Fishing with Daddy

Is there anything better?

Lessons in life

Frejya has been learning some valuable life lessons as of late. She is fully capable of driving my car which I think is pretty incredible. I still make her sit on my lap so that I can take over if necessary, but she uses the pedals and steers all on her own. And she's really good at not starting or stopping too fast.  She really has a knack for this driving thing already (and obviously we're only driving on private property where this is allowed).

She also learned how to do laundry this weekend. She had a pretty good idea from helping me out over the years, but she now knows exactly what settings to use, how much soap to use, etc. And her learning this chore is really going to help me out a lot I think. Plus she loves that she gets to keep any money she finds as she's doing this. 

And the last very important life lesson we accomplished this weekend was public speaking. She's really no stranger to public speaking but this was her first time being liturgist at church and she did an amazing job. She decided to do most of the readings all by herself and she really nailed it. Everyone at church was very impressed with how well she can read and how well she understood what she was reading. She made the gospel lesson exciting because she actually understood that it was a story, not just a statement to read. She definitely reads with good inflection. I don't know that I've ever been prouder.

 

And just one more thing: Frejya got straight A's on her report card. It's her first report card with real letter grades and she is super excited about it. And we are so proud!

Brownies are yummy

Gabriel discovered this weekend that brownies are awesome. He also learned how to say the word awesome. He doesn't say it when he talks about brownies, though. He says it after he jumps off my bed onto a big pile of pillows. This is probably his very favorite activity these days. And probably the least safe of all the things he does on a daily basis. So I'm not going to post pictures of it, but will instead post some of him enjoying the brownie mix after Frejya made us all brownies Saturday night. And maybe you'll notice that he's up at the sink in these pictures. He also discovered how to push a chair across the kitchen and turn on the water in the sink this weekend.

Another awesome thing that happened this weekend is that we got Iris (again!) for a few hours. Oh how I love me some time with Iris! She and Gabriel are both getting to a bit of a bullying age and don't share toys very well. For the most part Iris ends up as top dog and Gabriel ends up crying. But then there are other times when they play together perfectly well.

And finally I would like to share Frejya's jack-o-lantern with you all. She carved it all by herself this year. Exciting stuff!

Now with better pictures

My friend Kim took much better pictures of my little ones than I did. So now you can see them more clearly. And in case you were wondering, yes I was bothered by how mature the batgirl costume was. Frejya's legs are way too long for her to wear something like that.

To the rescue!!

My kids went as superheroes for Halloween this year. Spiderman and Batgirl. And somehow I didn't end up with a single picture of just the two of them. I'm not sure how it happened, but I am very disappointed.

Gabriel thought trick or treating was the greatest thing ever. He got the concept of it right away and followed all the big kids from house to house. He didn't quite understand that he was only given candy once per house, though. He would just drop the candy into his bag and hold out his hand for more. And of course he was just so cute that people would give him several handfuls. So we have way too much candy at our house now.

 

And this is what he looked like after trick or treating. Can you say candy coma?