Poetry and Dreams

Today Carter came out of his room and told me that during quiet time he had thought up some poems.  He started to tell me one about Batman and then said "Mom can you write them down?"

So I ran and got paper/pencils and he once again told me the same Batman poem again, word for word.  I was pretty surprised that he put enough thought into his poems that he was able to repeat them verbatim a second time.  Anyways, here are my little boy's poems:

Christmas

Man, what do you want for christmas?

It is snowy out tonight.

I want a snow sheep and a snow eagle.

Santa, that man down from heaven wants a snow sheep and a snow eagle.

The End Good Bye

Batman

Batman have you found bad guys?

Yes, I have.

Can I come too?

No you can't Robin.

Good Bye Good night.

Lobster

Lobster, do you live in a house?

"No, I don't" said the Lobster

I live in the ocean and the sand.

Good Bye Good Night.

I don't know, I think I'm partial to the Christmas poem!  Any chance we could make some money on five year old poetry?  Haha!  I'll just let the blog preserve it for future Carter.

In other news......

This weekend while Meme was visiting she shared a room with Carter and Ava.    Apparently Ava woke up crying in the middle of the night.  Meme went to comfort her and heard all about her dream.  In Ava's dream there was a wolf that ate Meme.  Meme told her "don't worry, it was just a bad dream."  

And Ava through her tears told her, "No Meme, it was a good dream."  

Trick or Treat!

Trick or Treat!

This year Carter wanted to be Batman, and Ava wanted to be Super Girl.  She was very happy with her costume of a tutu, leggings, batman shirt and a Mommy crafted cape.

We were very lucky to have a full house of Grandparents:  Grandma, Bo, Meme, and Nana.

All of the trick or treaters, although Meme choose to drink or treat.  Not too surprising, though.

Dawson in his hand me down Elmo costume.

Although it was chilly and rainy, the kids made it a lot longer than I thought they would.  Dawson yelled "MORE MORE" after each house.  

At one point Meme asked Ava "Do you want me to hold your hand?"  

Ava said "No, that's ok, it's just freezing."

Then everyone came home, ate three pieces of candy and passed out.  

Mission Accomplished!

Beautiful Day

Today was an absolutely beautiful day, I believe it was supposed to be close to eighty degrees.  So I decided to take the kids to the zoo, and I'm so glad that we did.  I had fun hanging out with my kiddos, and I know I say this all the time, but do I have the best job ever or what?  I wasn't locked inside a building, stuck at a desk but out enjoying three of the four most important people in my life.  

But anyways, the zoo.....

The Lions were very active today, we saw them running, wrestling and roaring at each other.

We took a train ride, here are Carter and Ava on the caboose.

Carter took this picture of me holding Doc.  Dawson ADORES trains right now. He was scared to get on the train but had a great time and didn't want to get off.  

After we got off the train, we had to watch the train and wave to everyone on it for a long time.

At home this evening all the kids were excitedly trying to tell Mike what they saw at the zoo.  Dawson refused to let us talk about anything else but the train ride.  Ava would start talking about the flamingos or penguins but Dawson would start yelling "CHOO CHOO, WHEELS, PEOPLE, BABY JUICE, WAVE PEOPLE ALL ABOARD."  

Then Carter would start telling about the lions or tigers and Dawson would yell "CHOO CHOO, WAVE, WHEELS, ALL ABOARD!"  I took a video of our dinner time conversation, and I hope that I can figure out a way to upload it.  This is the first time our third child had commandeered the conversation away from big brother and big sister.  LOVES trains.

As soon as I asked Ava this morning what she wanted to wear, she immediately replied "My Flamingo outfit."

It was a fun, wonderful, busy day.

Thank you!

Thank you Uncle Jason and Aunt Tiffany {slinky and Andrew too!} for the Halloween goodies.  

{And yes, Ava has been wearing this spiderman costume for two days straight.  Thank you 50% off sale at the kids consignment shop!}

My Lunch Date and Heard around the House

My Lunch Date with Spiderman, Optimus Prime and Dawson

Heard around the House:

Carter in a singsong voice:  Ava, Ava you are my little love

Ava in a singsong voice:  I love you too, my love

Carter out of the blue while we are driving in the car:  I just want to be a soccer player so I can run as fast as a motorcycle or race car.

Fall Fun

During Andrew's baby shower we spent some time playing in the leaves.

Mike said he felt like an Eddie Bauer model.

Princess dresses play in the leaves as well.

Happy Dirty Birthday!

Today my very best friend turns 30!

Happy Birthday Aunt Margie!

I'm so proud of all the hard work you are doing in school and in raising two great kids.  

We love you guys so much, and only wished that you lived closer.

I know that you were studying today, but hopefully you'll have some fun too.

Andrew's Baby Shower

This weekend we went to Uncle Jason and Aunt Tiffany's baby shower.  It was a family baby shower, so everyone was invited.  We had a wonderful time playing games, jumping in leaves and celebrating.  Here are some pictures from the shower:  

Are you surprised that Ava chose to wear a big fancy dress to the shower?

Dawson drank a lot of WATER at the shower.  He was very thirsty.

Baby Andrew received many gifts, but his favorite was the beautiful shirt from Uncle Mike.  {This is Aunt Tiffany and Uncle Jason laughing when they opened it up.}

Here is the onesie with Mike's picture on it:

The Most Interesting Uncle in the World

On the back:

When he was born, the doctors called the publishers at Guinness World Records

.......sleeping like a baby was his idea.

........babies request his smooth adult skin.

......the oldest child is always first.

.......babies use their grown-up voice for him.

I don't always play with babies,

but when I do, they love me.

That Mike, always the jokester. 

Of course there was plenty of balloon throwing to go around.  

Carter was so proud that he won the game "Feed the Baby."

He was on the porch for quite some time using a spoon to fling tiny wiffle golf balls at a cornhole board.

Congratulations Aunt Tiffany and Uncle Jason!

We can't wait to meet baby Andrew!

3 and a Half!

Our Little Miss Avaroo,

 You are now three and a half!  I can't believe what a wonderful little girl you are growing up to be.  You are smart, goofy, kind, cuddly and it goes without saying beautiful.  I thank God for having you in my life! 

You LOVE to dress up and play with your barbies or dolls but you also love to play batman with Carter.  You love to have your hair done, wear big poufy dresses and paint your fingernails with sparkly nail polish but digging in the dirt with your big brother can happily occupy you for a long time.

You have learned so many new things since you turned three.  You are able to write your name Ava, although you will occasionally reverse the lower and upper case A's.  You are counting into the thirties, and recognize your letters and most letter sounds.  The last time I checked there were just a few letter sounds that you still had difficulty with including h/f/l.  For some reason the difference between circles and ovals can confuse you, but we are working on it. 

Instead of preschool you are involved in different activities including Sunday School at Church, weekly story times at the library, tiny tracks {a literacy program at the YMCA} and ballet class.  The library also had a month long session of kindermusik which you really enjoyed.

See what I mean about goofy?

I gave you both some monster eye stickers to play with and I went to make dinner.  You were the first to decide that multiple eyeballs were in order.

You have been talking non stop about cutting your hair short {shoulder length} like Riley's.  Today I took you to get it cut and you changed your mind and said "just cut a little."

We love you so much Avaroo.  You are our dream come true.  

Hey I rhymed!

But I really do mean it with all my heart.

Mommy and Daddy

    

Sock Wars

This is one of those silly little stories about my kiddos that no one in the world really cares about...except me, Mike and maybe the grandparents.  But I find it funny, so I choose to write it down.  I always imagine I'm going to think it is so funny in the future.  So, anyways socks.  Ava does not like to have socks on her feet.  Even in the dead of winter she will run around in bare feet, so it is not uncommon to see socks littering the playroom floor that she has discarded after taking off her shoes.  Well, Dawson has taken a liking to her socks.  She has neon pink, green, blue, and yellow tie dyed socks that Dawson covets.  So, Dawson sees pretty socks on the ground and wants to put them on.  I change his socks for him and he runs around in his pretty socks until Ava notices, and wants to wear her favorite, best socks that she has ever had.  I think I'm going to have to get Dawson some fancy socks as well.....     

Fall Camp Out Take 2!

Well, we went camping this weekend with Bo, Grandma, Uncle Jason, Aunt Tiffany and friends with their two children.

The campground was having their Halloween celebration this weekend so there was lots to do including pumpkin decorating, ghost crafts, pumpkin bowling, hay rides, and of course trick or treating.  There was also a movie played, but it was raining, boo.

Carter and his decorated pumpkin

Grandma took care of our littlest boy

I gave Ava a piggy back ride.

Cute picture, right?  Just pretend you don't see the hair blowing into my mouth.

Our campsites, it is sooooo pretty camping in the fall!

Our campground TV

The kids would hear the tractor coming with the hay rides and start yelling "the tractor is coming!"  All the kids would race over to the hill and sit down to watch and wave at the people on the hay ride.  Pretty soon, Carter started calling it "our TV."

Dawson is able to keep himself wonderfully occupied for hours with some dirt, sticks, leaves and a bus or dump truck.  By the way, he is dressed like Elmo in this picture for trick or treating, he just wouldn't wear the hood.

Ava was a princess

Bert and Ernie were there as well!

I put a spell on you dog

Aunt Tiffany and our not yet born cousin ANDREW was there as well!  Doesn't she look awesome, despite being almost 30 weeks pregnant?

Mike was still dressed like a naturalist

Uncle Jason sported a beautiful princess crown to everyone's delight.  It was his scaredy girl costume, according to Ava.

The boys after our morning hike

Once again we enjoyed ourselves and the beautiful scenery.  The kids had a blast playing with each other and kept each other occupied and busy the entire time.  Unfortunately we did get some rain Saturday night, but by the morning it was done so we could still enjoy the park a little more.  

We also learned the hard way that if you take a baby whose regular diet does not include refined sugar and then allow that baby to each a good amount of trick or treat candy it will be DISASTROUS!  Dawson started crying at bed time and I tried sleeping with him cuddling him, rocking him, walking around with him and playing with him, but he would just not calm down.  Finally I told him if you don't stop crying I'm going to put you in your car seat.  After that he refused to go back in the tent so the two of us hung out in the van while he screamed until about two am when he finally crashed.  The entire time I remember thinking about a story my Mom had told me about someone giving me a coke to drink when I was about one and I stayed up all night crying and screaming.  So I guess this was my payback!

But despite that hiccup, we really did enjoy ourselves and look forward to coming back next year!  

Vest {or Best?} Buddies

Dawson Boy

Dawson, you are at such a fun age right now.  Right now you are having an amazing language explosion and every day I'm learning more and more about this great little boy that I have the privilege of raising.  Tonight before dinner you wanted bip {milk} and I poured you a cup.  You looked at me and said "dank you mom mom."

Chowing Down at the campground

You are such a sweet cuddly guy who makes me laugh a thousand times a day.  Today we were reading a book that has a picture of a little boy running naked down the street.  I asked you "What is David doing?"

You looked at me and said "bum, Ava."

Then you proceeded to crack up laughing.  You do have a valid point, Ava tears around this house naked about every evening before bath time.

I love reading a book of opposites with you and we do "LOUD, quiet" and "fast, slow" together.

Recently you took a MAJOR liking to trains or as you want to call them "choo choo's."  I taught you to say "ALL ABOARD!" like a train conductor and it is so sweet to hear you stumble as best as you can through this phrase.

This little face just kills me

Now that you are almost two you are starting to have opinions, although let's be honest you have always had very distinct opinions about how the world should operate and would protest LOUDLY when things did not go your way.  But now you are able to voice your opinions in a way that does not involve screaming, which is just music to my ears.  I will always oblige, unless it's something dangerous or breaking my "rules."  

You insist: NO PILLOWS in your crib.  You DO NOT like sweaters with hoods.  

Angel Baby is your constant sidekick, sometimes in your hand, mouth, or even under your shirt.

Love you my Baby Boy!  

Fall Camp Out Take 1

Well, the kids had such a good time camping in Bo and Grandma's backyard, we decided to have a fall camping adventure.  I invited lots of people, because I wanted to have friends for the kids to play with, and it turned out that everyone wanted to go, just on different weekends.  So this weekend was round one of our fall camp out.  Saturday was a wonderful day, it was chilly, but with plenty of layers we all stayed plenty warm.  

Dockie had a wonderful time digging in the dirt.  As I was trying {in vain} to get him to take a nap I realized this boy smells like dirt and chocolate.  Yup, the oatmeal chocolate chip cookies were a big hit!  After I took his muddy boots off to play in the tent he wanted to run around with no shoes on, silly boy.

My Carter boy

He had such a great time with his friend.  I asked him what he liked best about camping, of course he said he liked seeing Danny whenever he wanted. 

Daddy was mistaken for the naturalist leading the hike in his camping gear.

Although Ava looks a little grumpy in this picture she was the embodiment of the "happy camper."  She had a ball digging in the dirt with the boys and running around with her friend Julia.  The most difficult part was getting her to dress appropriately for the weather.  Every time I turned around she was taking off her jacket and running around in bare feet.  

On the dock, getting ready to fish.  Which lasted approximately three minutes.

The boys fishing on the dock.

They also had a good time playing on the playground at the campgrounds.

What a cutie pie.  Can you believe he is creeping closer and closer to two!

We played glow sticks and then crashed.

With an electric heater in our tent we were toasty warm and comfy.  Unfortunately when we woke up Sunday morning it was COLD and raining.  So we left as soon as possible and enjoyed a warm bath, our warm house and a lazy pajama day.

Now we are gearing up for round two next weekend!