Snot & Greenbluff

It's that WONDERFUL time of year again.  The leaves begin to show their beauty by changing colors, kids are bundling up to play outside, there's a thin layer of frost on the ground each morning and the kids have colds, again!  YUCK!  Though Howard seems to be on the mend, Hazel is right smack in the middle of her cold and completely miserable. 

I would like to pretend that I love fall, after all I normally look forward to this beautiful time of year.  However, we had almost no spring and a too-short summer!  I am ready for a few more 100 degree + days before we go cold.  PLEASE!?

One of my mommy friends had to work today and we were graced with Jacob at our house.  Jacob and Howard have been friends before they knew what friends were.  Brian met Jacob's dad in college, before either were married.  We have become great friends with their family and Howard and Jacob love to play together.  They are even in the same kindergarten class, which we love! 

Today we made plans to take Jacob with us to Greenbluff to visit the pumpkin patch with another one of their kindergarten classmates, Luci and her mom and baby brother.  We know Luci's mom from karate (she's the instructor).  The 3 older kids played so well together while Hazel and Zach (Luci's baby brother) stared at each other and put things that didn't belong in their mouth, in their mouth.  What a perfect day to play and pick pumpkins.  Enjoy the pictures!

Cousins

My 13-year-old nephew, Nick is staying at a long-term care facility for teens who are having difficulty at their homes.  The facility is here in Spokane and so my family has been staying with us a lot more than usual to visit Nick and be involved in family counseling sessions.  This past weekend my sister came over with my niece who is 6 weeks and 6 days younger than Howard.  Alice and Howard LOVE playing together.  She is bossy and he does whatever she tells him to, until a mom steps in to remind Alice she has to stop being so bossy and remind Howard he doesn't have to do whatever she tells him.

I think both kiddos were overwhelmingly tired this visit because they played better than normal together.  No bossing around, just 2 5-year-olds playing great together.  Nick came over for a little bit too.  We made them all pose for pictures, which kids dislike, it takes away from playing time.  Hazel disliked the picture taking the most, but we finally got a great picture of all 4 cousins with the help of my sister.

Howard & Alice

 Hazel letting us know she wanted nothing to do with pictures!

 Finally a great shot, with Aunt Erin's help!

 Erin with her 2 kids, Nick & Alice

 Hazel still wanting nothing to do with pictures!

Frogs!

This past week at school Howard's kindergarten class started their first expedition - FROGS!  The Summit School does project based teaching, which they call expeditions.  They teach science, reading, math, spelling, ect all through and while learning more about frogs.  It's a very fun and cool way to teach.  The kids are able to apply what they are learning to something interesting.

Howard came home from day 1 with frogs and was so excited to tell us they had a REAL dead frog in his classroom with the bones sticking out.  They also have a live frog in the class during this expedition.  I can't wait to see their finished project at the end of the expedition.

Hazel is growing and developing.  I had to move the straps on her carseat this week to make it a little bigger!  She enjoyed having it up in the living room.  It was so much more fun to sit in it in the living room than in the car.  :)

Hazel had started taking out anything we put in her hair to keep her bangs out of her eyes, so we took her in to have her bangs cut.  Let me just say, I am not a fan of bangs on girls with long hair, which I hope Hazel has soon (long hair), but now I totally understand why parents have bangs on their little girls.  Hazel was taking any barret or clip out and trying to eat it.  She is still just as cute as ever and she will have plenty of time to grow her bangs out as she grows.

Hazel is a full, full time walker now.  No more crawling.  And she's starting to test things out, like screaming and turning the tears on in an instant to see if it will get her what she wants.  Oh how I remember stage with Howard.

We've been enjoying a lot of soccer, both on TV and the league games Howard is playing in.  I love this time of year for soccer, cook and crisp, lots of exciting little, rosey cheeked boys. Hazel goes along to games and enjoys making friends with all the players siblings.