Pumpkin Patch

Last week all the kindergarten classes at Benson's school went on a field trip to the pumpkin patch and parents and siblings were invited to attend so the girls and I tagged along. The weather was less than perfect, it started raining a few times, but the heavier rain held off until later that afternoon so it worked out. They had lots of fun and as always it was interesting to watch Benson interact with his classmates.

They got to ride on a little tractor pulled train, run around in the hay bale maze, swing, check out the animals, and everybody picked their own pumpkin.

Benson's Kindergarten Class being silly (I think there is 1 missing, there should be 18)

Sabrina's Rough Nights

Sabrina is again challenging us in the sleeping department. She really does still need a nap, but some days I don't feel like fighting with her to get her to take one. Then she usually falls asleep at 3 or 4 or even 5pm and won't go to bed at night. If I keep her up all day like I did on Friday she loses it in the evening and is unbearable to be around. And she has been getting up at night again. We are hoping she is getting it out of her system now, because in 5 weeks she might kill us if she keeps this up.

This picture is actually from the one night last week that she went to bed without any problems and slept all night...go figure. Mike went in to check on her and this was how she was sleeping.

She hasn't fallen out of bed for a long time, but I'm pretty sure she would have that night had we not intervened.

Still closer to 20 than 40!

Mike's birthday was on Tuesday. He told people all day that he's still closer to 20 than he is to 40, so you can guess how old he is with that clue. He had a very busy day, actually he had a very busy week between work and school. We had cake at 8pm that night after he got home from work and the kids and I got back from Benson's swimming lesson.



We appreciate all his hard work. Maybe next year he can actually take a little break and enjoy his birthday...what do you think are the chances??

Roasting delicious hot smoes

Name that movie!

Last weekend we headed to Oklahoma to visit with my family and especially to see my Grandpa Burkinshaw who was visiting from Utah. I was especially excited that Mike came with us this time. I just didn't feel like I could go by myself and so he took a day off work to come with us.
When we got there Saturday night it was kind of late (we couldn't leave until Saturday afternoon because I had a church meeting during the morning), and Grandpa had gone out and bought a fire pit so we could have s'mores. Our kids were THRILLED! They love camping and fires and especially roasted marshmallows.

1 - Uncle Mike with Spencer, 2 - Aunt Sarah and Sabrina, 3 - Grace and her fuzzy caterpillar that she named Charlie, apparently all animals found in Grandma's backyard must be called Charlie, 4 - Daddy helping Benson and Grace roast marshmallows, 5 - The whole family around the fire pit, 6 - Aunt Kathleen and Sabrina

The rest of the weekend was pretty relaxed. We got to give Spencer his birthday gift which was the Who Loves Spencer? book I showed in a previous post. I got the idea here and ordered the blank board books from Blank Slate. I did all my pages in Photoshop and then used the template that came with the board books to print them out. Next time I will make the pictures bigger and I probably should have switched out my ink cartridges before printing, but other than that I think it turned out pretty cute.

This was our last trip to Bartlesville until who knows when, so I'm grateful we got to go. We'll have to see how good of a traveler this new baby is...

Milestone

On Thursday, October 8th, Benson lost his first tooth. We knew it was going to be soon because he went to the dentist recently and we could see on the x-ray that the other tooth was pushing through, but we were surprised to notice how loose it was last Thursday. After 30 minutes of trying to convince Benson that it would be better if Daddy just pulled it out and him getting very upset with us, we told him it would come out on its own. Friday morning he woke up and told us that after we put him to bed he had wiggled it out on his own and put it under his pillow but the tooth fairy didn't come. Oops. So we told him that mommy and daddy have to notify the tooth fairy so she knows to come and we didn't know that his tooth had come out. The tooth fairy came Friday night so everything was good.



It looks like this is the second tooth that Benson has lost, but he had a baby tooth that never came in which is the gap on the left. The gap on the right is the one he lost.

Sneak Peek

His birthday isn't until Wednesday, but I couldn't help posting a sneak peek of my project from today!

Star of the Week

Benson is "Star of the Week" for his kindergarten class this week. His teacher sent home a question sheet that we filled out so I thought I would record his answers for posterity.

1. My favorite color is blue

2. My favorite book is Reptiles

3. My favorite movie is Space Chimps

4. My favorite sport is soccer

5. When I grow up, I want to be a herpetologist or paleontologist

6. My favorite food is pancakes

7. My favorite subject is overhead (reading)

8. I have 0 pets

9. I have 0 brothers and 2 sisters - almost 3!

10. I live with my mom, dad, and sisters Grace and Sabrina

11. I want to travel to Indonesia, Korea, India

12. I am special because I know lots of things

At first when I asked him why he was special he kept saying "I don't know" and then after a few times of asking he finally said "because I know everything." We revised that to knowing lots of things.

He is supposed to bring his favorite book and 3 to 5 items that are special to him. He picked 3 information books - Iguanas, Cobras, and Dinosaurs, his teddy bear Fuzzy Wuzzy, and his blanket.

Here are the pictures we printed out to go on the "Star of the Week" bulletin board in his classroom.

Benson with butterflies all over him at the Houston Museum of Natural Science. He specificially requested that this picture be included.

Benson at Marine World in Vallejo with the dolphin show in the background

Benson vs. the bubbles

Benson at the Monterey Bay Aquarium

Our family - last November

Benson at his first Father's and Son's Campout

Benson and his birdhouse he made with Daddy

Benson and his snail Charlie

Grace, Benson, and Sabrina on Benson's first day of kindergarten

Benson at the beach in Lake Jackson

Preschool

I have been meaning to post about preschool for a month now, but I didn't have a picture to post with it. I finally took one today, so here we go.

Last month we started doing preschool with some other moms in our ward. Both Grace and Sabrina get to participate, which makes the whole experience even better. I really want them to be able to spend as much time together this year as possible since next year Grace will be in school all day. I teach every 3rd week, and today was my day. We talked about the letter D and made dog paper sack puppets and had puppy chow for snack. The girls love it and are both learning lots.

Rebecca, Grace, Sabrina, and Owen

I'm not sure how it will work out after the baby comes, but it's a small group so hopefully it will be manageable.

Speaking of the baby...TWO months from today and we will officially be a family of 6. We have SO much going on in October, if November is even half as busy I will blink and she will be here. We are still debating names although the kids have a clear favorite. Everyone is so excited for her arrival!

I also wanted to share a cute Grace story. The girls and I (and yes they really do help me a lot so I must include them) watch our little neighbor, Noah, sometimes when his mom is at work. Today he was at our house and right as he was waking up from his afternoon nap, Sabrina spilled puppy chow all over the kitchen floor. While I cleaned up I sent Grace in to tell Noah that I would be right there so he wouldn't cry. He stopped crying pretty quickly so I cleaned everything up and when I got to Benson's room this is what I found:

Grace and Sabrina are such good helpers for me lately, especially when Noah is here. I know that they will be great helpers once the baby comes as well. I seriously can't believe what a different experience it is to be anticipating the birth of a baby with older children who actually understand what is going on and can be such good helpers. I feel very blessed to be the mother of such sweet children.