Happy Birthday Matthew!

 I can't believe our little Tattoo is 4!  His birthday was on November 7th, a Monday, but we celebrated all week.  The Friday before his birthday we took him out to lunch at McDonalds, then shopping to pick a new shirt and toy. 

He chose an awesome Spiderman hoodie and a new Spiderman toy.  Then, on his actual birthday he blew out candles on brownies with cream cheese frosting.  Yum! 

Finally, the following Saturday we had our extended family birthday party complete with pulled pork sandwiches, cupcakes and homemade oreos.  Double yum!  It seemed to be a superhero themed birthday, with lots of Spiderman to go around.  He's a pretty happy guy!

Halloween 2011

The older the kids get, the funner everything is.  Halloween is really fun again after hating it for so many years as a teenager.  This year I was blessed to spend my day with Mario, Superman and 2 beautiful ladybugs. 

The elementary school changed the way they handle the parade, which meant I got to go over for 2 separate parades, one for Keyana which also included morning kindergarten through 4th grade. 

Then we went back for another parade just for the afternoon kindergarten to see Kaiden.  Both were really fun and I enjoyed seeing some very creative costumes.  We saw a lot of Marios and Supermen, and the boys were very excited.  The funnest part though, was that Kaiden was in his parade right next to someone dressed as Luigi, and he was so excited about it that he was simply glowing. 

 

 Later that evening was time for trick-or-treating with the Coffey cousins, aka another Mario, Luigi and a purple butterfly.  Aynslee was lazy and slept through that, but the big kids were so excited running from house to house.  We had beautiful weather and didn't even need jackets, getting back to the house just before it got dark. 

We finished up our fun Halloween with a spooky dinner.  We had haunted haystacks (Hawaiian haystacks), eyeballs (mini-meatloaves), and bones in blood (bread sticks with marinara sauce).  Of course there were also plenty of treats to go around.  All in all, it was a very fun, entertaining holiday!

Eating Words

I feel like every time I post, I have to apologize to myself for letting so much time pass between posts. This was meant to be my journal, and only 2 posts a year does not really cut it. I realize my last post was about being done with diapers and moving on with my life. Around the same time as my last post we cleaned out the house and did away with any and all baby stuff still lingering. I should have known I was jinxing myself, but I never learn. By January, I was pregnant with baby #4! Surprise! We welcomed Aynslee Brooke Morgan to our family on Friday, September 23rd, 2011 and she is delightful. Although fussy at times (as we are still working on figuring out the best formula for her tiny tummy) she's a pretty happy, wiggly baby and we love her!

It's official!

We're officially done with diapers/pull-ups! Forever! Hopefully. I waited to try potty training Matthew at night until we ran out of the leftover nighttime pull-ups from Kaiden. Well, he ran out over the weekend. He has a waterproof mattress pad on his bed, so I was ready for the worst. Last night was his first night without a pull-up on, and he woke up dry! I think I can fairly safely say that he's completely potty trained now. I'm aware that he may still have accidents, but the worst is over. Whew! If that's not motivation to be done having children, I don't know what is! Yay!

Fall Fun '10

This has been a fabulous fall! Having lots of time to spend with the kiddos has been wonderful, and I've learned to really appreciate the beauty of fall. This year we had another trip to the pumpkin patch with Granny and the Coffey cousins. PJ just HAD to have the biggest pumpkin (which was a nightmare to carve, by the way), while the boys chose more modest pumpkin options. It was SOOO warm that day, so it was quite a pleasant trip. Later that afternoon the kids all got to decorate their own Halloween cookies.Fast forward a couple weeks to Halloween weekend. Friday was both PJ's school Halloween parade and free scary-face pancake day at IHOP.After PJ headed off to school the boys, Granny and I headed over for some scary-face pancakes, and returned in time to see PJ in her parade. She looked so excited and happy to be there, but unfortunately forgot to take her hat and broom in the parade with her. Oh well, she looked cute anyway. Saturday we decorated with carved pumpkins and Mr. Fun (the monster on the porch). Later that evening we had everyone over for a spooky dinner and trick-or-treating in the rain. All-in-all, it's been a super fun fall so far, and I can't wait to see what the next couple weeks bring as we look forward to Tattoo's birthday and Thanksgiving.

Reading Recovery

My little Princess has been struggling just a bit with reading this year. Luckily, we have an amazing school which caught on right away, and within a week of the start of the school year they had set her up with a reading tutor in a program called Reading Recovery. Every day she spends about half an hour with Mrs. Michelle and brings home a big packet of work to practice on. Usually it includes 3 books for her to read to me, a cut-apart sentence for her to put back together and glue into a notebook, and an alphabet book. Although it takes us much longer to do her homework every day than it did last year, she doesn't complain at all and is doing so well!
Today, there was a meeting of Reading Recovery teachers at an elementary in Saratoga Springs in which they observed one teacher working with one of their students. For this particular meeting, it was Mrs. Michelle's turn, and she invited Keyana to be her student. So, early this morning we packed up and headed out there, not knowing exactly what to expect. Turns out, they have a special room set aside for this. It's actually two rooms, separated by a two-way mirror. PJ is in the room with her teacher looking at herself in the mirror (making silly faces) , while the rest of the teachers (and me) are on the other side looking through the window at her. It was wonderful, because we were able to see how their lessons take place without making her nervous with everyone watching. Although this was really a teaching tool meant for the other teachers, I really learned a lot about what she responds to and what will work for her as we practice at home. She's progressing so fast!
On a side note, she finally lost one of her front teeth last week and the other one should be out within the next couple days!

Summer Rain

Since moving to our current house, summer rainstorms have become a favorite of ours. Not because there's anything different about them, but now that we have a covered porch, we get to enjoy them from outside, rather than in. I've been itching for a good storm all summer, and it seems in the last week we've hit the jackpot! Tattoo seems to love them the most, running out into the rain immediately after leaving the door, while the rest of us prefer to watch from the dryness of the porch. Here are some fun pics of the boys enjoying some summertime rain!