Introducing...Baby Oly!

We're expecting!... Again! Baby #5 is on it's way. We had the 8 week ultrasound appointment on Nov. 2nd. We left the kids with Auntie Tonya under the guise of an appointment for Kivi's tonsils - which are coming out in 2 days. Sorry Tonya, we lied.

Expecting to see an 8 week little blob we find this:

A much more developed little baby. The ultrasound technician told us we were actually 11 weeks along. So we get to tell all of you sooner! Peter always names the baby at the first ultrasound. He usually names them after what he sees on the screen. Thus names like: Froggy (Eben), Egg (Kivi), Thumbkin (Jasper) and Baby Bean (Opal). But this baby looked nothing like the others. All he could think of was how old the baby looked and so he called it Oldy. However, for the sake of cuteness he changed it to Oly (Oh-Lee).

The name is perfect because after bringing everyone back home he told everyone to pack up because he was taking Mama on a birthday surprise! After dropping the kids off at Miss Kim's house (Thank you, thank you Kim!!!) we drove a short distance to Olympia (see the Oly part) where we stayed at a quaint and comfortable B & B for the night!!

I really love this man. I was completely satisfied with my corn maze, pizza dinner and pedicure he got me on my birthday. And then he went and did it again! He never fails to surprise me, excite me and love me!

The Swantown Inn Bed and Breakfast was wonderful! We were the only guests there, stayed in the biggest room with a huge king bed and jetted tub. Peter also made me an appointment at the Attic, the spa they have in the attic. It was so relaxing! Two whole hours to enjoy at the spa! First, I had a foot bath, sipped vanilla tea and nibbled on lavender tea cookies while talking to Peter, then I had a lovely massage, and ended my time in a 6 headed shower! Ahhhhh! Thank you Babe! I love you so much!

Harvest Carnival!

On Oct. 31st we went to Lake City Community Church's Harvest Carnival. It was so organized and there were so many friendly people helping out everywhere! We have always done family theme costumes so the kids still expect to dress up as a family - I hope that never changes. Hey, I can dream! So this year since Indian play had been a constant theme in our household and Kivi had her get-up from her cowgirl party we went as Cowboys (well 1 cowboy and 2 cowgirls) and Indians. We strayed from the original Indian outfit of towels hanging from a headband around the boys waists to pant with "Indian fringe" down the sides. Still shirtless though. You gotta be a little authentic.

Eben eating.

The first thing we did was have a free corn dog dinner.

Then we got our picture taken.

Jasper getting the ring on the stick.

After we got our free popcorn we headed over to the carnival area to play games. There were 24 different games to play, the boys played 12, Opal played 7 and Kivi played 5. I know because they gave us these cool carnival passes that they checked off every time you play.

While we played, Kivi and Dada decided to take a break. Cowboys get worn out easily I guess.

Opie eating her cotton candy.

Then the Indians decided they were done too, so we headed over to get our free cotton candy and called it a night. Amazingly, the kids ate no candy on Halloween night! Oh wait, cotton candy probably counts. Okay, except for the cotton candy.

Mama Gets To Go To The Corn Maze!

Hooray! The Corn Maze! I love corn mazes, especially Spooner Farms, because they have 6 mailboxes you have to find and a theme each time. This time it was "Honey I Shrunk The Farm" Which was great because our kids had seen the movie Honey I Shrunk The Kids earlier this year over and over. So they were excited to take our journey through the big "yard" and encounter the scary looking but friendly Anty, slide down the huge Lego, almost get sucked up by the big lawn mower, and eat the big Oreo cookie in the middle of the lawn. And like the movie, we got extremely muddy!

Kids - all smiling - What! How'd that happen? (Oh yea, Dada's in the background making hilarious faces.) Sitting on a Spooner cow bench. - Pre mud.

In the middle of the maze on a giant lawn chair.

Eben jumping over the mud puddles.

Jasper and Kivi "jumping" over the mud puddles.

The kids all loved these duck races. I don't even think they noticed them last year.

A family shot with giant pumpkins. Jasper and Opal were freezing - their hands were purple. We should've taken it when we took the cow pic, before the cold set in. But all in all, it was a great, fun, muddy thing to do for fall and for my birthday - I thought at the time - which was the next day.

Pumpkin Carving 101

Well, maybe we should call it Pumpkin Prep 101. Because Dada does the actual carving. The kids do a great job of getting their pumpkins ready though.

1. Wash the pumpkin:

2. Draw a sketch of what you want your pumpkin to look like:

3. Draw your sketch on the pumpkin with marker:

4. Have Dada cut the top off and scoop out the insides:

(Later Mama will make toasted pumpkin seeds that no one ever eats. This is a bad tradition. But what else do you do with all those seeds?)

5. The next night, eat a lollipop and watch Dada carve out the faces:

Ta da:

Opal's cute pumpkin, Eben's one-eyed monster, Jasper's Robot Pee (Dada called it Special Ed) and Kivi's scare crow.

Free Pumpkin Day!

We love pumpkin patches, but we love free stuff more. So we wait until the firefighters give away free pumpkins in their parking lot. Yippee! I love free! There's a lot of stuff for the kids to do too, but we mainly picked out our pumpkins, fired the big hose, jumped on the jumpy toy and were out of there. We needed lunch.

Eben puts out the "fire" with the fire hose.

Opal picks out her pumpkin. One of only a couple white pumpkins. She has an eye for uniqueness.

Jasper with his square shaped pumpkin who he lovingly called "Robot Pee" the rest of it's existence.

Kids with pumpkins. I can't get a good shot of all of them at the same time. Oh well.

Eben the Six Year Old Scientist!

Eben turned 6 on October 20th!! How'd that happen? I still completely remember my sister fainting at my side in the hospital room while I was pushing him out!

Well, this year Eben decided to have a science theme party. He loves experiments, inventing, and messes. So I made him a lab coat and we rounded up all the ingredients necessary to perform our scientific experiments. Eben was so excited for this day!

Our experiments included:

- sucking an egg into a bottle

- making Oobleck

- making snot

- lighting a volcano on fire

- exploding Coke with Mentos

- air powered car races

and our one failed experiment:

- dinner.

Don't try to make 13 Easy Mac Macaroni and Cheese packets at one time. It doesn't work. It turns into goo. But hey, it totally fit the experiment criteria.

The beginning of making Oobleck:

Afterward, this was the messiest room ever! Oobleck is really fun, but very slimey, drippy and gets all over the place.

Dada showing off the snot he made. He got really good at it.

Watching the volcano erupt. It spewed ash everywhere. I hope it wasn't that toxic.

The Coke/Mentos explosion. It was super fast, but super cool!

Eben and his scientist colleages.

The big 6 year old and his microscope cake. Yes, the crazy boy found a picture on the internet of a microscope and said, "Yes, Mama, this is it! This is what I want my cake to look like!" I said "Are you serious? You think I can make a cake look like that?" He says, " Yes, Mama, you can do it! I believe in you. Just try." How could I say no to that? The whole time I was making it he was so encouraging and kept telling me it was the best cake ever. As you can tell however, it was only big enough for about 6 kids to have cake. Oh well. Eben was ecstatic, and it was his day.

All in all, it was a fun, crazy, tiring night. Our science boy loved it and felt loved by all his friends and family who came to celebrate with him. And I still can't believe my first little bald headed baby is six!

Happy birthday Eben! Keep discovering, experimenting, inventing, and creating! Use that amazing brain God gave you and have fun figuring out the exciting world He created. We love you so much!

October Randomness

On Oct. 4th we went to Steilacoom's Ciderfest/Applefest - I can't remember. It wasn't that memorable. The greatest thing was seeing the cider presses. Our neighbor, Mr. John, helps out with a super high-powered one every year. He let Eben work the controls to smash the apples in the press. We bought some cups of hot apple cider and bread with warm apple butter for all the kids - which ended up all over their pants. Note to self, we don't have to do this event again. If there's a place where we can just go press cider without the crowd, we'll do that instead.

Sisters:

I got this book for Kivi around the time that Opal was born. It's so cute because the little girls in it look just like them, wild hair and all. Opal LOVES Kivi to read it to her. At the end of the book the sisters give each other a big hug, and so do Opal and Kivi.

The Gate:

So....as part of our journey to become foster parents, which began in February of this year, we had to install a gate. Peter has been dreading this moment, not just because it's going to be a pain to get down to the lake, especially if your arms are full of kids and stuff, but because we both have issues with restricting children with bars, latches, gates etc. We both strongly feel that children should know and obey the boundaries we set before them and if not, reap the consequences. However, we had to comply with state law and put up a gate. I'm so proud of Peter and the beautiful gate he made. And now we are a little closer to being able to care for and love a child who needs our family for a while.

Kivi's Ballet Class:

Kivi has been begging, asking, talking about ballet for a long while now. I had this great plan to teach her myself, after all, I have taught a 3/4 yr old ballet class before. But she said, "Mama, I want to go to a ballet class with a different teacher than you and some new kids that I can meet." So my attempts at frugality fail. On Oct. 10th Kivi went to her first ballet class at the Jo Emery School of Ballet. It's on Sat. mornings and she loves it! This is her first class when she got to "skip" all by herself. She had the hugest smile on her face the entire class.