A few firsts

Last Wednesday we had Anna's first conference for first grade.  Matt and I were both able to go; our hearts were full as we left.  The teacher's first comments were along the lines of "Anna is a kind, hard-working student.  She listens to directions very well, is liked by her peers, and is a sweet kid."  :)  Whether or not she's a smart kid, (which she is) this is the kind of thing we like to hear from her teachers.  She still genuinely likes school and I think she's starting to realize herself just how much she is learning.

Thursday morning we had a friend come over to play with Kate for awhile - her first "playdate" in what must have been a long time.  She and Joy disappeared into the girls' room for over an hour; I think they both had fun :)  Ethan also had a fun time playing around with Noah.

Friday Kate and I had our first learning playdate together.  She told me a few weeks back that she wanted to learn about "cranes, the animals, not the machine" when I asked her what she was interested in.  So we checked out a few books from the library and on Friday morning played cranes outside while Ethan napped.  We made a crane nest in the field, pretended to lay two eggs, found food for the babies, and then "migrated" to and from one of the field islands.  She had a great time and was able to show Anna all that we did when Anna got home from school.

Saturday we had the first day in awhile where no one in the family had to be anywhere.  (This picture was taken at the end of a very active day at home, thus the disheveled appearances.)

In fact, I don't think we left the house/yard at all that day (except to play in the field for awhile).

Ethan got his first experience with the leaf vacuum.  This boy certainly loves his loud machines!

It was a great day, filled with time outdoors, playing around, working hard collecting leaves, leaves, and more leaves, and crashing hard that night.

To say that our leaf pile is big this year would be an understatement. These pictures were actually taken before we hauled about 10 tarp loads over from a neighbor's house and before another neighbor used his lawn sweeper to clean up his yard and dump the leaves on our pile.

Saturday was also the first day that Anna got to drive around the go-cart that Matt built for the kids.  Kate still doesn't want to drive it, but Anna did a very good job driving all around the yard :)

Monday Ethan had his first haircut ... or trim, if you could even call it that.  He was developing a bit of a mullet in the back and the top was starting to get shaggy.  So we got out the clippers and trimmed him up a bit.  He didn't like it very much.  In fact, it was a two parent job; Matt held him down while I buzzed him as fast as I could.  The pictures didn't turn out very well, but I don't think anyone besides us would really be able to tell if he had a haircut.

Before:

After:

Monday we also had our first snow!  Kate didn't want to play in it at all, but Anna was all geared up for playing in the snow after school.

The snow is still around today, at least in the front yard.  Maybe the girls will want to play out there this afternoon.  If not, I'm sure we'll have plenty of snow in the months to come ...

Halloween and more

The night before Halloween, I came down with a cold.  By cold standards, this one wasn't too bad, but I felt the worst from about 2 p.m. until bedtime on Thursday afternoon/evening.  Partner that with a rainy evening for trick-or-treating and Matt getting a flat tire on his bike on the way home from work, and you get a mom who wasn't too enthusiastic about Halloween.  Oh, well.  We did it anyway, with umbrellas.

Anna and Kate had decided earlier in the month that they wanted to be ghosts.  No problem.  Ghost costumes are easy :)  (Kate's the first picture, soaking wet after trick-or-treating; Anna's in the second picture, a week or so ago when it wasn't raining.)

For Ethan we pulled out the baby pumpkin outfit, even if it was a little small for him.  (He's not actually walking, but can stand for long periods of time more and more now.)

Maybe next year we'll do a bit more for the holiday, but it's just never been a big deal for us.  We hardly get any trick-or-treaters at our house and our kids only visit about 10 houses anyway.  They certainly get enough candy at those few houses to provide us all with dessert for several weeks, though!

Saturday was a nice day at home when no one had to go anywhere.  We treasure those days.  Probably the best part was going to explore the field with the girls in the afternoon while Ethan was napping.  The four of us had a lot of fun :)  Kate and Anna have names for the various "islands" and they've collected all sorts of things ... corn cobs (full and empty), cool rocks, cockleburrs, deer bones, etc.  On Saturday afternoon they developed a way to grind the corn that they had gleaned.  Probably not every kid's idea of a good time, but our kids certainly enjoyed it.

Sunday after church we headed as a family up to the Wisconsin Dells for a trip to the Kalahari Resort.  The McFarland Girl Scouts (have I mentioned that Anna's in Girl Scouts?) had reserved a bunch of rooms and had a package that was too good to refuse.  We decided that it would be best if we all went up for Sunday afternoon, but then I would bring the two younger ones back home that evening while Matt and Anna stayed overnight.  (Anna didn't have school on Monday, but Kate did.)  Although the check-in process was less than ideal, we think this plan worked out best for all.

The kids had a great time at the waterpark.  Anna was pretty adventureous in terms of what kinds of waterslides she would do on her own, but was still aware of her limitations.

 

Kate wasn't quite as brave as Anna, but still tried all sorts of new slides.

Ethan amazed us all.  It took him a little while to warm up to things, but by the end we had to keep an eye on him so he didn't crawl into water that was too deep for himself.  His two favorite activities were crawling through a tunnel and climbing up a few steps, then sliding down one of the little slides headfirst into the water :)

Kate, Ethan, and I had a fun time on Sunday night and Monday, with Kate getting to call a lot of the shots.  It's too bad that I had lost my voice with my cold, otherwise I'm sure we would have stayed up late reading loads of books together.

Matt and Anna had a great time, too, with Anna getting to call a lot of the shots for the two of them.  Matt said it was freeing to see how fast things could go when it was just he and Anna (instead of all three kids) and Anna commented to Matt how she liked getting to do whatever she wanted to do :)


When the two of them got home Monday afternoon, Anna chatted with me a bit and then curled up in bed and fell asleep.  We had to wake her up when Kate got home from school and Anna was a bit of a bear for awhile.

Somehow I was thinking that with this trip we had dodged the bullet in terms of the time change, but alas, we didn't.  The girls were both up around 5:15 this morning.  At least now I know it will only last for a few days before everyone's body's adjust ...

Fall events

This fall is just rolling right on by.  One of the highlights of our October every year is when the farmer comes to harvest the crops in the field behind our house.  Last year they got the soybeans in the beginning of the month; this year we decided to make some predictions about when the corn would get harvested.  Anna was closest.  She guessed October 31 and the corn officially came down on Monday (the 28th).

Kate, Ethan, and I spent a good part of the chilly morning watching the progress.

The girls didn't manage to get out there to play on Monday afternoon, but Tuesday they explored all of their favorite "islands" for well over an hour.  Can you find Kate and Anna in the field?

Ethan and I joined them for awhile, but then we headed back to the yard to let them play.  Ethan figured out how to climb into the wagon.

The girls finally returned with many "treasures".

I'm sure there will be more playing in the field to come yet this year before the snow flies.

Over the weekend we kept up with some fall chores.  The garden is tilled; almost all of the flowerbeds are cleared out; and the firewood is in the basement.  We're working on collecting leaves for next year's garden little by little, and I'm thoroughly enjoying the more relaxing times indoors :)

Last Friday Ethan turned 11 months ... yikes!  It's hard to believe that he's almost a year!

I took his 11 month pictures while both girls were at school on Monday.

At first he wasn't too thrilled about the photo shoot.

Then he started warming up to it.

Then he started getting the giggles.

Then I couldn't get him to sit still because he was laughing too much.

And then he heard an airplane outside :)

He's not walking yet, but we've tricked him into taking one or two steps on his own lately.  He's trying more and more words, although they probably wouldn't be recognizable to anyone but us :)  In the last week, he's mastered the sign for "more" (clapping), waving good-bye, and pointing.  Anna and Kate love teaching him new things.

Unfortunately, we've had a round of mild colds go through the house.  Anna had a bit of congestion last week; Kate was tired and crabby over the weekend; Matt and I came down with things this week.  Nothing too bad, so I won't complain.

We had Kate's fall conference with her preschool teacher this week.  No surprises there.  She's a kind, cooperative, independent preschooler who loves to learn and is very proud of herself when she accomplishes something new.  Her teacher loves having her in class :)

Anna and Kate are enrolled in swimming lessons this fall at the high school pool.  They're actually in the same level and the same class this fall, which is working out very well.  Kate feels a bit more comfortable because Anna's with her and Anna feels a bit braver because Kate's nearby, too.  They both love playing in the water :)

And we carved one of our pumpkins last night!

Cold weather

So within a week we went from highs in the 70s to highs in the 40s and 30s.  I guess this was bound to happen sooner or later, we were just all hoping for later, rather than sooner.  Kate is complaining these days about having to put on a coat, hat, and gloves before we go out to play.  I don't have the heart to tell her that it's only going to get worse before it gets better.

Before the big freeze over the weekend, we picked the rest of the cherry tomatoes (all shades from green to red) and are rationing them each day.  I don't know how the girls will adjust when they don't get to have their daily bowl of tomatoes :)

The big weather change brought on a nasty round of headaches for me :(  At least I can take my medication for it now, but they're still not fun.  After a bad round like this one, I have a renewed appreciation for feeling "normal" and enjoy the little blessings each day.

Before the weather got cold, the kids and I went to a local flower/garden shop and participated in their scarecrow-making station.  We didn't realize at the time that we should have brought kids clothes instead of Matt's clothes; our scarecrow required a LOT of straw and turned out to be really big.  The girls wanted to call him "Fatto" (because he looks really fat), but we decided Frank Fatto was better ;)

Kate's preschool class sang at the McFarland Lutheran Church on Sunday.  None of her classmates were there to sing with her :(, but the 3's class and the morning preK class all made for a nice group of kids.

On Monday Kate was special person at preschool.  She was SO excited, mostly because she got to ring the bell during class.  We helped her prepare for the interview portion by asking her a wide range of questions on Sunday during breakfast.  She did a great job on Monday.  When asked what her favorite part of preschool was, she said "Making new friends" ... gotta love this kid!

Kate, Ethan, and I have been spending more time together in the basement these days.  It's great exercise for the kids, and when it's too cold and/or wet to be outside, we can find lots to do down there.  Ethan's favorite activity is going up and down the slide ... not exactly the correct way.

Otherwise we're working on "winterizing" here, moving firewood into the basement and raking/collecting leave.  Matt and I are both hoping for a few more nice days before the cold really comes to stay; more than any other year, this fall has really seemed to slip by.

A different part of fall

The beautiful weather of early October has changed sharply in the past week.  Now we have the cold, rainy fall weather.  It's not bad, necessarily, just different.  It just means we've been doing more indoor activities and getting to have soups again :)

For the most part, we're just taking life one day at a time and trying to enjoy little moments each day.

Ethan is working hard on practice steps.  He hasn't taken any steps unassisted yet, but has a variety of things he pushes around to practice.  He's able to stand for short periods without holding on to anything, and can crawl really fast now :)  I think he'll be walking before he's 1, but we'll just have to wait and see.

Ethan had a lot of fun the other night watching Matt grill on the patio.  Matt had Ethan giggling up a storm :)

Ethan recently discovered how to throw his head back, both for fun and when he's mad.  He's learned the hard way that it can hurt a lot if he rams his head into Matt's sweatshirt zipper or if he tries to throw his head back when one of his sisters is holding him (they're not strong enough to hold him through the flail).  But he's also learned that he can scoot his chair back from the table by rocking his body hard enough and for long enough.  Silly boy.

Anna came home last week with a new daily homework activity ... reading aloud to a parent for 20 minutes a night!  I think we've figured out how to fit this in to our daily routine, but it may still need some tweeking.  So far she loves it and will often want to read more so that she can see how the story ends :)  One of the hard parts about her reading right now is that Kate wants to hear the story, too, but Anna's not as fluent as an adult (obviously), and Kate doesn't have quite enough patience to listen at Anna's pace ...

Kate's the characteristic middle child.  I hope our efforts to give her individual attention are noticed by her.  She's still a sweet and funny kid and I think she really enjoys her preschool experience, although sometimes she tells me that she would rather stay home and play.

Matt worked hard all day on Monday on the garage.  It's getting there!  He's down to cleaning up the workshop; the rest of it (both sides, the storage room, the space next to the garage as well as the space behind the garage) are all straightened up!  With all of Matt's cleaning, I've been itching to clean out some of the inside storage spaces, too.  It's been very cathartic to get rid of my maternity and post maternity clothing, along with some of our infant paraphernalia. We're waiting to find out if Matt's co-worker is having a baby boy; if so, that family will be receiving enough baby boy clothes to last them a year :)

Here's hoping I do a better job of taking pictures in the next week or so!

Bits and pieces

Here's a few bits and pieces from our life in the past week.

Ethan has some words!  Twice over the weekend when Matt entered the room, Ethan started crawling towards him saying "Dada! Dada!"  He also tries to say "Kate," "Hi kitty," and "uh oh."  I think he also tried to say "up" earlier today.  We love this stage when babies start to talk :)

We also love the things that our older kids will say.  Last week Kate went with me to the garage to get some potatoes out of the storage room for dinner.  The storage room is mostly used for Matt's scrap metal and engine parts, but our potatoes like the cool, dry space, too.  Kate commented on how it smelled different in there, how she liked the smell.  I told her it smelled like old engines and oil, kind of like Daddy sometimes.  She said, "Yeah.  It smells like Daddy's love."  :)

Here's another Kateism.  On Sunday Matt took Kate and Ethan home after church while I took Anna to a birthday party.  After Ethan went down for a nap, Kate and Matt watched a bit of the Packers game.  I guess it turned into a lot of rough-housing amidst the game-watching.  Somehow Kate came up with the phrase "Don't mess with the princess!" which she would shout right before she jumped on Matt.  It was a fun scene to come home to.

Last week Anna was supposed to decorate her two-stringed dulcimer for Kindermusik.  On the way home from music class, we were talking about how she could decorate it and I suggested just using markers.  She replied, "No, Mom.  That would look too plain.  I want it to look exquisite."  Gotta love Fancy Nancy books :)

Speaking of Anna, she can ride a bike without training wheels now!  We'd tried to help her off and on throughout the summer, but she wasn't making much progress.  Then our neighbor and friend, Carly, learned to ride, and that gave Anna a bit more motivation.  Plus, we found a great technique online for teaching kids to ride that we hadn't seen before.  After just a few days of this new method, it just clicked for Anna.  She's so proud!

With all of the bike practice, Kate learned how to make white skid marks :)

Anna didn't have school on Monday or Tuesday this week (although Kate did), so we kept Kate out of school on Monday and did a family trip up to Devil's Lake state park.

It was a beautiful fall day and we managed to do a 2 1/2 mile hike along the lake and up the West Bluff as a family, although Ethan fell asleep in the backpack on the way back.  The girls are great hikers and had a very memorable time.  We like this particular fall family tradition :)

And finally ... the garden is just about done.  I canned the last of the applesauce on Tuesday morning and we picked the rest of the apples that day, too.  I pulled up my tomato, cucumber, pepper, and zucchini plants on Sunday.  All that's left out there is the fall crop of broccoli, cherry tomatoes, pumpkins and squash.  It feels good to be at this point of the season.  It was a lot of work this year (and I got a LOT of help), but we should be set now for a few months.  Here's our fully stocked canning shelves (and those shelves are 3 jars deep!).  All of the peas, beans, strawberries, blueberries, broccoli, pickles, and corn are in the freezers.

McFarland Family Festival

Now that Anna and Kate are a little older, the McFarland Family Festival means a bit more to them.  They both remember the carnival from year to year so spending an afternoon riding a few rides is always a special event.

Anna was a little unsure of the big slide, but decided to do it anyway.

Both girls really wanted to ride in the cars :)

Kate chose to ride the train again this year by herself.

Matt and Anna did the paratrooper ride together; Matt and I think we're getting a little too old to ride these carnival rides :(

Plus, both girls walked in the parade this year, Anna for Girls Scouts and Kate and I walked with Kate's preschool.  The girls were a little worried that they wouldn't get a lot of candy since it was just Matt and Ethan collecting, but by the time they were done with their own parade portions, there was still a lot more of the parade to go, so they definitely gathered more than enough candy for our family.  Actually, they both remembered making candy creations and spent most of Monday afternoon unwrapping and gluing candy :)

(Anna's was a picture of Matt's truck; Kate's was a picture of Grandma and Grandpa's woods.)

Plus, Ethan is 10 months old!  Where does the time go?!?