Here's some of what we have been up to...
- We went to Door County for a long weekend with my side of the family. 14 people in one huge house in Egg Harbor, including 6 kids 5 and under! We successfully got our family holiday picture completed, went for a long hike at Peninsula State Park, played a few card games, and just had lots of fun relaxing. We got to meet our new niece (the kids' youngest cousin) Elizabeth. She is so adorable and is already getting so big! She, Emily and Jude are going to be best cousin buddies!
- Grandma Reinsel came up to visit during the beginning of Andy's break from school. We did lots of fun Halloween-y things - painted pumpkins, hung Halloween window decorations, baked zombie cupcakes, watched a Halloween movie, and read lots of books. Andy had his first parent-teacher conference that week, and Mrs. Frost said that Andy is a delight to have in class. He's doing so well and I can even see his progress at home. He's reading Level 1 books, sounding out tougher words, and writing new words on his own. Quarter 1 completed today.
- During the last half of Andy's break from school at the end of October, we drove up to Monticello, MN to visit Ryan, Marianne, Ben, and Elizabeth. It was such an awesome visit. The kids did very well in the car. We spent 3 nights there - the kids played so hard that they were exhausted and told us right away when they were ready for bed. We had a board game marathon that weekend - more games than we've played together in years! It was so cool to see Jack and Ben playing together. The first evening, they sat and played Playmobil guys for hours. We went to a Halloween costume party at a local church. Andy and Ben enjoyed it, but Jack got pretty freaked out by the people dressed up in costumes - mainly the 2 greeters dressed as a very realistic Shrek and Fiona. He and Emily were both pretty tired by that point. But we got some cute costume pictures and the kids did get candy. We also learned that Emily LOVES cats. She was saying "babababa" and beckoning to the cats with her fingers. (that's what she calls Bailey too). Her face would light up when she saw one, and it was an instant fix whenever she got mad or sad. Marianne made a delicious stir fry the first night and the second night we went out to an alien themed restaurant. It had awesome sundaes (bigger than the kids' heads) and fun games to play too. Jack once again got scared by a guy in a costume - this time a huge, creepy alien. But the prizes at the end, once they redeemed game tickets, made it a new favorite restaurant. During the weekend, we also went to an amazingly huge park (there are pictures in the slide show - it was Andy's favorite part of the weekend), played in the bounce house outside, went for a walk, played Wii, and watched movies. We also saw how much Emily already loves Elizabeth - Elizabeth would be in the swing, and Emily would just go right up to her and give her a big hug. Elizabeth is such a sweet, easy-going baby that she just went with the flow.
- Halloween was on Monday. Jack (and Emily & I) went to a Halloween party hosted by a kid in his class. It was a full house having over 20 kids at the party, but it was fun to see all of his friends' costumes! Emily and Jack were both ready for naps by the time we were done with that. Then we had trick-or-treating once Andy got home from school. Andy was super-excited to go, but I think Emily & Jack were still waking up from their naps, that combined with the cold weather made them a little grumpy. Once the candy started filling up his bucket, his mood quickly lifted! They wore the same costumes from the Halloween Party at Ryan & Marianne's , so luckily I got pictures then when it was nicer outside. We were out for about an hour, and then Andy was ready to head home. He probably had just as much fun handing out the candy when we were home as he did trick or treating.
- Jack had his last Tumbling class on Monday too - he did great as I got to watch him for the first time this session. Jack also had swimming lessons on Tuesday night. It was his second one, and he is already getting more comfortable in the water. His teacher is amazing - Jack says "he is hilarious!" and I'm in the water with him too during lessons. He's doing backfloats with me and learning how to use the barbell. We get to swim for a bit after lessons since we're the last lesson of the evening. It's nice to have some free time to play with Jack one on one.
- On Thursday, Andy had a school fundraiser activity at Funset Boulevard, an indoor play park. For $4 per kid, they get unlimited carousel, train, indoor play gym, and bumper cars.Andy had an awesome time and we will definitley be going back next time they have it! The bumper cars were his absolute favorite - he'd never done them before, but he was an aggressive driver! Emily had fun on the train and the carousel :)
- And here we are, it's already November! Emily and I started Christmas shopping yesteday at the mall while Jack was at school, and I'm excited to start making even more progress on it.
The pictures are kind of in chronological order! Here's what we've been up to... (click on "view all images" to open in a new window if the pics aren't showing up
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