The fair and James soccer party

Last Tuesday night we went to the county fair. Usually we go on the free admission night, or we are able to get free tickets from somewhere, but this was the first year we actually paid to get in. I discovered that you have higher expectations when you pay for admission! We still have fun though :)

Rett and James really loved the corn box this year. Last year Rett just tried to eat all the corn kernels, so this was a big step up for him!

James didn't have patience to see any of the exhibits, so we headed straight to the rides! James wanted Anthony to go with him on most of them, so they did the bumper cars first. He loved it!

James had been talking about going on the big helicopter again and he even wanted to bring his toy helicopters so that he could compare sizes. Rett was big enough to go on this one with an adult, so all the boys went this time. Anthony said that once the bar came down over their laps, Rett started yelling, "No! No! No!". He was a little scared and definitely didn't want to go on any more rides after that.

Next was the crazy bus! Rett just watched from his stroller this time. Someone saw him watching and said, "He wants to go too!". If they only knew! He might be interested, but if we tried to put him on he would cry and want to get away.

For his last few rides, James rode the little kid rides by himself. He would run on and strap on his seat belt all by himself and wait for it to start.

The next day was a school holiday, so we didn't have to get up early to take James to school. However, without thinking I scheduled my chiropractor appointment (who I've been seeing for some hip pain from carrying around a 30 pound 2 year old. Thanks Rett!) for early in the morning, so we still had to get up and out of the house. I ended up having to meet someone from boy scouts to get some forms for cubs in the same town, so I had to decide if I wanted to drive the 30 minutes home and then come back or if I could stretch out the day with the boys. 

We went to the park and James found a little boy to play with for the first hour and then for the second hour, we discovered this large sand pile away from everyone else. I couldn't believe we survived for so long at the park without some kind of incident! 

Saturday James had his end of the season soccer party at a park down the street. He was so excited to play with his friends! They had pizza and snacks and then it was time for their medals.

His coach gave every kid a medal and a certificate with a specific title. James' was "Winning Spirit Award" and his coach told the story again about James running off of the field two years ago in his very first season and the assistant coach running after him, picking him up, and bringing him back. He always points out that he would never do that because he makes the parents do that. Every time I want to defend myself and say, "I was on my way to get him, but I was all the way on the other side of the field with a 6 month old baby in a carrier all by myself!! (This was when Anthony worked Friday nights)" I know he tells the story to be funny (and he has told it many times over the years) but I always look so bad in the story!

His coach pointing to how far away James had run :)

Eating cupcakes after the awards. Both of them just ate the icing and were done.

James had his first homework project assignment to take an outline of a turkey and make a disguise for him so that he wouldn't get eaten on Thanksgiving. When I sat down to do it with James, he wanted it to be a Zebra and he scribbled a bunch of black stripes all over it and insisted he was done. I was going to leave it at that because I figured this was his project. Then when I volunteered in his class on Monday and saw the other kids projects I realized how wrong I was! The parents are totally doing most of the work!! So elaborate!! So many props! And since I volunteer in his class, I know each kid and what their drawing/cutting/coloring skills are. I was kind of floored, like I somehow didn't get this memo that everyone else got that you needed to do more than let your kid color it. So I sat down with James and tweaked his a little bit...

Honestly I didn't want him to feed bad or embarrassed if his was the only one just colored since they present in front of the class. I have mixed feelings about this. It was fun for us to do it together, but is this just the beginning of class assignments at school where some are done just by the kid and others are obviously done by the parent?

James had a substitute in his sunbeam class at church and she sent me this cute picture of all of them. Don't they look like sweet little angels that would never make you want to pull your hair out? :)

James has really been working on sounding out words and usually he doesn't want to attempt to read or practice sight words. For some reason, he really liked this book I got from the library and he wanted to try to read it with me. After a few times he memorized the words and he loves that he can "read" it (although he does try to sound it out to remember which one it is if he forgets). I definitely need to find more books like this for him with only a few small words to a page!

Halloween Activities

The boys were excited to go to the ward trunk and treat. They had most of the games in the cultural hall and Rett just ran around crazy while I tried to help James do the games. One day they will both be old enough to be able to take out in public and not want to rip my hair out. Today is not that day :)

Rett's favorite game was this inflatable pool full of balls. He would jump in and throw all the balls out and wait for someone to come put them back in.

He saw these two balloons and decided that he had to pick them both up at the same time.

James discovered a hula hoop and I had no idea, but he is actually pretty good at it!

They shot the candy cannon before the trick or treating, and Rett was ready to dig into some candy. He was not excited about putting anything into his bag, he just wanted to immediately eat whatever anyone gave him.

After church the next day we sat down and did haircuts and I finally brought myself to do Rett's hair. It was getting to the point that he would cry and run away any time I tried to brush his hair and he would get bad tangles and mats in the back. I was amazed at how much older he looked with his hair cut short! It is still a little long on the top and will curl up a little bit, but I love that I can see more of his face now.

My mom came into town for Halloween and to watch Rett while I helped out with the fall festival at James' school. We really wanted to show her the newly renovated park, so we spent some time there one afternoon. Rett loves the big boy swings now! He could swing all day.

The next day we went back to the park for a little bit before heading to the pumpkin patch to pick out little pumpkins for his school fall festival. James was very focused on showing Grandma how well he can balance.

At the pumpkin patch we picked out little pumpkins and then decided to get a big one to carve at our house. I was not prepared for how expensive big pumpkins are! We picked out a very large one only to find out it was a 30 dollar pumpkin! No way! We put it back and got a smaller one instead :)

The day before Halloween was the big festival at James' school. They got to dress up in costumes, eat treats, decorate pumpkins, trick or treat around the school, take turns on a large bouncy house slide, play on the playground, and eat pizza with their friends. It was a full morning!

This is James with Ms. Suesi, the director of his school. He loves to stop by her office every morning just to say hi.

While they were waiting for their turn to go trick or treating, his class got to have free play with some of their classroom toys. James immediately went to the magnatiles and built a rocket ship. He loves those things! They are definitely on the Christmas list for this year.

I was mentally preparing myself for painting the pumpkins with the kids, but instead they did stickers to put on the pumpkin. It was so much easier! The stickers were different funny faces, so James did a Picasso version with the different parts of the face all over.

Finally it was time to line up to do some trick or treating! James always has to be in line with his three best friends. It is so stinkin' adorable!

Towards the end of the day, my mom brought Rett so he could enjoy some of the fun. Of course, all he wanted to do was swing :)

Once a month, everyone stays for lunch and eats pizza and pizza day happened to fall on the same day as the festival! So James and Rett got to eat lunch together at school with his friends. 

The next day was Halloween and everyone was still a little tuckered out from the day before. While we watched the Gator game in the afternoon, my mom convinced James to just "rest his eyes for a little bit" and he fell asleep for about an hour. Yes!

When it started to get dark, it was time for trick or treating! We pulled out the double stroller and decided to stay in our own neighborhood for the first time ever. We had a blast! It was a lot of walking, but so worth it. Rett didn't realize that he wasn't supposed to walk into the house when they opened the door, so he invited himself in. A lot.

James was full of energy and all about the spooky decorations this year. He loved them! Rett was really scared, so he had to stay back while James went up to the scary houses. At one house we didn't realize they had decorations that pop up and start talking when you walk by and Rett was so scared he was shaking uncontrollably! The owner of the house felt so bad, he ran up to Rett with a handful of candy to try to make him feel better. James said he wasn't scared at all.

Some of the decorated houses:

At this house, they put a toilet paper roll soaked in kerosene inside their pumpkin and lit it on fire. It was awesome! James said, "Hey! We have a pumpkin at home..."

My mom checked her step counter on her phone and we ended up walking over 2 miles around our neighborhood! After we made it back, the boys took a glow stick bath in the dark. 

While they were in the bath, I checked their candy. They got so much! I think they will need some help eating it :)