The LORD your God is with you,
he is mighty to save.
He will take great delight in you,
he will quiet you with his love,
he will rejoice over you with singing.
Zephaniah 3:17
We went to the Touch-a-Truck event at a county over and had a blast!
The kids patiently stood in like forever to use the fireman's hose.
She climbed into the tractor all by herself and was so pleased.
The school bus was the favorite vehicle of the day. We had to get on it twice. They buckled themselves in and were tickled to be on it.
Honking the horn of the big rig
Police boat action
Even a trash truck!
Some military vehicles
And the kayak.....Austin has this thing for kayaks right now. He sings "row, row, row your kayak gently down the river..." instead of the original version. Made it up all by himself and loves to point out any and every kayak we saw this summer.
Our first week of November was unseasonably warm in the low 70's so we spent a lot of time outside, soaking it up!
I literally woke up one morning and said, "Let's forget the to-do list and go to the zoo!" And they rejoiced! :)
Waiting for the penguin feeding.(She offered to carry our lunch in her backpack, even mentioning that she could do it if I carried our water bottles. Sweet girl!)
"Mommy, take photo of ME!!!"
Train selfie
Amelia chose the red pandas to have our lunch with. They gave us the best show I've ever seen - wrestling with each other, climbing all over their branches and eating bamboo. Kids were thrilled.
The zoo had all kinds of winter construction going on, so we spent a decent amount of time watching diggers and cranes too.
A little carousel treat before leaving
We met some friends at a park one morning and into the afternoon. When the kids wanted a break from playing, they started pulling dried grass from the neighboring field and making a nest.
Even lunch outside on the deck!
There was a fireman/fire truck demonstration at Amelia's school and one of her teachers noted that Amelia was pretty afraid of the fireman in his mask/helmet. Since Patrick has his own respirator for work, he brought it home one evening so the kids could touch/play with it and get more comfortable. First he put it on and they definitely weren't getting close.
Then he started teaching them about the different parts and let them help him attach the cartridges.
Neither one fully put it on but they did smell it (plastic!) and hold it and looked through the prescription glasses inside.
Helping Daddy get a tight fit.
He smelled and touched it at the very end.
I found this photo and video on Patrick's phone from our church fall festival.
After a really tough time trying to find a photographer who would take family photos for a decent price, we found another mama who has a photography business on the side and could fit us in around the busyness of this fall. You can talk to the kids over and over about the process of getting photos taken and what they mean to their mama, but in the end you can't force them to smile for the camera. And that was the case with Austin - we showed up to this gorgeous location and he decided to play his "I'm 2"card and either bury his face in my shoulder or look away every time the photographer took her camera out. After awhile, we finally agreed to just let the kids run and play and try to get what we could. When she published the few proofs on facebook, my jaw dropped at how many good ones she got despite his attitude. I don't know what magic she worked, but we are definitely using her in the future.
Here is a bit of many moments over the past month that didn't make it in previous posts.
One thing I love about Amelia's preschool is that the administrator takes the time to send the parents photos of the kids when they have special activities (like a bug show!). Amelia is with Mrs. Davenhall here (who has been teaching preschool longer than I have been alive and Amelia loves her.)
Pizza Night. This girl is working on measuring/leveling ingredients without major spillage.
(work in progress)
Every time I see these two up to the counter, cooking with me, my heart overflows with gratitude. Both for these children and for the ample food we have.
I turn around one Saturday afternoon and he's standing on a chair to watch Daddy's streaming football game. Surely I can't chastise him for that?
These moments.
Making little bird feeders for our hungry bird friends (they empty our bird feeder in just days).
Sunday morning football highlights - new part of our routine. They finish Sunday morning breakfast and immediately clamor to watch them with Daddy. And they let him know if there's too much talking and not enough video clips.
Don't tell sister that we have treats while she's at preschool....
Goofballs
The kids went through 48 hours where they insisted on passing this hat back and forth. It was pretty funny.
My heart has so many moments to be full.
Silly morning grins to send to our new cousin Eli!
We've been sneaking in some park time while it's still getting cooler out. How do they go from barely being able to walk on mulch without falling over to zooming through park equipment in such a short time?
