Halloween Fun!

Colten's Halloween fun began on Wednesday, October 30th with his school party.  Colten went as a blowfish trashie from the Trash Pack toys, and he came home with more candy than we knew what to do with (but that didn't stop us from collecting more the next day!)

Colten chose this pumpkin on his school field trip to Mill Creek Metro Farms.

 

Cotlen with his teacher Miss Angel

Colten with his teacher Miss Mary

Colten and Kayleigh (aka Princess Jasmine)

Steven (Scooby Doo), Colten, and Brody (Bumblebee)

Halloween turned out to be very rainy and windy, but we went over to Papa's house to trick-or-treat anyway and had a blast despite the rain!  We missed Daddy because he had class, but we collected a lot of candy for him to enjoy and he didn't even have to brave the elements!  And I think we started a new family tradition.  We had so much fun with Papa, Uncle Howard, Uncle Marc, Aunt Amanda, and Payton that I'm sure we will do the same next year too!

Colten and Ryan in their matching mummy shirts

Ryan trying out his vampire teeth - please excuse his ketchup mouth but it kind of looks like blood, adding to the effect!

Getting ready to leave for Papa's house - no costume for me this year except my spiderweb eyes.

Ryan as Elmo - unfortunately he had an upset belly but was still a trooper

Elmo (Ryan) and Grandma before heading to Papa's

We moved the pumpkin patch inside since it was raining and Mommy still wanted pictures.  As you can tell, we never quite got around to carving this year....

"Trick-or-treat!" (Papa with Ryan and Colten)

Payton, Uncle Marc, Colten, Ryan, and Papa

Ryan eating his first piece of Halloween candy. Because of the rain, Amanda and I brought Payton and Ryan back to Papa's and Papa, Uncle Marc, and Colten continued to collect more goodies.  But Ryan got a head start on enjoying his treats! 

Ryan, Mommy, and Payton (as a mouse - too cute!)

Ryan, Aunt Amanda, and Payton

"Check out my loot!"

Ready for bed in matching Halloween pjs - and showing off some candy!

After Ryan went to sleep, Colten and I sorted all of the candy.  People were so generous, giving full-size candy bars and even Ziploc bags filled with candy.  Thank you to everyone!

Other tidbits-

At CCW, they give students stamps on their hands if they behave well during the day.  Colten has always received a stamp, that is until this October.  When Grandma went to pick him up, Miss Angel said that he didn't receive his stamp because he wouldn't listen to her and colored on the desk even after she asked him to stop. Grandma was shocked to hear this and disappointed.  Since it was unseasonably warm, she had planned on taking the boys to the park after school.  She still took them, but only Ryan was able to play; Colten had to sit next to Grandma and watch since he made bad choices at school that day.  Needless to say, when I heard the news, I too was disappointed in his unacceptable behavior.  So when I got home from school, we talked about his choices and then he wrote a letter to Miss Angel apologizing for his behavior.  When he delivered it to Miss Angel the next day, he apologized in person as well and has behaved ever since.   I'm not sure what got into him that day, but so far so good now.  Miss Angel was so touched by his note, she even teared up when she read it.  She, too, said that his behavior that day was so out of character for him and she didn't anticipate having any other problems with him.

"Miss Angel, I am sorry for coloring on the desk.  I promise to listen."

We celebrated with Kayleigh at Chuck E. Cheese's for her 4th birthday.  I love this picture because Ryan is so curious!

Colten also had his first official play date with a few boys from school.  He had been asking to have Brody and Steven over to play so I wrote notes to their moms and hoped for the best.  Luckily, all three boys were able to get together to play last week.  They had so much fun together!!!  I loved watching them interact and play their hearts out.  The moms were amazing too and we got along so well.  In fact, I happened to go to high school with Steven's mom.  We are all looking forward to more time together soon!  And they all welcoming Ryan to play with them as well; it warmed my heart.  In fact, Ryan even sat on Steven's lap for a picture, and Steven was so sweet to him. 

Steven, Brody, and Colten playing Transformers

We also took the boys to Disney Junior Live to see Sophia and Jake and the Neverland Pirates!  They both loved the show; in fact it was Ryan's first time attending something like that.  I'm not sure that he ever sat still but we could tell that he was enjoying it because of his excited facial expressions.

September - School, Swimming, and Sunshine!

Colten has been very busy at school this month!  They just finished a unit on dinosaurs and even watched their class volcano explode - too cool!  Colten also has been working hard on printing his letters and numbers.  He has made great progress already but still struggles with letter size and staying on the lines and that number 5 really gives him difficulty.  He always compares his to ours, not realizing that we all have had YEARS of practice.  Hang in there, Colten! With your determination, you will master it before you know it!

He also started staying for lunch one day every week.  I wanted him to get used to eating both hot and cold lunches at school since next year he will be in kindergarten all day.  He was so excited for his lunch box and to stay with his friends, especially because he would get to eat with Kayleigh even though she is not in his class this year.  Miss Mary said that he was too cute on the first lunch day.  I guess he thought it was still part of class and he wanted to do things just right so he kept asking her, "What should I eat next?" after he finished each part of his lunch (bologna and mustard sandwich, grapes, carrots and ranch dip, and a juice box).  This month he is also going to try hot pizza lunches!  Yum! Yum!

Olivia, Kayleigh, and Colten ready for school and lunchtime!

Colten also has been continuing his swim lessons at the Y and is still loving it and doing sooooooo well!  For the first two sessions, I left Ryan home with Daddy but I noticed that some moms were in the really shallow area with their young toddlers and I found out that while Colten is in his lesson, I can take Ryan in to play as well!  Needless to say, Ryan was thrilled this past weekend and had a blast on the play-gym in the water.  The first time he went down the slide he went under and then didn't want to try it again, but I reassured him that I would hold his hand and then he loved it and went again and again and again.  In fact, he even went down the larger tube slide 3 times as well!  He had so much fun but of course didn't want to leave even when Colten's lesson was over.

After Colten's lesson, his teacher stopped Tom and told him that we may have a future swim team member on our hands.  She said that he is very concerned about his technique already and that he pays attention to his form while swimming.  Who knows what he will pursue, but it was a great compliment and he does LOVE it!

After swim class, we were off to our annual trip to White House Farms for pumpkin and apple fun!  We had planned to go the previous weekend, but Colten experienced his first school sickness with a fever and cough and runny nose.  But in the end, it worked out even better because the weather was perfect!  When we first arrived, we took our annual horse-drawn hayride through the apple orchid.

Tom and Jerry were our guides!

Then we were off to explore the petting zoo, playground, inflatable caterpillar, and lake.  Colten loved climbing around in the inflatable caterpillar but Ryan seemed too young; there was a rope ladder to climb in order to get to the top of the slide that led to the exit and I was worried that he wouldn't be able to make it up or that other kids would not have the patience to let him try.  He was so sad though as he peeked through the windows to watch Colten.  So I took Ryan over to the lake, bought some fish food, and let him feed the fish.  He loved it and laughed away. 

Mommy, Colten, and Ryan in the pumpkin cut-outs

Ryan and Colten with Bonnie the farm dog

And then it was off to the pumpkin patch to choose this year's pumpkins!  I desperately wanted a cute photo of the boys together, but no luck.  I got a few good individual shots though.  In the end both boys chose pumpkins they could respectively carry (at least for a moment) and ones that are covered in bumps.  Gotta love it!

"I found mine, Mom!"

"Me too!"  I love his face as he tries to lift it!

I was really hoping to get a great photo of Ryan that I could use on his upcoming birthday invitation, so I tried one last time on a pumpkin bale of hay...but no luck.

Cute but you can see the exhaustion - Ryan powered through without a nap that day!

And I tried one last time for a cute photo of the boys together...no luck once again.

So much for 'hug your brother' - try choke-hold I guess - oh to have 2 boys : )

But in case you are wondering, I eventually got the cute photo for Ryan's birthday invitation the next day!  Check it out!

And a few other random pics -

Ryan loves any and every ball - so much in fact that he climbed right into his basket of balls!

Ryan and his pal Lady!

Looking at his truck book in the tent

Two bat-boys thanks to McDonald's Happy Meals!

We hope everyone has a fun start to fall!  Let the countdown to Halloween begin!

Fairs and Firsts

To end the summer, we headed to the Canfield Fair for some good old-fashioned fair fun over Labor Day weekend!  As usual, it was VERY hot, but we had a blast anyway - eating fattening fair foods, checking out the baby animals at Old McDonald's Farm, playing silly games and winning even sillier prizes! 
Our annual pictures with the fair pumpkin -

Check out their matching "County Fair" shirts!  (This time it was at least somewhat unplanned though - I had one from Colten when he was little and then Braden passed a larger size down to Colten so it was perfect!)

We love our cut-outs! - Colten at the YSU tent as Pete the Penguin!

On our way to a pizza stand, Colten and I spotted this dart game that had a sign reading "kids win every time!" so after lunch we headed back to let Colten try his luck.  The man running the game was so nice to Colten; he was only supposed to get three tries, but after his third miss, the man said "I never saw that" as he handed him another dart.  He let Colten throw until he popped a balloon!  And Colten was so excited because he actually won his little blue stuffed dog then! 

And then we were off to KiddyLand!  Unfortunately by this time we were all very hot and Ryan was very tired so we played a game and opted out of rides.  There is always next year - plus Ryan will be able to ride everything with Colten by then too.

The boys had to pick a duck and then they won a prize; Ryan just wanted to play in the water though!  Colten chose a blue race car, and Ryan chose - you guessed it - a ball (which he proceeded to throw into the water as well - it was time to head home!)

We had a so much fun!  But as much as I always enjoy the fair, a part of me dreads it because it truly marks the end of summer and the start of school...

This year, Colten and I both began on the same day so I sadly wasn't able to be with him on his first day of his second year of preschool.  Luckily Grandma is the next best thing to mom, and he still had her and Ryan of course.  In fact, Grandpa was even able to see him for a moment as he arrived at school.  I missed him but was super glad that he was excited and that he had a great day!  In fact, his teacher from last year moved up with the students, so he already knows her and most all of the kids.  Sadly, Kayleigh is not in his class this year, but they still see each other during gym and when they stay for lunch.  Regardless, I know that he misses her.  She truly is his best friend; they have literally known each other since her birth and will hopefully always have a special place in each other's hearts. 

I always try to make his first day of school a bit of a celebration, so even though I couldn't take him out to lunch this year after school, we celebrated later with a HUGE cookie cake from Sam's Club! 

Last year Colten went to school three days a week, but this year I chose to send him all five.  It is still only for half of the day but I wanted to begin transitioning him for kindergarten when he will go all five days and all day.  I was a bit worried that he would complain about not being home with Grandma and Ryan, but so far he just seems to be really enjoying himself and all that he is learning.  It is hard to believe but even in comparison to last year, he is doing so much more and learning like crazy!  I am so proud of him already!

And Ryan and Grandma are enjoying their bonding time as well - even though Ryan does miss Colten.  He has never known life without his big brother so when Colten is not around Ryan may enjoy playing with his toys but you can tell he misses his companion.  In fact one day Grandma said it was time to go pick Colten up from school; Ryan smiled and said "Colten. Happy!"  Too cute if I do say so myself. 

Anyone who knows Ryan knows that he is OBSESSED with balls so we took the boys to the first Fitch home football game of the season.  Even though the game didn't begin until after Ryan's usual bedtime, they still had a blast and did not want to leave.  As soon as Ryan saw the players, he was yelling "football" and "helmet!"  We left at half-time because it was getting too late, but both boys want to go to another game! 

From that point on, Ryan was obsessed with helmets and kept trying to put mini helmets on his head.  While I was shopping that weekend, I found a clearance softball helmet at Wal-Mart and couldn't pass it up.  Check Ryan out!  He loves it!

And one last note that melted my heart.  Today after school, I was sitting with Colten and Ryan as they ate.  Ryan turned to me, gave me a hug, and said "love you."  I couldn't believe it!  It was completely unprompted for one, and Ryan rarely says that anyway.  More often than not, if we say "I love you," he says "bye-bye" because he associates it with us leaving him to sleep or so we can go to work, etc.  I love the boys so much!  They continue to surprise me everyday!