October 2017

Welcome to October of 2017!!

October is always one of my favorite

times of the year.

The color of the leaves,

the weather,

and the fun fall activities.

Oh, and extra cuddle times:

There's something else that happens

in October that I'm forgetting.....

Oh ya!

Kale's birthday!!!

Can you believe he is 6 years old???

Ellory picked out her present to Kale herself.

It was a frustrating process.

Once again she has shown to 

inherit one of my traits:

severe indecision.

We wandered the toy isles for what felt like hours.

Until she finally found the perfect present-

A Remote Control Car:

Tyler and I gave him a 

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Scooter:

And he was spoiled rotten

by his Grandparents, Aunts, Uncles and Cousins!

Grandma Pam made him this blanket, 

and he LOVES it:

A cool TMNT helmet to match 

his scooter from Uncle Jake:

Josh (Kale's hero/cousin/fellow Star Wars and Lego aficionado) 

made him this sweet card:

Like I said,

he was spoiled.

And all of that was done BEFORE school!

Since we took so long,

we had to drive Kale to school with

his bag of treats to share:

Orange Oreos!

We had told Kale that he would

not be doing a birthday party this year,

but that he could invite one friend

to come over and play after school

on his birthday.

So, he invited his new friend, Carter.

Ellory and I wore party hats to the school

and had a couple for Kale and Carter to wear

on the walk home.

Carter was a very nice boy,

who not only played great with Kale,

but he was very kind to Ellory as well.

They had fun checking out Kale's new stuff!

After Carter went home,

the kids and I stayed outside 

to play a bit.

Ellory may or may not have been having

a hard time not being the center of attention...

Kale got a card in the mail from Nana and Pop-Pop

with money and a balloon in it:

 And then we went about put together

Kale's new lego sets.

I'll admit,

I enjoy this almost as much as he does:

And that was the celebration

on his actual birthday!

More to come.

One day was so beautiful,

we couldn't help but take a picture:

And I started leaving to pick Kale up

from school earlier

so that our walks could be longer.

Yay exercise!

The library in Ames is fantastic,

with lots of fun things to do.

Ellory loves the interactive books.

Tyler was on a trip,

and Ellory kept talking about how much

she missed him.

She's not always the nicest to him,

so I didn't pass up the opportunity to 

make him feel like his daughter does love him.

And now,

a trip to Nana and Pop-Pop's house

to celebrate Kale's birthday!

 Ellory adores her Pop-Pop

And Nana eats dessert for breakfast

Happy Birthday Part 2!

Kale made a scavenger hunt 

for us to go on in order to find

our invitations to his birthday:

And then we all had to RSVP.

The options are "Ya", "Na", and "Um".

This kid is the best.

He loved all his presents!

Ellory was a little tired from 

all the fun:

Kale loves pizza and going to restaurants.

So he asked if we could do that for 

his birthday.

And Nana and Pop-Pop never say no!

So we went to the restaurant I 

used to work at in high school,

Mcotto's!

Ellory really really really

didn't want to be there:

They messed up mine and mom's pizza.

We specifically said no sauerkraut!!  

But they nailed Kale's pepperoni at least.

Later, the kids enjoyed riding

their bike and scooter

up and down the driveway.

There is a TV show on Netflix

the kids really like called Just In Time Go.

It's actually very cute.

Anyway, their favorite episode 

is called Babushka's Bear

which is one of those Russian dolls that you

open up and it gets smaller and smaller and smaller.

Well, my dad has one of those,

and once Ellory found out about

Pop-Pop's "Babushka's Bear"

she was obsessed with playing with it:

Nana and Pop-Pop gave Kale more 

Legos, and we wasted no time 

putting them together

And then it was cake time!

Kale requested I make him 

an Oreo ice cream cake

with orange oreos.

As you wish!

Overall, I think he had a pretty 

great birthday.

Here is a new outfit

he got:

And here is his haircut:

Seriously. I'm so obsessed with it.

Ellory and I went on a 

"neighborhood nature exploration walk"

where we gathered things like rocks

and twigs and acorns.

It was kinda windy.

It started being a little chilly in the morning.

Yup, that's a space heater parked right next to Kale.

On days when we would drive

to pick Kale up instead of walk,

we had to get there like 15 minutes early to get

a good parking spot.

So how did we pass the time?

Snapchat of course:

One time I made scones for dinner,

and I sent this picture to Tyler

so he would come home from

work faster.

It totally worked.

Not sure why I took this next picture.

Maybe because he was wearing his hat?

Or maybe it was his first time

wearing his coat to school?

Or maybe it was because he was wearing his coat

with shorts and an Oregon State hat

which makes him look like 

he's definitely from Oregon because people there

just whatever tickles their fancy

rather than dressing for the weather?

I don't know. But they are cute!

I started potty training Ellory.

It didn't go well,

but she looked cute.

So here's a bit of the story on potty training Ellory.

I was nervous to do it,

mostly because I knew that I couldn't 

do it the way I had with Kale,

because she isn't motivated the same way Kale is.

Put a chart in from of Kale and say,

"if you fill this chart with stickers

for going potty in the toilet,

you will get a prize" 

then he is ALL IN.

He will do whatever it takes.

Honestly, I don't even really have to put a prize 

at the end.

He'll do it just for the stickers.

Ellory is NOT like that.

say the same think to her

and she will look at you like you are insane,

tell you that she doesn't want to do that because it's stupid,

and essentially give you the proverbial finger.

BUT, since I really wasn't sure of

any other way to approach it,

that's what I did.

She was actually very cooperative.

She didn't care about the stickers.

At all.

But she would go to the toilet when the timer rang

and she would sit on there and sometimes go but sometimes not.

Unfortunately, I accidentally conditioned her

only to go to the bathroom if she heard a timer go off.

We were at her friends house,

and the timer on her stove went off 

and Ellory sprinted to the bathroom.

I could not get her to recognize on her own

when her body was telling her to go potty.

I talked with Tyler about it a lot,

and thought about it a lot,

and I just knew that I knew her,

and I knew that she wasn't going to do 

anything that wasn't her idea to do.

So I put her back in diapers,

and told her that when she wanted to be a 

big girl that she could tell me,

and we could have her wear big girl underwear again.

A week later, 

she told me she wanted to go potty on the toilet,

and she didn't have an accident for 3 weeks.

And the only reason she had that accident was

because she was in timeout and she didn't 

know she was allowed to leave timeout to

go potty.

Instead, she just stood there and peed herself

and cried.

I was upstairs thinking to myself that it was weird

that she hadn't calmed down yet.

So I went to check on her,

and there she was,

standing in a puddle,

saying sorry over and over.

Poor thing!

But anyway, she got potty trained and we never

looked back.

And her reward for going so long

without an accident was this toy: 

Kale come home from school one day

with a story he wrote:

Ice cream time:

One time, we went for a family walk:

Look at those pretty leaves!

I think Ellory lasted about 4 minutes and then Tyler

took her back inside.

But Kale and I kept going a little longer!

Hi, I'm Ellory, and I'm adorable:

This was our neighbor, Johanna (like Yohanna).

He and his family were refugees

from the Sudan.

The language barrier sometimes

made things difficult,

but every kid understands how to run and play!

Hi, I'm Ellory, and if you give 

me chocolate, I will smile:

The first of our Trick-Or-Treat outings

of the Halloween season!

Hy-Vee (a grocery store)

was having an event

where you could come and 

"trick-or-treat", and do some crafts, and just have some fun.

For Free.

So, duh, we went.

In case you aren't sure,

Ellory is a witch and Kale is Ash from Pokemon.

They had a table for coloring

little pumpkins:

And a bounce house!!!!

Ellory didn't' like that there

were a lot of people around,

telling her that she was cute.

So she ate her feelings:

And distracted herself with Snapchat

Eventually I asked the guy in charge

if I could get into the bounce house with her.

He was really nice and told me I could

as long as I didn't bounce at all.

So I crawled in there and just

sat on my knees and held Ellory's hands

while she bounced.

She loved it!

Another one of the activity tables

was to decorate your own cookie.

When we got home,

they ate them:

One day we went on a walk

and snagged this great picture

in front of this beautifully colored tree:

And one Sunday,

these kiddos were looking extra cute.

Time to carve us some pumpkins!!!

That's right.

We got real serious.

Power. Tools.

The kids and I did something

we saw on Pinterest that looked cool.

You put some crayons on the 

top of a white pumpkin,

and then you use your blowdryer

to melt the crayons so they drip down.

It actually worked!

Here is Kale's pumpkin:

Didn't he do great?!

And here is Tyler's pumpkin:

I know, he crushed it.

And here is mine and Ellory's:

It's supposed to be a witch's hat

with the stars all around it.

Our next outing was to the Ward Trunk-Or-Treat!

Here is my friend Andra.

At the time, we didn't really know her well yet,

but that didn't stop her from being

super nice!

Here are the Taylors!

Hi. I'm Ellory, and I'm too cute for you to handle.

I have no clue who is under

that fox head.

But that little girl in the Wonder Woman costume

is Ellory's friend, Neve.

Ellory wore a mask for a minute.

I think it ended up in the garbage not long after this.

Nana came for a visit and to go

on another trick-or-treating outing with us.

And, of course, she brought presents for the kids:

So this outing was on Main Street in Ames,

and the kids could trick-or-treat

to all of the participating businesses.

It was actually really really fun,

just really really really really really COLD.

Ellory's bag drug on the ground

the entire time.

Oh, and also, she didn't want to wear 

her witch costume,

so she wore her footsie pajamas

that look like Bat Girl.

Kale was in heaven.

He couldn't have cared less about the cold.

Ellory did not feel the same way.

Kale and I went into the library,

because they were part of the downtown

trick-or-treating stops,

and got to ride the elevator.

And then it was back home to warm up!

And play with Kale's Pokemon cards

And watch a movie!

And have another living room 

campout.

And then it was finally the actual day of 

Halloween!

In the morning,

Ellory and I went to the library for some

special events they were doing.

She even wore her costume!

Then, we got to go to Kale's school

and help with his classroom party!

I was so excited to get to do this.

And even more excited that Ellory could come along.

And even more more excited that Kale

was excited to see me at school.

This is Kale's teacher,

Mrs. Fisher:

She was the best Kindergarten teacher 

we could have imagined.

And she was always more than happy to 

have Ellory in the classroom!

After school, we stuck around for a bit

and played on the playground:

Kale and Ellory wanted to "be silly"

so Kale wore my backpack

while Ellory wore Kale's.

We got some cards in the mail from

Grandma Pam!!

And now, the time was finally here.

The time to go actual Trick-Or-Treating:

We were prepared to face the chilly night.

Ellory's hat kept flying off,

so she just had me carry it for her.

And Kale never wanted it to end.

But end it did.

And we headed home to put 

on comfy pajamas,

and cuddle all together.

Happy Halloween!