October Oddities - part Deux (the quickening)

Stuff that was still on my camera when I posted the October Oddities. Therefore, part 2. If you get "the quickening", then you're a big big nerd.

October 29, 2009: YMCA Part-day Preschool: T/Th Ladybugs Halloween Party

Zachary with part of his class at the Halloween party. I LOVE little Maguire as a bear on the far left!

Again with the class picture. Ms. Aneesa, Zach's FAVORITE teacher, is standing on the right.

Wyatt showing how happy he is to be at Zach's school for more than the 3 minutes it takes us to drop off in the morning!

Enjoying treats at the party.

3 tables of little kids eating too much sugar, right before lunch!

Here is a quicky video of Zach eating at his party.

The only part of note is the two girls - in blue and yellow. Those are Zach's bestest buds at preschool: twins Natalie and Caroline.

I wish I had gotten a picture of the face/hand painting station. Another mom and I did the painting, and it was SO terribly obvious which paintings I had done b/c they were SO SO poor! Her ghosts, spiders, candy corns, and pumpkins were amazing really.

October 29, 2009: New Pack-n-play
Wyatt (and his friend Morgan, who goes to sleep at our house every other Thursday) are both growing out of our Travel Lite portable crib. It was time to upgrade to a full-size pack-n-play. Thanks to Craigslist, I found a great one for only $10! Here are the boys testing it out.

Wyatt liking the new afternoon nap bed

Boys comparing the "little bed" and the "big bed".

Portable crib face-off! Check out Zach in his latex "Dr.'s glove" which he has been begging for since he got his blood taken a month ago. We finally found one today at Zach's school when I was changing Wy's diaper. I hope it was ok for us to help ourselves to one!

October 30, 2009 My awesome (IMHO) 10-car garage
I have been making one and two car garages for Zach's cars out of bristle blocks. Today, he said "Mom, I really need a 10-car garage". I was definitely intimidated by the challenge, but rose to it and made this totally cool partially covered garage. I just had to take a picture b/f he destroyed it when Wyatt woke up (Zach would rather take his stuff apart than let Wyatt destroy it).

October 30, 2009: Pumpkin Patch
We have tried for several weekends in a row to make it to an apple orchard/pumpkin patch/corn maze. Darn weather. We have been thwarted at every turn. So here, we find ourselves Halloween Eve with no pumpkin. Off we went, right after dinner, to a local garden center to procure our pumpkins.

Zach was THRILLED when he learned that we could use a little red wagon to pull our pumpkins around while we shopped.

Zachary trying to pick out a nice big one.

Zachary with Mommy. Check out our 4 pumpkins in the wagon. Also of note - Zach still has his lollipop in his hand, left over from dessert. He's too excited to eat it.

Art and Wyatt at the pumpkin patch

Halloween day pictures will be in a separate post.

October Oddities

My attempt to catch up by putting all of October's pics in one blog. I'll have to do another one w/ some specific activities w/ no pics.

October 7, 2009

My boys watching football


Zachary "giddyup"


Zachary in horse/rider costume


Zachary in action with horse costume

October 12, 2009
Zachary in a new favorite pasttime - creating "car circles"


Has used all the cars he could find


Close-up of circles


Zachary creating car circles


October 13, 2009

Zachary reading the bible ~ though it sounds like a prayer

October 16, 2009

Zachary and Wyatt waiting for DaU to come back from getting his bike so they can say goodbye through the window.

October 17, 2009
This weekend we had planned on going camping with 2 other families. However, it was too cold. So we changed it to a day-trip to an apple orchard to pick apples and go through a corn maze, etc. However, it was too rainy. So we decided to drive down to Lincoln Park Zoo, hoping to get a break in the rain. No luck. We ended up at the mall. The mall. Really. We played on the escalators for awhile, and here are the kids playing on the rides in the food court.









October 18, 2009

Art as Robert Goulet maybe???


Zachary with an original use of a pillow

October 20, 2009

Zach's current obsession - bunk beds. He can't wait until he and Wyatt get to share bunk beds. Here is a triple bunk he's created. Perhaps the 3rd bunk is for a player to be named later??? Oh, and of course Zach has decided that he will get the top bunk.

October 25, 2009

Zach's crazy post-nap hair

Art was at a Northwestern Men's soccer game and missed all of this. He was not thrilled to find out that his boys had enjoyed themselves watching about 30 minutes of figure skating!

Zach had asked me to check and see if football was on, but got sucked into figure skating - Halloween on Ice actually - instead. He had never seen it!


The boys sitting together watching figure skating


Wyatt realizing the camera is on him


Getting comfy!

I'll save the last day of October - Halloween - for a separate post!

Zachary: Playdates w. Evie & Kale

Other than Jack, Caden, and Max, Zach's favorite people to play with are Evie and Kale. Zach used to have a mammoth crush on Evie until Elizabeth (EBF's associate pastor's daughter) came along. Elizabeth holds Zach's hand and escorts him to his class at Awana every week. Hard to beat that!

Evie and Kale came over for a few hours in September. They did a bunch of stuff together, including going outside and playing at the playground, but this is the only game I captured:

Here, Evie and Zach are going to a horse ranch. They are taking turns "driving" the horse, b/c it is a long way to get to the ranch. Apparently, whoever is driving gets to wear the helmet. Never thought my saddle would be used in this way! :)

About a month later, Evie and Kale came over again. This time I was able to capture more moments.

Here, Evie is wearing my Hershey's Kiss costume and Zachary is wearing my pumpkin face sweatshirt and Art's bowtie.

Here, Zachary is wearing a mix of Art's old Halloween costumes, including a 'fancy' vest and bowtie, and possibly a strand of fake pearls, while Evie is sporting a dress I used as a costume for a themed Murder Mystery dinner we hosted.


Zachary and Evie dancing

Poor Wyatt just could not take his morning nap with all the noise, so I finally set the three up with a Backyardigans video to give Wy a chance to fall asleep. It worked, and he stayed asleep, despite the noise for a good hour or more.

We did more during this playdate than we we generally do in a week. Some of the activities I can remember are: dress-up, dancing, puppets, playdoh, Hi-Ho Cherry-o, puzzles, bristle blocks, reading books, watching a video, snack time, foosball, cars cars cars, visiting Evie's 'magical land', visiting Zachary's 'magical land', jumping on the playroom couch, and even cleaning up! Good time had by all.

National Fire Safety Week

This week was National Fire Safety Week. The culmination of the week was on Saturday - all the firehouses in Evanston were open from 1-3pm for visiting. We decided to delay the boys's naps and head over to our closest firestation - about 3 blocks away.They had firemen on hand to show us the firetruck and ambulance. There were a few goodies for the kids - plastic hats, stickers, pencil case (our new crayon case!), etc. We even got to see a fireman slide down the pole. He said that rarely to they use the pole - most just use the stairs. He said that it's too hard on their backs and knees to land that hard.



Zach w/ fireman ladder truck rear

Wyatt driving the firetruck Zach driving the fire truck

Once all the kids had their fill, even I took a turn sitting in the cab of the fire truck. Very cool! So many controls, and boy is that seat bouncy!

Zach getting eyed up by another 'fireman'

Zachary chatting up the fireman in the ambulance

Looking down the ladder truck

Art and the boys in ambulance cab

One of the firemen was explaining to me the software they use on the computer (to the right of Zachary) in the ambulance and firetruck. Not only does it have GPS directions (probably not the cool British woman saying 'turn left in 100 metahs'), but it also gives a breakdown of the buildings surrounding the problem area. For example, if a fire is in one building, it would be great to know that the bldg behind it uses chemicals XYZ which are highly flamable. They can then be prepared for that and wear the appropriate protective gear for each situation. He said they have saved a number of lives w/ that bit of info.

Mommy & DaU stealing a moment

Shayna, Zachary, Wyatt preparing for a picture to be taken, not realizing that Art was filming the process.

And then the camera battery died. That seemed to be a good time to head home and get the boys into bed.

As a side note, Dexter followed us nearly all the way there. We tried to catch him a few times to take him back home, but he was too wise for that. HOWEVER, he would NOT get closer than 1/2 a block to Chicago (possibly our busiest street), and even meowed at us as we were getting close to it. He is rarely verbal, and his meow sounded so pitiful - like he was begging us not to go to that road - that I wanted to turn around and go back for him. Poor Dexi. He was gone when we came back by. We called him, but he clearly had better things to do. He showed up back at the house about an hour later.

Craft Morning

This morning both boys wanted to do some crafty things b/f Wyatt's nap. I brought out the markers and crayons for Zachary and Wyatt. After Wy went down for a nap, Zach then requested watercolor paints.


Zach being silly for the camera - though he did produce a good smile there!



Wyatt cooperating with the camera as well.



Both boys busy with their artwork.

Zachary channeling his "ancestor" Van Gogh