Halloween started with the Saints Day contest at St. Edward's. Sam tied for 1st in his class and got 3rd overall for his St. Sebastian costume (with super authentic tennis shoes and gym shorts).
Charlie and Frank were both St. Francises. Charlie was St. Francis of Assisi and Frank was St. Francis Xavier. It's always so fun seeing the kids in their costumes!
I didn't do too hot at getting actual Halloween pictures this year. Seth was gone on a 9-day hunting trip to Colorado with his brother, Craig over Halloween. That's my excuse anyway, but really I'm just not good about taking pictures. Here's what I got:
Charlie is the Mandalorian (on left), Frank is Bumblebee (with an IronMan mask - close enough), Sam is being abducted by an alien, Olivia is a monster (after saying she wanted to be a cat for weeks leading up to Halloween - and I am pretty sure she wore that same costume last year), and Elena is a guy from the You Spin Me Right Round music video. Noah is the green minecraft guy and Ian is an Among Us character.
The weather was PERFECT for Halloween. I think the high that day was pushing 70 degrees. I took the kids trick-or-treating with a just a sweater and was comfortable all night. It sure beat fighting the wind and bitter cold like previous years. I am pretty sure Sam and his friends hit every house in town. It's nearly Thanksgiving and his candy bag is still way more full than everyone else's - and we've all been sneaking from it plenty.
Frank turned 7 last month and celebrated by having a bunch of his friends over. It always amazes me how much children's voices increase in volume when they are excited and in a group! The boys had fun wrestling and running around - we didn't have much success in getting them to do something organized, like football, but they had fun anyway wrestling, shooting nerf guns and screaming.
He got phone calls and visits from all the grandparents, as usual. My parents asked him how it felt to be 7, and he said, "Mmm...well, it's not much different from being 6!"
St. Ed's had their annual marathon this fall. Charlie once again made a video to promote the marathon and ask for pledges. This one had us crying, we were laughing so hard.
And here are a few pictures of the marathon itself!
I've been busy this past week bringing Olivia in and out of the hospital and clinic with fever and stomach pains. She seems to be improving slowly. Of course it landed right as Seth was preparing to leave on a week-long hunting trip to Colorado and as we're preparing for Halloween and the Saints Day costume contest at school. But instead of dwelling on our hectic life, here are a few new quotes from Olivia:
"I need my coos-case!" (suitcase)
"I don't want the cheeseball." (That's what she calls the yolk in a hard-boiled egg)
Elena: (referring to their "shared" bedroom) How much of this room is mine?
Olivia: Mmmm....20 bucks.
Elena: And how much of it is yours?
Olivia: The diamond in the rough.
The other night when the boys were going to sleep, Olivia decided she wanted to sleep in Sam's bed. I figured it wouldn't last long as I went back downstairs. She cuddled by him for a few minutes, then got up and said, "I'm going to go downstairs. I'm going to tell mom you hit me." And then she left. Boy, she's got this youngest child thing down!! (She did come downstairs, but she did not actually tell me Sam hit her.)
This morning, I noticed a pile of hair on the kitchen floor. Olivia had said earlier that she didn't like the bangs on her Elsa doll, which accounts for the blonde hair. The rest of the hair, however, looked suspiciously like Olivia's own hair.
So I went looking and found this (no more bangs!)
And this (now featuring bangs!)
Fortunately she cut her own bangs surprisingly well. If it weren't for the big chunk missing on the right side of her head, her haircut would look pretty much normal. I'm not a fan of bangs due to the growing-out process, but this could have been much, much worse.
This summer Seth and the kids once again went on a Boundary Waters trip. It was Charlie's first time going. Sounds like they had a great time as long as they could keep the mosquitos off of them. I don't have many details other than they all made it back safely! Here are a few pictures!
I came across this video from 3 years ago - so Frank was about 4 years old. I had completely forgotten about it. He wanted to go visit his cousin Gabby and I must have said that it was a long drive to her house so we couldn't just go for a quick visit. His solution was to get a "Flash" suit to get there super fast. I had to share - even if it's a few years late.
Charlie: Mom, can you go to the store and get milk? Because I don't want water and I 'm too young to drink beer.
Sam: (wondering if I could give him a ride to football practice) So can you run me over?
Frank: (thinking Sam was talking to him) With what?
Olivia: Get out of your room! (said to Elena when she walked into her own room, where Olivia had been napping)
Olivia: Olivia's mom! (after hearing her friend call me this enough, Olivia also started referring me as "Olivia's Mom")
Seth: We're not keeping it that way.
This was in reference to our new riding lawn mower, which we bought locally. It came with a clown face painted on it for some reason, which Elena, Sam and I found hilarious and wanted to keep. Seth was very opposed to the idea, especially after riding it down the street and getting several "What the heck is that??" looks. He had it painted before I even got home to get a picture.
We've had a run of severe thunderstorms in the area with straight-line winds this summer. The first storm back in May pushed one of our pine trees over enough that we needed to cut it down to avoid it falling on someone. That's the 3rd tree we've lost in 3 years so our yard is quite a bit sunnier than before.
Seth cut down the tree himself, and within minutes of the chainsaw being fired up, men started coming out of the woodwork to see the action and give their advice. My dad happened to be over that day working on our apple trees and Seth's Uncle Ken was next door visiting Grandma and Grandpa. Of course Grandpa DeCock brought out a chair to watch as well. I was happy to have several eyes on the project helping make sure the tree didn't hit the house. It did not fall where exactly where they were aiming, but it missed the house and ultimately that's all that I wanted.
It's times like these I'm super thankful to have married a hard-working farmboy. Once the tree was down, he proceeded to chop up the entire thing in one day. The kids helped load up the wood to haul away over the next few days and the whole thing was gone in less than a week.
Now we just need to decide which trees to plant in it's place. We have enough needles in our yard that we definitely want deciduous trees. We're open to suggestions!
Olivia turned 3 at the end of May! Leading up to her birthday, she got mad if we said she was about to turn 3, insisting she was still 2. Fortunately, she got over that on her birthday and has accepted the fact that she is 3.Good thing - it would have been a long road ahead if she were already in denial about her age before pre-school.
Olivia staged this picture all on her own. We were sitting on the patio behind Seth's parents' house and she suddenly came to get me and insisted I take a picture of her between the flower pots.
It comes as no surprise in this family that Liv is quite the talker - and she is right up there with Charlie in volume. She's got a huge vocabulary, but still mixes up and makes up words here and there as 3-year-olds will do. She says got-for instead of forgot. And she only uses the past tense of find - "I can't found it!"
She still doesn't quite get the word because and often uses it in place of and or but. For example, she might say, "Mom! I'm hiding because you can't see me!" The other day she said to Frank, "Frankie, we had a party because you weren't there!" Frank was understandably offended thinking we were celebrating his absence so I let him know that she doesn't quite know how to use the word because. I have no idea what party she was referring to, by the way.
She also talks in her sleep nightly. By morning, I usually can't remember what she said, but here are a few quotes I can recall.
"Bugs can talk! I can talk like bugs."
"Don't put a snake on my head!"
(while laughing) "My face and my...booty-cheek!!"
"Why is the hee-hee talking to Sam?" (Hee-hee is her word for witch, imitating the sound they make when they laugh)
(Variations of yelling at her brothers come up frequently) "Charlie/Frank! Don't take my candy/baby/toy/etc!"
And this was yesterday's conversation in the garden.
Olivia: Mom! I see a crib!
Me: A crib?
Olivia: I mean...a ribbet.
Me: Do you mean a cricket?
Olivia: Yeah, a cricket! (It was a grasshopper, but she was close)
Matching pigtails with cousin Briar
Olivia is finally taking off with potty training! Like the rest of our kids, using the potty has to be her idea and she does not take well to the suggestion that she should maybe just try using the potty before a long car ride or first thing in the morning. But progress is being made. Once she starts going, she can usually stop herself and run for the potty. So still a lot of laundry, but not too many messes on the floor. Of course, as predicted, she started to really take off after I finally bit the bullet and bought more diapers.
Taken on her 3rd birthday when we went to a park in Monevideo. It was still quite cold outside!
Papi is 77 years old and still giving (double) horsey rides!!
And to finish, here's a video from a few months ago. It captures her well.
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