Amelia's zig zag braid

So neat looking!

William's project

We went to our town's small Fall Festival. Home Depot was there with some projects for the kids. All three kids wanted to do a project and all three picked something different.

John set out to help Amelia get started and I opened up Gemma's package of supplies. I told William I would help him as soon as I got Gemma underway.

William agrees, but then took his bag of prepackaged supplies and moved to the cement ground area and spread everything out. Moments later, he was hammering together industriously with a craft sized hammer. He seemed to have a handle on the situation and wasn't asking any questions. I helped Gemma complete her project and then turned to check on William.

It was perfect timing as he had all the pieces of the project together except one and it wouldn't fit. I asked William what step he was on in his enclosed direction sheet. He looked up at me, surprised.

"There are directions?"

I showed him the step by step directions page.

"Oh. Huh. I just looked at the picture on the box and put it together."

This made John and I both laugh out loud as this is totally what grandpa Kevin would do.

In this case, we needed to take a few things apart and rotate one piece to make everything work.

William's first 5k

At the last minute, I asked William if he wanted to run a 5k with me. He has been interested in running lately and has been asking frequently to run on our treadmill.

When he agreed, I signed us up!

It was cold that morning standing around, but I quickly realized we were overdressed.

William easily ran the first 1 and a half miles with me and then ran out of steam. We walked most of the rest of the route with occasional bursts of jogging.

Just before we turned the last corner, William told me he NEVER wanted to run one of these again. After we crossed the finish line, he had himself 2 pieces of cake and multiple glasses of juice. (Mom had a banana). When we got home, daddy was cooking up pancakes to celebrate his race.

I asked him again that afternoon if he would run another race with me and he said he would love to- just not tomorrow!

Feed the birds 10/9

At Grant's Farm, we decided to try their new attraction of feeding the parakeets. For $1, we were given a Popsicle stick with birdseed stuck to it with honey? Or peanut butter?

You walk into a huge cage full of many parakeets. You hold out your stick and soon, you are covered with parakeets.

William, in particular, loved this! At one point, I looked over and saw he had 5 birds on his arms, shoulders and even head.

Fun day off school

The kids had a day off school, so I loaded them up to go to a local attraction called Grant's Farm with a friend.

We saw the animals, rode the tram, took in a show and fed the birds!

The fall parties

The fall season is in full swing! Things are a little more complicated this year as the three kids are at 3 different schools. This makes it complicated to schedule to be at the different parties on 3 separate days and two do not allow siblings. There has been a lot of juggling!

Mom got to go to William and Amelia's parties. She only took pictures at Amelia's party. William's party was too crazy! It was very fun to see the kids at school and meet their friends!

My cuddly spider

I picked up the stuffed spiders a few years ago on clearance after Halloween. Every year, I pull them out and they are a hit all over again. I like them too, but I won't say it isn't creepy to find your 3 year old cuddled up with an 8 legged friend.