This Week: October 25th - November 1st

We had a fun week...

On Friday, we went to the community center's open gym (the first time we have gone since Colton could walk) and both kids had a blast running, kicking balls, somersaulting on the mats, and making baskets!!  We also met up with Summer's friend Sydney.

Colton lovin the basketball hoops...

Summer spent a large chunk of time running all over the gym kicking a ball.  Future soccer player?

Colton climbing up the mats

Summer and Sydney (birthdays one week apart!)

After naps, we turned the house into a construction zone for Colton's cars.  We made tunnels from wrapping paper tubes, roads from masking tape, stoplights and parking garages from paper, and had a ton of fun.  I loved seeing Summer's creativity.  She loved making the masking tape roads all by herself this time.  Both kids enjoyed the clean-up process almost more than the creation process--masking tape is fun to pull up!

The start of the creation....

Making the tunnel longer...

Colton testing the tunnel

Summer laying down the roads

Roads now have stoplights

And a tunnel leading up to the parking garage

 In the meantime, Colton found Tucker's discipline squirt water bottle and had a blast squirting himself...love the giggles in this video...

Cleaning Up

While I was finishing dinner, the kids played "swimming lessons" with the dolls "Nikki and Nora".  They jumped them into the water from many "high" surfaces.

Jumping Nikki and Nora into the "water" off the "side of the pool"

I love that Summer can play cars with Colton and Colton can play dolls with Summer :)

On Saturday, Paul had men's breakfast at church so the kids and I had fun playing with Summer's giant foam alphabet puzzle.  Putting it together had us saying the letter names frequently for Colton, and after it was put together Summer LOVED hopping from one letter to the next spelling all sorts of words (she picked the words she wanted to spell and as I said the letter sound, she would try and jump from one letter to the next).  After Daddy came home, we went for a family run.  After naps, we headed to a local church's "Trunk or Treat" carnival/games for candy.

At Trunk or Treat

We then went to our church for a bonfire and Summer got her first experience with roasting marshmallows and S'mores. :)

On Sunday, we had our pretty normal day with church, family time, and projects/chores.  I also got to get out for coffee with a friend. :)

On Monday, Grandma T. had the day off work, so she drove down from Fergus Falls to see us!  We kept her busy with playing with baby dolls and cars, playing Hide-and-Seek, reading books, and going to the park. :) I wish I got some pictures, but we were too busy having fun.   Fun to see you Grandma T!  That afternoon Summer worked a bit in her preschool workbook.  I snuck this video when she didn't know I was taking it because she is more natural that way, and I wanted to capture her adorable concentration :)



On Tuesday (and several days this week) I got some special Colton time in the morning while Summer slept in a little later than usual.  I love this little video of him playing trains and making his "train noise"...




Tuesday was our first day of gymnastics for the year!  While TAGS offers gymnastics year 'round, we only sign up during the cold months when we can't play at the park :).  Summer was SO excited to go!  Actually, ecstatic might be a better word choice than excited ;).  This year she is in the 3 year old class, so she goes all by herself, whereas last year. she and I did the parent-child class.  This year I decided to do the parent-child class with Colton so that he wouldn't have to sit around and wait during Summer's lesson, but could be "doing something too" and it is a blast!  He LOVES it!  So many giggles.  So weird for me to be in the same class, same teacher, doing same things as last year, but with a different kiddo!

Colton wore his backpack all around the house....for a long time.  He loves it!

Ready to go!

Practicing our "tree"

Practicing "Ta-Da"

Both kids (and me!) like watching the big kids

Ta-Da!  We're ready for class!

 Colton sat with Summer on her class's mat until her class started.

Summer in her 3 year old class

Colton watching Summer through the kid's window

Colton's turn!  (his class is shorter than Summer's and starts 15 minutes after hers)  He loved the foam pit, along with EVERYTHING else!

After gymnastics, we went met daddy at Ms. Leah, Mr. Mike, and Emma's house for pizza.  We normally have couple's Bible study on Tuesday nights, but our small group does family night on 5th Tuesdays.  We had a lot of fun eating pizza and playing!  I was very proud of Summer using her verse of the week this week  (Matthew 5:44--Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you) when during playtime, one of the little friends bit her hand when he was upset...as we washed Summer's hand, she started (all on her own) praying that God would help him not to bite again.  I LOVE seeing her Bible verse in action!

Pizza with our Couple's Bible Study--Kid's table

On Wednesday, after BSF, we went to the mall to pick up the kid's pictures from Pennies.  We also had some fun playing in the mall play area.  Colton, I am learning, has a very physical side to him.  When he gets upset he likes to swing his arms, kick his legs, push, etc.  So, he had to take a few timeouts while we were playing....but the sweetest moment was when (after a timeout for an infraction with his sister) he (like I told him to) went up to Summer and clearly said, "I'm sorry Summer" and gave her a kiss.  Adorable.

Pretend driving the car at the mall's indoor playplace

During lunch, Summer and I practiced her new verse of the week she got that morning at BSF.  It is Matthew 6:19-21....3 verses long.  We have worked on it each mealtime since then, and she is getting really close to getting it down!  I will hopefully post of video of it next week.  We also did some preschool in her workbook.  Summer also helped me put my birthday present from her, Daddy, and Colton up on the wall.  It is a wall cling for our bedroom, and I have had my eye on it since last January :-).  Paul remembered :-)  It takes a lot longer than I thought to put it up, but I am really happy with how it turned out.

On Thursday, Grandma Kirkwood came over, and after swimming lessons, we went to the zoo.  Because it was Halloween, it was really empty and the kids basically had certain trails to themselves, which made it really fun!  That evening, the kids had a blast trick-or-treating with our neighbor girls, Faith and Noelle.  My favorite Summer memory is how outgoing she is...she would run up to each door, and no matter who answered the door she would exclaim with a big smile "Trick or Treat" and many times follow up with starting up a conversation with whomever gave her candy about her costume, her gloves, what she likes to do, etc.  She loves to talk people's ear off!  My favorite Colton memory is watching him waddle in his elephant costume and follow the big kids' lead saying "Trick or Treat" and "Thank you" in his little Colton voice :).

We're ready!  (Colton used Summer's elephant costume from last year, but we added a tie to make it more "boy-ish" :) )

With our favorite neighbors!

LOVE this picture (especially of Colton the elephant!)

My boys :)

Summer's loot (yes she really was this excited all night!)

Colton's loot

Two videos Paul took...the first is of the kids trick or treating, the second of Summer handing out candy from our house (which she loved!)








On Friday, we headed off to a Halloween Party at Ms. LaDonna's house!  Before we could leave however....I have a little side-note with some pictures to share.  Colton learned the word "self" (all by myself) this week and has been using it constantly to express that he wants to do EVERYTHING by himself.  This morning he decided that he wanted to put on his shoes by himself.  I let him try for about 5 minutes (always asking him if he wanted help to which he replied "self!" emphatically!) while we waited for Summer to go potty.  In the meantime I took this string of pictures.  While he did not succeed in his task, I was very impressed with his persistence without getting frustrated, and he would have continued trying had I not told him that it was "Mommy's turn" to put his shoes on ;).  Here is his attempt at putting his shoes on...

First I have to get this velcro thing off...

How do I do this?

My foot...has to go in there....

Maybe if I try this angle...

Hmmmm, is that even big enough for my foot???

Let's try it over on the rug...

Come on, foot...

C'mon...

I got my toes in!

Anyway, after a bit of a tantrum when I decided it was time for Mommy to put his shoes on ;) we headed out to Ms. LaDonna's for a Halloween party.  Fun to compare these "couch pictures" with the first party from 2011!  (Lots more kids now too)....

Addison, Summer, Lilly, Adelyn, Leyla, Brandon, Sydney

Ian, Amelia, O'Neil, Colton, Brody

After lunch, Summer asked me to help her write "Tommerdahl".  She can write "Summer" all by herself now, and knows how to write all the letters needed for Tommerdahl (except for "D" which I taught her today), so we got out a white board I used to use when I was teaching (fyi it is made from a shower board from Menards--super cheap way to get lots of personal size white boards!) and went at it.  We focused a lot on making "tiny" letters so as to fit all the letters of one word on one line.  She did great...and we even did her middle name too.

Then she had fun drawing!  Her people now have arms, legs, belly buttons, and often bottoms ;)

Well, tonight we are off to Auntie Kristin's!  She invited us over for Macaroni and Cheese...can't resist that!