Knowledge is power

I'm beginning to rethink the idea of sending Torii to school. The kid is already pretty smart. And by smart I mean smart ass. He finds loopholes in everything and is sharp as a whip. School is only empowering him more and pretty soon he'll be smarter than me and then what do I do? Each week in school they learn an important characteristic such as being a good sport or being the best you can be at whatever you're doing. This week they are learning about being kind to others and not putting others down. The other day after school, Torii was taking his sweet old time getting into the house and I called him a slow poke. "No put downs! No put downs!" he shouted. I really couldn't argue about it even though I really wanted to yell at him to get his butt in the house that instant, but I let him be. He comes home everyday with new vocabulary and new ways out of whatever he is in trouble for. School is just teaching him how to irritate me more. I really don't know what I'm going to do when he is teenager. By then my brain will be on the downslide while he'll be on the top of his game. As Fred said the other day, "it'll be nice when he has a driver's license. Then after an argument, we'll be happy he can leave."

Pumpkin Patch

After having a long week at work, I really wanted to do something fun this afternoon so at the last minute I decided we were going to the Pumpkin Patch. It was so nice there right after school. There was only about 10 cars there when we arrived. It almost felt like having the place to ourselves. It did start to get busier as the afternoon went on, but it was still a light crowd compared to the weekends. I think we will have to do this after school again. Rion is going on a field trip there next week and I believe Torii gets to go the next week.

The lady at the gate asked me how I knew they were open and I told her I was a Facebook friend. She said she is having a lot of fun on Facebook and is enjoying seeing the pictures posted by their fans. She told me to post some pictures, which I did. They have been updating their page quite regularly and it had been killing me that we hadn't been out there yet. We had a really good time, but when haven't we had a good time at the pumpkin patch?

I always love the first trip of the fall to the pumpkin patch. Rion always reacts the same way when we make that first turn and we see the sea of orange pumpkins. "Oh my goodness!," he says, "Look at all the pumpkins!"

Cordelia on one of the hay bale mazes. She had fun in the tunnels and for awhile I lost her in one. She just didn't want to come out! The building in the background is the new entrance into the pumpkin patch. It's really nice.
All aboard! I tried to get a picture with all three kids hanging their heads out the side of the train, but it was an impossible task. I tried multiple times at multiple locations to get a nice pictures of all the kids together, but it didn't work out.

On the wilderness trail, which is a favorite of the boys. Their imagination runs wild in that place. We were running from bad guys and some animals were there to help us. I'm not really sure what else they were talking about, but they sure had some stories while we hiked through there.

Another attempt at a nice group picture.

We had hay everywhere after our trip, but nobody complained about it.

Money lessons

On Saturday the whole family headed out early to try and find some deals at the many rummage sales taking place over the weekend. The boys have some money saved up so they each brought along five dollars to spend however they wanted. It took a few rummage sales, but they finally found some toys they liked. Torii is really into Bakugan and a young boy was selling some of his Bakugan. He had a small Ziploc bag with the smaller Bakugan which the boys had none of. They could have bought the whole bag for $5.00 or else each one was fifty cents. I thought one of them would blow all their money and buy the whole bag, but they each spent one dollar and picked out two. Later in the day Torii regretted the decision and wanted to go back and buy the rest. I figured these toys would be lost and forgotten soon after we got home, but they have been playing with them a lot and have taken good care of them. They are pretty small and they haven't lost them yet. Maybe they are more mindful of them because they bought it with their own money.

By lunch time we had to take a break, but later in the afternoon Torii and I went back out. Torii still had four dollars with and found some more toys at one sale. It was getting late so the lady gave him a break and let him have it all for 75 cents. He gave her a dollar and got a quarter back, which just thrilled him. I think we talked about that quarter and money in general the rest of the afternoon. It was a good lesson because he will be learning about money later in kindergarten.

Gymnastics

A few weeks ago I signed the boys up for gymnastics. Torii really likes tumbling, standing on his head and even watching gymnastics on TV. I thought it would be something he would enjoy so I signed him up. Of course, Rion wanted to join too. I wasn't sure if he would like it, but he really is. I'm glad he is liking it because I think it will be really good for him. Poor Rion, has no coordination so hopefully this will help with that. I hope it helps his confidence as well because he gets so frustrated so easily. They both seem to be doing really well. Each week they get to try another skill. I've been impressed that they've already been up on the horse, parallel bars, and rings. Of course their favorite thing to do is to jump into the big foam block pit. (Really I want to run up to the spring board and jump into it too). The gymnastics world is completely new to me so I'm not really sure what we're getting into with this. This is not something I imagined I'd be doing with my boys. The boys are liking it and it will be nice to have some kind of physical activity to do over the winter. I will also be signing Cordelia up for the preschool kids class in the next session. She is just too much to handle for an hour and I think she will enjoy the things they do with the younger kids.

Walking home

I am trying to take full advantages of the limited nice days we have by walking home from school with the kids as much as possible. Plus it's good exercise and I don't have to fight the traffic around the school. My favorite thing about walking home is seeing the other kids on the way. Apparently a lot of kids know Fred Rion. We constantly hear kids saying "hi" to him during our walk. There is one kid that gets picked up and as his parent is driving up the road we walk, we see him with his head hanging out the window, waving and saying "goodbye" to Fred. Today we saw Fred's fourth grade buddy from last year. She stopped and said hello which I thought was really nice of her. I told Fred she wasn't in fourth grade anymore and he said something about how they all moved up. There are a few kids that we see from Fred's class that walk home by themselves. They don't have far to walk, but that scares me. Maybe I'm a little over protected. We have a pretty good hike so it will be awhile before the boys can walk home alone. Anyway, I've already decided that in a few years when Cordelia starts school she will be my excuse to pick the kids up after school. If it embarrasses the boys, then so be it.

School

The boys have successfully made it through their first full week of school. Now they have a long weekend. I was a little worried about Torii since he was a little tentative about starting school, but he is really enjoying it. He has told me more about school than Rion told me all of last year. After school today Torii was singing a song he learned and Rion knew it and said he sang it in kindergarten as well. I had never heard it until today. I went through last year feeling like I really didn't know what a typical day for Rion was like because he never talked about it, even when I asked him. Torii, on the other hand, needs no prompting, he goes on and on about school. Rion is excited about show and tell, which they start next week. He is, however, very annoyed that he has to study for a spelling test next Friday. He got most of the words right, he just had trouble with back and sack. Kind of tricky at the end of those words. Torii has a field trip next week. They are going to the powwow and I'm planning on going with.

I think Cordelia is enjoying her time alone. She is spending the mornings with daddy and then by the time she is getting up from her nap, I get home from work. I felt a little dissed this afternoon as I tried to get her ready to pick the boys up from school. She did not want to go with me. She wanted to stay with daddy. She is talking a lot more and forming phrases and she kept saying "want daddy." I told Fred they are having too much bonding time because she'd rather be with him.

The new school year is going along great so far. Everyone, including me, was pretty tired this afternoon. We're trying to adjust to the new schedule and routine. On that note I should be off to bed.

Movie time

Last weekend my parents hosted a movie outside by the campfire. They've been wanting to do this for some time and with my sisters at home it seemed like a great time. Really, any time around the campfire is a good time. As part of the special movie presentation the boys opened up shop so everyone could enjoy snacks and beverages during the movie. It's was a great deal as everything was only a quarter. One of their first customers was Nathan. When he asked if they had change for a dollar, Rion replied, "Actually, it costs a dollar." In all they came home with about $22 to split.
I love non-posed shots. This is a great one of Kelly and Heidi. Little Heidi has gotten so big!

Torii was quite the salesman. He stayed up really late because he wanted to be around in case someone needed to buy something.

As Uncle Brian was getting the movie ready to go, Torii entertained everyone. He told some jokes and then when he saw his shadow he did some shadow puppets.