Corn Maze

To start things off on the right step while Trav is out of the country, I decided to let the kids decide what we should do on a beautiful Sunday afternoon.  Their choice . . . the corn maze!!  And a good choice it was.  The place is 5 minutes from our house, the sun was shining, and most importantly, I had a coupon ($13 per person is not cheap).  So after a late breakfast, the kids all picked out their own clothes (a new thing they've been wanting to do lately), we packed up, and drove down the street (ok, it's not just down the street, it's more like 9 blocks, but you get the idea, it's really close).  We haven't been to the corn maze for a couple of years (like I mentioned before, it's kind of spendy), but when we walked in, I was happy to see some new attractions (and so were the kids judging by their smiles).  We did it all (or at least tried to) . . . the bouncy pillows, the corn pit, the maze (the little kid one not the big one), listened to some music, played on anything and everything they could climb on, had some mini doughnuts, and even took in a magic show.  The one thing the kids were not interested in was seeing the animals which is weird because in the past they always wanted to see them (maybe we've over used our zoo pass this year and seeing more animals just isn't exciting?).  Anyway, after 3 or so hours, everyone was sweaty and dirty and it was time to go home.

Ryan "lost" his head

And now the girls are trying to "lose" their heads too

It was a great start to a hopefully great week.  We're at Tuesday already and everything is moving along nicely.  Trav sent a couple of emails saying how wonderful Columbia was and telling me about his "work" dinners (since when do work dinners consist of awesome food, drinks, and live music?) - I think I need to get myself a job already!  Although, this has sort of been like a vacation for me too - one less mouth to feed every night, one less person to divide my attention with - guess we're all winners this week!  Just kidding, we'll be happy when Trav is back in the good old USA (and then he can take over as Ellie's butt wiper, it's getting old really fast!), can't wait for Daddy to be home!

MEA already??

Apparently time flies from the end of September to mid October - not sure why, but it seems like we've been  busy and clearly I've been lazy with my writing.  Time to get back on track . . .

So MEA "break" was just this past week (I'm still not really sure why we have MEA - it's not like school has been in session all that long, but apparently everyone already needs a break?).  Anyway, with MEA break, comes a lot of extra planning.  There is no way I'm going to sit in the house for 3 straight days with all four of the kids (Colton being our plus one), so it's always a struggle to find some fun activities that everyone can participate in.  And surprisingly, this MEA break went pretty well.  We spent the first day (Wednesday) at our friend's house (luckily for us, this family has two kids to play with, one for Ryan and one for Lauren, and even luckier for us, their mom doesn't mind having a couple of 2 year olds tag along so we all got to have some fun).  After a busy morning/afternoon of fun, the kids and I packed up and headed back home for some late afternoon naps and a little rest - a good start to the break.

On Thursday, we were joined by Grandma Loken and Auntie (and Kate too) for a trip to the zoo.  I wasn't sure what to expect with this trip being MEA and all, but surprisingly, the place was not too packed.  We've done the zoo many times in the past where it's been just me and the four kids, let's just say having a Grandma and an Auntie (even with her newborn) along certainly makes life easier - so thanks for coming along ladies!  I tried to make a point of taking more pictures on this outing (especially since my time wasn't completely consumed by keeping an eye on everyone), and was pleasantly surprised when I downloaded the pictures tonight and saw that I had taken 52 shots - not bad if I have to say so myself.  Then, the pictures started downloading and all I saw was blurry shots of animals way too close up and that's when I remembered that Ryan decided that he should be in charge of the camera for the majority of the zoo visit - great.  So if you ever want to see tons of "so-so" pictures of big blurry animals, stop by and let Ryan walk you through our visit, I'm sure he'll be more than happy to do so.  I did find this one though and had a good laugh.  I was out getting our lunches at this time so I'm not really sure what was going on (or who was in charge), but it looks like Ryan might have tried his hand at taking a picture of actual people and not just animals - too bad the only person who is looking at the camera is also the only person who is upside down - oh well, at least he tried.

And here are the few that I managed to get in before Ryan took over . .

 As you can see, getting all the kiddos to sit and look at the camera was nearly impossible so these are as good as it gets.

With the zoo down, and only one more day of break, we spent our final day of fun at the dentist - yay!  It was actually fun though because no one had any cavities and after our appointments, we spent some time at the mall where we ran into Dawn, Paul, Tyler, and Amelia and where we rode the carousel, played around, and had a bite to eat - nice!

With MEA technically over, we still had the weekend before we had to get back to real life so we decided to have some more fun.  Saturday was spent helping our favorite little plus one, Colton, celebrate his 2nd birthday.  Really, what could be more fun on a Saturday than Thomas the Train and ice cream cake?  After the festivities, it was back to get ready for our new reality for the next week . . . being Dad-less.  Trav had to leave for Columbia early on Sunday morning (it was either 4:10 or 4:40am - I was still half asleep) when he left and that meant it would be just the kids and I for an entire week - can you imagine!!!  I'll get to some of our fun in the next entry.

Taught by a 5 year old

This post is all about Lauren and how she has learned two of the more difficult things in life, first, potty training, and now, riding a bike.  Let's back up a bit . . . Lauren was just over 2 years old when I started potty training her (I insisted that we never have 2 kids in diapers at the same time so she had to be done before Ellie came along).  Anyway, the potty training was going, but no going great.  In fact, I was getting sick of the sitting by the potty and waiting for things to happen (give me a break, I was probably 7 or 8 months pregnant and my patience was rather short at the time).  So then we take a little trip to our friends house for the day and they also have a 2 year old, but their 2 year old was potty trained (and he was a boy!).  After seeing that, I was a bit defeated, but to my great surprise, Lauren saw Saul (the previously mentioned 2 year old) as a mentor, and poof, just like that, she was potty trained (maybe "poof, just like that" is a bit over the top, but you get the idea, one day hanging out with Saul to show her the ropes, and she is potty trained).  Why couldn't everything in life be that simple?  Well, today proves that maybe it can.  Our 5 year old neighbor girl, Marley, just learned how to ride her bike this past weekend without training wheels, and after seeing it just one time, Lauren wanted to try.  To say I didn't have my doubts would be a lie, but because Lauren was so insistent, I gave in, took the training wheels off, and spent the majority of the rest of the day running along side Lauren while she tried to figure out how to ride.  And surprisingly, she did alright.  She couldn't start or stop, but she could ride a bit once she got going (we were happy with the progress).  But, Lauren wasn't done.  She wanted to be able to start, stop, and ride all by herself, enter, Marley.  After our picnic lunch today (with the neighbors), the girls were looking for something to do.  Wanting to keep them busy, I told Marley that she should teach Lauren how to ride her bike so they could ride together.  I figured this would keep them busy for at least 15 minutes.  And it did, but not only that, Marley had Lauren starting, stopping, and riding all by herself all in that 15 minute window.  One minute I'm watching Marley "teach" Lauren how to use her feet to get started and the next minute they are cruising down the street together - apparently learning to ride bike is easy, who knew?  It does make me wonder though, does Lauren not like my teaching methods, or does she just save her best for when she needs to impress?  I won't complain, but if this trend continues, it looks like we'll need one of her friends to teach her how to drive in 12 years, now that should be scary!

Fall

Fall (or Autumn), may be my most favorite time of the year.  The weather is cool, but not freezing, the sun still shines, and there are lots of fun apple orchards and pumpkin patches to visit.  So this Saturday, after visiting the new babe, we decided to make a day of it in Buffalo.  We had a quick lunch at the local KFC (popcorn chicken is always a hit with the kids), then we ventured out to find the local apple orchard.  It was a bit chilly in the morning, but by the time we actually got to the place, the sun was shining and the wind had died down making it an almost perfect day.  When we got to the orchard, we weren't sure how everything worked, but there was lots to see so we dove right in.  And the best thing about the place, no entry fee (the place by our house is $11/person just to get in the "door").  We hardly made it two steps into the place and the kids found the "play area" and that's where we spent the majority of the day.  Think hay bales, tress, swings, playhouses, and some random ride on toys - the kids were in heaven!  Here are a couple of pictures from the play area . . .

And here are some pictures of everyone picking some delicious Honey Crisp apples.  The picture with Ryan holding his face is the aftermath of Trav holding him up high in a tree to get the perfect apple - mission accomplished, got the apple, almost smacked Ryan's face into a branch - oops.

A fun little Saturday!!

And baby makes 15

Baby makes 15 what you ask, well, let's back up a bit.  It all started when one crazy guy met one shy girl (not really sure on the crazy and the shy descriptions, but it works well with the story so I'm going with it).  The guy, Jim Loken, the girl, Donna Erwin - they fall in love, they get married, and they decide to start a family (and a quick one I might add, 2 kids in 17 months).  Now we flash forward to today (some 30+ years later) they have 13 new members of their family . . . 3 kids of their own (they added Ash in a mere 7 years after me), 3 spouses (for their 3 wonderful kids), and 7 grandchildren (in 7 years non-the-less).  I've got to believe when they started out, they could never imagine what their family would become.  I know I think about my own kids and how they'll grow up and leave the house, get married, and start their own families, but I never really know what it looks like.  But, if it looks anything like this . . .

I know I'll be one happy lady!  How can this not be every one's dream?  Seven little faces looking up and calling you "Grandpa" and "Grandma" - sign me up!  So there you have it, you start with a little family of 2 and you become a large family of 15 (and I'll add here that more grand kids are in the foreseeable future, just not from me, I did my part) - nice work Mom and Dad, I hope you are enjoying it all!

And here is a picture of the newest member of the family (#15), baby Kate was born on Friday, Sept 21st.  She weighed in at 6lbs, 15.9 oz and was 20 inches long.  The little girl has a TON of jet black hair and a lot of people waiting to give her lots of lovin' - hope she is ready for all of it!  And congrats to Ash and Mike, you make cute babies so keep up the good work!

Email from Ryan's teacher

Hi there, it’s Alyssa Cappelli, Ryan’s teacher. I meant to email you last night, but It ended up getting too late. I just HAD to share this cute story with you!

Yesterday, Ryan shared about his writing idea. He was writing about his trip to the Renaissance Festival. He added SO much detail to his sketch of himself doing the bungee jump. It was a great memory to write about and he remembered quite a lot from his trip there. The cutest part was when he looked at the group and said, with a very serious look on his face, “Yea, and the guy running the thing could see how nervous I was. He was dressed in really old clothes….like from 1993.”  I just thought it was so cute that 1993 was the year he placed the clothing! JBoy, I knew I was old, but I didn’t realize how old I was! Ha!

I just thought that might make you chuckle a little on a Wednesday, I sure know I was having a silent giggle to myself.

Now, the question is, do I break it to Ryan that just four years after 1993, his mother graduated from high school!  Not sure if he needs to be shocked by that fact, I'll let him still believe that I'm, "not that old yet."

"Big Kid" preschool

Today was Lauren's first day of what she calls, "Big Kid" preschool (meaning she is in the big kid classroom at her same preschool as last year).  The little lady woke up happy and cheery (which is not usually the case) so I took it as a sign of good things to come for the day, and as it turns out, I was right.  When I picked Lauren up from class today she walked out and said, "it was fantastic" without me even asking how the day went - love it!  And what's not to love about preschool, she is in a class with a bunch of her friends from last year, she already knows (and loves) the teachers (from seeing them last year and they were also Ryan's teachers when he went to preschool), and she was dropped off by almost her entire family (Trav, myself, Ellie, and Colt subbed in as her "brother" as Ryan was already at school) - not a bad way to start a hopefully great school year.  Here are a couple of pictures from this morning.  It should be noted that any picture that has Trav or myself is in took at least 4 shots to get an "acceptable" picture, meaning one where either our eyes weren't closed, our seventeen chins weren't showing, or we didn't in general look terrible.  And this is exactly why I try to just stick to pictures of the kids and not us - they look cute all the time, we look not cute all the time - enjoy!

Ellie is probably laughing at Trav because this was take 40 trying to get a "good" picture

Lauren and her buddy Myles at school