September Phone Favorites

 Did anyone else notice that September was only 2 weeks long? At least that is how it felt to me! Poof! It will be New Years before I know it and that I am just NOT ready for! Here is a round up of our Phone Favs *Caution* Inappropriate picture at the end. You have been warned! 

Grammy is the best! While she was here I made sure to pack in all of our appointments for myself and all of the kids so I could have helping hands. I got to go run errands by myself, it was amazing! When I returned I found the kiddos outside just coloring away. Grammy is so fun!

 

 We found an establishment we thought Clark may enjoy. 

While Duke was at MDO, E and I made a paper dress. She was pretty excited about it and asked if she could wear it to church :) 

 After a full day of MDO this little guy climbed into my bed and just crashed. so sweet!

These three keep me on my toes. Gretta is going through an especially clingy stage right now which involves a lot of crying and whining. I am so grateful for community nap times and sweet pictures like these and remind me they are pretty precious!

Duke and E offered to rub my legs for me! I was totally down. It was a very ticklish experience.

Waiting for Manny at Speech Therapy.

My G-pa suffered a pretty sever stroke and had a brain bleed. Thankfully he has only had one more stroke since being in the hospital and after some PT he is now back at home. I really enjoyed face timing with him. This is one of my favorite guys! 

I'm not entirely sure why but my children are pretty obsessed with being naked in the trampoline. Maybe is has something to do with the rush of fresh air on their bits but really.... it's ridiculous. Being that this blog is private and I think I have a total of 6 followers now I have no problems showing this picture. Also, E had the cutest Tobler booty ever!! I just want to pinch it every chance I get! 

Now onto one of my favorite months of the year! Bring on the pumpkins, fall colors, chilly mornings, scarves and costumes!!! Oh how I love this time of year!!!

Jumping in Leaves

It was finally cool enough to play outside for  bit. We started playing with chalk and it quickly turned into....

...Jumping in some leaves! 

I loved playing in the leaves as a kid and last year we just didn't have the best yard for leaves. This yard however is full of leaves... oak leaves. 

Now what we didn't know is that there is this itty bitty, teeny tiny bug called an oak mite that comes out during the warm, dry spring and fall season, mostly the fall, and they are HORRIBLE! They are pretty much invisible and they bite and leave you with horrible itching bumps that last for several weeks. The mosquito is a ladybug compared to these guys and we have OAK trees in our yard... this year infested with oak mites. But we were none the wiser so we played on happy as could be enjoying the moment! 

I mean does it get more fall like than that? It was such a wonderful afternoon. 

And being the inspired Mom I am I had the kids strip down their clothes, and hop right into the tub because I assumed there were some sort of bug in the leaves. Thank heavens I did because they usually get worse bites if you don't shower and leave them on your skin. E had a couple and we learned our lesson, go to Aunt Gretchen's and play in her maple leaves!

Zoo Day

At long last the weather is FINALLY cooling down a bit. Hopefully it will be here to stay, but I highly doubt it. So in honor of needing long sleeves we gathered up the crew and headed to the Zoo!

I reminded Manny there was a train at the zoo and all he kept saying was CHOOO CHOOO!!!! He was in heaven. I think Duke and I may need a Mama son date to the zoo one Saturday just so we can sit on the train all afternoon!

Then we hit up the carousel. E sat on the horse all by herself for the first time since that one day in Houston (do you remember that Pa and Janet? She bawled the entire time and has been scared of carousels ever since.) She was so happy, a bit nervous but she put her brave face on! Have I mentioned how much I love having a membership where we can head out to the zoo see four animals, ride the rides and head home without feeling like we had to spend the entire day there to get our money's worth? Seriously though! 

"Mama! Look I'm not crying!!!! This is AMAZING! I'm having fun!" Girl, I could have told you that! 

Then we had to go on it again, just because we had such a good time the first time!

Manny was still a bit sad about having to leave the train so we just sat on the bench together. That pouting face though! :)

I can't wait for the cool weather to stick and I'm looking forward to many more trips to the Zoo!

Talk Like a Pirrrrrate Day

 Did you know that September 19th is National Talk like A Pirate Day? Yeah me either. Well then I double bet you didn't know that if you dress up like a pirate and go to Krispy Kreme you get a FREE box of one dozen donuts! Now I'm not the biggest Kirsy Kreme fan, but free food + dress up = right up my alley! So I called up Gretchen, who rearranged her entire morning to come dress up like a pirate with me. 

 Did I mention that she doesn't even eat Krispy Kreme donuts? Yeah she just scored an extra box for us (as if we needed it). I have the best person in the world!

We will be marking Talk like A Pirate Doy on our calender's!

Duke's First Day of School

Duke has really been struggling with his transition into a speech therapy program where I am not with him. His speech therapist Mrs. Cole, asked if he was in a preschool at all. I told her no and she HIGHLY recommended that we find one for him. So I began the search. Most preschools are very structured where they learn ABC's and colors and so on and while I fully support that, it was just too advanced for Duke. There was no way he was going to sit at a desk for an hour at a time to "work" when we are just starting to get two syllables out of him. So we decided to go for a Mother's Day Out Program, once a week from 8-3. I pick him up at 1:30 so that he can skip nap time there and take a nap at home.

While I am fully aware that he needs to learn how to deal with other people, and learn to follow rules and work with other children, I was just not ready for him to literally grow up over night. I know this is right, and I know it will make him improve but I just figured I had another year at least before I sent him off to be a big boy! 

At first it was hard for him for me to leave and his still whimpers as I walk out the door but I have seen so much improvement over the last few weeks! Seriously a game changer. We are currently seeing if he can get into a 4 day a week 11/2 program that will have a speech therapist in the classroom with him at all times! WHAT?! Talk about a game changer! Fingers and toes crossed that he is accepted. 4 days a week will be crazy but it is exactly what he needs and I am just hoping we qualify! 

So many changes in this home! Welcome to the school year! ;)

Sunflower Field

 For Mom Tobler's last day we headed out to Lawrence KS to see the sunflower field. It did not disappoint! 

They were pretty tall and tall flowers + short kiddos + Duke who is a flight risk + big field = potential disaster! We made sure someone had eyes on both kiddos at all times!

 Thankfully we have a tall Daddy! He was pretty easy to spot.

 I just {love} this picture of Mom and E!

 I mean does it get more perfect?

 We had a great time at the sunflower field! The best part was it was free and they ask fro a $1 donation per flower. I was a little bit upset when I saw people taking massive boquets and not offering to pay anything for them. E was excited to pay her $1 for her flower and they looked so nice on the table. What a perfect way to kick off September. We will totally be back next year! 

Young, Wild & Three

 Duke turned three in August but with the move on the 10th and all of the packing and craziness that goes along with moving we decided to hold off on his birthday party until September when we had settled in a bit. Plus we sort of made it a house warming event as well. I'm so glad we decided to go this route, it was a great way to kick off the memories that will be made in our new home!

 At the front door I put out some head bands. These were super simple but INSANELY time consuming to make. I cut them all out in one go which made things a bit simpler. So many little pieces. We had just shy of 20 kids show up but I made up 20 head bands which each took about a hour to rock out start to finish. Like I said, time consuming but each head band cost $1 and who could argue with that price?  

 I love how they turned out! Each one unique with different patterns and colors!

 This guy is my personal favorite. 

 Next to the head bands we had a picture of the birthday boy and his little fox. I also typed up an eye spy game. 

 I love having an I Spy game, especailly for the older kiddo who can read. It is easy to type up, and they can do it on their own. That is a win win in my book! 

 The super cute fox pinata. (Click here for creative process.)

 I set up the very wrinkled diy teepee in the living room. (Creative process here.) We put the little sheep rug inside and the big fox. 

 I knew I wanted a camp fire all set up but I wasn't sure if I was going to make it out of wood, streamers? a table cloth and fan with Christmas lights? So many cute options so I headed to Pinterest for some pinspiration. That's when I stumbled on this fire. Only it was $44 and there was NO way I was spending that much when I knew I could make it. So $5 worth of felt later... voila! It turned out super cute. 

 The whole reason for making this chalkboard was so that I could write this on it for the party! 

 The food table with the cake. I knew I wanted to have some wooden logs on the table. And while this picture doens't do them justice they really made a huge difference! They were a pain in the butt to get/ cut but for the price of free, they were TOTALLY worth it!! We used some brown packing paper as a table cloth/ runner. I also loved how perfectly that striped wall in the new house went along with the theme!

 Food time!

 Then we went on a bear hunt. The kids had to go around the tree....

 ... through the river...

...through the tall grass...

 ...over the hill...

 ... shoot through the hoop... (these DIY bows and arrows were a huge hit!!) 

 ... into a cave (which was a large wardrobe box, not pictured.)...

 and then they took pop guns and shot their bears! Such a fun favor for the kiddos. I got them all at the thrift store, tossed them in the wash with some ammonia and they looked fabulous! the kids were super excited to have their own little bear. 

 Then it was time for some magic cupcake!

 Pinata time!! Get it little man!

 

 

 And cake time!!!!! I could stare at this cake forever! That lit campfire is the bomb-diggity!

 Happy Birthday to You!!!

 Part of the crew!

 Our little family!

 Present time! He was over the moon! Thank you friends!!!!!!!

We are so in love with this sweet little boy. This was a pretty low key party but we had a great time! Thank you to everyone who came and a special thank you to Mom Tobler who stayed to help with the party, the cake, and made all the food!!! I don't know what I would do without you! Happy birthday Duke! You deserve the world! Run wild, my child. You are loved!