Pumpkin Carving

I searched the blog for photos from past years' pumpkin carvings, but I only found this one. I'm pretty sure we've carved a pumpkin every year. Anyway, the kids are all set and ready to go!

Amelie's goofy face.

James and his goofy face.

Take two. 

Now we're getting down to business. They look so serious!

James liked putting the lid on and taking it back off (though he seemed slightly confused by it). It's kind of like a puzzle.

We carved on Tuesday (and we've already eaten all of the seeds). You can see who did most of the work sorting out seeds from "guts" as Amelie called them. I was busy taking pictures.

The finished product.

You can tell I don't know much about photography because this was so interesting to me. The picture above is with the flash off and the picture below was with the flash on. They were taken just a few seconds apart.

Happy Halloween, all!

P.S. The squirrels have started chewing on the one in front already, but I think it just makes it look slightly creepier.

Coloring

James really likes to color. Amelie does, too, sometimes.

I think she had some kind of over-arching plan, but James just kept on making his marks.

Down to work (and it looks like they finally got the paper turned around, too).

Fall Leaves

Just look at this tree! It's a sugar maple at Stephens Lake Park (I know this because there is a plaque). Amelie and I walked by it this morning on the way to the Equine Open House at Stephen's College and then we stopped and played under it on the way back.

It actually got hot today, so it was nice to play under the shade of the tree.

Jumping! Leaf piles!

She didn't mind me taking pictures (no shouts of "no more photos!" anyway) but she didn't want to look right at the camera, either. 

More Vibraphone!

One more video of Sam playing the vibraphone. This time it's "The Long and Winding Road" by the Beatles. 

Back to your regularly scheduled Baby Buffaloe programming tomorrow :) 

Vibraphone Sam

Sam made a few videos of himself playing the Vibraphone. Here's "I Will Follow You into the Dark."

There were some inadvertent baby Buffaloes in the practice takes, but he recorded after they were in bed. (Thanks to our friend Kara for the camera stand!) 

Grindstone Nature Area

I don't guess I've posted about it, but we've been going to Grindstone Nature Area and letting the kids run around in the nature :)

Their favorite part may be throwing rocks into the creek.

I made a video of James making a "big splash," if I can get it to upload later.

Sam and his walking stick.

Amelie also likes to collect leaves and grass.

She had some grass plus colorful leaves later on in the walk and a woman with two dogs said that they'd look nice at our house. Amelie replied, "They're for my giraffes. I have giraffes in my playhouse." Obviously.

I can't even handle the cuteness. James says, "Hand. Ahm-a-wee hand," when he wants to hold hands.

James wanted a walking stick like Dada. "Mine stick." 

According to my fitbit, we walked about 2.5 miles (Amelie did more because of doubling back & not sticking to the path). James walked a fair way, but I carried him back just to save some time.

School Photos

Amelie & James had school photos made at their preschool! Since they go to the same school, we got some pictures of them together.

Bootheel Visit

We got to see Grandpa Bob while we were in the bootheel (and his dog, Sadie - Amelie and Sadie were very exited to see each other). Isn't this a good picture?

At Grandma Doris's they played the touch-screen game. I think we have about a million pictures of people playing it. 

"Cheese!" he says. I couldn't get both James and Grandma Doris to look at the camera at the same time.

They were not quite as cooperative as they were with Grandpa Bob in getting a photo, but I like this one.

James was being rotten, but we were all laughing at him anyway.

Nana Jana

Haircut

Amelie got a haircut on Wednesday. She'd been running and hiding when it was time to brush her hair, so I thought it would be best to get some cut off. (Not that we had to bribe her with goldfish crackers and a movie or anything.)

Spots

James has Hand, Foot, & Mouth :(

We drove down to the bootheel Thursday night after my class, and usually the kids sleep through the trip. James fussed and cried off and on for the last 2-3 hours, and Sam turned to me and said something about it not working any more to do the trip overnight. But then James woke up Friday with spots on his chin and hands, so I figure he must have had the fever Thursday night in the car.

I've got my fingers crossed that it's just a very mild case. He got more spots on his feet and up his legs on Saturday (and that poor blister on his nose!) but he let me wipe his face off without too much fuss and he's eating and drinking just fine, just crabbier than normal. I took this picture on Saturday:

It stinks timing-wise because we'd driven all the way to the Bernie for my great-aunt Helen's 100th birthday (more on that later!) and then James was quarantined (and Sam was stuck at home with him) the whole time we were there.

Here's the link to when I wrote about Amelie having HFM the month after she started daycare.

Amelie Says

Speaking about the MU farm expo:
     Sam: We're going to a farm tomorrow!
     Amelie: Are we going today?!
     Sam: We're going tomorrow. That's what tomorrow means.

When we were talking about coming to the bootheel for my great-aunt Helen's 100th birthday party, Sam asked Amelie how old she thought Aunt Helen would be. "98!" she answered. I said that was a really good guess, but that Aunt Helen would be a little older on her birthday. Amelie's next guess? "Two thousand!"

Cousin Marlee was doing a puzzle and said (to her mom), "Help me." Amelie yelled out, "Help is coming!" and ran right over.

There's a dragon statue under one of the end tables at Nana Jana's house. James told it, "No bite." And Amelie said, "It's just a female." (!?)

We were stopped waiting to turn left,  and our resident expert pipes up from the back seat, "You can go!" I explained that we had to wait for our turn, and Amelie says, "Sometimes you just have to go in front of the other cars."

She was talking about her alligator costume and said, "The head makes it more ferocious."

While Amelie was eating an apple down to the core, Sam said, "Wow, you're going to eat that whole apple," and Amelie responded, "They're delicious! Kids love 'em!" Sam asked what else kids love and she said, "Candy." Then I asked what adults love, and she replied, "Mosly Chinese food." I'd say she has a fair grasp on what's popular.

Amelie's been playing pretending that she's having a big party and inviting lots of people. A few days ago at our house, she told me that, "The names are all writened down." She told Nana Jana last night that the "Whole entire planet Earth" was coming. Nana Jana expressed some doubt about there being enough cake for the population of the planet, and Amelie said the rest of the people could eat ice cream.

She's still using a few creative verb tenses (like writened!). One that pops up fairly frequently is "I've never sawn that before."

We've been reading two chapters at night before bed, and I ask her what's the last thing that happened just to review before picking the story up again. This is how Amelie summarized part of Little House on Plum Creek, "Pa came back, and then they had that playdate, and then she saw a badger!" (She told the events in reverse order, which is kind of interesting, and to be fair, "playdate" is a pretty good description of what happened, even if it's kind of funny applying the word to something that happened in the 1800s)

And speaking of chapter books, I've been meaning to start a list for Amelie of what she's read.

The Complete Beatrice Potter (I guess this one only kind of counts, since the stories all stand alone, but it's long! We read it all the way through once and have gone back to several of the stories again.)

The Mouse and the Motorcycle (twice)

Mr. Popper's Penguins (twice)

The Cricket in Times Square 

Little House in the Big Woods

Little House on Plum Creek

Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle (We read this once and now we're reading it again. Sam accidentally called it 'Piggly-Wiggly,' like the grocery store.)

Hello, Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle 

We've started several Roald Dahl books, but had to stop because they were "too scary." I think I've finally learned my lesson and will wait on them for another year or so (The Twits, The Big Friendly Giant, Matilda -- we got halfway through Matilda, but the parents really are awful.)

My friend Amanda shared some reading lists with me, and I think we'll try The Wizard of Oz or Winnie the Pooh next. I'm looking for suggestions for books or reading lists if you'd have them, too.

P.S. I was asking for suggestions from our friends Sally, Matt, Rob, and Stephanie. Rob suggested Game of Thrones and we laughed, but apparently he missed the fact that I was asking about book suggestions for a four-year-old, and wasn't just making a joke.

Drawing

At preschool, one of the notes they sent home said they did "pre-writing" and Sam mocked it. However, it really does look like the small scribbles James is making are pre-writing :)

He has a really long attention span when it comes it drawing.

Appropriate Fall Outerwear

It was 50 degrees today, and this is what Amelie elected to wear.

James Says

James has started saying "Am-a-wee" instead of his usual "Ahm" to indicate his sister.

He was on a kick where everything bad that happened was "Ahm"s fault, and he tripped and fell and shouted "Bad Ahm!" even though she had nothing to do with it.

He also is trying hard to communicate stories to me about what happened when I wasn't with him. The inlaws were over for dinner a while ago while I was teaching class and the next morning, he told me, "Papaw come ... Luke come ... Bahb come ... Benny come ... Grandma Mary come ... Ellie come ..." Also, we took the city bus out to the library and the mall and he told Sam all about it when he got home, "Blue bus! City bus!"

As Sam is wont to say, James doesn't have any self-esteem issues. As soon as he accomplishes anything, he raises both hands up and shouts, "I did it!"

If he doesn't like a food, he says it's "too spicy."

James is sometimes comically polite. When I buttoned up his shirt for school pictures, he said, "Tankoo, Mama," and then when I brushed his hair, he said it again, "Tankoo, Mama."

Last night, he was trying to climb on my legs, using them as a ladder over to the other chair they were propped up on. "Careful, Mama!" he said, then, "Careful, James." 

He's been trying very hard to sing "Happy Birthday" and "This Little Light of Mine" and "Ring-around-the-rosey." When I sing "Old MacDonald," I pause so that he can tell me which animal to do next. My favorite request so far has been "Baby Penguin!"