Feeling more like winter....

Well, it's finally starting to feel like winter and I'm not sure how I feel about it.  I should be overly thrilled that it's stayed long for so long, and I am, but I think it's kind of spoiled me a little bit.  The 70s are great in Iowa and I wish they could last all winter long!


But winter decided to come anyway and now I'm not so ready for it to be here.  For the past week or so it's been cloudy, no sun at all.  The kind of sky that looks like it could snow just any minute, but it's still a little too warm for snow.  The highs have been in the 40s, which is cold to begin with, but then add strong winds and it is down-right freezing outside!  We have broken out the winter coats and hats/mittens.  I have even broken out my imitation Uggs for the cold mornings when I have to take Natalli to school.  It's even cold in the house, but I refuse to let the heat come on any more than it already is, after all, it's not that cold yet!  


But the cold weather has really gotten me in the Christmas spirit this year.  Usually I am beyond annoyed that everyone seems to jump right over poor Thanksgiving without even a passing glance.  But this year I don't seem to be bothered by the Christmas decorations already lining the hallways of stores and the endless Christmas songs being played over the store speakers.  In fact, I somewhat welcome it.  Greg and I have already started our Christmas shopping and I'm eager to get my tree out of the basement and start decorating it!  (I'm making sure though that the tree doesn't come up before Thanksgiving...plus we might be getting a new one, so I'll have to wait and see about that first).  I've even decided that I am doing Black Friday shopping this year.  I've never gone before, so it should be interesting.  Greg and I decided we are going to be nerds about it and write down what we want to get and what store it's at so we just aren't walking around the stores aimlessly.


And over the weekend, it was nice outside (and by nice I mean it wasn't in negative temps and there was no snow), so we decided to be eager beavers and put up our Christmas lights.  I'm pretty sure we are one of the first houses in our town to have done so and I can almost guarantee that we are the first house to actually have them lit at night.  We bought new lights this year since we have a new house, we wanted a new look.  Besides the fact that Greg had to go up on the roof and take down a strand and put a new strand up (because he forgot to check to see if they worked before he put them up there), they turned out spectacular!

What do you think?

Now if we could just have winter without the snow-covered streets and the crazy drivers, I'd be good.  Bring on Christmas!  I'm so excited, I don't think I can stand it!  Sorry Thanksgiving, but I've decided I'm skipping you this year.  ....Might as well join on the bandwagon, right!?

Mommy's Day

Today was a fun day.  It was Mommy Day at Konner's preschool.  I had already gone through this twice when Natalli was in preschool, but it's totally different with Konner.  He's just a totally different person, obviously, but just is completely different at preschool than she was.


We started off the morning with free playtime.  And of course, he went directly to the toy cars and action figures.  And just HAD to show me the Woody doll they had, to which he ended up playing with for most of free time (having in drive around in a red, convertible Barbie car of course)!  Next he moved onto the kitchen and finished off free playtime with the sensory table.  It's always a favorite thing to play with in preschool, this week's ingredients: oatmeal, glitter and little sparkly objects.

Then he decided to show me where they have circle time and proceeded to lay out the pillows and lay on them. 

He wanted me to join in with him, but as soon as he asked, the bell-ringer rang the bell and it was time to clean up the toys for circle time.

After everything was cleaned up, we boarded the circle time train while the "spots" were being set out.  Konner's spot is a zebra and he got to sit on my lap this circle time.  During circle time they sang their good morning song, talked about the day of the week, the number of the week, the color and letter of the week, the weather outside and each child shared a questionnaire they had done about their mommies.  My favorite thing to do apparently is cook dinner and I'm 11 years old and weigh "high" pounds.  And yes, that is exactly the word he said....not sure what that's supposed to mean, but it doesn't sound good!


After circle time was over it was time for crafts.  Each child has a specific seat they go to for arts and crafts, so that no one fights over a seat, so I walked quietly behind Konner as he found his spot.  Today we decorated shoes.  The boys got "boots" and the girls got "high heels."  They got to glue on little sparkly things and use different colors of glitter glue.  Now, Konner is not that big of a fan of crafts, he never has been, so most of his art projects so far this year have been fast and hurried.  He also doesn't like to get dirty, I know, weird for a boy, but he's always been like that.  So those two things don't make a great combination for making arts and crafts for mommy.  But I think he took a little more time this time since I was there with him.

After crafts it was time to go potty and wash hands so that we were ready for snack time.  Konner was lucky enough to be picked as the line leader for the day, so he got to lead everyone in class to the big room for snack time.  It was juice and muffin day and I volunteered to make a dozen muffins so that I knew Konner could eat one.  They were coffee cake muffins with pumpkin spice instead of ginger.  They turned out pretty well and must have been popular, because there weren't any left-overs.  After snack time they sang their goodbye song and we got to go outside and play for a little bit.  We didn't play for long because it was down-right cold outside with no sun!  


It was a fantastic morning.  I love seeing him interact with the other little kids and his teachers and see what a morning is like for him in preschool.  I can't wait until I get to do it again next year.  Up next for little Konner....daddy's day!!

Trick-or-Treat, Smell My Feet

Another Halloween has come and gone, and unfortunately for me, I wasn't quite in the Halloween mood this year.  Which for those who know me, is a HUGE surprise because Halloween is my favorite holiday.  Yes, even over Christmas.  I know, I'm a scrooge.  But this year, the totes and boxes of Halloween decorations in the basement were not calling my name like they usually do.  I'm one of those people that has to have all Halloween decorations up by October 1st!  But this year the first came and went and nothing.  I thinks it's because I don't quite feel like this home is "home" yet, I don't feel settled and comfortable yet.  So the idea of unpacking boxes upon boxes for decorations for 30 days just to pack everything up again didn't seem to agree with my psyche.  And by the time I did kind of feel in the mood for decorations, it was way to late to put anything up without looking like a complete moron.  So our house was bare and spookless.

However, the kids and I did enjoy the Halloween spirit, even if it was a little unconventional this year.  First we went to Earle May during their "pumpkin party" and we went through a maze, decorated sugar cookies, ate popcorn, and picked out and painted our pumpkins.  What little artists I have!

I was positive that Konner would want to be Lightning McQueen again this year, as he was last year, and I was pretty excited about it since that would mean I didn't have to buy a new costume...but I was wrong.  Ever since Toy Story 3 has come out, he has been over the moon with Woody, so when we walked down the aisle full of costumes, he immediately picked out the Woody costume.  I suppose it was a good purchase of $19 seeing as he has now worn the costume for almost 7 days straight!

And I was almost positive that Natalli would want to be a princess again this year.  The last three years she's been Belle, Snow White and Tinker Belle.  But imagine my surprise when we went down the costume aisle and of all things, picked out Jessie the Cowgirl as her costume.  She has also been in love with her since Toy Story 3, so I suppose it shouldn't surprise me, but I thought for sure she'd want to dawn a pretty dress and some high heels, since she is my little diva of a princess.

And well, Heath is still too young to pick his costume.  And honestly, I wasn't going to go for a "theme" Halloween, but since Woody and Jessie were already picked out, I thought, "how cute would it be if Heath was Buzz Lightyear?"  So I searched and searched and hidden underneath a bunch of Superman and Iron Man costumes was the very last Buzz costume in a size 2T, perfect for my little Heath.  So Buzz he was.  And he was quite happy about it too seeing as he loves Buzz and can actually say his name.  And he even left the hood on, what a cooperative little boy he is!

The weekend before Halloween we did our annual trip to Night Eyes at the zoo.  There's not a whole lot of trick-or-treating and I can see where it would be boring for older kids, but my kids are at the perfect age to enjoy it to its fullest.  Not all the animals are out and about, but the ones that are are eager for viewers.  The paths were decorated with lights, painted murals and tents filled with people anxious to hand out candy to little hands.  This year we were lucky enough to take my niece and nephew with us, as they were in town and I was in charge of watching them.  That's right, I took 5 kids to the zoo to trick-or-treat by myself!  *please enter applause here*

Natalli and Sadie even got their faces painted.  Natalli was so upset that she smeared hers by the end of the trip, but the lady was so nice she repainted the whole thing for no charge for her. 

Then came Halloween.  We were supposed to go up north for my nephew's birthday party and then trick-or-treating Algona-style.  But what do you know, the boys were up all night pucking the night before and I woke up feeling like the absolute worst.  It was like my body was rejecting the idea of Halloween altogether...bummer.  So my in-laws took Natalli up north for the party and trick-or-treating, while Greg and I stayed home with the boys.  To say that I was upset was a little bit of an understatement.  My boys are finally into the whole getting candy thing and they were going to miss it!  BUT....there was a light at the end of the tunnel!  Greg had gone out to get groceries and when he came back informed me that trick-or-treating was happening (I thought it was the night before, so I thought we had missed it).  The boys hadn't puked all day, so I pulled my "not feeling well" butt off the couch, got the boys dressed and went trick-or-treating.  It was so cute to see them jump out of the wagon when we stopped at a new house, run up to the door and say "thank-you" after grabbing a piece of candy (or in Heath's case, a whole handful because he didn't really get the concept of "one piece"), then run back to the wagon, hop inside and get ready for the next house.  It was so nice outside that most of the parents were sitting outside handing out the candy and there were soooo many houses handing out candy, kind of surprised me for being such a small town.  But seeing as we are surrounded by a lot of little kids, I guess it makes sense.  We didn't even visit that many houses and they got so much candy....we might have candy until next Halloween!  Natalli said she had a great time trick-or-treating up north....too bad I didn't get any pictures of her!

We even got home in enough time to hand out some candy from our house.  Konner really enjoyed holding the bowl as the eager kids threw their hands into it looking for some goodies. 

Oh well, there's always next year.  And next year I will be in the spirit, even if I have to force myself!  And we will have more than just our pumpkins lining our front porch as decorations!  ....I wonder what the kids will want to be next year....