Bella, Gabe and Josiah

Yesterday was Gabe’s Noah’s Ark party. Each kid was supposed to dress up like a person or animal that was on the ark. We had a long chat about the fact that a pirate would not have been on the ark, so he needed to dress up like an animal. So what do you think he picked? A parrot of course. Specifically a pirate parrot. Since I’d already bought him a pirate costume, I told him that I wouldn’t buy him another costume, so I got to make this one. I had a lot of feathers to cut out, but I think it turned out super cute. I think he was the only parrot on the ark. (Actually, I saw Wonder Woman at the party, so perhaps we could have pulled off a pirate…) Josy was also supposed to wear his Halloween costume to school, but he was not having it. I decided to not push the issue and just take it to school and ask him about it then. He saw the costume in my arms and completely flipped out. He grabbed it out of my arms and tried to take it back in the house. Once he was in the house he refused to put

On Sunday, Pat and Bella went to see a movie at the drive in, so the boys and I decided that it was time to carve pumpkins. It went, well, about as good as you can expect with a 5 year old who desperately wants to carve one all by himself, but who picked a giant pumpkin the knife had trouble getting through and a two year old who wants to do everything his big brother does. But we had fun. Josy was excited to carve his little pumpkin too. He was very proud of that little pumpkin! I ended up doing almost all of the carving, but both boys definitely tried. Josy tried to see how many times he could get the eye in and out. Silly pumpkin was too big for Gabe to pick up to get it back outside, so he had to roll it. They turned out pretty good! And then we ate toast and popcorn and watched Sean the Sheep. A perfect Sunday night.

My boys. All snuggled up with me, reading books before bedtime.

The other day, Gabe was reading a magazine and found a recipe that he really wanted to cook: Pumpkin Rolls. Next to it was a recipe for Broccoli Salad, which he thought looked delicious as well. So I told him that he could be in charge of making dinner and he could make that…and then Dad would make flank steak or something else as well that had some protein in it. Yesterday Gram and Gramps came over for dinner after being gone for a couple of months, so it seemed like a good time for Gabe to do the cooking. We started it as soon as we’re got home from school, since the the dough had to rise multiple times. We had some extra help… Then we let it set for an hour, which turned into an hour and a half since Pat had to work late and I had to go to get Bella and Josy at school. As soon as we got home, we shaped the dough (and had some help from Josy…) Then Gram and Gramps showed up, which is good because as soon as we started making the salad dressing I discovered that we were out of milk an

I really enjoy doing our leaf project every year. I used to do it with Bella, but now she’s too old for it, so it’s been something that Gabe and I could do. And this is the first year that Josy got to participate also. Sure, it’s silly, but it’sa fun tradition and I enjoy it. Plus, it’s an easy way to decorate for fall. Gabe and I collected leaves a couple of weeks ago when he was in quarantine, but we didn’t have time to actually do it until Monday, when everyone was off of school. Both boys were very focused… I think Josy was pretty confused by the whole thing, but that’s okay. He was doing his best…and I ended up doing most of the sharpening… This was the first year that Gabe wanted to help with the cutting. We ran out of wax paper and discovered that Pat had bought new stuff, but he bought parchment paper instead of wax paper. So we decided to try it. It turns out that parchment paper does not work. The crayon does not stick to the paper and then it all falls apart. We won’t make t

We went camping last weekend. About six months ago I’d booked this cabin and I’m so glad that I did. I don’t think we could have possibly asked for a better weekend, even though it was ridiculously cold… We were originally supposed to be going out on Thursday night. Pat and I were going to take the day off of work, we were going to pull Gabe out of school for the day and Bella had plans to stay with a friend so she wouldn’t miss school. However, then Pat had to go out of school for work Monday and Tuesday and I didn’t think there was any way that we could get everything ready to go on Wednesday night so we could go out on Thursday after work. Spoiler alert: I was right. As it was, we spent Wednesday planning food and Thursday cooking and making lists and it still took us long enough on Friday night that we bailed on the barbecue hot dogs plan and I grabbed McDonalds takeout on our way out. Since it was pouring down rain, no one minded being inside the cabin and not outside trying to ro