My Faith and Joy… and Boys!

We had a lovely Halloween with relatively warm temperatures!  Becky had picked her costume not only because she loves Panda Bears, but because she did NOT want to be as freezing as she was in previous years.  She was very comfortable this year!  Susie was a colonial girl, Jimmy was a revolutionary war soldier, Danny was a transformer (Optimus Prime, I think?), and Tazie was a tiger (or more specifically, half a tiger, because I couldn’t find the bottoms to the hand-me-down tiger suit!).  We went to our usual trick-or-treating spot, met by Jim and my in-laws, and we all had a blast.  We started earlier this year, and we loved getting to walk around in the daylight and appreciate the others’ cool costumes.  Tazie definitely got the hang of trick-or-treating, and was walking up to the houses like a pro!

Jimmy was the “star of the week” of his first grade class, and got to take home the class stuffed animal to spend time with over the weekend.  The bear came with us to Sunday School!

We had a big rainstorm here last week, and so the kids helped me go outside and clean up the sticks that were blown around (thankfully we didn’t lose power, but many people did – in fact, the kids’ school was cancelled so we had an unexpected day at home together – it was wonderful!).  While the kids were supposed to be cleaning, they decided it would be a riot to turn their coats backwards.  Tazie kept saying they looked like spiderman!  All I know is that I don’t think those hooded faces could see the sticks very well! 😉

The four big kids played for hours with magnatiles and shopkins, creating little worlds for themselves upstairs.  I especially loved this “wedding” scene by Becky, complete with rose petals down the aisle.  They’re so creative!

The other morning, I set Tazie in the basement playroom and put up the gate so she couldn’t climb the stairs after me.  Normally, she would not be happy about this arrangement, but that morning, she didn’t make a sound as I walked up the stairs.  After a few minutes of still not hearing her fuss, I was surprised she was still so quiet and so I tip-toed down to spy on what she was doing.  That silly girl had gone straight to the snack cupboard (I didn’t think she knew it was there!), pulled out a box of Nutella snacks, opened one of the snack packs, and started dipping the breadsticks in the chocolate as happily as could be.  When I walked into the playroom, she looked up and grin broadly, as if to say, “Look at this AWESOME way I’m entertaining myself!!!”

October was a rough month for sicknesses at our house, but there’s one person who’s been rather happy about it: Tazie!  Every time one of the big kids has to stay home sick, she’s just thrilled she gets a playmate all day!!  I think she makes the big kids feel better, too.  It’s a win-win!