Forty Four

On November 18th I turned 44! Gasp! Now that Josie is able to do some shopping or at least encourage (with Josie it is usually demand) that Marty do some shopping I've been receiving some very thoughtful gifts from daughter and husband.  These lovely roses being held by my beautiful daughter were one of the gifts that they bought together.
Both kids made a bunch of art to give as gifts.  Below Benjamin is cutting, coloring and gluing.  All shirtless of course.  His favorite time of any day is "naked time"
Also below, Josie had several pieces of artwork wrapped in decorative envelopes  waiting on the dining room table for when I woke up.  And the kids and Marty made a big breakfast and even cleaned up afterward.

 

 That night we went out to eat for dinner.  The best gift of the day was spending it with these crazy cats.  I couldn't imagine my life without them.  

Guitar Lessons?

I think guitar lessons might be in our future. If Benjamin does not end up doing something musical I will be very surprised.  This video was taken a few weeks after getting the new Caspar Babypants CD and he already knew all the words. 

Cutting

 Benjamin has been really into cutting things lately. The day I took these photos he was quietly working in the play room and after about 10 minutes the silence gave me reason to check in on him.  He probably sat at that table and cut for about 25 minutes.  He has several pair of kid's scissors and now uses some blunter adult scissors.  He cuts coloring books, junk mail and sometimes when Josie is at school he gets to some of her PILES of artwork that she has left laying around.  Usually we can hide the crime before she makes it home from school.  We have now made him a special shoe box and written on the top it says "Benjamin's Cutting Box" now we put any old paper, mail or cereal boxes so that he always has something to cut.

School Days

Josie continues to love school at Schmitz Park.  She is doing well, making lots of new friends, improving her reading and math skills and has even been chosen to be a part of a pilot program for kindergartners-   a very small group will be having lunch with the assistant principal every Thursday.  
To the left is a photo of her during her "Star Student" week.  I love the fact that I'm able to volunteer in her classroom once per week and see her in action and meet all of her classmates.



She continues to love drawing and creating things.  Below are a few pieces of her fall artwork: a dinosaur, a close-up of his footprint, a pumpkin collage and Tinkerbell. 

 

 Birthday gifts from Oma/Opa and Liz/Ed of rain boots and rain coat have come in pretty handy for our walks to and from the bus stop and for recess at school.  She stays toasty warm and dry. 

Another Fall Day

On another very beautiful but windy Fall day, Benjamin and I spent some quality time down at Alki.  Days like these remind me of why it is that we chose to live in Seattle and West Seattle, specifically.

More Halloween

I posted the Halloween post before I had looked through all the photos from the Fall Festival at the West Seattle Junction.  Here are a few more from that day: 

"oooh, what is in the basket? "

T

 "Thank you!"

 Benjamin ran into his "brother" Luigi

 And more and more and more treats!

 They closed the streets to cars California Ave was packed with people, kids and activities

 Josie ran into her new best buddy from school, Elliott the Monarch butterfly.

 Whenever the kids see a bike rack they think it is some kind of monkey bars and just MUST swing from it.
Unfortunately, Mario's belly got in the way just a little.

And a few more photos of the beautiful fall leaves on the walk home.

Trick or Treat

Mario, Princess Peach and Franziska (dressed in traditional Bavarian attire) were definitely ready to go trick or treating come Halloween evening. The rain had just started coming down as we were heading out the door.  It didn't matter. Nothing was going to keep these three back.  I went with them and Marty stayed back to hand out candy to the kids who came to our door.

All smiles...





And even a few tears!   I can't remember what had happened but this is her typical "NO!!" scream with very defeated shoulder and arm hang.  She got over it quickly and her and Franziska stayed out for another 45 minutes to do some more trick or treating.

Note the cool pumpkin bag Josie is carrying.  My mom made that probably 35+ years ago.  It has a top that goes on it but we leave that at home so we don't loose it.  We only use it once a year and surprisingly it is still in great shape.  Nice work, Mom!!

One Fall Day

One beautiful Fall day in mid October, Benjamin and I headed to park after co-op preschool. The pile of leaves were dry and perfect for running in and throwing up in the air.

Ready, Set, GO!

 And throw

 Of course, jumping in the leaves was the best.

No trip to the park would be complete with a some swing time

 And lunch

Halloween

This year for Halloween Josie was insistent that she dress as Princess Peach and Benjamin as Mario.  They play the video game Super Mario with Marty at night on the Wii and they are both really into the different characters.
The weekend before Halloween was a beautiful fall day.  It was sunny and even a bit warm, the leaves had all changed and most of them had fallen.  Mario, Princess Peach, Marty and I  walked up to the West Seattle Junction for the annual Harvest party and had a great time together.

Josie is a very protective big sister.  When they are out together she often takes the big sister role very seriously, takes his hand, guides him here and there and makes sure that no one hurts him.  It is very sweet and he *almost always* goes along with it without complaint.