took one kid at a time and stayed in the ride. Our little daredevil Abby loved it the most. It went pretty quickly around the turns!
Then we all went on a ride in a sleigh with horses pulling us. All around us were reindeer. The kids enjoyed seeing all the animals and kept asking where Santa was.
We noticed there was a mini petting zoo and made our way over. They had all kinds of animals. The kids were very apprehensive about walking into the pen with them. The goats ran right up to us to see if we had food.
This little guy was so sweet and was baaing the whole time.
We didn't stay in there too long. The kids wanted to go on some more ride. This next ride actually relied on the kids to do some of the work. You had to push up on the bar to make it go up. Abs and Jack got it right away. Josh didn't know he had to do that. Then, once he figured out how to make it go up, he didn't want it to go down, even when the ride was over!

Chris then joined him so he could get the full experience.
Afterwards, the kids were a bit hungry and hot. We had a small lunch and continued on. This ride was super fast. It was like a mini version of one of my fave carnival rides, the Tilt O Whirl. Again, I think Abby enjoyed it the most!

The kids wanted to go on the balloon ride and cars one last time. This time Chris took the camera with him.


So cute! The kids had an absolute blast! If the weather wasn't so extreme, we would have stayed longer. The kids passed out in the cool car on the way home. We would definitely come back!

Hippo vs. Dolphin

Today we decided to venture out to the zoo. You'll remember that the last time we did this was in the afternoon in mid summer with our out of town guests. I am happy to report that this time Josh was very well behaved!

Again, I'd like to point out that having the other kids back to school is absolute Heaven! The zoo was empty, just like we were used too!

It was a very humid day so we arrived right when it opened. We visited our favorites, the okapis, Josh's favorite, the giraffes. Jack wanted to see some frogs. We showed him an alligator instead!

We then headed over to Abby's favorite exhibit, the hippos. This one was a bit tired.

We went next door and this guy was hanging out in the water with the monkeys. I just wish we could have gotten a closer look. You have to see them from high above.

I wanted to use our dolphin passes for the show at 11:30am. We were a little worried about their attention span, but the show was 20 minutes long. Every seat had a great view. Abby was mesmerized. The boys started to get fidgety. Chris and I really enjoyed the show!

From there we worked our way to the cats and other indoor exhibits. The kids passed out on the way home in the nice, cool car. Can't wait to come back to the zoo when it is fall!