Fall Festival x4

Fall in Florida isn't like Fall in Michigan.

It doesn't come with beautiful trees changing colors (more like a continuation of June, July, and August...simply with more allergens in the air), it doesn't come with picking apples at the local orchards (more like paying $4/pound for Honeycrisp apples at the grocery store), and it doesn't come with nice, cool weather.  

It does, however, come with lots of family fun.

Fall Festival #1

Clare was a princess at the first Fall Festival of the season.

 Isaac and Daddy stayed home during this party, 

thus making it Phil's favorite of all the parties.  :)

 We met with the MOMS Club, and Clare had a BLAST!

Fall Festival #2

Clare was Tinkerbell, and Isaac was Superman.

Clearly, Clare was VERY EXCITED!

 And Isaac couldn't understand what all the fuss was about.

 He has no idea who Superman is, 

nor does he have ANY desire to sit still for ANY photo. 

 Fall Festival #2 was at First United Methodist Church 

(where we occasionally attend and where Clare goes to school).

 This was the beginning of the candy madness!

 It was also during this series of Trunk-or-Treating that I realized I needed to do a better job of training my kids to grab chocolate rather than Smarties and Dumdums.

With a little help from Mr. Heath Bar, Lady Butterfinger, and Sir Snickers,
my handsome husband survived the crowds of the festival.

Superman in flight!

Tinkerbell in flight!

Fall Festival #3 was at Clare's school on the morning of Halloween.

(Daddy was at work, and Isaac was in the play center for younger siblings.)

All of the kids were instructed to dress as farmers or cowboys, 

and they had a parade around the school.

 They played several different games as a class, 

and they filled yet another bag with treats.

Fall Festival #4 was at Bell Shoals Baptist Church

(This is where I've attended Bible study for the past 3.5 years.)

There were thousands (no exaggeration) of people at this festival, and the kids got candy from at least 50 cars.  Isaac stayed entertained by eating one sucker after another, and Clare was on her best behavior knowing that it resulted in LOTS of candy. 

 They both fell asleep on the way home, and Phil and I binged as if we were still eight-year-olds with a heaping bag full of fresh candy. I think we have a big enough stash to last until next year's series of Fall Festivals!  :)

Trike-A-Thon

Clare recently participated in a Trike-A-Thon to raise money for her school.

I know that we have plenty of fundraisers ahead of us over the next umpteen years, but it was pretty sweet watching her ride around the loop with pride.

The little peddlers in action!

 "Come on, Mom...this is not the time to pose for a picture."

2/3 of her Fan Club!

Mrs. Pullara...Clare's VPK teacher!

The other 1/3 of her Fan Club...Proud Mama!

If both of our little ones go to this school through Kindergarten,
we have four more years of Trike-A-Thons in our future.

Fun Food

We've been going through food coloring like water over here, 

and we've turned some ordinary food into colorful fun.

 I don't think we've had UN-colored pancakes for months.  Our most common batch includes a few yellow, which then become orange, and finally end up as red.  We (actually Clare, ALWAYS Clare) add a couple of drops as we go, and then we (Mama) attempt to make fun shapes.

MONSTER TOAST!

Monster Toast (or Paint Toast, or whatever you want to call it) is EASY and FUN!

 Mix a small amount of milk with food coloring, and then use a Q-Tip (to cut down on the clean-up) as the paintbrush.

 It really doesn't get much easier than this:

1. Paint

 2. Toast

 3. Display

 4. EAT

 5. Repeat

What fun things do you do with food coloring?

The Daily Funnies

We've been busy...

although with nothing other than typical daily life with a 4 and almost-2 year-old.

Clare continues to light up a room.  She is engaging, communicative, perceptive, bright, responsive, creative, energetic, and compassionate. 

Our favorite "Clareism" as of late is when she says, "I love you ten hundred million, eighty-one, two."  It is ALWAYS that exact "number."  The fact that she tacks the extra two on the end is like her little trademark way of saying that it's way more than just ten-hundred million and eighty-one.

One of our new daily routines is reading from "The Jesus Storybook Bible."  Clare LOVES it, and I am fascinated at how she soaks up the stories and deeply desires to know more about the people in the Bible.  She woke up one morning last week and said, "I just realized that I will get to see all of the people in heaven."  When I asked her what people she was talking about, she said, "Moses, Noah, Daniel, Joseph, and Jonah."  She wasn't so sure about Adam and Eve.  :)

We've been talking with her about forgiveness.  That's pretty big for a 4-year old, but we knew that she was catching on when she recently told me (after getting very frustrated with something) that she "was going to forgive me, but her brain was still very mad."

Clare's newest thing is abbreviating words, or adding an "s" to the end of a word, or both.

For example,

- Hey Moms...when I'm the ONLY mom in the room.

- Can I paint my pumpk (translation "pumpkin")?

- Where are Pops (Papa) and Meems (Mema) coming back to Florida?

 Our favorite, and the one that has really stuck, is that she almost always calls Isaac "Bruvs" (short for brother...or bruver in 4-year-old-diction).

Isaac is tender-hearted, active, curious, determined, and very go-with-the-flow.

Isaac still isn't talking that much, although he definitely lets us know what he wants/needs.  His receptive language is spot on, and he knows exactly what we're asking or what we want him to do.  The screaming, which we thought was a thing of the past, has resurfaced...most likely as a result of his frustrations with not having all of the words that he needs to communicate.

Some of Isaac's little quirks include:

- Opening the fridge and pulling things out (i.e. raw eggs, grapes, etc.)
 

- Moving from one obsession to the next.  Today it might be cars, tomorrow it might be DVD cases, and then the next day it might be socks.  Whatever the obsession of the day, you can guarantee that he will not let it/them out of his sight.

 (Notice the car in his right hand.)

 

- He insists on having some trinket clutched tightly in his hand when he goes to sleep.  It may be a book, an Elmo figurine, a DVD case, or a sticker...but it's sure to be something.

- We have a set of mini-motors that includes 5 firetrucks, 5 cars, 5 airplanes, 5 trains, and 5 boats.  He will dump out the box and find the five cars within seconds.  He proceeds to carry around the five cars and disregard the other 25.

- He LOVE, LOVE, LOVES smoothies.  He has a peanut-butter banana smoothie almost every day.  I think he would have smoothies for every meal if given the choice.

 These little munchkins, who wake up way too early, make countless messes all over the house, create more laundry than imaginable, and keep us constantly ON OUR TOES, are undoubtedly the joy of our lives.

CAH + IJH = BFF

One of the greatest parts about raising these two munchkins is seeing how much fun they have together.  Clare and Isaac truly are BEST FRIENDS!

A few weeks ago, Isaac got to join Clare and Daddy on their fishing date.  That has always been a "Daddy-Daughter" thing, but now Isaac is in the club!  

Poor Mommy...at home all alone!

 Clare was happy to show him the ropes:

Ride along for a few minutes, eat a snack, catch a fish, eat a snack, play with the worms, eat a snack, listen to music, eat a snack, and so on.  Other than throwing in his sunglasses (pictured above) and the fishing net (both of which are now on the bottom of the lake), he did a great job...and definitely successful with the snack eating.  :)

Don't get me wrong, these sweet faces can display the other side of sibling love as well, but we'll save that for another post!

 This was a special night where they got to watch a new movie (from Aunt Sarah and Uncle Tory) on Mommy and Daddy's bed.  Grace (Sarah and Tory's daughter) joined them, and the four of us got to play a round of Euchre while the kids watched The Lorax.