Playdate in the trees

Noah's friend Jesse came over for a playdate and we enjoyed the nice weather

They played in the "woods" in the back of our house

Eva of the jungle

And Noah and Jesse took turns climbing the flowering tree near the patio

By next spring they're going to need a bigger tree.

(belated) Superhero Birthday

Again, with a late post from October.  

At any rate, we enjoyed Noah's friend Rostam's superhero-themed birthday party

show us your muscles!

During the festivities, all of the kids got capes and had the opportunity to do several superhero-type tasks, such as saving baby animals from a tree.  Eva excelled at that one.

Mine bear!!  Mine Doggy!!

Before you get any ideas based on the baby-animals-saving, please be aware that the Wonderpets are absolutely banned from our house due to the theme music that gets stuck in my head and makes me want to shoot a baby turtle.

Goodbye, Playground

There was a playground on the short drive home from the kids school to our house.  It was a small metal structure that was rusted and the wood was all warped and the kids LOVED it.  If I made it to school pick-up early enough we would often stop to play.

mmmm.... lead paint.... 

Apparently the city of Newton has decided they can no longer maintain this structure (this structure was actively being maintained!?!?) and abruptly tore it out right after Halloween.  This is great, because now we are supposed to get a better playground.  This is also sad, because as of now there is nothing there and as far as my mom-connections can tell me, there are no actual plans for this hypothetical better playground.  So we will wait.

Goodbye playground, it's been real.

Up she goes

Once upon a time, I had a little girl named Eva.  And then, all of a sudden, she was a regular, fully capable child, and on Nov 4, this happened.  Eva is 21 months here.

My future firefighter!

Rainbow Ukelele Club

Noah participates in something called the "Rainbow Ukelele Club" at his school.  Apparently named as such for the colorful ukeleles they use.

As best I can tell they sit around, strum these plastic ukeleles and sing songs.

Basically, the cutest thing ever.

Very Belated Halloween Post

Remember about a month ago when it was Halloween?  That was fun, huh?  Better late than never to share pictures, right?  Right????

Anyway, we were psyched for Halloween.  Chad and the kids dressed up.

Eva and Noah were knights.  Noah donned his knight costume and ran around the house fighting invisible dragons.  Eva donned her knight costume and kept patting her breastplate saying "me a knight!" in her most self-satisfied tone.

We had the usual trouble getting a picture with the neighbor kids ranging in age from 9mo to 4.  At least in this one you can see everyone's faces... 

And they're off...

I tried to get my little knights to stand together (yeah right)

And then we were off.  Eva was a real trouper - she carried her sword and her pumpkin bucket the whole time. 

She was slower than any of the other walkers and it was hard for her to climb the steps to people's doors with her sword and breastplate that prevented her from taking big steps, but she just took her time and persevered without a word of complaint.  And then would say adorable things like "mine pumpkin is really happy!! It has lots of candy!!"

Maybe we have just learned an important tool for motivating her.... caaaaaaaaandy.... 

I did manage to get a few pictures of the two of them together a few days ago (so way after Halloween, when they were just putting their costumes on for fun)

Silly kids.

Author note: every day since Halloween, Eva has asked for candy at least 1x/day, often more than once.  We ran out of Halloween candy two weeks ago.  She is still asking.  I guess someone inherited Mommy's sweet tooth... 

random statement from eva

There is a big big shark under the water! Eats fish sticks! They're really really hot!!

Noah Snippits

At breakfast today

Noah: what lays eggs and swims in the ocean?
Mommy: a fish?
Noah: yes! I know all about fish do you know why?
M: why?
N: because we learned about fish at school! You get to learn at school.
M: good to know

...............

We tried to go to a burger place, only to find it had closed. N asked why it was closed, I responded something like "maybe not enough people went there." We went somewhere else for dinner.

On the way home, out of nowhere, Noah says:
"That restaurant would have plenty of people come to eat there if they moved it into the city!"

Um, yeah I guess. My budding capitalist.