The kids obviously loved it...
After scrapping off the roof, we worked in the front. This is the only pile we got to that night; it filled 12 black trash bags FULL. This was about 3 weeks ago. We have now raked about 2/3 of the front yard...anyone want some service opportunities???
I never realized how much fun could be had in a big pile of leaves. Or piles of little leaves for that matter...
Andy was his normal gorilla and Ben was a hiker.
Face painting. The Young Men and Young Women's organization ran the activities. Then, they did a dance with the lights out and florescent paint all over. The kids loved watching it and loved it even more when they were all invited to join the big kids in dancing to the YMCA.
This is Annie's cute friend Mia. They play together fabulously! Unfortunately, we have preschool on opposite days and live 15 minutes apart, so it's been hard to play this past month and a half!
Ben's class Halloween party - I am a room mom (but NOT the Head Mom) and had fun planning the activities.
We did the classic toilet paper game, which the kids LOVED.
Carving Pumpkins. We almost didn't get to it since our days were so busy, but after a massive melt down by Ben, I called Andy and told him school had to slide this time because we HAVE TO HAVE TIME to do these pumpkins that the kids had looked forward to carving for weeks. They had a great time for the 45 minutes we had before play practice!
This is such a typical Emily picture; the child loves to be naked. She's also normally colored in some type of pen or marker (as she is at the moment - red). I don't know where she finds them all, but some day I will blackmail her with all of her crazy pictures!
Yippee! We are almost got done! Annie and I did the smaller pumpkin while Andy and Ben designed the bigger one. It was actually much easier than I remember!
Yes - Emily with a pen...again...and her two pigs which she has come to insist on each morning even though her hair is finally getting longer!
Happy Halloween! We spent most of the day either in the car on the way to/from Columbus or in the Temple there. Ben fell asleep about ten minutes before we got home and didn't want to go trick-or-treating. Andy took the girls and we joined them about 45 minutes later to catch up with all the preschool friends and their families!
Last time I taught we learned about fruits one day (made fruit pizza for snack) and vegetables the other day (and made vegetable soup).
We've taken a few field trips so far and look forward to many more! This was at the Apple Orchard about 45 minutes away. LOVED IT!!! Probably more than the kids did! It was amazing to watch the process of cleaning the apples, and the cider was DIVINE.
Cutie kiddos and some siblings... 
Looking at the apple trees. I was surprised they keep them trimmed so short.
After the apples have been washed and polished, they are sorted by weight and then bagged.
It was the most amazing thing! Kids (and adults) can carry around little Q-tips with sugar water on them and feed the butterflies. 
Grandma and Grandpa Maas came to visit when we'd been here a few weeks 'on the way home' from Minnesota. We had the most beautiful weather and basically lived outside! One morning I was teaching preschool, so they took Emily shopping. She was thrilled to not have to complete for attention!
This was just a few days after we discovered the Butterfly place, so we showed it to Grandma and Grandpa also. (We took Ben back the next week as he was a bit disgruntled not to have been included TWICE. With him we found a little hiking trail and spent most of a Saturday afternoon exploring.) They brought the girls butterfly shirts that are black and white inside the house, but the colors show up in the sun. VERY cool!
Grandma kept Emily occupied, so Annie was able to sit and catch her butterflies without a 2 year old scaring them away!
Oh, the intense concentration on this face!
Emily also learned to ride her bike while they were here. Grandma Maas was patient enough to walk along and help her turn her little legs over and over and over.
Ben lost his first tooth the second day of school and we pull his second a few days before Grandma and Grandpa came. As my camera was MIA, Grandpa took a picture for us!
Ben got a scooter and Annie got a bike for their birthdays this year. We live on a quiet dead end street with no sidewalks and a little bit of a hill, so they LOVE to just ride up and down over and over.
Here is happy, independent EMILY!
Ben got to go with us the first time. This zoo is different than anything else I've been to. They don't have a lot of the large animals, but there are places for children to play EVERYWHERE! This was a giant eagle's nest.
I just love this one of Annie because she is actually LOOKING at the camera! Of course, it was Sis. Castle's camera and not mom's...maybe that makes a difference!
One night Angie had YW and her husband had YM, so we got to have a pajama party...on a school night! The kids were VERY excited! We played upstairs for a bit, made some Halloween cookies and then watched Tinkerbell and the Lost Treasure.
I watched the move and folded laundry with my newest love, Miles. He is the most cuddly baby and gives the absolute SWEETEST hugs! However, Andy TERRIFIES him - thus the look on his face.
