October 2017

 

We had a lot of fun celebrating the start of pumpkin season!

 

I have a good friend from college days that has a birthday in October.  Melissa and I don't live too far apart, but life gets busy and before we know it, too long has passed since we've seen each other.  It's been tradition the past few years that we hang out with each other during our birthday months though - which is always fun!  This year we met up at the Chickasaw Cultural Center and had a great day running around with our kids!

I didn't take any other pictures all day... but they had this cute pumpkin display at the front gates

We had a couple of busy weekends this month!  Now that the Lego store is finally open, we've started attending all the events there again.  One weekend they had a "free build" that was Halloween themed, and then afterwards we went to the zoo for an hour or so, then headed next door to the science museum for lunch and to play for awhile, and then went to a birthday party at the lake to finish out the night.  It was an incredibly beautiful day, and we packed an unbelievable amount of fun into it!

monkey swing!

 

we spent most of our time at the science museum in the tinkering garage this time making shadow puppets!

Bruce made a robot and Abbs drew a long neck for me to cut out

I've never been to this part of Lake Thunderbird before - but it was beautiful!

  

The following weekend we attended the Lego Club meeting, then went to an appreciation event with our "Edward Jones guy" and then had some friends over for a pumpkin carving party!

Our last weekend we headed up to Ponca City to spend some time with Charlie's mom!  We had some things we needed to bring up there, some belated birthday gifts to deliver, and some playing that needed to be done!  It was a quick trip, but we wanted to make it back for the Day of the Dead festival in Norman Sunday night.  

Although there weren't as many craft booths as the last year we went, there was a lot of great live music and food trucks

and free carnival rides!

Other Highlights and KidBits of the month:  

We went to go see the Ninjago movie in the theaters!  This was only our second time ever to bring the kids to a real movie theater, and although it was still challenging for Abby to sit through the entire film, there was much improvement over last time...  And it was a really fun movie!

I didn't realize until we got to there that the movie was only playing in one of the "special" theaters... which meant the tickets were twice as much as I was expecting to pay, but at least we got to sit in really awesome chairs!

My dad's sister Holly and her husband Duwayne came for a quick visit!  This was my first time meeting DuWayne, and I haven't seen Holly since my wedding, so it was a welcomed chance to reconnect and visit for a bit.  We didn't have nearly enough time, so I'm anxiously awaiting the next time our paths cross!

we forgot to take pictures of our time together, but they gave each of the kids one of these cards with their contact info on the back - and Bruce promptly made this frame for it as soon as we got home from the restaurant!

Baseball still played a huge role in our lives this month.  We had one week with no games, but all the other weeks were filled with practices and games, two of which Bruce's team actually won!  The whole family came out for the early games, but Abby and I stayed home for the late ones and had "girls night in" with each other, which was so good for my soul.  I think Abby really loved the solo time with me, too.  

enjoying the Fall clouds after hitting up the concession stand

Abby and I missed the last game because it was a late one, but it was the best game of the season!  The Blue Jays won - AND - Bruce got his first hit!  He may have forgotten to run... but it was incredibly exciting still!

They had a pizza party to celebrate the end of the season!

I feel like we've hit a good groove with school and days are flying by like crazy with not-too-much grump face about lessons...  We had a lot of fun learning about Asia this month!  We host two international students form South Korea this year (along with another from Finland and one from the UK) so we took a field trip to a Korean market with them and loaded up with a lot of yummy food!  Then one night, they even cooked for us!

Abbs has really been into decorating lately - here she's styling the table for our Korean meal.

I also coordinated a tour of the OSU Botanic Garden because they have a Japanese tea garden there, and then we went to a tea house to learn about and sample several different Asian teas.  Another family from our home school group joined us, and one of Bruce's best friends was out of school for Fall Break and his parents needed help watching him for the day - so he tagged along with us too!

Our last field trip of the month was to the Fred Jones Jr. Museum here in Norman - we were given a tour of their Asian art collection and invited to participate in a classroom art activity!

We still love spending time at our library!  In addition to the regular story times, they're always coming up with other interesting events that are so exciting!  This month they had a special "scientist" themed morning and we got to participate in a lot of super fun science activities!

watching a laser engrave a tongue depressor bookmark with his name

play-doh electric circuits!

I've had a few evening meetings this month, and Charlie has been bringing the kids to the pond by our church to look for interesting water creatures.  

They came home with four tadpoles, three crawfish, a handful of fish and a bunch of water bugs!   They currently live on the kitchen counter and have been so interesting to watch!

Halloween!!!

our neighborhood besties walked Main Street with us!

Bruce made some progress with getting control over his fears this month!  When we were making plans to visit the Chickasaw Cultural Center towards the beginning of the month, I reminded Bruce that it was the place that had the really interesting, but kind of spooky, Spirit Forest.  He really wanted to walk through it again, but I was hesitant because the last time we were there it really bothered him, and currently, he can't even go to the bathroom in his own house without a companion because he's too afraid.  He begged and begged and begged though, so we made a deal - if I let him go through the Spirit Forest, he was done with the ridiculous can't-be-by-himself-for-even-a-second nonsense that's been dominating his life lately.  I thought it was going to be a deal that would be hard for him to live up to - but it's been great.  For the whole month, without whining, he's done a great job being alone.  He's still waking up with nightmares a lot at night, but we're celebrating small victories - like him being able to walk into his bedroom to grab something without needing an escort!  

Bruce learned how to climb our mulberry tree!

One incredibly frustrating thing that has just seemed to blow out of control this month - is with Bruce's obsession with owning everything.  He'll ask, no less than ten times a day, about whether or not he owns this thing or that toy, etc.  I get where it comes from - if he "owns" some thing - he doesn't have to share it, but if it's a family thing, then he doesn't have as much control over it.  But lately he's been asking about the craziest of things, that no one cares about, and he needs to know if he owns it or not.  And it's nonstop - all day long!  He's generally one of the most generous kids I know, but this new habit just comes across as so selfish!  I hope he grows out of it soon!

The other night at dinner Bruce said he had something stuck in his teeth and he couldn't get it out.  After checking the place he was talking about - we discovered he's getting his first adult molars in!  This was kind of surprising because he hasn't lost any of his front baby teeth yet, but there's one big molar growing in on top, and one growing in on bottom!  Time to step up our brushing game I guess...

Abby had some physical and emotional changes this month too!  She's got the cutest set of moles that have appeared on the side of her face - I call them her "stars" because they make a constellation of sorts down her cheek.  And of course I just have to kiss them all day long!

She also has definitely turned a corner with her attitude as well!  The past few weeks have been so wonderful!  She rarely growls at anyone anymore (unless she's pretending to be a tiger) and I don't think she told me even one time to "get my grabby hands off her" (yes... that used to be a fairly common phrase around here...) this month!  We've really bonded over "girl" time together while the fellas are doing their own thing - and she's always saying now, "I love you and you're my friend" to all of us!  It's been so amazing to see Abby having good day after good day after good day!  Life is good.   

BIG roar!

You maybe can't tell from the photo, but this picture was Abby's idea.  One morning she says, "Quick mama, take a picture!  It's a family couch!"  I love our morning snuggles, and as the sun stays hiding longer each morning, and the temperature keeps falling - we're just going to snuggle in a little deeper.  I love this family!