Other November Adventures

NATURE CENTER: We found out that the Nature Center near us has a program for little kids on the first Friday of every month. For November the activity was making bird feeders from apples, followed by a walk and then time in the dig pit. Sophie accidentally poured in a little too much bird seed in the bowl when we were making ours so we had enough filling to make, not one, but six bird feeders! We left four there and brought two home to tie on our trees. 

CARDEN SPECTACULAR CIRCUS: We discovered 2-for-1 admission tickets to the circus while picking up our pizza one night, and decided to go! It wasn't all that spectacular, but still a fun night out. We last went to the circus about a year ago when Sophie was three, and this time came prepared with our own popcorn, cotton candy, drinks, and glow wands for the kids, which really helped to lessen the impact of saying "no" to everything the vendors were selling. 

Some of the highlights included elephants, dogs, tigers (Sophie's favorite), a trapeze group, jugglers, and the human cannonball. We were planning to leave at intermission because it was already past bedtime, but the cannon didn't come until the very end and Sophie desperately wanted to see that part and convinced us to stick around. When the big moment finally happened, she was so tired and emotionally fragile that the whole thing scared her and made her cry. 

Video: Sophie's reaction to the Human Cannonball

AMARILLO ZOO: The zoo used to have free admission on Mondays, but they finally decided to start charging so we ended up buying a family pass for only $35, and now we can visit any day we want! We went this last Friday, on what turned out to be an absolutely beautiful day. It was cool in the morning when we arrived, but warmed up nicely and we were able to ditch our coats and just play in t-shirts by the end. 

The kids normally spend about half the time looking at animals, and the other half playing in the sand pit. As a bonus, this time they were in the process of setting up "Zoo Lights" while we were there and Sophie loved seeing all the decorations spread out, waiting to be placed. We will have to go back once the event begins to see everything all lit up. 

This lion stands up and roars about once every 30 minutes, but we always seem to miss it. This time we waited and watched for awhile, and then of course we heard him from the other side of the zoo about 3 minutes after we left. 

Discovery Center Fun

We have made two trips to the Discovery Center this month. The crowds are always super light, but we do seem to be on the same visiting schedule as a family of feral children that really test Sophie's patience, so we may have to adjust our plans next time. Even with those run-ins, the kids have been having a great time, and I have loved having somewhere indoors to play and burn off energy. As a bonus, Davey has been taking three hour naps on Discovery days because it wears him out so much.

Human Kaleidoscope

There is a room with lots of different kinds of building materials. I know these magnetic blocks have been around for a several years, but we had never really played with them before and Sophie thought they were awesome. I already got a set to give the kids for Christmas so we can play with them at home too. 

We spelled her name on the giant Lite Brite

I built a pretty awesome fort for the kids, which the feral children came and destroyed a few minutes later

Sophie loves the Lego room and on our last visit she made all these different cars

Worn out Davey

Video: some clips of our recent fun

Wee Racer Clinic

At the end of October Sophie brought home a flyer for Wee Racer in her backpack. We get lots of info about kid activities in the area from her preschool, and I normally just throw them out, but this one seemed right up her alley - running games, obstacle courses, and moving with music. I signed her up for a couple one hour sessions and she absolutely loved it!

There were about 8 kids in the group, and even though the age range was 3-5 years old, Soph was easily the tallest one there, which is becoming common for almost anything we do. She did a great job listening and following directions, and not becoming frustrated when something was too hard the first time around. It was also nice to see her look somewhat coordinated compared to other kids. This girl often walks into walls and falls over in the middle of the room and sometimes I wonder if that's just her, or a factor of age, and it looks like it's just age :)

Video: Some clips of Sophie trying the different activities. You can see the big smile on her face as she runs and can tell how much fun she was having!

The real challenge was Davey. He was not content to sit on the sides and observe for an hour and I spent a lot of time following him around, reassembling obstacles that he dismantled. He desperately wanted to be out there with the other kids and, now that I've seen some ideas, we might try to set up a few challenges at home for Sophie and Davey to enjoy together.

23 Weeks with a Baby Boy!!

The big news this week was finding out (for sure) that Baby Howe is a boy!! When I had my dating sonogram a few months ago the tech saw evidence of boy, but it was too early to be sure. Now it has been officially confirmed and we couldn't be more excited!

Sophie said she wanted a sister, but is still very happy to be having another brother. In the end, I don't think she really cared one way or the other and is mostly just excited about having another baby join the family.  Davey still has no idea what is coming, but I'm sure he will have plenty of adventures (and cause lots of trouble) with a little sidekick in the years to come. We have two names on our "boy list" and I like one, and Dave likes the other. We'll have to see who persuades the other, or maybe a third option will come along that we both agree on. Still lots of time to figure it out!

We tried to spell out "BOY" and it sort of worked :)

Baby boy was curled up tight during this latest scan, so it was hard to get a good view of his anatomy, especially his heart, but the tech didn't see anything concerning and I won't have to go back in for a second look at anything. We did see that he is currently breech, but he still has plenty of time to flip over before the due date, which is exactly 4 months out from today.

All curled up with his knee right in his face

The official "boy" shot

A peek at our little guy's face

At 23 weeks baby is the size of a Barbie doll, measuring just over a foot long and weighing about 1 pound. He is still very active and I get kicked all day long, which hopefully won't be too uncomfortable as he continues to grow. I have been feeling and sleeping good, and while I'm excited for his arrival, I really like how easy the 2nd trimester is and am in no rush to get this stage over with.

** Fun Fact: On the Lambert side of the family, this baby will be the 9th consecutive great grandson, bringing the total count to 2 girls (Sophie and her cousin Anne) and 10 boys!

October Roundup

I love everything about the fall season, although October seems to get the best parts because it's not too warm, not too cold, the leaves start changing, and there is all the Halloween fun! In addition to all the spook-tacular things already mentioned on the blog, here are some other things we were up to this month: 

We found out that bubble bath + the jets in our master tub can make quite a reaction!!

Davey, on the other hand, prefers his bath without bubbles because then he can see all the toys

My little loves on one of our walks. We did have a lot of rain this month, but also plenty of sunny days that let us get outside the house. 

Swinging in the "eggs" at the park

The Discovery Center got a new exhibit based around legos and travel. The kids had a fun time with this and we stayed in that room almost the whole time. We've been too busy to make it back for a second visit, but should have time to go again in November. 

Dave and I try to play a game every night after the kids go to bed. We take turns picking the game, but Battleship has been a frequent one lately because I'm on a winning streak and Dave keeps wanting a shot to take me down :)

One of my favorite new traditions is "Waffle Wednesday" - we just eat Eggos for lunch, but it's a quick and easy meal for me to make and the kids love it!

We visited the Nature Center for the first time this month and went on a walk in search of critters. Sophie wanted to hike, but without Dave to help, we didn't make it very far. 

See bug, squish bug

Sophie was disappointed we didn't see any snakes, but we did find tons of these fuzzy caterpillars. They were fun to watch and surprisingly fast. Sophie tried to pick one up and it pooped on her :)

Crazy hair day at preschool! I just took some of our Halloween decorations we had around and stuck them in her hair. It was very simple, but lots of fun!

All our baby stuff was up in the attic, but I pulled it down to fill some empty cupboards downstairs since we know we'll need it soon. Davey found the bath seat and decided it looked pretty comfortable. 

With her favorite snake at the zoo

Davey's preferred seat for watching TV. There are two couches right near him, but he likes the table.

Stuck!

It's pretty much always windy here so I have started keeping a kite in the trunk of the car. We pulled it out on one of our park visits and the kids only got it stuck in a tree twice :)

Sophie had her first Primary Program! Her line was "I choose the right by following God."

Some Davey mischief from last month: tearing apart "Where is Baby's Pumpkin," helping himself to the Doritos in the pantry, coloring the table with Sophie's markers, and relocating all the laundry I had neatly folded and stacked on the table. 

October Video Clips: Taking a walk; Dry lightning storm; Playground fun, Halloween parade;  Davey wearing my shoes

Halloween 2017

After counting down the days all month, the big night finally arrived! Sophie understood Halloween well last year, but this was the first time she was truly excited about everything. This is probably her favorite holiday, even more than Christmas right now, because she just loves everything that comes with it - the candy, the costumes, witches, ghosts, spiders, skeletons, bats.... In fact there was a little haunted house in our neighborhood that Dave took to while they were out, and she told me that when the ghost popped out to scare her, she laughed because she loved it so much. 

We started off our night by accidentally locking ourselves out of the house - oops! We had everything we needed though, so Dave stayed behind to hop the fence and work out a way in, while I started taking the kids door to door. We live in a great neighborhood for trick-or-treating and there were kids everywhere! Davey and I only stayed out for about 30 minutes, but Dave took Sophie around (after retrieving a house key) for a full 2 hours. He estimated the houses on the main street probably saw close to 1,000 kids that night. We live at the end of the court on the edge of the neighborhood and probably only had 40-50 kids, but the quiet was just fine with me. 

Their Moana and Maui costumes are definitely not well suited for colder weather, but I wanted some photos before they got all bundled up, so we took these earlier and then brought them back in to add some layers underneath.

My attempt at an orange dinner: mac & cheese, baby oranges, carrots, and jello

While it wasn't FREEZING, Halloween did happen to fall on the worst weather night of the week. At least the rain/snow never showed up.

Little Moana ready to tackle the neighborhood - she was just barely tall enough to reach the doorbells!

Sorting the loot afterward. Some of this candy is Davey's, but most of it is hers. We counted 150 pieces, and that was after I took at all the nasty stuff to redistribute to the other trick-or-treaters.

Davey calls candy "yummies" and wanted to start sampling right away. We gave him a sucker which kept him happy for awhile, but he lost it (I later found it stuck to his bum when we got home) so he decided to just help himself to something else. We caught him eating a Rolo and a Tootsie Roll, with wrappers still on, during our walk. 

And just for fun, these are a few of the things we picked up at the after Halloween sale the next morning. Sophie couldn't wait to open it all, so I let her have some fun before putting it into storage til next year.