Fall Festivities & Happy Halloween

Decorating sugar cookies

Spiderman at his preschool program

Pumpkin patch time

Trick-or-treating

Silly Violet

Apparently 15 pairs of your brother's bedtime Pull-ups are the functional equivalent of pants, so if your mom asks you to put on your pants, you can just do this.

Cutie Pie Felix

Dirty Dash

This was a really really fun race. We spent the day and did three heats: my sister-in-law Mel and me, James and his brother Michael, and Atticus and his cousins Sam and Simon (plus parents).

Circus fun

Atticus the Preschooler!

Atticus is attending preschool in a neighbor's home this year. He has been really looking forward to going ever since we mentioned it early in the year. I think it's been everything he hoped it would be. He loves his classmates and teacher and all the fun activities. He really excels in the academic rigor of learning letters, numbers, and farm animals too.

Atticus's preschool class took a field trip (that Violet was thrilled we got to attend as well) to Wheeler Farm this month. It was fun to see Atticus fit right in and be more independent. I might have teared up a little bit on the first day I had to kiss him goodbye for those couple of hours though. My baby is growing up.

I'm glad there is another field trip to take Violet on this month because each Tuesday and Thursday when Atticus leaves for preschool she begs, "I go preschool too? I go preschool too?" Not yet, Baby Girl, not yet. I can only handle one milestone at a time!

Violet's shenanigans

Violet moves fast. Very fast when it comes to getting into things. This kid is constantly emptying cupboards and cabinets. She's figured out many of the locking mechanisms. She can't operate the door knob locks yet, so she just removes them and can thus get into off-limits space she desires. If you stop by, you'll probably find her washing her hands in one of our bathrooms. Her version of hand-washing involves A LOT of soap and water. All over the counters and sometimes the mirrors. She also loves applying lotions to herself. Apparently she believes lotion can be applied under AND over clothing.

Another fun shenanigan of late is her undressing and diaper-removing. Last week when I took the kids out to ride bikes in the driveway, she slipped into the garage for a minute and emerged pedaling her tricycle completely nude. Oh, and I've tried to hide and lock up our art supplies, but there have still been a few crayon-on-wall incidents. She's also a master at unfolding laundry and dragging kitchen towels around the house. She uses them to swaddle her baby dolls.

Violet thrives on empty bins, bookcases, closets, and dressers. She wants everything out at once. If you need everything removed from your pantry, I can send her over. I've been trying to teach Atticus how to tattle-tale on her if he sees her get into something when I'm nursing Felix or making lunch, but so far he's not motivated. Oh well, at least she will only be in this phase for a limited time, right? Probably just until Felix is in it.

Violet checking herself out in the mirror after I discovered her applying lip gloss

Her response to us taking the lip gloss away

I found her like this in the kitchen and asked her what she was doing. She said she was feeding her baby doll.

Want some?

That reminds me. I'll need to pick up some more baking soda this week.