Enjoying the weather!

Photos from Jo's house:

 

The boys were asking Jo to take their picture!

Bryce loves, loves, loves books!

Bryce & Arthur

Jo's neighbors have a couple of Halloween signs in their yard.  Every morning he points and looks at them!

Pizza picnic at Jo's (Mason was there on Thursday because his school was closed)

Mason watching Ryan on the I-pad

Brothers playing with the trains

This week was a crazy and busy one to say the least!  We began with Zane's second grade music program at school.  It was called "Squirm" and was about creepy things.  It was cute!  Zane sang along to all of the songs!  He has never had a speaking part in any of his musicals and I asked him why.  He said "I forgot to raise my hand."  Oh well!

 

Mason waiting for the program to begin

Selfie with Mason

"It'll make you squirm!"

Wednesday and Thursday were my parent/teacher conference nights.  Wednesday is the worst day.  We teach all day, then meet with parents until 8:00 at night.  Marathon day.  Thursday isn't as bad.  There is no school and we don't have to report until noon.  So Thursday morning I hung out at home with Mason and Bryce, then we headed to Jo's house around 11:00.  All in all, conferences went well, and I'm also glad they're over!  Friday was a day off for me, Mason, and Bryce.  Mason had a playdate with a boy from his prek class.  He had such a blast!  While he was there, Bryce and I got groceries and ran some errands. 

Saturday we attended our church's annual "trunk or treat."  These are a pretty big thing here in KC.  People decorate their trunks or backs of their vehicles, sit all in one area, and hand out candy.  It's a nice way to trick or treat and not have to walk too far!  The boys were excited to wear their costumes and get candy.  Bryce, though, did NOT want anything to do with his costume!  He cried and cried when we put it on.  On the way there he calmed down, and when he realized he got candy, he was all over it!  Funny how it worked out.  Because the other two were the opposite.  Excited getting their costumes on and not so much once we were there (it's cold, I'm tired, I didn't get very much candy...)

Our little cow...NOT happy with his costume!

Trunk or treat!

Our sweet little cow!  When you ask him what he's going to be for Halloween, he says "boo!"  ("moo")

Darth Vader (without his mask)

Getting the goods!

Spiderman, Darth Vader, and Cow

The weather was so nice this weekend!  Yesterday Matt took the older two to Yancy's and Zane was playing catch with a football with Yancy's son.  Ever since, all he could talk about was playing football!  So Matt took them to Target today and they got a football since we didn't have a great one.  They spent a major part of today playing catch, and we even had a little game of football going on for awhile!  Zane and I vs. Matt and Mason!  I'm sure it was interesting to watch us playing!  Ha!

 

Z and M playing catch

Hey, bro, catch it!

And Mason keeping things real...shaking his booty and getting his older brother in on it too.  We wouldn't want to be too serious now, would we?

Thanks to Matt - who took the boys both yesterday and today during Bryce's nap - we now have an entirely clean house!  For a little bit anyway!  It's just so hard to clean the house with the boys here but it feels SO GOOD to have it done!

This week is Halloween!  It'll be crazy at home AND school!  Have a great week!

The Fall Classic

Bryce has seemed to grow up so much in the last couple of weeks!  He's trying to say more words.  He's wanting to do more things on his own.  He follows and copies his older brothers all of the time.  Right now he LOVES wearing this hooded sweatshirt - in fact he will hardly take it off and gets mad when you do!  He also loves to wear his shoes.  He almost doesn't like to have them off either!  Here are some photos from Jo's house this week!

 

Bryce the dinosaur!

Look Mom, I made a bat!

Talking to Avery!

Resting!

Selfie with Jo!

Buddies!

Getting ready to color

Hanging out in the box!!

Bryce loves shoes!!

Enjoying the weather!

Time to read!

Trying to get Kerrigan to give him knuckles.  As you can tell she's really into it!

You talking to me?  Ha!

This weekend my mom and dad, Adam, and his girlfriend Bethany were at our house.  It was a busy and fun weekend!  Friday night we had tickets to Sporting KC, our local pro soccer team.  A parent of one of my students works there and gave us 4 tickets!  We were going to take the boys, but my parents came in town in enough time to stay with the boys, so we took one of my friends from school and her husband.  It was COLD but we had a fun time hanging out!  The boys had so much fun here with Grandma and Papa. 

 

Saturday was the Fall Classic at Arrowhead between my beloved Bearcats and the Pitt State Gorillas.  Mom, Dad, and I went, while Matt stayed home with the boys.  The game was stressful...but thankfully the Bearcats came out of it victorious.  We had fun cheering them on!

 

Adam and Bethany got to town late Saturday so they could attend the Chiefs game today (the Chiefs are 7-0...awesome)!  This morning we went to church and then had dinner before everyone left.  We also enjoyed some outside time!

 

Wiggle car time!

Papa and Bryce were both riding the wiggle cars!

He had been riding it down the hill, but I got the camera out and he wouldn't do it!

I made the blog!  The boys didn't think I could do a cartwheel...

I found these pumpkin decorations I bought on clearance last year.  The boys decorated their pumpkins!  And all 3 sat for a picture for me!  Doesn't happen often!

Mason showing me his dance moves...shaking his hips!

Then he acted weird...

The other 3 pumpkins we couldn't fit on the steps!

I'm trying to prepare myself mentally for this week...it's parent/teacher conference week!  Not only that, but we also have Mason's conference and Zane's music program.  Whew!  Hopefully I can keep up with it all!!!

Farmin!

Updates from Jo's house:

 

Boys playing "drums" on the bar stools

Sand play

Just a farmin!

Outdoor play wears a boy out!

SNOWBALL!  Bryce loves this cat!

Pouting because he had to share the toys!

Tuesday Matt signed up to be a WatchDog at Zane's school.  Basically, it's a program where dads sign up to spend a day at the school.  They help with dropoff and pickup, in the lunchroom, in the hallways, and working with groups of kids.  Matt got a little taste of what I do every day!  He thought it was easy and he would do it every day...haha.  It was interesting to hear his insights after a day at school!

 

Matt's day at school!

This weekend we went back to Iowa to go farming!  The boys have been anxiously awaiting this weekend!  They could honestly live on a farm and would love every single moment of it!  Funny how they get bored at our house but when on the farm, from the moment they wake up, until we make them go to bed, they are on the go!  The weekend was full of activities, such as picking apples:

There were so many apples!

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Pick a winner Bryce!

This is how we do it...pull the pickup right up to the tree!

We needed to get up higher though...some of the best ones were way up high!

Bryce just enjoys the outdoors...he would just wander around in the fields...picking grass...checking things out...

We'd pick the apples...Bryce would put them in the bucket!

Sweet boy!

Combining beans.  Zane got to drive by himself and Bryce had his first combine ride!

Last spring, we gave Matt's mom some pumpkin seeds and asked if we could plant them at her house.  She planted them, watered them, and pumpkins grew!  We ended up with 15 good pumpkins!  We joked that we had our own apple orchard and pumpkin patch this year!

Picking our pumpkins!

Zane's pumpkin

Mason's pumpkin

Bryce didn't want to pick a pumpkin.  He wanted to moo at the cows!

Posing at the "pumpkin patch"

Our harvest!



It was so nice to see everyone again!  We hadn't been home since July!  And it's hard to think that the next time we will be back will probably be Thanksgiving.  How in the world did we ever make it work to go back every single weekend?  Wowza!

October for teachers is craziness.  It's like marathon month.  Report cards.  Conferences.  It's an enjoyable time of year because the kids finally start to "get it" and really start making strides.  I enjoy bragging about them to their parents.  But I'm also always ready for it to be over!