It's all fun and games until somebody sprains an ankle.  Hehehe.  So two weeks ago we go to Pumpkinville.  A bit of run down ol' pumpkin patch but we had plans to go to Cox Farm the following weekend so we were going for variety.  On the first slide (the one above), Chance wanted to go by himself.  So Kenn goes down first to catch him and I send Chancie on down.  Boy, that was a bad idea.  He's so tiny he managed to stay in a sitting position for about 2 seconds and then he was on his back just spinning and flopping.  Shaeleigh and I were at the top of the slide - Shaeleigh looks at poor Chance flying down all out of control and says, "Mom, I'm going to sit in your lap." 

After that we were more sensible and everyone sat in laps.  Everyone was having a grand time too and so we decided to try a new slide.  Again, Kenn and Chance go first.  I should have had the video camera.  If I had, had the video camera I could have had some excellent footage for America's Funniest Home Videos.  $10,000 winner.  I don't know what went on but Chance was in Kenn's lap and this time it was Kenn who stayed in a sitting position for about 2 seconds then both of them flew out of control.  Kenn reports that some of the hay bales were sticking out and he was being bashed about.  At one point Chance took a hay bale in the side of the face and at another point Kenn took one in the foot causing his foot to bend up.  Shaeleigh looks down at the boys flying all out of control and says, "Mom, I'm not going down this one."  Everyone both at the top of the slide and the bottom were scrunching up their faces and going, "Ooooh, yikes....."

Sometimes I think there's a little bit of Griswald in this family.  But, Kenn did what he could.  He hobbled about the rest of the day and two days later had a big fat puffy ankle as a reminder of the event.  Luckily, nothing was broken and now, two weeks later, he's fine. 

Pumpkinville also has animals.  Safer to hang out with the sheep.

The wooden bus is pretty safe too.

Real men wear sequins.   

Speaking of accidents (or the lack thereof) Chance is doing most excellent with the potty training.  I didn't realize how much I'd been dreading it until I realized how big a sense of relief it was that he had it mostly figured out in less than 3 weeks.   We still have accidents and he still sleeps in a pull-up but we even went to Pumkinville in the big boy underwear and didn't have any accidents (he's porta-potty certified)

Oh please, it was nothing.

Real men wear sequins and pumpkin suits.

Last week we went to Gran Mart and finally found some Jumjums.  We bought a big bunch and Shaeleigh had them eaten in 2 days.  Today we were out and about and stopped at Great Wall (a big Asian grocery store) but no jumjums..  We did find Logan berries and thought we'd try them out.  Imagine our surprise when they looked just the jumjums on the inside!  The nut in the middle is different but Shaeleigh eats them like candy.  I think they pretty much smell and taste like feet.

Shaeleigh is doing great in Kindergarten but then again, I think she is custom made for Catholic school.  She is all about the rules.  I said something to her about going poop at school if she needed to and she looks at me with all seriousness and says, "You can't poop at school.  You have to go to the bathroom, wash your hands, dry your hands and line up under the clock.  There's no time to poop."  Another time I told her it was cold out and that she should wear her coat and she says, "You can't wear a coat because you might leave it there." 

Sadly, her parents are struggling with the rules.  One day when Kenn picked her up he was on his cell phone.  Shaeleigh goes straight into the car and says, "You can't be on the phone during carpool."  (sure enough, there must have been an incident because a note came home to everyone that day about not talking on the phone during carpool pickup).  Luckily, I think only Shaeleigh busted him.  The Smiths already have several marks.  We managed to miss one of the half-days early on.  We got a phone call, "Mr and Mr Smith?  Perhaps you forgot it was a half day?  Shaeleigh is waiting for you in the extended day class."  Boy, that's embarrassing.  I sent her to school with her gym shirt untucked. She comes home, "Mom, I'm supposed to tuck the shirt IN."  I sent her to school with overly fancy hair bobbles.  She comes home, "Mom, Mrs. X says we can't wear these in school."  I let her bring Mr. Dave in the bottom of her backpack.  She comes home, "Mom, Mrs. X says Mr. Dave has to stay home."  I forgot her lunch one day but I did go straight home and drop it off at the office.  Phew, Kindergarten is hard.  Not sure how we made it through college.

This was an extremely bad purchase.  We were in a thrift shop looking for costume pieces (All Saints Day, not Halloween) and Chance fell in love.  It didn't have batteries in it so I didn't realize how bad a purchase it was until we got home.  Why do things like this always work.  It's LOUD.   He loves it.  He has already proven to us that buying a real guitar with strings would be an even worse purchase (wouldn't last more than an hour - tops).

What else.  Oh, I would be remiss if I didn't mention that I took the kids to the mall last weekend.  It was pouring rain.  Shaeleigh left the car door open and I managed not to notice.  Three hours later we return to the car and there's the door, wide open.  Nice.  Of course it rained for another three days which meant the car stays wet and just got stinkier and stinkier.  Oh well.  Better than forgetting it was a half day at Kindergarten until someone calls you. 

Oh, Kenn is going to bed.  The lights are being turned off.  I guess I shall go to bed as well.  Although I should add....  Shaeleigh needs to dress like a Saint for All Saints Day so she's going as Lady La Vang.  Lady La Vang is often dressed in an ao dai (traditional Vietnamese dress) but Shaels has to wear her costume over her uniform.  And so...  after our visit to the thrift store, I am fashioning the costume out of a variety of silky women's nightgowns and bathrobes.  Kenn looked at them and started calling them "old lady underwear" and so now I wonder...   will this be another poor choice?  I can hear it now, "Mom, Mrs. X says it's not appropriate to make a Saint's Day costume out of something you'd see in a Victoria's Secret catalogue."  hehehe

The first accident report said, "Chance just lost his balance and fell from the small bench.  He bit his lower lip.  We cleaned up the area, put on some ice and gave TLC.  His lower lip is swollen."

Poor kid.  It was picture day.  The accident happened right before his class took their photos.  Looks like we're getting a photo of a kid with a fat lip.

The second accident report said, "Today we went on a nature walk to collect some colored leaves when suddenly we were attacked by bees....."

I kind of like the drama of the second one.

But the poor kid.  Same day!  From what we've heard, the kids were stomping on the leaves making them crunch when someone unknowingly stomped on a yellow jacket's nest under the leaves.  The teachers tried to get the kids to run (9 kids, 2 teachers) but of course the bees chased them and to make things worse, Chance wouldn't run, just stood flapping his arms and stomping in place.  He was stung 9 times.  He was wearing  a long sleeved shirt and long pants but they stung right through the shirt.  They changed his shirt at school because the one he was wearing was covered in little round blood stains.  He was a pretty sad little guy last night.  Kept saying, "The bugs bit me" and couldn't get himself comfortable.  He ended up sleeping in our bed because he was just crying every 10 minutes and seemed to be a bit freaked out.

Luckily, this morning he seemed to have been able to shake it off.  Only one sting on his hand seems to be swollen and to hurt him.  When I picked him up from school he was running around the playground and his teachers said he'd been fine all day.  They seemed a bit shaken up as at least 5 of the kids had been stung and all the kids were upset.  Chance was still talking about it tonight but now he says, "I got stinged.  Bruno got stinged.  The bugs stinged us.  I don't like snakes."

But he is sleeping now.  In his own bed.

In good news:  He is doing most excellent at potty training!  He is pooping and peeing in the potty.  No accidents two days in a row!  He is so proud of himself.

And....  Happy Mid-Autumn Moon Festival!

We made two batches of mooncakes this year.  The one above is nice eh?  Sadly, it did not come out of the oven looking the same way it did going in:

What the heck!  I think it's time to give up on the Pillsbury pie dough and make my own. 

Then again....  here's my first attempt at making Blintzes.  I figured I'd better keep the Polish culture alive.  They did taste pretty good.  Shaeleigh even asked me to make them again.  They looked a little better the second time around but not much.

Chance helping with the dishes.  Check out the "big boy underwear."

Ah, October is here.  I'm sure we'll have more pumpkin patch photos to come but we went to Meadow's Farm over the weekend to kick things off.

Chance is good for Shaels.  She would not have gotten near this tube if he didn't dive in head first.  They loved it.

And last weekend was Culpeper Farm open house weekend.  We took an adventure to our friend Gail's Alpaca Farm:  http://www.platinumalpacas.com/

Chance kept calling them, "cows."

This is Penny the baby.  She was only a week old.  So cute.

We had a good time but I have to say, the kids were a bit crabby most of the day.  I had to pull over twice to yell at them to calmly suggest they behave differently

After seeing the Alpacas we decided to go to the Kelly Ford Equestrian Center.  The perfect place for Chance - endless fields for running.  I was actually going to go down to the Welcome Center to see the model train exhibit but Shaeleigh overheard someone mention they had face painting at Kelly Ford and it was closer to being on the way home so off we went.

They also had horse rides which Shaeleigh loved.  Chance was excited until he got up on the horse.  Then he had a very quick change of heart and so "we" decided that maybe we'd wait until next year.

As an added bonus, there was a wedding taking place that afternoon at the Inn connected to the farm.  We took a hayride down to the barn where they were getting this very strong looking horse ready to pull the carriage.  They were braiding the mane and sticking roses in it (couldn't have planned a better place to take Shaeleigh).  The carriage was all decorated with flowers.  Shaeleigh started to make her wedding plans.  She told me she was going to marry Chance and I bit my tongue as I really wanted to say, "but you spent all day bickering with him and telling him that you didn't like him, why would you want to marry him?" 

For the record, Chance retaliated by singing, "Old MacDonald had a Farm" for close to an hour in the car.  It wouldn't have been so bad except that he is like a broken record, "And on that farm he had a dog, E-I-E-I-OOOOOO... and on that farm he had a dog, E-I-E-I-OOOOOO... and on that farm he had a dog, E-I-E-I-OOOOO... "  Yes, so when the kids weren't bickering I had an hour of Old MacDonald's one dog farm.

Oh, and if you say, "Hey Chance, how about another song?"  He says, "Okay...  uh... how about.... how about... how about...  Old MacDonald?" 

But just the same, we did have fun.

E_I_E_I_OOOOOOOOOOOOO

Sorry, no photos - tomorrow for sure but I did need to make a few notes on kids growing up and a couple of firsts. 

Shaeleigh starts Kindergarten tomorrow.  We've attended an ice cream social and Kindergarten orientation.  Plus Kenn took Shaels on a private tour one day so she actually seems pretty excited.  She's pretty good at internalizing and faking it though.  Hopefully all will go well.

Shaeleigh learned to tie her shoes this weekend.  She seemed to have learned out of the blue - last time we tried to teach her she fumbled about and lost interest.  She claims Ava taught her (friend at old school).  Thanks Ava.

Chance moved into a "big boy bed."  We took the crib down.  He came out of his room 25-30 times the first night.  We will have to sit him down for the "with freedom comes responsibility" speech later in the week if things don't get better.

We embarked on potty training.  So far no success but he "gets it."  My guess is that Chance is going to be the "I got so busy I forgot" kid vice the "how did that puddle get on the floor?" kid that Shaeleigh was.  He pooped in our bedroom, stepped in it and then took off running, and got it all over his nice clean bedsheets.  Hopefully he won't be a "track it all over the house" kid.

Sara gave us our first goldfish.  It is a little 39 cent feeder fish with quite a story (including spending a weekend in a coffee cup on her desk) and was justifiably named Sojourn.  Being the kids' first fish we of course had to spend another 13 cents to buy her a friend.  And being proud owners of 52 cents worth of fish, we promptly spent another $42 on a bowl, rocks, fake pirate skull, and plants.  Oh - Shaeleigh named the second fish...  Sojourn because, "it went on a trip too."

And finally....   Kenn fell off his bike and broke his collarbone.  Of all the kids, he's the only one not showing signs of growing up.  But we love him just the same.

Kenn: Okay, okay...yes, I broke my collarbone again. SOMEONE should also mention that I suffered severe abrasions to my right leg, broke/bruised some ribs, possible fracture of the scapula and banged my head pretty hard, too! I'm just sayin'...give a guy a break, eh? Actually, doing much better, thank you. Just hard to herd the chillun's with a bum right side. As usual, Joanie is there to pull the weight. Good egg, that one.