Pumpkins, part 2!

We finished the pumpkins tonight.  The kids and I braved Walmart to get some candles.  Note to self, don't go to Walmart the day before or the day of a holiday...it was a nightmare.  But we got back home safe and the kids were so excited to see their pumpkins lit. 

Calvin's pumpkin is on the far left, a traditional jack o' lantern face.  Mia's is in the middle...any guesses?  Of course, a fox for the fox lover.  And Asher's is on the right...what they call a silly face.  Daddy gets the credit, he carved 90% of the pumpkins, the kids just told him what they wanted.  I did a few minor details on the fox face.  Aren't they fun!

Pumpkins!

Last week we went to the pumpkin patch as a family.  We had a great time picking out pumpkins and enjoying the pumpkin patch.  And then tonight we finally carved our pumpkins.  Asher and Calvin thought the insides of the pumpkin were gross, and Mia felt like it was stringy and slimy, but she jumped into cleaning out her pumpkin whole heartedly.  She was a real trooper.  I will try to get some pictures of the finished project up, but we didn't get a chance tonight. 

Happy 7th Birthday Mia!

Happy Happy Birthday SweetPea!

Mommy and Daddy can't believe that you are 7 today!  My how time has flown by these past seven years.  I still can vividly remember the day you were born.  Being so anxious to finally meet you and hearing that first cry after you were born.  1:03 pm.  5 pounds 4 ounces.  So petite and tiny, you know you still are petite and tiny, but you have the biggest heart that a little girl can have.  You are always sharing and always helping others with a smile on your face. 

This year you grew another 2 inches!  Either that or your pants got shorter.  You also gained some weight this year, you are now hovering around 36 pounds.  That elusive 40 pounds is just around the corner...

You graduated out of physical therapy this year and now only have a couple of other therapies.  You continue to ride horses at MARE and this year you've been riding the horse Lady quite a bit. 

On top of all of that, you now do school at home!  And you love it.  You are a great learner and it's so neat watching you learn daily new skills.  You are adding and subtracting, telling time, writing sentences and your favorite subject is science.  Right now you are learning all about trees and the different seasons. 

Calvin also likes to do school with you at home.  He is your best friend.  This year we put your beds in the same room and you two love it.  In fact, you keep asking us for bunk beds.  One of these days we will do that and we might even put Asher in there with you all too! 

Asher is mostly your little bother, but you are learning that he is just a toddler and he has a lot of learning to do.  I've watched you give him a lot more grace these days and show him more love.  He is going to be so lucky to have such a nice big sister like you!

We love you sweetpea!  God has blessed us with a beautiful little girl.  We look forward to what God has for your year 7!

All our love,
Mommy and Daddy, Calvin & Asher

Birthdays and Unicorns!

Mia finally settled on her birthday party theme a week or so ago--unicorns!  So, we had some friends over and got to celebrate her turning 7 (a day early...but who is counting?).  The party goers arrived and everyone donned their own unicorn horn.

There was even a spotting of a double horn unicorn, a very rare occurrence!

Some adults even joined in the festivities...

There was some fun unicorn crafting that happened...

And some just plain silliness...

After some unicorn food...think carrots, apples, crackers, cheese and meat...there was a unicorn cake!

After all that excitement, the unicorns went in search of bugs, they needed more protein?  Maybe to balance out the sweet?  Thankfully there was an expert bug catcher in the group and he was practicing "catch and release" to the bugs delight.

It was a great party.  We had so much fun with our friends, thank you for sharing Mia's 7th birthday with her!

Pumpkins - 1000th Post!

This is the 1000th post on this blog, crazy!  Things have slowed down quite a bit since when we first started blogging with Mia and everything that was happening.  But we still try to keep it up and I love that all the kids can look back on a record of their life...it is like a big, baby book to me. 

Today we went to visit our favorite pumpkin patch.  We were meeting up with some other MOPS mommies.  The kids had a great time and just loved all the pumpkins.  It is such a fun place!

Teeth, Eyes and Bears...oh my!

We've had a pretty hectic week that won't end until after Mia's birthday party this coming Saturday.  Last week the kids visited the dentist and did great.  This is the first time EVER that Mia has done a check up with no tears, she's becoming such a big girl.  I was so proud of her.  AND she let them take one x-ray of her front teeth.  She has such a tiny mouth that taking a full set of x-rays would be difficult, but we are starting small and working our way towards that.  As she is losing her baby teeth, there is some concern with her adult teeth coming into her tiny mouth as there is not a lot of extra space.  Something will have to give and I'm not sure what that will look like, but at the moment, it is a wait and see. 

Calvin has a much bigger mouth and he got his first full set of x-rays done.  All 3 kids did great and no cavities, so that makes me a happy mama. 

Yesterday all 3 kids had a visit to the eye doctor, in addition to our bear friend Cubbie.  Calvin does Cubbies, the earliest Awana program and throughout the year, the kids get to take Cubbie home with them for a week.  Cubbie is supposed to do everything with them and then you take pictures and write a little note to share with the class when you return him.  Calvin has been enjoying Cubbie, but not super attached...rather Asher is very attached to Cubbie.  Of course, his favorite stuffed animals are bears, so it makes sense...those are his babies.  So, I hope there won't be too much trauma in returning Cubbie at the end of the week. 

Calvin and Asher both had super eye exams and their vision is great.  Which is great news.  We had stopped officially doing vision therapy for Mia's lazy left eye, and unfortunately, her eye isn't doing much work right now.  So, her vision in her left eye dropped a bit and we are now in the process of starting up vision therapy again to work on regaining that vision...it really is just a matter of her actively using her left eye.  And she's been choosing to not use it because it is weaker.  Her eye doctor thought that we could get back to where we are fairly quickly, but it was telling to me that we might be doing vision therapy indefinitely.  Which is ok. 

Homeschooling is going great.  I love it, the kids love it and we have flexibility to do these therapies that we need to get done, for us it's a win win. 

We are so excited that the weather is cooling down and the kids are looking forward to fun fall time activities.  We are grateful for each day we get with our little troop.