Pumpkin patch trip

This year we ended up at the pumpkin patch solo. Past years we go with friends or family, but timing wise it just didnt work out to meet up with anyone. But that was ok becuase we had a great time anyways, just us as a family. We found this great farm last year, Bauman Farms, in Gervais. And were pretty sure its where we'll always go as long as its open. Its one of the biggest pumpkin patches we've ever heard of locally. You pay $10 per person and you get to play all day long, and do all the activities as many times as you want. Thats pretty great compared to most patches that make you pay per activity and can add up pretty quickly to way more than $10. We spent most of the day there, had some yummy apple cider donuts for snack, played in all the mazes (including the dark one that Eli and I were in for over 2 hours while Daddy and Zach ate hot dogs.) We bounced on the bouncey pillow (and Zach got angry everyone kept bouncing him to the edge), rode zip line swings (which I was so suprised Zach did too!), pet lots of animals, wrode a tractor hay ride, and so so sooooooooooo much more. It was a fun packed day, and they both passed out in the car with exhaustion within minutes of hitting the road. We didnt buy any pumpkins at the pumpkin patch though. We grew TEN in our garden this year, so instead of buying pumpkins we bought Bauman farms yummy apple cider, some donuts, and lots of other yummies they sell in their store there.
These pictures are all off of a disposable camera because our digital broke. So I ran out of film durring our pumpkin painting. :( Its too bad too because it was pretty humerous. The boys ended up painting themselves, and made for a crazy shower. We got it on video, maybe I'll have to just post the video of it since I dont have pictures. But I will also take a picture of the boys with the finished results of our pumpkins on my NEW CAMERA my hubby just bought me. Yep, Im back up and running...blogger watch out.

Zach and soccer....not friends

Since Zach turned 3 this summer and was now old enough to join his first season of soccer, we decided to sign him up on a team. Eli started at 3 also, on the same team. Little Kicks. Its more of a camp style that teaches them the beginnings of sports and lasts about 8 weeks, every saturday morning. Our very first practice Zach took off running with his team and coach. I was so proud of my brave little baby. But my brave little baby quickly melted...and every saturday since that day, its been the same exact story line. We get to practice all amped up and ready to play, run to the team...play and stretch for about 5 -10 minutes...and then MELT DOWN. I think we've decided that maybe he's not the sports nutt that brother Eli is. Zach can run around the house all day long and not get tired, but put him on a team and all the sudden he's couch potato city. So where we push Eli to do sports, because he loves them....I dont think we'll push Zach much anymore unless he asks us to. He may just end up a Drama and Choir boy like his Daddy was and put his sports career in his past. We'll see, we never know. Because even though it was a fight at practices, he was so proud to brag to friends and family that he plays soccer now. So here is what every saturday played out like:
Time to stretch

Playing red light green light with the ball

Go Zach Go..nice job! He's the one on the far left

And were done....

No really...he's done for the day. He's "tired". 15 minutes complete..dont even try to bribe him to play more. He goes totally noodle legs on you when you try.

So Ive decided theres nothing wrong with going to college as a Drama major. He could be our next Brad Pitt. ;)

Kindergarten school pictures

What a handsome little Kindergarten boy! I have to admit, I think he's one of the cutest little handsome boys Ive ever seen...and I dont think its just because Im his Mommy. ;) We cant go anywhere without someone commenting on his looks, his beautiful green eyes, his heart warming smile, or his cute little "butt chin". He's so cute with his reaction to his "fans" as well. At soccer this last week, the lady passing out their team pictures stopped when she got to him and their conversation went as follows:

Lady: "Man, youre a little cutie arent you?"
Eli: "uh hu" (with a big cheesey smile across his face)
Lady: "I bet you hear that all the time?"
Eli: "uh hu" (with an even bigger wrench your heart out cute smile, nodding his head in agreeance with her))
Lady: "I bet youre going to win all the ladies over someday hu?"
Eli: "uh hu. Im going to go play soccer now" (as he's waving to her and still wearing that ear to ear smile)
....what a flirt. We may be in trouble.
I was very excited for his "1st" school pictures to arrive. We did his hair all handsome, and then I threatned him when he got on the bus NOT to touch his hair until after the pictures were taken at school. :) The background color came back wrong than from what I ordered (I ordered BLUE not red...yes I know, I gave up a red something? am I sick? I guess they knew me though, and still gave him red) but I was very pleased to see that he smiled nicely for the camera and hadnt touched his hair all day long!
Now in my school years, we werent technologically advanced like things are these days. With his picture order we also got a cool cd that had these 3 different styles to his picture saved for us so we can share our pictures online too! Wow, why did I order all those wallets then? ;)

Once again, if you havent noticed our blogs slowing down latley, were having camera issues. Again, we broke ANOTHER digital camera. Ive lost count how many we've gone through in our marriage. We've been told that we should just buy those childrens fisher price cameras. Its probably best we do, then the next time we drop our camera in a puddle, the sand, at the fair, etc...it wont matter because its child tested! hehe So, soon my friends (when I can find the time to go buy a new camera...or develop the film on the ever so trendy disposable camera!), blogging will resume. Give me a week, and I promise that pumpkin patch and all will be clearly blogged for all you viewers. :)

The Crazy Stallions

Soccer season has officially started! This is Eli's 3rd year playing soccer. His first two years were on the Little Kicks soccer teams, which are really more of a "camp" setting for 11 weeks every saturday. They taught the basics... ball dribbling, scoring a goal, all the soccer terms, and then some fun thrown in there to keep the little ones interested, such as a game of tag. He has really enjoyed soccer so far. We've also had this feeling that he'd be a great goalie someday. He prefers to be in the backlight of the game, defending the goal. With his height, his super high pain tollerence, and his crazy personality...we always thought those were great assets and that he would be the first to sacrifice his body to safe a goal for his team. This year we had the option, we could leave him in one more year with the Little Kicks or we could move him up to an actual soccer league of 5 and 6 year olds. The difference, is in the league teams he'd actually be playing in real games. So we chose that route this year, step up his game and continue his soccer education a little more. He has practice twice a week and then one game every weekend. So far we've had two games. The first game we got totally smashed, the team we played against Im pretty sure came straight from boot camp, and our boys straight from the zoo. hehe By the end of the game though, I think they really began to figure out how this game thing worked, but we still got beat 6-0. ouch. Our next game last week was much better though. Partly from our team finally focusing and figuring out the steps a game actually takes, but also because the team we played against was from a bigger zoo than we are from...hehe. Mid play they would forget all about the game and start attacking eachother growling like monsters! (which gave us an open door to making a goal on them!!) They even had one boy on the team who could not keep his hands off the ball. I cant tell you how many times the ball was turned to us because they would do a throw in and this boys would CATCH the ball and start running with it in his hands! The score of the game this time made our boys very proud. 5-2, our win. But the two points they scored, they really scored into our goal...but we let them have the points anyways because they were so excited they made a goal...and well, we hope that other teams will do the same for us this season in our weak moments, because after all..we are only kindergartners.
Our little goalie, so far our predictions are coming true. He's always the first to the goal to protect it. Giving high fives after the game to the other team.

And Zach has officially started his first year of soccer season with the Little Kicks this last weekend. So very soon, I will get a posting up of him (having yet again, camera issues) and his soccer experience as well. He seems to be really enjoying it so far, has great coordination, and seems to be very proud to be doing big boy things like brother. Posting to come on him..

State Fair

Our trip to the State fair this year was a lot of fun. We met up with some friends who's children are very close in age to ours. Eli had a great time riding the big rides with Hannah, and I think she got a kick out of watching him be crazy and scream. She just giggled and laughed at him alot. Most of the pictures I got are of Eli, Hannah, Hayden and Evan. Zach wasnt too into the rides. He's not very good with noise, so they all scared him. We did get him to ride on the silly boats a couple times and he liked those. Finally towards the end of the rides he decided he wanted to give a motorcycle a try. About half way into his ride it started raining pretty hard. Well anyone who knows Zach knows that unless its HIS idea, he hates to get water on him. So he quickly decided he was done, darn that rain. Luckily he was the only one on the ride and it was already slowing to a stop, but he was out of his buckle and climbing off before it came to a complete stop. So because of the rain, and only having enough tickets for one more ride..we sent Eli on a pirate haunted house ride that he'd been begging all afternoon to go on, all on his own. The ride literally took 60 seconds. He went in with a smile, and came out pale as a ghost with big eyes and shaking like a leaf! It was so stinking cute and funny we had to laugh. He walked off shaking, TRYING to smile. But I could see his eyes watering up and he was still shaking so hard he couldnt control himself. We asked if it was fun and what was in there. He only replied with "really really scary stuff". We gave him big hugs and told him he was brave and we were proud of him and that it was all fake stuff and not worry. He still to this day hasnt told us exactly what all he saw in there. Just "really really scary stuff". Occasionally Ive heard him tell cousins and friends about a witch and a skeleton. Such a brave little soul.

Zach on his motorcycle getting rained on.
Here is Eli screaming on the roller coaster and Hannah laughing at him.
Zach on his quiet boat ride.

I thought this picture was adorable! All the kids went in with Kris to the fun house. Zach got lost in the window maze and Kris came to rescue him. The way he's looking up at him is too cute, like "oh please help me".

.Anyone who's seen some certain photos of this stroller in Seaside with a baby Eli will know why I posted this picture. Jake tends to drive the boys in the stroller on things that are not meant to drive on. We have this picture of Eli very young, being driven up the outside wall of a store in downtown seaside...and now of Zach driving up the car at the State Fair. Somebody turn that dangerous father in. haha

Kindergarten here he comes!

I cant believe Im blogging about Kindergarten already. Seriously, it feels like it was just yesterday that Eli was a baby in my tummy. Im amazed at how fast the boys are growing up before our eyes. Ive been very blessed to be a stay at home mommy all these years. Being a stay at home mom has so many positive rewards from it, but I have learned it does have its negatives as well. Neither of the boys had ever been left with adults they dont know. If we ever left them it was with a friend or family that they knew very well. So I gave in to the preschool idea because I worried about how Eli would react to me leaving him somewhere unfamiliar. If you remember, last year it took a good month to get Eli comfortable with me leaving him with his preschool class and teacher. He clung to my leg screaming! I would peal him off finger by finger, his teacher would take him, and Id run like the wind out the door and then wait to hear his cries stop before I left the building for the couple of hours of class time. It broke my heart, leaving my first child like that. This also was hard on Zach..."Eli's crying and sad mommy, lets go get him!". But within time, Eli learned that preschool was fun. It was fun having his own place that only he got to go, time away from his brother and the fights, to learn so much educationally, and to meet new friends outside of mommy and daddy's help. He grew up so much in that year, its amazing to look back on it now. Its also taught myself that I can trust other adults, and that school is a very safe place for me to let go of some of my paranoid overprotective mommy control. And its also taught Zach, that school is fun..so when his time comes I hope its easier for him than it was for ELi. And becuase of that experience, Kindergarten has been a TOTAL success! Beyond what I ever imagined it would have been. We had his school supplies purchase, backpack tagged with his name, and clothes layed out for the first day of school! He was pretty excited, to say the least. His teacher had given the kids goodie bags with fun meaningful things in it (a sticker to remind them they all stick together in class, a cotton ball to remind them that they only use soft words and hands with their friends, a candle to celebrate a year of learning, etc) So on his first morning, I made him pancakes eggs and sausage. I covered the pancakes with whip cream and sprinkles and put the candle in it. He covered his eyes as I brought it to the table and I had him open his eyes and told him to make a kindergarten wish. His eyes got all huge with excitement and I could tell he felt really special. His wish was "to be friends forever and ever and ever". (which I found out that night at dinner that he wasnt talking about his friends or school, he was talking about Mommy Daddy Zach and him. How special is that!?) I think the candle wish with breakfast is going to be our first day of school tradition forever with the boys. So his first day I drove him to school so that I could walk him into his class and take pictures and such, just like most of the other parents did as well. He was very happy to see that two of his friends, Brionna (who he was very good friends with) and Carla, from his preschool class, were now in his kindergarten class as well! He was very brave walking in to class, hung up his backpack, and found his seat with his name. When it was time for parents to leave I think he would have been fine had I just waved and left the room, but mommy went over and kissed him anyways. Zach and I went home and played and waited for brother to come home on the bus. I had gotten so many mixed reactions to school bus riding from friends who have kids in school, so I thought Id give the afternoon ride a chance since I knew that his teacher walked them to the bus from class and it was ONLY kindergarten kids on the bus. Not to mention that it is only 10 minutes from the time school lets out until he gets to our house (they drop him at our house and only if Im there to get him) which is almost faster than if I went to pick him up and had to wait in the pickup line. Felt pretty secure and safe of a plan to this protective mommy! So when the bus driver pulled up and waved and opened the door for Eli, as he walked passed me to go in the house says in this very big boy mature matter of factly way "mommy, you know how you drove me to school today in the morning? well I dont want you to do that anymore, I want to ride the bus to school AND home". Well then! I guess maybe he's ready for college, or his own place too? Look at that handsome little boy! Here he is standing outside of his new classroom.
Sitting at his big boy desk, very proudly.

So then since he "requested" I not drive him to school anymore, we attempted the bus the next morning. I was a little nervous because there are all ages on the bus in the morning and I wasnt sure he had the focus skills just yet to pay attention and get off and go right into the elementry gym like he's supposed to..especially since his first day the kindergarten went to their class instead of the gym. So being my protective self, I quized him to death all morning about where to go and stranger danger. We talked about different scenerios with stranger danger, and Im so thankful for the safety camp lessons he got this summer. When I told him that if a stranger grabbed him and wouldnt let go, than he was to yell and that he was also to KICK and HIT them as hard as he could until they did let go. He looked at me and said "mommy its not nice to hit"...I assured him that it was VERY OK to hit a stranger trying to steal you and he got an evil little grin on his face about that. So watch out strangers, my son is ready to fight! haha Luckily there are 2 kids in our neighborhood that get on at his bus stop as well, so that made me feel a little more comfortable that he knew friends on the bus. I told him that this one day I would drive and meet him at school just to make sure he knew exactly where to go off of the bus, and I would take pictures but to NOT come to mommy, just go to the gym. So after he boarded the bus, Zach and I drove to school and waited for their bus to show up. As he got off of the bus he looked so proud of himself, smiling and waving to me. I took pictures of him walking in line to the gym from the bus. The cute little neighbor boy (who is in 2nd grade) looks at me and says "its ok Candy, Im taking care of him. I'll make sure he gets to the gym safe and knows what to do". How cute is that!? He felt my worry, and took over for me as Eli's little helper. That little boy doesnt realize it, but I later told his Dad that it made all the world of difference to me and has really made me feel more comfortable about sending Eli to school on the bus. So now Eli is a full time bus rider, morning and afternoon. He's doing so great. Hasnt shed one tear or shown any fear. He's making friends and learning so much already. We had an open house the other night, and I was amazed at how many friends came up to him to say hi already. Its so fun and so amazing watching him become his own person at this age. You could say Im a proud mommy! My only worry is his Daddy's genes. Its almost become a ritual, when he gets off the bus I have to tell him "do not kiss the window anymore on the bus!" Apparently all the kindergarten kids on his bus in the afternoon think that its hillarious when he kisses the window and smashes his face all over it. So when I tell him not to do it again and threaten about all the germs he's touching doing that, he responds with "but mommy, my friends think its funny!". One girl even came up to ME at the open house the other night and told me "I like Eli, he's funny on the bus". Great, my son is the bus clown...thanks to Daddys genes, because I was NEVER that outgoing and crazy as a kid.

Bye Bye Tree.

Mom and Les have been having some tree issues, some of the bigger trees just not taking to the rain and wind as they get larger each year. So we headed over to their house this weekend to take out yet another splitting tree threatning their house. Eli was in awe as Daddy climbed the big ladder with a chainsaw and tried to convince us that he could climb up too and help. Zach, well Zach held his ears alot and ran in the house. Some of the big branches slammed into moms house, fense, and flowers as they fell. Him and Les did all the could with a rope to try to talk the limbs into going in other directions but it wasnt always possible with how tall the tree was and how big some of the limbs were. At one point a huge one slammed into my moms shed and knocked off the siding under the gutter and Jake in his crazy self yelled "I CAN FIX THAT!"..and within seconds the neighbors were in their yard "protecting" their house. haha It supprisingly only took a couple hours to cut the entire thing down and the only damage was that little board siding which "jake can fix" and a few leaves in the neighbors pond that Jake cleaned out after everyone cleared out the few branches that went in their yard. After filling up the truck once, there was still so many branches covering their entire backyard, so it looked like a jungle. Thats when the kids decided it was safe to come out and play, in the Jungle. As you can see by moms reaction in the one picture, some of Jakes work was a little scary. Not to anything of his fault, he did amazing. It was just that big branches were constantly falling and Jake was constantly swaying back and forth on tiny little broken branches way up there in the tree and worrying mom and I. At one point when a huge branch broke off, he flung back and hung on tight..we thought for sure he was going to catapolt backwards to the other side of the house! So my wonderful hubby got in some manly chore time and did a fantastic job. Now moms house wont get smashed this winter.

And no I had NO part in allowing my child to use these tools..infact I had no idea he was even doing this until I saw the pictures today. Thank goodness he didnt chop off a foot. ;)