A girl after my own heart

Frejya learned how to crochet yesterday. I love her so much. And I'm sure it went much better than it would have if I had tried to teach her. Not that I know how to crochet. But if I did and I tried to teach her how, I'm sure it would have resulted in lots of frustration on both our parts.

Biker babes

I have really started to realize that I like alliteration way too much. And yet, I still can't stop myself from using it in today's post title. It must be some kind of sickness.

I am loving the more fall-like weather this week. The mornings are chilly and require a sweater, the afternoons are warm but not hot. This might just be my favorite time of year. And the kids are enjoying it too. While I was slaving away at the stove making dinner (we had BLTs so maybe I wasn't slaving away, but still), the kids were out in the backyard riding Gabriel's tricycle. And then they found things to use as microphones and were singing together. It was probably the cutest thing ever but of course I didn't get any pictures of the singing part. I did manage to break away from my oh-so-labor-intensive dinner (ok, again maybe I exaggerate a bit) to snap a few shots of them riding the tricycle. Aren't they the best? I think so.

Some other things from last night: I caught Gabe letting the kids jump off his dresser onto our bed (and you thought I was bad for letting them jump on Mary's couch!) and Frejya and I busted out the craft box and did some drawing and painting for a book project she's working on (I also found out that she had the option to just write the author a letter, but instead chose to write and act out a skit that requires props - fun times!). And I'm trying to be better about organizing everything the night before instead of being in a huge, chaotic rush every morning before work/school so I made Frejya's and my lunches before going to bed. That way I can just make the sandwiches in the morning and be good to go. My lunch doesn't have a cute note in it though. And no sunscreen either. I don't have PE time in the afternoon that requires me to be in the sun for awhile.

I'm obsessed

Iris and Gabriel together is one of my favorite things in the world I think. They are two of the cutest, cuddliest little things ever. And the two of them sitting eating breakfast together? Almost too much cute to handle. Am I right, or am I right?

And then watching them blow bubbles together was even cuter. How is that possible?

Know who else is cute? Baby Jack of course. He's a darling little thing who I didn't take nearly enough pictures of because I was too busy holding and cuddling him the whole time I was there.

Jolly jumping

I spent a few days visiting with my sister Mary this week. Chris had to go away on business so I went to help out with new baby Jack. Frejya had to stay home because she had school, but Gabriel came with me and he and Iris had so much fun together. We were super surprised at how much the two of them played together. Not parallel play, but actual interactive play. It was so dang cute to watch them. And one of their absolute favorite activities was jumping. Mary and I realized we probably shouldn't have condoned this activity, but it was seriously too much fun for everyone (whether watching or jumping) so we just went with it. Because seriously,  how cute is this?

They'd jump for awhile, then take a break for awhile.

And Gabriel could not tire of this game. He jumped the whole time we were there. It didn't matter if Iris was around or not.

Ring Around the Rosie

Do you know that I just googled this title to try to find out if it's rosy or rosie? I'm still not sure of the correct spelling but I am very sure now of how uncool I am. Moving on...

Ring Around the Rosy (or Rosie, who knows?) is probably Gabriel's absolute favorite game to play these days. And it's really fun to play it with him because he gets so excited. So we had a playdate with some friends last night and I made all the kids play it. And even the big kids seemed to really enjoy it. Although I'm sure they would never admit to that if you asked them. But how cool is it that just one silly little game can entertain all these kids of different ages? Gabriel and Cooper aren't so good with the timing yet. Cooper wanted to sit down right away and Gabriel takes forever to finally flop down at the end. Just when you think you should stand up to start over because he's not going to do it, he throws himself down.

Busy bees

This has been one of those weeks where all we've done is go, go, go. I feel like I haven't had any time at home at all. I haven't even gotten home until after 6:00 every night and Tuesday night I didn't get home until close to 9:00. It's just been crazy. We've had doctor appointments, dance class, bible study, more doctor appointments. And tonight isn't going to be any different because I am working a 9 hour day and then babysitting a little boy for a few hours tonight while his mom's at a school board meeting. And of course this has also been the week that Frejya has somehow forgotten her lunch every day. Seriously every single day this week I have made her a lunch and handed it to her in the morning, but somehow it has never made it into the car with us. And I always tell her as I hand it to her that she needs to put it in her backpack. It's starting to get a little frustrating.

Even with all of our craziness this week, Gabriel has found plenty of time to play with his trains. He sure does love his trains these days. And you know exactly what he's playing with because he says "choo choo" the whole time he's playing.

And you know what else has been crazy this week? Frejya's hair. This is what it looks like every morning when she wakes up. What are we supposed to do with that?

Entertaining ourselves

Frejya had her 9 year check up yesterday and we spent almost 2 hours at the doctor's office. Holy cow! We waited for about 40 minutes in the waiting room, then waited some more time for the doctor, then waited at least 20 minutes for the nurse to come with the flu shot. It was a whole lot of waiting. So Frejya decided to show me some of her new dance moves. She started hip hop dancing a few weeks ago and is really into it. And I mean REALLY into it. And there was singing involved to. Because you can't dance without some music, right? It was a lot of fun. I have video too. Seriously awesome.

Church stuff

Sunday school started yesterday. I'm teaching the junior high class for the first time ever and I actually really liked it. I'm not going go lie: I was really unsure of it before class yesterday. I've taught the younger kids for years now so teaching older kids was a little daunting. But it is super fun teaching kids who can actually discuss the bible with you.

Also at church yesterday, Frejya and her little friend Katelyn lit the candles. Frejya does it pretty often and it totally brings back memories of my childhood. Lighting the candles was always so fun.

Pulling teeth

For some reason Frejya's permanent teeth seem to think that there is enough room in her mouth for them without having to get rid of her baby teeth. Every single one of her bottom teeth so far have grown in behind the baby teeth. And those little baby teeth don't even get wiggly or lose their roots because of it. They just hang out there like that's what they're supposed to do. So she had a few of the little guys pulled out when she was in kindergarten. But more recently, she had a tooth on the side come in and the tooth in front of it just stuck straight out at an angle. It drove me crazy for months but the little sucker was not at all wiggly. So frustrating! But last week Frejya had a little accident with her cousin Joshie and banged her tooth on his bike helmet while they were playing. And I was so excited to see that the tooth was finally wiggly!! It was wiggly enough that we knew it had to come out soon, but not wiggly enough for us to pull it out with our hands (Have you ever actually tried pulling someone else's tooth out? They're slippery little things. It's not as easy as you would think). So Gabe grabbed his hook extractors and yanked the tooth out. Frejya didn't feel a thing - that's how ready this tooth was to come out. And can I just tell you that I am so glad it's finally out. It's really too bad it couldn't have come out before school pictures were taken, but whatever. Beggars can't be choosers.

The new tube

Even though it was Labor Day weekend and we knew the lake would be crowded as can be, we decided we really wanted to try out our new tube. So we pulled the kids out of bed and put them in the truck at 7:00 on Sunday morning and made the quick drive to the lake. Julie and Ben came with the kids and we made a big morning of it. We were there early enough to get a couple hours of pretty calm water before too many other boats got there. And then we had some fun on the rougher water before calling it a day a little after lunchtime. Paul was the first to hop on the new tube (along with Frejya) and he did awesome. He absolutely loved the tube until we accidentally capsized it with all three of the big kids on it (oops!). And then he was done with it. Tubing is fun but being underwater is not so fun. I spent a lot of time on the tube. Way too much time if my insanely sore muscles are any indication. But it was so worth it.