Incredibles

We're incredibly thankful for incredible blessings, even if it can be difficult to see them at times. We very much enjoy seeing the kids incredibly tickled and excited, even if it means incredible work to make it happen. The payoff IS incredible!

At Trunk or Treat, Zane showed incredible strength with his every incredible attempt to sling an Angry Bird. He also jumped incredibly high to catch "Bubbles! Bubbles! Bubbles!"

Vanessa was incredible during face painting, which made her an incredible hybrid. ("Grandma will love that I chose Wonder Woman! Wait till I show her!") And she loved this incredible setup for the Guy, the most incredible superhero!

Concocting

We painted pumpkins last year, so this is really Zane's first year to carve a jack-o-lantern. He was all about the knives, drill, drill bits and spoons. He had no interest in using his hands to gut the pumpkin, though. He ran away when asked to touch the stuff.

Vanessa had no problem using her hands.

We've been prepping costumes too. And even shared them last Friday evening. Zane's speed and appearance made us think of Dash Incredible. He's not wearing his mask and gloves in this picture, nor the correct "bloomers" . . . but you get the idea. Check out his pose!

 

Vanessa has been anxious to play Dash's sister Violet. She loves that Violet can turn herself invisible.

 

Evidence of finishing touches will come later. :)

Tricks or Treats

Zane is comfortable with water play. Although he is quite daring with his trick in the tub, it's truly a treat!

 

Zane scared me with this trick. No, I did not position him and had nothing to do with him getting up there. He throws his body around and performs many tricks on "the fort", just like his acrobatic sister. I'm not sure if this is truly a treat, but we are enforcing a rule that he is not to be on the bars without an adult nearby. He still tricks us any chance he gets.

 

Vanessa's kindness and love for her little brother is definitely a treat. She can't stand to see him cry. She assures him that everything will be okay as she runs to fetch him tissues. Fortunately Zane does not cry very often . . . mainly when he's mad, like when he wants to skip eating and only drink milk.

 Vanessa thinks we should change the rules for him. What a treat for Zane!

And check out this treat! Vanessa is excited to play someone entirely different. She is sure to trick friends.

 We just finished grooming the wig.

The Great Pumpkin Hunt

Last weekend we went on our great pumpkin hunt. The visit to the patch involved other fun things, too, like riding a familiar pony (Vanessa rode Midnight again, the same pony she rode her very first time ), . . .

 . . . bouncing, . . .

. . . greeting, awing and petting adorable animals, . . .

. . . solving problems in the maze while observing and grabbing a lot of maize, . . .

. . . all after finding great pumpkins with great people!

Mwa mwa, mwa mwa, mwa mwa . . .

Fall in Love

A great big pile of love. So blessed.

Intro to Fall

We've been getting a taste of fall in various ways. The kids filled a plastic pumpkin bag full of leaves. They were so excited about this 50-cent activity. And now they are able to see the results of their hard work, day after day. The simple things.

We glue and color and cut every moment we get. Zane likes to finish the task by ripping his art to shreds. We hang it beside his sister's still. It is art, right?! Truly an expression of Zane at this stage.

We love dress up. They're enjoying last season's clearance for a mere 75 cents. :) They were excited to model their hybrid of a witch and a ghost.

Vanessa remains intrigued by skeletons. We made some out of Q-tips, noting an idea shared on Kiwi Crate. (We counted ribs but decided that for our creations, 3 on each side was proportionally better.) Zane's focus was spreading glue appropriately. His mom helped with placement of Q-tips. But he didn't rip them off. (Update: He has now.)

There has been playing in piles of leaves at Grandma and Grandpa's. (Thanks to Aunt Jenni for sharing the picture!) And even more leaf play with Daddy but no pictures to share since Mommy was off playing on her own.

There have been more activities and more activities to come. It's easy to fall behind with all there is to do. We will catch up and catch up soon.

Bub

I have a tendency to call Zane Bud or Buddy and Vanessa picked up on that tendency too. But a few months ago Vanessa started sprinkling in Bub when she helps him and plays with him. Now her referring to him as such is pretty common.

Bub is pretty special to Vanessa. And Vanessa is pretty special to Bub. No doubt. Bub loves to pick up his sister from school. (He had the roughest transition when his sister started K.) There's not much time between dropping her off and going back to get her. If I'm not cramming in something during the small window of time, we leave early enough to let Bub walk the return trip. Typically the kids fight over who locks and unlocks the door, but this is Bub's opportunity without competition.

Bub is on his way!

The walk involves deep concentration for staying on the sidewalk and for keeping pointed in the correct direction. There are so many tempting things along the way, so Mom plays the voice constantly guiding him.

We stop for spinning and dancing.

We stop for more spinning but include must-haves such as sticks, which end up stowed away in the stroller's basket along with a half-eaten sucker and pretty leaves. (Extra special things go in the backpack.) :)

We wait for Mom to walk ahead so Bub can practice his independence in getting to his destination. Sometimes I don't go as far as he would like.

After stopping to wander in neighbors' yards and to say "Hi!" to stone geese and ducks, seasonal flags with characters, and tree faces, Mom swoops him up to get to pickup on time. It's important to be there on time since Vanessa is always anxious to get back to Bub.

Outdoorsy

A suggestion for camping became an extra fun time. The "stars aligned" perfectly. We did lots of things, including . . .

Gathered together. Explored the outdoors. Cooked dinner.

Ate dinner.

Played in tents.

Enjoyed a light show. (Glow wands are good things!)

Listened to the game. (OSU = 52; IN = 49) Slept in tents. Listened to coons shift from camp to camp. (Vanessa would wake at random moments to peer out the window.) Tolerated sleeping in the outdoors, especially the kids. Sneaking away from camp. Built extra fondness for nature.

In Line

Vanessa led her class line on her first walking field trip -- to the fire station. (She participated in a walk-a-thon last week -- she connected 9 lines around the curvy track line in 20 minutes.)

We race cars on straight, curvy, zigzag, and up-and-down lines. The zigzag line won every time. And if you look closely, you can see the Jokermobile speeding down the Jungle Junction curvy line. Vanessa loves how sometimes fast things blur in pictures, so the race was repeated over and over and over . . . until Zane called it quits. :)

 Zane almost always jumps over sidewalk lines. You know -- at 2 he's really worried about breaking his mother's back. :)

 Vanessa and Zane set up lines of toy people and creatures to knock over.

 Vanessa climbs a wobbly line. And Zane waits in line for his turn.

 Zane skates in a curvy line. These are Daddy's favorite skating pictures of Zane, so far.

Both run up and down a sidewalk number line, counting forward and backward.

Vanessa Getting Her Homework in Line
I'm tickled by some of the transformations taking place.

Mommy looking over homework: "Vanessa, can you remake your 'p' . .  ? It doesn't really look like a 'p'. Take your time when writing. See how things look odd when we rush? "

Vanessa's reply: "Oh yeah. Sorry about that. Let me just erase the semicircle and turn it a little more in this direction."