First Field Trip

October 23

Harrison's class went on a field trip today.  They are studying pumpkins this week so they went to Iowa Orchard.  They have a very large apple orchard as well as a large pumpkin patch.  It was freezing the day we went and it was also raining.  Luckily there was just enough space inside that all the kids could sit down and listen to the woman talk.  She was quite a woman.  I am sure the kids didn't notice, but she kept telling the parents what to do.  And it wasn't like she was mean or anything, she was just direct.  "Hey.  You.  Pick up that bag of apples.  See, children, those are red apples..."  It was very amusing.

Harrison and his class had a good time and even got apple cider to drink before they went home.  The horrible thing for all of us was that the ovens were right behind the woman that was talking and the employees kept bringing out fresh apple pies from the oven.  Cruel, very cruel.  (I would have bought one (crumb topping, Mmmmm) but they were $15.00 a pie!)

One year

Sunday, October 19

When we got to my parents house my dad was raking the lawn.  I was excited because last year at this time James and Harrison played in the leaves at my parents house and I knew they would have so much fun doing it again.  And you would be amazed what will turn up while you are raking your lawn.  Just ask Nathan.  Wallet's do magically reappear.  Anyway, the boys had a great time.  They chased everyone with leaves, got buried by leaves, and threw leaves on the parts of the lawn that were just raked by Grandpa and then laugh, laugh, laugh as Grandpa got 'so mad.'

October 19, 2007

October 19, 2008

Can you believe the difference a year makes.  Bennett and Kaitlyn were being propped up by leaves and a hidden pumpkin for those pictures!  Now Bennett's mowing the leaves.

I would be remiss if I didn't mention the pie.  And it was a good pie.  But you would think that Harrison had just been given a free trip to the moon.  He was so excited about that apple pie.  And we had to have it before quiet time.  What a goof.  He kept saying 'Mmmmm, piiiiiiie.'

Pumpkin carving was the last great task for the day.  I don't know how I got stuck gutting and carving the pumpkin, but I did.  We purposely didn't do this on Saturday so that the dad's would have to do it on Sunday.  Hmmmm...

This picture isn't great.  James was not sad like this picture suggests.  Or maybe he was.  We had been trying for a while to get them all to smile and look at the camera at the same time.  Aren't they used to us taking photos of them yet?!!!

Get Your Ya-Ya's Out

Bennett continues to be a man of few words.  He has his standard Dada and duck and that is what he wants to stick with right now.  He did teach Will to say all done and/or all gone.  Will was already kind of saying these things but he took on Bennett's version of ga gon or ga don (the 'n' sound is usually not heard very well).  There is a difference but it is subtle and mostly it just comes out ga gon.  Will taught Bennett the sign for more so we have that communication A LOT!

I was so looking forward to when he would run to me saying Mama, Mama just like he does to his dad when Chris gets home from work.  Well, I am still looking forward to it.  He doesn't run to me when I get home from whatever errand I have just run and more importantly, when he does want me for something, he pats me on the leg and calls me Ya-Ya.  We are still working out why this is.  I can't recall that Chris calls me 'Hey, you' (which is what it sometimes sounds like) or that we have a copy of Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood laying around that he could read so your guess is as good as mine at the moment.

Bennett just isn't a linguist like his brother.  Some would say that Harrison is too busy speaking for Bennett but I can't think that is the case in this instance.  If Bennett is tired of Harrison talking he just screams at the top of his lungs.  It makes for a very noisy dinner time.

Turn off the TV

So, I was sitting in the office, minding my own business when Harrison walks in.  Now, I should preface all of this with the fact that it was quiet time.  Everyone was sleeping.  So, when Harrison walked in I was a little startled.  He doesn't usually sleep, but he usually stays in  his room more than 10 minutes.

Anyway, Harrison looks at me and says:

"Mom, this girl on TV just lied!  And she was a grown up!  It's not ok to lie."

I am speechless.  Not only is he up, but he is watching Days of our Lives.  Next he says:

"Mom, why do you have to go to the doctor when you are going to have a baby?"

"Why do you ask?"  I say.

"Well, the girl on TV is at the doctor and she is going to have a baby.  And damn-it, the dad is not there!  Whoever that is!"

It might be time to get him implanted with that microchip now.

Payton

Our cat is a funny cat, like most.  She does what she wants and will not cater to anyone.  Especially the kids.  Bennett loves her.  Absolutely loves her.  He loves all cats.  When we were in Florida in June he would manhandle Roscoe, Nathan and Meredith's cat, and Roscoe would pretty much take it.  Eventually he would get tired of it and bite Bennett, but Bennett didn't mind.  He would just start petting and pawing at him.

Well, imagine Bennett's delight when we came home from Night Eyes and Payton was in his bed.  He just couldn't get enough of her and for once she didn't mind, that much.

Return of the face

Bennett has decided to practice his smiling again.  Can someone please tell him the natural, unforced smiles are much better?!!!

Another day on the farm

Off we went to Center Grove Orchard again yesterday.  The lighting wasn't always the best, but here are some pictures from our trip!

This was a favorite part of the day.  We went to see the goats after the tractor rides and James said "Oh, but I want to go back to the tractor!"  But then he heard he big bad wolf was coming...

Harrison, James and Bennett were the 3 little pigs and I was the big bag wolf.  We went from house to house and they would scream "Not by the hair on my chinny chin chin!"  I t was way too cute.  This was them being scared in the brick house.

This is the big bad wolf having the tables turned!

The wagon ride was fun.  We had to peel the kids out of the corn pit to get onto the wagon, but other than that Bennett vroomed like a car and James held on tight because of the bumps!

I thought the jumping pillow would work out really nice.  A flat, cushy surface to fall down on.  And it would have been nice if some bigger people hadn't gotten on.  I think there was a little too much air bouncing for James and Bennett.  I barely got off the thing because they were glued to me!  Harrison on the other hand...

Nathan and James leave tomorrow.   We are going to Ames again today.  I wonder how I can fit James under my shirt when we leave...

Best Buds

I don't want Harrison to ever have a better friend than James (except his brother, of course!).

Hi Everyone! I'm Baaaack!

Nathan and James got here Thursday evening.  It has been non-stop fun ever sense.  

It started right away at the airport.  There are  these big block shaped stones outside the short-term parking garage.  We had picked my dad up from the airport a couple of weeks ago and Harrison jumped on each one.  Up onto the block.  Down from the block.  There are at least 15 of them.  Walking back to the car, Harrison decided to repeat this fun adventure.  James decided to try as well.  There are several differences between James and Harrison (as with all children, I am sure), one of them being athleticism.  Harrison is just a bit more nimble than James.  Harrison was quite a bit ahead when James showed that he may be a bit wittier than Harrison.  Harrison would jump onto the block and then jump down.  When he jumped down he would look back to see where James was.  James noticed this and when Harrison jumped up, James would run around a block (skipping it) and jump onto the next.  Harrison was completely unaware and the 2 finished almost even.  I can't call it cheating, because they weren't competing and there were no rules to the activity.  I call it being the best you can be with what you've got.  And this time Harrison had the brawn and James had the brains!  

Mom and Dad were nice enough to take all of the kids for the night and that meant Chris, Nathan and I got to go out.  Out!  I didn't even know it was still legal for me to do that.  I must be getting boring.  Anyway, we met up with Marc and Emily and Josh Dobson and a couple of his friends at Mickey's Irish Pub.  It was a fun night.  I have to figure out how to do that a little more often!

Friday night I twisted Mom's arm and got her and my dad to bring the kids back to Des Moines for Night Eyes at the zoo.  And boy was she glad.  We had a great time.  There are too many funny and cute things that happened through-out the night but by far the best was the end of the train ride.  There are all sorts of families waiting to get on at the 'station' and we are just pulling up to a stop and James says (quite loudly, but not a yell) "Hi, everyone!  I'm baaack!"  It was way too funny and so much fun to try and think what must be going through his head.

The night went on with a lot of growling from Bennett (I think he thinks every animal except a duck and a dog growls!) and a lot of excitement from Harrison and James.  We ended up at the inflatables.  Bennett was a little tentative, but once he figured out how to 'dive' over the walls I didn't ever think we would get him out.  Harrison LOVED the slides and James thought the bounce house was something he really wanted to do until he saw Spider-Man in there and then that was out because "Spider-Man is mean to me.  I don't want to get hurt!"  Not sure where that comes from but it was really cute!

Cubbie player James wanted to keep his hat down so he didn't get scared.  I thought he was going to run into things all night long!

Get this giraffe off my head!

This is one of the only times we got Harrison the Dragon to keep his 'head' on!

Up in a tree

I don't really want to know how high up in the tree he really was.  That would ruin the the beauty of the picture for me!