Halloween

Miss Jilly, ahem, I mean Tinkerbelle, made a haul after just three cul de sacs, which took about an hour. We went out at just the right time to finally meet our other neighbors with kids, too. Jilly loved Halloween this year and that was the real treat for us - she loved seeing all the other kids in costume and just being out at night. She kept talking about how dark it was and how we were outside in the dark!

A mom I met at preschool generously offered up this darling costume for Paul - isn't he just the sweetest little puppy you ever saw?! It kept him toasty and he did great trick or treating after his normal bedtime.

We kept very busy this week! Wednesday we went to the monthly children's program at the art museum. Jillian got to draw with oil pastels and see this really awesome exhibit that uses lights and mirrors.
Afterwards we met Grandma for lunch and then she ran in the grass downtown for a while since it was so beautiful out!

Thusday was an awesome dinosaur themed birthday party, complete with a homemade dino cake that covered the entire dining room table! Today we wrapped our week with a puppet show at the library and a silly parent-teacher conference. Our shy girl isn't quite showing her smarts, which is a little frustrating! This was her first time being tested/evaluated and she is just so quiet and doesn't always perform for other people, even though we are confident that she know most everything they asked of her. I don't really even think they should be doing this quite yet, but I know there are controlling parents out there who require this sort of thing. She needs to work on scissor handling a bit but otherwise we feel she is more than up to par, especially where her alphabet is concerned. The main reason we sent her this year was for social skills and she is doing wonderfully at that! Hopefully as Paul gets older I will have more one on one time with her since the last 9 months have been really limited in that respect, which makes me feel guilty since she would love to be learning and reading more all the time!

Preschool Harvest party day!

Dad got home from his work trip JUST before the party so he came down, too. Jilly marched inside from the playground and looked around the room of kids and parents and smiled and announced, "My daddy IS here!"
Paul hanging out pre-party
Tinkerbelle! Poof! A dress we already have makes mom and dad happy, and she really resembles Tinkerbelle with her little blond bun and big eyes!
I signed up too late and got stuck with a healthy treat, but I made these little clementines to look like pumpkins and stuffed with fruit inside and the kids actually ate it!
Yummmm.....the Halloween carnage begins!

Pin the face on the pumpkin!

Paul loved preschool, he was shreiking and having fun!

"Egg" races!

Pre-Halloween fun

So this week it went from still pretty dang hot to cold and rain all weekend, except for this one glorious Friday in between when it felt perfectly like fall! We were lucky to have a mom group meetup at the Idaho Botanical garden on the quintessential fall day. We spent 3 hours there, walking around, eating lunch, and Jilly got to go through the kids' corn maze and ring the big bell. There were also lots of cool themed scarecrows around, but this was our favorite - a real, working Mr. Potato Head! He has more appendages off to the side and they secure with heavy duty velcro. I LOVE this photo - and the fact that Jilly held his hand - that was all her!
Of course, running around and across all the little bridges is an activity in itself...

The day before was blazing warm and we are out at a local farm and pumpkin patch with Jillian's preschool class. We rode the hayride, picked out a pumpkin, played in a maze and of course enjoyed the preschooler highlight, popcorn and juice snack time! Disclaimer: we were not as red as we appear in this photo and we were both wearing sunscreen. :)

We put the finishing touches on our Tinkerbell today! One week 'til Trick or Treat!

9 month appointment

Mr. Paul Johannes did great at his appointment today! He is about 30th percentile for height and 10th for weight, with a whopping 75th percentile head! (Finally, now I know it is not just my imagination that he is outgrowing hats way before the same size of clothes!) They are always surprised how early he was because he pretty large. He is lined up to be a tall skinny guy like his sister and his body very much resembles Jillian's at this age. Although he is only about 10th percentile for weight, he is 17 pounds and 6 ounces at nine months old, which to us is huge - Jillian was 15 pounds and 1 ounce at one year!

The kids are starting to look more and more alike, even though Paul is much more feisty. :)

Fall update

Been keeping very busy between dance, preschool and just having to two little ones! Last weekend we got to go to the zoo and Jilly was able to feed the giraffe AND his new little baby giraffe friend, who is about Paul's age!

Paul turned 9 months and has his appointment this week. He loves to grab, play with EVERYTHING, especially if it makes crunchy or papery noises, flirt and he looks like he will crawl pretty soon! He sat at the park and had a blast the other day pulling up handfuls of grass. But as soon as I get out the camera for a 9 month photo op with his new hat...sleeping!

Found the paper towel roll even though it was kind of behind him and pulled off ALL the towels while I did the dishes. SO proud of himself!

Back when he was still a little bit of a wobbly sitter -

Yeah....don't take our picture, mom.

Jilly LOVES her dance class and preschool. You can really see a difference in how social she is, she makes new friends in an instant at the park now and really tries to play WITH them instead of always just parallel play. Her class has a field trip next week to the farm for pickin pumpkins!

Paul loves his bouncer right now and will try to bounce right out of your arms. When he sees he will actually start whining to go in it! He finds it both very stimulating as well as very relaxing, ha, ha! This day he would jerk awake, bounce, and pass out again within seconds, it was so funny!

Fall fun

We've been pretty busy the past couple of weeks! Grandma and Cam were nice enough to let us crash their Labor Day weekend up in McCall. We got to play on the beach, go for walks (during which Jillian the drill sargeant commanded everyone to "Run! Everybody Run!) and go to New Meadows for a parade and BBQ. It was the yummiest BBQ EVER, I kid you not, and the parade was total redneck splendor when they shot off a candy cannon that pelted people and cars and left the candy burnt and covered in gunpowder, yeah! Here is Jillian getting ready for her second week of preschool on her snack and show and tell day (she brought her pony) - I did a "fancy" do for her. I have never been more surprised with my slow moving girl than I was that day. I warned her that after I went to the bathroom we needed to get our stuff and leave for preschool, but when I came out, there she was, standing at the garage door with her backpack already on! The next day was good and bad - we had a gogurt incident - she had a meltdown because we don't buy those and she had no idea how to eat and push the yogurt up in the tube. Who knew that eating from a tube was preschool requirement? (Can you see my eyes rolling?) However, her teacher said she really came out of her shell that day and was talking up a storm to all the kids on the playground and that it was really great to see!

Mr. Paul is still loving to eat his big boy foods. He can sit up a bit on his own, or support himself like this for a long time, but the main problem isn't lack of strength - it seems to be that he likes to grab things, much more than Jilly did. So the moment you put him down he is lunging for the closest thing, even if it is just the carpet which he likes to pull at. He looooved grabbing handfuls of sand at the lake until he finally got tired and put his face straight down into it. He didn't love it in his mouth so much! He rolls and rolls still and is actually being quite a pill at night because he rolls until he hits something or is stuck belly down. When you walk in, he is still partially asleep, but he angry and still trying to roll. Please let this kid crawl soon! Here is with sweet potatoes everywhere, including his eyebrows.

This weekend we enjoyed being outside, having Grandma's sister Patty up for a rib dinner, and we went to Art in the Park, a favorite fall Boise activity. I managed to spend a whopping $13 on earrings but I think we spent $25 on food! Ham/cheese/mushroom crepe (Jilly eats the mushrooms since mom's palate is not as sophisticated as hers) and a nutella one for dessert, yum! Here are the kids just hanging out in the morning - I think you can see who rules this castle.

Jilly goes to pre-school!

Jilly started pre-school today! She will be attending Tues/Thurs afternoons for a few hours at a Lutheran church near us. It is supposed to be a great program and is well established. Most importantly, it will be fun! Jillian's class is at eight kids (two teachers) with two spots still open. Six of the kids are sweet little princess-lovin' girls! There is even a Lillian in her class (poor teacher - also has another Lily and Lillian in other sessions) so that may be a little confusing. They try to play outside a lot and have a big sand pit, a few slides, lots of bikes & scooters and a little playhouse. She was a little apprehensive today and seemed sad afterwards but she said she wants to go back tomorrow alone - all the parents there today had an influence on the kids I'm sure. We think she will warm up and love it in the next couple of weeks because she sure talked about it a lot afterwards. Here she is with her big girl backpack on!

Here's a couple of shots and Jilly & Paul hanging out. Paul loves hair, especially his sister's, and he also covets her frog lovey and coos at it.

Check out this handsome man! Paul is doing great, he realized a while ago that rolling consecutively could get him somwhere and really enjoys that now. Jillian never rolled to a destination so it's kind of funny to me! The first time he rolled across a big blanket and onto his playmat, then turned 180 degrees on his belly and smiled like "look at me, mom!" He started some real food and so far hates peas (grainy texture?), is ok with beans and carrots, and of course loves sweet potatoes! He loves to bonk faces with you and will chuckle (he doesn't giggle, he chuckles!) and thinks my earrings are pretty cool playthings.
After that handsome photo, here is a funny one of Paul 1st thing in the morning that made me laugh!