4 years + 8 months!

Halloween was great fun for Ryder this year.  He chose to be a fire fighter, using the costume that I had gotten him earlier this Fall.  He had a Halloween party at school and then he had trick-or-treating the next day.  He was very nervous to wear his costume to school; I assume that he wasn’t sure if other kids would be wearing theirs and didn’t want to be different.  He wore his fire fighter overalls tucked in to his boots, so they just looked like black pants and then he brought his jacket in his backpack.  Once he saw that other kids were dressed up, he pulled it all back out.  They had a costume parade and then a little party and games. 

Ryder loves trick-or-treating.  He loves getting candy, of course and he loves staying out so late.  The weather was not too cold this year, so it was easy to stay out!  When they were all tired out, we pulled them home in the wagon and they assessed their hauls.  After that, the candy went on the fridge to be carefully rationed out!

After Halloween was over, Ryder decided that we did not need the little decorative pumpkins anymore, so he took them to the kitchen, chopped them up and pretended to make a pie with them!  It was hysterical!  He got out a bowl and a butter knife and managed to cute the pumpkins into several large pieces.  Then he scooped the seeds out and chopped them into smaller pieces.  Finally he put them on a tray and put them in the oven to cook into pumpkin pie.

The day after Thanksgiving, Ryder was 100% ready to start getting ready for Christmas, even though Thanksgiving was super early this year!   There was absolutely no way that I was going to convince Ryder to wait til December 1^st, so we took down the Fall decorations and got out the Christmas stuff that very day!  He also put his snowsuit on, pretended to make snow angels and made a snowman out of buckets and balls in the yard that day!  I guess that he was impatient for winter!!

Getting Santa out!

Trying to figure out these lights

Fooling around with them

Now he's got 2 sets

What a sweet kid

35 Months!

November has been a fun month around here.  We had a long weekend and then Thanksgiving break to spend with the kids.  We all enjoyed the extra rest and the extra family time.

Vivien really seems to enjoy pre-school.  She sometimes says at night that she doesn't want to go the next day, but I think that she just wants to stay and play with me.  She doesn't cry when she goes to school and settles right in when she gets there.  She loves all of the activities that they do and according to Ryder she has made a friend.  The sweetest part of all is that for snack and circle time, when Ryder comes downstairs to her classroom, he always sits next to her!  

Vivi has really gotten into painting and has been painting several times a week lately.  She has always loved "activities" but she hasn't always been into the more independent art stuff.  Most of what she paints is blue!

At bedtime we read a book or two and her favorites lately have been the Curious George books.  If I'm reading a different book to Ryder, or sometimes just because she is so inclined, she "reads" the books to me.  It's quite cute and she tells a pretty good story based on the pictures.

Vivi's number one thing lately is doing everything herself.  She puts on all of her clothes, goes to the bathroom, gets food ready and cleans up all by herself.  The newest skill is being able to fully buckle herself into the carseat.  She does NOT like it when we try to help her.

Thanksgiving was very early this year, so we had a lot of Christmas decorating in November.  The morning after Thanksgiving these two kids were ready to go!  They started wearing their Christmas PJ's and getting the house decorated immediately!

Playing with Santa and a fossil

Still holding onto Santa

Love the crazy curls

Not hard to get a smile out of her

Some serious business being conducted here

Happy girl!