Toothless Wonder

Gavin has lost TWO TEETH today! That makes three teeth this week. (5 altogether)
Looking at the way his new teeth are growing in, I am starting to feel worried about braces!

Happy Birthday!

Yesterday we celebrated the birthdays of two of my favorite guys! 

I can't believe Jasper is three years old already!  

I love that he looks so much like himself even just a few minutes old.  

So very glad that he came along and completed our family.  

Balance

Sooo....who wants to take my science test for me tomorrow?  ;)  I am feeling so incredibly unprepared.  I need to go hit the books.  Also need to finish reading "The Witch of Edmonton" and the supplementary readings because it is my week to do a blog post for English class, which is also due tomorrow night.  Good thing I spent literally all day yesterday playing.  ;P

It was much needed playtime though.  Going back to school has definitely required me to become highly skilled at balancing my life.  And sometimes balance requires a day of family fun!

Rob and I went to a lunchtime movie at the new Alamo Drafthouse that recently opened near my parent's home.  Love that place.  We saw "Captain Phillips" and both thought that it was wonderful.  Kids stayed with my parents and had a lovely time.  Serenity is working on knitting some fingerless gloves and brought that project with her because she needed to borrow some needles from Grandma.  Gideon was teaching a Sunday School lesson today and used some of that time to prepare his lesson.  My dad took the little boys for a walk and my mom helped them make rice krispie treats and Halloween crafts.  Everyone was happy.  :)

After that we went to Temple Hill Farm to check out their famous corn maze.  They had a nice little festival there too, with camel rides, and "corn blasters" (guns that shoot corn cobs) and of course animals and a little playground and bouncy area.  It was very nice and not at all crowded (it looked like rain, but didn't actually start raining until just after we got in our car.)  I loved the ambiance.  Very family-friendly, incredibly autumnal without being at all scary or gorey.   Old timey country music playing, happy friendly people...just all around good.  And I got some nice pictures!

Zombie 5K

This weekend we drove to Maryland to watch Rob run in his first ever 5K--the Run For Your Life Zombie 5K.  It was a ton of fun.  I think I am going to have to join him next year!  I was a little worried that it was going to be too scary for the little boys, but there was such a festive atmosphere--with music and games and food--and all the people, zombies and runners alike, were incredibly friendly and fun.  The boys did get a little bit skittish about the zombies, Jasper needed reassurance that they weren't going to leave the race track, but as we hung out for a bit, we got to meet a few of them and they were just so incredibly nice it didn't take long to convince the boys that they were just people in make up playing a game.

The race itself went great.  Rob ran with our friend Matt Sheluga and though they did both get "infected" it was such a non-competitive, just plain fun race that it didn't really matter.   And they got medals just for finishing!  Gorgeous weather, nice friends, just an all around really fun day!

Gavin got to bring along his Kindergarten Class's "Travel Teddy."  This is the entry we wrote in the Teddy's journal:

RIP Christy

Just held a funeral for a praying mantis. Pretty sure it might have been the finest mantis funeral ever put on. This is the first pet Gavin has lost. Poor kid was heartbroken.  But the work of the funeral seemed to help him a lot.  After sobbing and sobbing, talking to Grandma on the phone, then sobbing some more, then having to be convinced that it wasn't his fault and that bugs just don't live very long, he chose a brick from a pile in the backyard, carefully scrubbed it and painted her name on it.  Then he dug a hole, all by himself.  We put her in a plastic box.  I tried to talk him into something biodegradable, but he didn't like the idea of her decomposing and being eaten by other bugs and plants.  So we went with plastic.  We sang a song, he buried her, he said a few words about how grateful he is that God created bugs and all the other things on Earth which he loves.

And then he caught a centipede and begged me to let him go next door to ask Jeff all about it.
(Jeff said the centipede was dehydrated and he chose to release it in a muddy spot by the garden hose.  Thank Heavens!)

Taking after his Grandpa

Great trip to the air and space today. We met up with some friends from church to tour the Udvar-Hazy branch of the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum.  Jasper had been eagerly looking forward to this trip and was so excited to go!  He was very interested in looking at and talking about all of the planes and helicopters and rockets they have there.  And could have sat in the observation tower watching planes take off and land all day!  

He kept asking me if they had any planes like Dusty (from the Planes movie) so I stopped by the information desk and asked if they had any crop dusters. There were about half a dozen little old men behind the desk and they started falling all over themselves in eagerness to help me out. One came around from the desk and volunteered to walk us to where each of the two crop dusters they have were. He gave Jasper and I our own little private tour of the museum on the way pointing out especially interesting planes housed there (the Enola Gay--which dropped the nuclear bomb, the First Fed Ex Plane, the largest collection of military planes in the world, etc) then he showed us the two crop dusters and shared everything he knew about them. Another tour guide found us and gave me a bunch of papers he'd printed out about crop dusters. They said that it's not often they have someone so young asking specific questions. And that we were only the second person ever to ask about crop dusters specifically. One of them got a little emotional talking about how great it is to see the younger generation taking an interest. 

Jasper sure is a pleasant kid to take on an outing! 
Tomorrow I am going to take him with me to meet with my adviser at school. I am 99% sure it will be just fine. Certain other children of mine would never be able to handle such an outing though. Funny how kids can be so very different from one another. They just really come with their own personalities don't they?

School Days

We are all back into the school swing now.  I thought I was looking forward to it so much and now I find myself kind of sad to drop them off in the morning, missing them during the day, and overwhelmed with the demands of my own new class schedule--which is a lot more demanding than my previous two semesters.  I'm also finding myself having to make some decisions regarding my long term school and career plans a little sooner than I'd thought.  And that has been stressing me out.
  
It's all good stuff, but it takes some time to adjust.

Gavin's first day of Kindergarten was, in his words, "epic."  That word makes me feel old, but it definitely means he liked it.  ;)  The second day, he didn't want to go.  And he cried so much at drop off that the school counselor had to come help him separate from me.   Today was the third day and while he expressed some reluctance over breakfast, he went happily off to class once we got there.  It helped that the giant moth he'd found on the playground yesterday was still there today and a great teacher had even done research about the moth overnight and had cool facts to share with him today.

Jasper misses Gavin, but has had two playdates with his good friend Henry this week and spent a lot of time with our pets.  I've never really considered myself an "animal person" but I do think all these pets are really good for my kids.