Flirting

Charlie was looking at the jacket to a movie he hadn't seen, and asked if a couple on the back was married. I said they're not married, but they like each other.

Later he showed the picture and told Seth, "This guy and this girl like each other."
So Seth said, "Oh? Do they flirt a lot in the movie?"
Charlie thought about it and said, "No. I don't think there's any farting in this movie."

Halloween and All Saints

St. Ed's school had their annual Saints Day Contest this year. It's one of my favorite events: I love seeing all the creative costumes. I do not envy the judges at all because the kids all do such a good job every year. Sam and Charlie both got first place this year for their age group. Charlie was St. Joseph and Sam was St. Lawrence. Fortunately most biblical and saints costumes can be created with old pillowcases and sheets. Elena's was a little more complicated this year as she chose St. Catherine Laboure, who has a habit similar to The Flying Nun. I had to leave for work before they were fully dressed, and Seth had an early meeting so unfortunately we were dependent on their teachers for photos this year. We're still waiting on Elena's, but I'll share as soon as I can.

 And for Halloween this year we had a Ninja Turtle, Chewbacca, a "Good Dragon" as Frakie called himself, and Annabeth from the Percy Jackson book series. The extras are some of the local cousins.

Birthdays and other news

Frankie turned 3 this month. His birthday lands right between his cousins Gabby, Laney and Bella quickly followed by my dad's birthday so we had our fair share of birthday celebrations last week!

He was very excited to be 3, and proudly shows off his 3 fingers whenever anyone asks how old he is. He's an adorable 3-year-old, but he can still be exceptionally challenging - as can most 3-year-olds, I guess. He's our first kid to adamantly refuse to open his mouth for the dentist - refusing things in general has been a bit of a habit lately, so there are lots of tears over things like having to eat his supper and wear be buckled into his car seat. And I can't get his haircut for anything. Luckily for him (and for me), this isn't my first time around the block so I can deal with the difficulties a with more patience than I had with the older kids.

Sam wasn't feeling great this day and opted out of the picture.

Birthday cake! As usual, they only ate the ice cream. 

Age 3 at our house always means entering that transition time when the kids almost don't need a nap, but can't quite make it all day. Here he is passed out on the counter while I made supper.

 In other news, we have another baby on the way! We kind of just told the kids and let them run with it so I have no idea who knows and who doesn't other than immediate family. I've been sick enough (sicker than the last couple, I think....although it's entirely possible I've just blocked out how sick I was) that I really couldn't hide it anymore from the people I see regularly, and Elena was getting suspicious because I was lying on the couch all the time. A sick mama usually means a healthy baby, though, so we're all very excited. First ultrasound looked great - I love seeing that tiny little heart-beat!!

I'm due right at the end of the school year, which times out great for work! I'm a little nervous about going back to work with a 3 month old next year, but I didn't want to put the school through the difficulty of finding a part-time Spanish teacher again. Fortunately we are surrounded by family willing to help out - especially when it comes to new babies!

Class pictures

We maybe could have used some warning that they would be taking a full body picture with the classes for school picture day. I remember having the conversation with Sam before he left that his Superman shorts did not look great with his shirt, but let him go figuring you wouldn't see his legs in the picture anyway. At least he decided against the dress shirt he had on at first, that would have looked even stranger.

September Highlights

I went back to work again this year, teaching Spanish at the high school. I am really enjoying it so far, but it means this blog might be reduced to monthly highlights for a while. 

Here's what's been going on around here.

Charlie started Kindergarten, and he is loving it! Here is a picture of him helping out in the kitchen with one of his classmates. Looks like he's taking the job pretty seriously.

The kids found a monarch caterpillar and we were able to successfully keep it alive and release it as a butterfly. We missed it actually emerging from the chrysalis (again!). I checked on it, went upstairs to change clothes, and when I came back down it was out. I always forget how quickly they come out once they start. Oh well - maybe next year.

Bug Days was a blast. And much easier this year with a couple of older kids who can help out with the younger ones. Elena took care of all the costuming this year for the kiddie parade. Sam got distracted right before the parade and decided something else was more interesting so Seth's cousin's husband wore his costume (sorry I didn't get a picture).

Frankie was super excited to be the Hulk and wants to be that again for Halloween. He stomped like the Hulk all the way down the street during the parade - it was pretty dang funny.

And Charlie took 2nd place in the tractor pedal-pull for his age group. He was very happy to get his first trophy and took it everywhere with him for a couple of days.

And to finish, I'll leave you with one fun quote of the month. I was getting ready to go run a few errands, and I asked Frankie if he wanted to come downtown with me or stay home with Seth.

"I want to go under!" he said.
"Under?" I asked, "Under what?"
"Undertown. I want to go undertown with you!"

More August Fun

Another big highlight of August was having my brother, Joe, and his girls visit us from Boston. The kids had a blast getting to know their cousins and showing them around rural Minnesota. It was especially nice for Elena to have some more girl cousins her age to play with as the Myhre side is so heavy on the boys. 

We lucked out that school started later than usual this year so we had the entire week off. 

All the great-grandkids of my Grandma & Grandpa Marso

All of my parents' grandkids 

Skipping rocks at Camden Park

Our niece, Hoku, is especially fond of pigs, and we were luck to have good friends who had pigs farrowing the week they were visiting. These piglets were just a few hours old. So much cuteness!!

After seeing the pigs, we were treated to a "ride" on the hydroswing door of a machine shed. I hear it was a beautiful view (I stayed down because I knew Frankie would want to follow me if I went on)

Frankie especially liked riding around on Uncle Joe. I recall making Joe carry me around everywhere as a kid. Now that I've finally quit asking him to carry me around, my kids stepped right in line!

August Fun

August was packed full of summer fun for us, starting with a week at the lake house with Seth's family that Seth's parents got us all for a Xmas gift. Immediately after the week at the cabin, we were treated once again to unlimited ride wrist bands at the County Fair by my parents. I tried putting these pictures in chronological order, but Blogger had different ideas so here are some pictures in no particular order.

First is Charlie, Frank (and Gabby in the background) playing in the beloved corn pit at the fair.

Frankie spent a large part of his time fishing. This year we were lucky to find a life-jacket that he liked and kept on. It was a much more relaxing year for Mom and Dad....which doesn't say too much since last year was one big perpetual tag-team effort. 

Here he is catching a fish with his cousin, Austin:

All the cousins - and no one is crying this year!

Seth and John - playing Hawaii 5-0 in their matching Hawaiian shirts

At the fair again!

Bella and Frankie helping Seth play the guitar

Thanks, Jimmy Fallon

This is what happens when your 5-year-old sees a Point Pleasant Police skit from the Tonight Show with "Jimmy Tim Falton" (as Charlie refers to Jimmy Fallon) and then the doorbell rings during supper and you go to answer it and chat for 5 minutes....leaving the two little boys alone with 2 plates full of spaghetti.

It's worse than it looks. My circa-2010-style cell phone doesn't take great pictures so you can't see much of the sauce that goes with those noodles. At least Charlie had the sense to take him out into the back yard to do this....which is why I didn't hear it going on. And at least Frankie seems to have appreciated the humor.

For those of you wondering what the Point Pleasant Police are, here you go:

You might be Catholic if....

At breakfast this morning Frankie finished his cereal, then held the bowl up with great significance in front of himself and said, "Amen," before drinking it. When he was done, he said, "There, now I drank Jesus all up."

Proved me wrong

"I don't think she's going to like that, Frankie!" I said.
"Yes, she will," he said.
Looks like he was right.