Dragons

All children become more difficult when they are tired, and mine are no exception. But lately, Elena has been getting far beyond unreasonable when she's short of sleep. When she's well rested, she's an absolute delight. When she's short on sleep, she has the ability to turn herself into a fire-breathing dragon.

This morning she woke up at 7:00, so I was bracing myself for at least a few tantrums. The trigger? Seth asked Elena, "What do you want for breakfast? Do you want oatmeal?"

At this Elena flung herself onto the floor in tears. Completely mystified, we asked her what was wrong. She was finally able to get out between sobs, "Daddy stole my words!!!!"

That's a new one. Let's hope she gets more reasonable before she's a teenager.

Fortunately it only took a few minutes for her to turn back to being sweet.

There's no place like home

I finally took a picture of our new house. It is starting to feel more and more like "our home."

Here is a sample of the inside. The dining room is one of the few rooms that is mostly unpacked and was clean enough to take a picture. As you can see the house is full of beautiful woodwork, and we get lots of sunlight throughout the house.

In other news, this past weekend was Boxelder Bug Days in Minneota. The weather was absolutely perfect, and the kids had a great time. There were lots of friends and family in town so we gave about 8 tours of the house over the weekend.
Here are the kids in their costumes for the kiddie parade:

Brainstorming

Elena has been going through ideas of what she wants to be for Halloween this year since last Halloween. At the top of the list are: a skunk, and elephant and Dora (with Sam dressed as Swiper).

As we were driving in the car, I was trying to come up with ideas that we could easily make with what we already have on hand. We have a gray-haired wig so I asked her if she wanted to be an old lady for Halloween. She wasn't a big fan of that idea; she promptly rejected it and started to make new suggestions.

Pretty soon, Sam (who I had forgotten was listening) piped up from the back and said, "Mom, I want to be a lady for Halloween."

I guess we'll just wait and see....

Changes

We've been keeping busier than usual these past couple of weeks. During the week that we sold our old house, bought our new and moved everything over, we also went to my cousin's wedding in which Elena was the flower girl, Elena started her first day of preschool and our newest nephew, Reed Riley, was born.

The move went well. We had many, many helpers for which we are extremely grateful. Our parents were a huge help, and we even had a couple of high school boys that we know call up and volunteer to help out when they saw we were moving. It still kind of feels like we are living in someone else's house, though. I'm looking forward to when we're all settled and it will feel more like our home.
Elena has loved living in the new house - there are lots of kids in the neighborhood for her to play with. Sam has had a little harder time - he still tells me he "wants to go home" on a daily basis. He loves playing with all the neighborhood kids, but he's missing the comfort and security of the home he knows.

Ben (my cousin) and Becky's wedding was a blast and Elena absolutely loved being a flower girl. She's the perfect age for it - old enough to be aware of what's going on and really enjoy it but young enough not to be self-conscious about it. They had planned to have her come and sit by us for the ceremony after walking down the aisle, but Elena wanted to be a part of the whole thing so she stood up with the bridesmaids until the end.

Dancing with the bride...

...and with the groom.
Sam also put on a little show during the ceremony. He and his cousin, Alex (same age) made a dash for the center aisle right in the middle of the wedding just before the vows. I was able to catch the back of their shirts and yank them back, but not without almost everyone noticing. Fortunately they are cute enough to get away with that kind of thing without anyone getting annoyed :)

Elena, Sam and Alex.

Elena has started 1/2 days at preschool twice a week. She would like to go full days I'm sure, but she wouldn't see Seth much with his schedule. We'll also be starting a Montessori based preschool at our chuch called Catechesis of the Good Shepherd. I will be one of the catechists (teachers) and Elena will be in the class. Add to that dance classes for Elena and the high school religious ed classes I will teach in the evenings, and we are going to be pretty busy this school year!

First day of preschool (we have to be up a bit earlier than normal - thus the tired faces)

Anyway - that's what's going on in our neck of the woods. Pictures of the new house to come.