Zooloween

We have had several days of Halloween festivities! Playgroup Halloween fun last Friday, Party at Illahe on Sunday, pumpkin carving and seed roasting extravaganza last night and library fun and dinner with two ghouls (see photos below) and Nana tonight! Enjoy our little zoo animals!

Around here we take the pumpkin carving aspect of Halloween VERY seriously. Granted, this is a tradition much led by my beloved husband (and whose enthusiasm is echoed by Henry). This year Carl designed a carving of a Mini Cooper for Henry's pumpkin. As you can imagine Henry was (and still is) thrilled. Ava got stars, a cat and moon for me, and mr. smiley for Carl. Needless to say with so many pumpkins we have a myriad of roasted seeds to eat (part of the tradition). We had dinner and Henry thoroughly enjoyed passing out candy (we didn't even take him trick-or-treating, but he didn't seem to mind). He actually has never been as we were in Mexico for Halloween last year. Needless to say, a good time was had by all!



The master at work. Carl really is masterful when it comes to his talent and dedication to carving pumpkins. Below is Henry seated below two of the completed pumpkins. Only the Mini and stars can be seen here...



Daddy dressed up as a cyclist for work. My oh my. (Again my apologies for the non-rotated photo)




Ava playing with the bells at the library with her buddy the bee.



Ok, I think these are prize winning pictures. Meet Carl's grandma Louise (affectionately known as Lulu) and grandpa Beryl (affectionately known as Grandpa B). Are they amazing are what? I can only hope to be the wonderful grandparents that they are!



Check out that purple hair! And cute Nana in the back with her pumpkin sweater--oh so festive.



So yes, I am posting a blurry picture because, let's face it, I'm just not that great a taking pictures, but this one would have been truly wonderful if only I had gotten it in focus...you'll get the idea anyway.



Ava and her buddy Luke (son of her godparents, Bryce and Angel) as they were matching zebras.



A peek at playgroup Halloween last Friday.



The grand finale. The kids in each other's costumes. This was completely initiated by Ava. That girl LOVES to dress up! Note Henry in the 6-12 month costume!

October summary

As I was not as on the ball as I would like with my blogging this month, here are a few moments I would like to include before the month's end!

After a rainy start to October, we've had several weeks of sunny weather. Here are the kids at Nelson park enjoying some time outside.





This year Salem has a new indoor play park which we have joined. We are very grateful to have a place to play when it rains! Here are Henry and Ava having fun. Note Ava on the car. Her brother's passion has not escaped her. She loves to drive and play with his cars and even makes a vrroommm noise while she "drives" them.




Also a very girlie girl, Ava loves to dress up. Tonight she insisted on wearing her piggy towel around the house before bed. She already picks out her favorite jammies and brings them to us for her to wear.



Ava (aka Accessory Girl). Ava also loves shoes...anyone's shoes. Here she is with Henry's shoes on over her footie jammies and in my shoes showing how big she is. Like the pajamas she brings the shoes to us and insists that we put them on her. Also with my pink purse (notice the sheer joy on her face). She is so fun.





In closing, here are a few stories to share.

Mr. I love you. Henry spontaneously says "Mommy, I love you" and "Daddy, I love you". He says it so sweetly. It makes our hearts melt. He also thanks God for his sister every night (which is wonderful to behold). And he has decided that he likes to hold my hand and lay with me while he falls asleep (which generally takes him less than 2 minutes). There is nothing like watching him sail off into dreamland. He is so tenderhearted. I am glad to remember these moments when I am faced with his strong 3 year old will.

It's pumpkin time...

Today we visited Bauman Farms to gather some good fall memories...and some pumpkins.




Ava has never had any juice to speak of in her 14 (almost 15 months) so the apple cider slushee was quite a delight.





...and when the little cup was empty, she went for the big one....




Henry is jumping on this ENORMOUS yellow jumping pillow. It was unlike anything I've ever seen. Oh, also of note, he adopted new parents while we were at the jumping tent that he kept jumping over to. He even invited the mom to jump with him (Carl kept teasing me that it was Chloe!). What a kick he is!



They also had a huge area full of corn and grain for the younger ones. It was like sensory heaven!




Carl and Henry on the Zip Line Swings.



Oh, so happy!

many firsts...

Sorry for the hiatus, but several days ago our digital camera just quit working...well for a technologically challenged mommy I thought this meant the end of any photos for our blog until after our camera returns from the Virginia repair center or wherever they make us send it...warranty, ha! Anyway, I have taken some photos with my phone, unfortunately, I took them the wrong direction so you'll have to forgive the pictures that cannot be rotated--hopefully for the last time. So after the introduction, here's are some goings on around here...

After spending just a little while around Henry you learn that he is a VERY self-determined child. As his mother I am holding out hope that this serves him well as an adult because some days it entirely wears me out! A few examples as of late illustrate this point.

1. Aside from bacon, Henry's diet has been entirely vegetarian since he was 2. However, this week he tried a chicken strip and since has decided that he kind of likes it. However, it has taken him over a year and a half just to be willing to TRY it. Consequently I took him to Baskin Robbins for dessert the other night and we were talking on the ride home about his favorite ice cream flavors. He said, "I love all of them." Not surprising. Ok. So I said, "What are some of your other favorite foods?". He respoded. "Pretzels! I love them." Also not surprising (there have been days that he would gladly survive on only pretzels). So I said, "Do you have any other favorite foods?". His response, "Chicken." ARE YOU KIDDING ME? I might have had an accident if I hadn't been careful. That boy never ceases to amaze me.

2. We have the privilege of swimming year round at my parents house. Here are a few photos of Henry's first jumps into the pool. He wears a little swim vest and is very comfortable being in the water, but until this day he had never been brave enough to jump in! However, as in the above example, one try and he is in! He was a jumping fiend--as high and far as he could go!



3.Henry's new favorite phrase is "It's ok, mom." or "It's ok, dad." If only I could post his inflection you might understand better. He uses this phrase when he anticipates that he is in trouble--sometimes rightly, but other times to sort of convince us (and himself) that things really are ok. Usually it just makes us laugh that sort of uncontrollable parent giggle that makes it so difficult to discipline your child!

As for other firsts, Carl made our first trip to the emergency room in 2007. We always seem to make at least one trip! After returning from 3 days in Iowa, he woke up Sunday morning and gave himself a doozy of a cut to his left thumb. A few hours and four stiches later, he returned home to us. Now after a week, he's almost all healed. The body is an amazing machine.

Miss Ava is gracing us with new words and sounds almost daily. Some of her newest words are cracker, wow (my personal favorite--she says it with such awe), and several animal sounds including tiger, cow, and bird! She is a joy to behold.

Mommy's little helper and....dun, dun, dun...Chloe

I still am having trouble grasping that Ava is getting so old. From her first experience with ketchup last night (where she dipped like a pro!) to the fact that she loves helping me unload the dishwasher in the morning.




Her other favorite thing is peek-a-boo. She can play anytime, anywhere. Here she is popping out of our tent!

I took the kids to the library this morning for lap-sit storytime. Well I'm not sure about the title because neither of my children sat on my lap for more than twenty seconds! Ava cruised around and charmed several moms with her sheer delight in her new found mobility and her clapping and bouncing to the music! Henry participated more but can always be counted on to randomly run off and try to figure out how the gate (that lets people in and out of the room) works.

And for those of you who don't know, Henry has an imaginary mother. Right...most kids have an imaginary friend, mine has a mother (not sure if I should be offended by this or not :)) Well, Henry a very elaborate description of Chloe (his mom). She drives a yellow smart car (it used to be blue but she painted it), she lives in Portland, she has red curly hair, and of course, she does all the things that I don't allow Henry to do...wear pajamas in public, break traffic laws without getting a ticket, etc. Today's episode was that he was screaming and crying at me in the car on the way home from the library because I did not let him get in the front door and climb through to his seat. Now before you start thinking I'm unreasonable, I'll have you know that it was my suggestion and I even opened the front door for him and he just didn't go so I thought he didn't care. Of course he didn't, until I had carried him around and buckled him in. After much crying and carrying on he informed me that Chloe gave him another opportunity...what a clever kid...needless to say I kept driving.

Here is the inagural blog for the Sanders family! I thought I'd update you on a few recent happenings around here...
After taking her first step on August 19th, Ava finally started to make walking her main mode of transportation last week. Here she is in action!




She recently started saying her own name (which actually comes out more like Anya)--but it is so much fun to hear! She also still only has 6 teeth (my children are truly record-setting in their ability to be late teethers!).

Henry started preschool in mid-September and despite his trip to the principal's office (Day 4), he has been loving it. Our tenacious little boy is learning that when given two choices, making up your own third option doesn't always fly...
These photos are from his first day of school. Please forgive the fact that they are horizontal...I haven't figured out how to rotate them yet! You'll get the idea anyway.




He loves entering the world of his imagination and often pretends to be a bear, a bird, a monkey, or his favorite...a baby. Actually even if he is an animal he is usually a "baby bear", etc. He is tons of fun to play with and is at the most endearing stage of wanting us to play with him as often as we are able.

And below I am attaching a few photos from our trip to Iowa this summer to visit family and attend the beautiful wedding of Eric and Abbey Henderson!