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Lucky Kids

When I was a kid, one of my favorite things to do was write on the whiteboard.

Now my kids have free reign over Daddy's boards (they were super stoked last week when they discovered the second board on the other wall of his classroom, hehe)

I'm not going to lie: 

The last time I volunteered in Claire's class and her teacher asked me 

to write the spelling words on the board?

I was in heaven. :)

You Can't Win Them All

Two years ago, I wrote about Noah's very first, most awesome and very unexpected 

Valley Championship victory.

They were the clear underdogs, with 3 losses already that season to their opponent.

This year, that story was flip-flopped, 

with Noah's team undefeated coming into the championship game.

We can say the referees weren't perfect- they couldn't possibly be, they are human (and I would never ever ever want to referee a CIF championship game of any sort!)

But the truth is, the other team came out strong, played really well, and earned their win.

Sometimes you get to scream with your kids as Daddy coaches his team to a championship, and sometimes you get to teach your kids how to be gracious runners-up.

Even if it is through your tears.

Happy Halloween!

We had a ladybug, Tinkerbell and King Boo!

If you don't know who King Boo is, he is a character in Mario Kart and other Mario games.
He looks like this:

Alexander, just like his daddy (and unlike his mama), is very very very decisive, and knew he wanted to be King Boo months ago.

I didn't know how I was going to make that costume!

I brought him to a couple different stores, 

and we looked at what felt like hundreds of costumes, to no avail.

There was no King Boo.

And Thomas the Tank and Mater from Cars were rejected!

So as of 3 days ago, I had no King Boo costume, 

and a little boy whose heart was in danger of being broken.

I looked online and found instructions for a paper-mache King Boo costume, 

which involved covering a blown-up beach ball with paper mache, 

and cutting holes out for the arms, head and body.

We started to do this, and quickly realized it was impossible.

The strips of newspaper kept sliding off, it was not warm enough to dry the paper mache mixture, and the beach ball was too small for his body.

I quickly brainstormed how to make it out of fabric, and voila!

Hehe, it's not perfect, but he was sooo excited! I used all materials I already had- white fleece, batting for the warm filling, and flannel lining, and felt in black, gray and pink.

There is elastic at the top and bottom to pull it in and make the center poof out like the cute little round ghost.

We found a $1 crown in the party section at Target and spray-painted it gold, put on a white shirt and gray pants and that's it!

It's ok that nobody knew who King Boo is, and lots of people thought he was a ghostly pumpkin (It really does look like that!)

It felt so good to give him the costume he really wanted. :)

Helping at Alexander's school party

Doesn't he look  happy?

She wanted to be Tinkerbell, and I wanted to make it. :)

I used light green silk for the dress and petals (my favorite part) and dark green tulle for the underskirt to make it poofy.

I bought super cheap bright blue shoes, spray-painted them green and added sparkly green and white pom poms for the essential Tinkerbell slippers. :)

She's trying to fly here.
I made the wings out of green sparkly sheer fabric.
They were so easy to make, and they attach with the ribbon that  ties around her front- she loves them because they are  loose and they flap, which she says feels like she's flying. :)

And for the 5th year in a row, we have a ladybug!
She changed her mind many times and finally settled on this one from the costume box. :)

She's also trying to fly here :)

And here :)

After trick-or-treating, we went to Daddy's water polo game,
where the team clinched the League Championship for the second year in a row.

Go Cougars!

In Daddy's Treehouse

We decided to spend the morning at Oma and Opa's house!

We watered plants, fed the fish, the dogs and the bird, swung on the swing, bounced on the trampoline, picked that last remaining tomatoes and peppers, and best of all, had a picnic in Daddy's childhood treehouse!

I love thinking about Noah at this age playing up there, with the exact same view that our kids have 25 years later. 

Maybe one day our own grandkids will climb it also! 

(That is both scary and incredible exciting and heartwarming to think about!)

My absolute favorite.
They each put their arms around Lulu spontaneously, and the light is just perfect
and I can see everyone's faces. This is a winner for me!!

We picked up lunch from Whole Foods before we came- they were excited to get a juicebox. :)

A great day so far, with gardening, cookie-baking and a park trip on the docket for later!

I'm guessing you wanted to see some pictures of the kids?

Lucy can ride her bike with training wheels! She loves being able to ride with the big kids, but she is mischievous, and always "forgets" her helmet, then runs away when I try to put it on, little stinker! :) 

Claire has had a few "skills meets" where they are not timed but instead evaluated on their strokes.
She likes hanging out with the other little swimmers, and Alex and Lucy like running around the grass by the pool.
I love watching her standing on those blocks ready to jump in and looking so small,
and Noah loves embarrassing me with his loud cheers. :)

They've been getting along really well, which is always nice. :)

One of my favorite things is making dinner and hearing them running around playing together in the backyard,
even if it almost always ends with someone unintentionally getting hurt. :)

We participated in our local Light the Night walk for the Lymphoma and Leukemia Society- all the balloons had little lights inside that glowed as we walked. :)

She lost her other front tooth!
Now she's lisping because she can't quite figure out how to say her s's without any front teeth- so cute!

She's been very into jump rope lately!
It's cool how fast she picked it up- first day, she couldn't get three in a row, then a week later she was doing 60 in a row!

She earned the Big Cat Award (student of the month), and she got a drawstring bag with her school mascot, the jaguar.
We think we're clever because we came up with the name "Jag Bag" hehe :)

We went to the fair with Nana and Grampa and Uncle Nathan

He loves things to be clean and one day decided to take matters into his own hands and clean up the dishes for me, hehe

trampoline at Oma and Opa's house

helping me chop sweet potatoes for dinner (he has since decided he wants to be King Boo from Super Mario for Halloween, and I'm attempting to make his costume. We'll see how that goes, hehe)

They always like "foot rides" to bed at night.

She got her first friend phone call :)

Picture day!

So, I think you're caught up!

Today is the day we have all been waiting for- chilly, gloomy and rainy!

I think we will have grilled cheese and tomato soup for lunch. :)