End of October

Goodness, I feel like we missed fall altogether. We went from nice weather, to super chilly....we're wearing full on coats...we look like marshmallows.

Spencer has been working hard and bought a new ride. He felt like our little kia couldn't manage the hour drive back and forth, so he decided to upgrade. He left one day on his day off and came back with something new. I'm kinda sad that he didn't give me a chance to say goodbye to the Kia. That car has been with us for 10years, and helped me with both my pregnancies and carried both my car seats.

I'm glad it has four doors. His last small car only
had two, it was a pain to have car seats in there. 

Dominic is getting used to school, but he still struggles. He found a couple of friends, and we hope it will get better. I recently attended his 9 week parent teacher conference. Ms. H is pleased with his progress and actually tells me he's doing fine. There was one day he cried, but that was because he fell off the monkey bars and he hit his chest pretty hard. And he complains to her, that the day is too long, which she agrees....but nobody can help him with that. They get a snack around 2:30-3pm to kinda ease the last part of the day. She was impressed that he knew 20 sight words out of her list, and he already can do patterns and count to 100. I guess those are Kinder  goals. The only thing he needed to work on, was rhyming....for some reason, it hadn't clicked....about how words rhyme. But I found some good free pinterest worksheets and I think he's finally got it. We've also been reading a lot- 20 min a day (its homework)and it's amazing how fast he's progressed. He hated it all summer....and right now, within two months, he can read level 1 books. He loves reading Pete the cat, the pigeon series by mo Willems, and Mr. Panda books. He's really trying to read hard words, instead of guessing. He loves teaching Ethan how to read, but he's so clueless haha. But it's fun to watch them sit down together and try to read a book. Dom goes to the school library every Monday, and he picks out one book and then we try to read it all week long. He also has to do guess and tell every week and he has to write down three clues to match the item he brings in that week (classmates have to guess what it is). He loves writing down the clues and sentences, and we've been practicing upper and lower case, and even punctuation. He's so smart, and so curious, I figured, I might as well take this opportunity to just teach him.
The other day, he was asking me about negative numbers. "mama...what's 10 plus negative 5?" and I said I didn't know. He told me the correct answer. I'm not really sure how he figured that one out. But then I found out, he watches golf with Spencer, so maybe that's where the negative numbers came from. And then last week, I saw him asking Siri math questions....so maybe siri told him that.

pajama day. He's so tiny...his classmate is right
behind him!

being goofy on the plane 

Ethan is doing so well in school. He loves going. If he could, he would go every day and go play outside. He loves Ms. B and her silly songs and books. He talks to her all the time. He feels so comfortable there, the same way Dom did...and then he had to go to public school (sad face).  He loves playing with the toys in there, and he actually has made friends. He just did his Halloween program and dressed up as Marshall from paw patrol. he didn't want to dress up, but once he saw all his classmates, he asked me to dress him up.

this is how he slept on the plane....I wish I could be this little

I still go to the gym and I try to volunteer twice a week at Dom's school. I try to keep myself busy (which is pretty easy to do). Tuesdays and Thursdays are the busiest, because both kids need to be inside the school by 9am. But i like it, because I have enough time to go to the gym and do the errands for the week.

This was Ethan by 10am...EVERY DAY at the beach.

Our big trip this month was over fall break. We got to go to a  Florida beach right after all the hurricanes. At least the Houston airport was open. We were worried it might not be, and that was our mid stop. I"m not sure I like flying with kids, but it would have been a 15 hour drive. Instead, since we had airplane points, and everyone flew for free (flying from Tulsa),  we thought it would be fun. Instead, we had to take two planes each time and run to make sure we made it to the gates in time. Twice, I was STARVING....so I went to the food court to grab something and I had just gotten back, literally sat down, and it was time to board. I hate eating right before flying...I feel like I don't digest very well and it makes me sick.
But the kids did really great on the plane. Ethan is super clingy right now, so he had to be next to me. Then Dominic wanted to take turns between me and his dad, so at one point, in a row of three, I was in the middle with both kids next to me....and Spencer was by himself...sleeping...I envied him haha.

we found a kids' area at the tulsa airport.

                                               This is how goofy my kids are on a daily basis.


We only had two bags, and we checked those in. I had a backpack as a carry on. We thought by bringing car seats it would be easier to rent a car. So we gate checked them. Somehow in all the confusion, they got lost. When we got to Houston, I asked for them, and they told me they would just be put on the plane for me to pick up in Florida...well, that didn't happen. So, we arrived late (8pm) and had to deal with lost baggage at the airport. Southwest was super nice, and gave us loaners for free the rest of the trip while ours arrived, and even gave us a $100 voucher. But it just would have been nicer, to have had our own car seats.  The rest of the trip was fine. We hit a couple of beaches. This time, we drove to Destin for one day, and got to see the harborwalk. We also ate at a place famous for gator meat. They had a cool gator farm outside and even an albino gator. The kids actually liked that, while waiting for food. Spencer got the gator burger and he said it tasted fine. I just had a simple burger, I'm not that adventurous. The kids loved the beaches and the pool. They couldn't get enough. Ethan would wake up at 6am. He would wake me up, and we would head down to breakfast buffet, and by 8am he was ready to see the sand. He kept saying "ok let's go to the beach", and then by 10am he had to nap....he would sleep like 3 hours, then head back out to the pool or beach again until dinner time.

beach time

Dom has been wanting to do this for years

The water was cold enough that Ethan's lips turned
blue EVERY time he spent more than 30min in the water.
I had to give him like 3 towels and rub him to warm him up. 

Gator Beach/Restaurant 

All the gators

They keep Pearl (the albino one) separated in a glass
container....so sad. And yes, she's real. She barely moves though

The last day we were there, the beach got red flagged. It basically meant, to not get into the ocean because the currents were getting too strong. It was about to storm, so we just played in the pool and sand that day. This time, the water was way colder. We couldn't figure out if it was because of all the hurricanes, or because it was October. Ethan's lips would turn blue every time...just him though. It was chilly, but it's wasn't icy. I'm not sure what happened. But I would have to take him out, because he was shaking so much and rub him with like 3 dry towels...to warm him up.

They hit the pool too

Famous donut place in Destin

Choosing our bounty. Spencer always gets a shirt
at a famous place whenever we travel. 

Ate them at the beach....like you should. And NEVER
share with the birds. 

Destin Beach. Still cold water....but it was still ok
to swim in...probably cold as CA beaches

making tunnels

chasing birds

The last day that we could not hit the water due to the red flag. we drove inland to see the Pensacola Lighthouse. It was being renovated, and didn't want to pay money to NOT go up, so instead we hit the  Naval Aviation Museum. It's definitely a boy museum. The boys loved looking at old planes, and jumping into cockpits. They also had a small play area that they LOVED. The museum mainly shows support to the Blue Angels (they practice here) but you can find all kinds of cool planes and helicopters here.

Entrance is free. There is a donation box around here
somewhere though.

play area

jumping into planes

Even Spencer got in the action

Found some friends

Leaving for the airport

I LOVE this bridge. who wouldn't want to live here? 

Coming back home. Dom was on my left and Ethan
was on my right. Spencer...well he was napping behind us. 

Always reading....

We also were able to take the kids to the Toys R Us weekly event, here in our local store. This month it was Bricktober- everything legos. I missed the first two because they were girl events. I was only able to make the last one- build a bb8 from star wars. I figured if Dom was doing it, Ethan would want to do it too. So all three of us headed that way, and it was so chaotic. The table was tiny and there were like 30 kids trying to build the same droid. They also put out candy in the middle...right by Dom, so everyone was trying to grab and go over him...it was just frustrating. Dom got frustrated right away because the kid next to him (much older) zoomed by the instructions and he couldn't figure them out. But after helping him for a few seconds, he was fine. He loves his droid and takes it apart and puts it back together at least 7 times a day....seriously. He likes to show EVERYONE how it's done. Ethan...is just happy he has the same toy as big brother. to have ONE toy for both...would have been a nightmare.

Dom build a schoolhouse last week

And we got to go trick or treating. This year, I just took the kids down the street. It was super chilly, so we only made it down the street, Dom looked at his pail and said "WOW...i have so much candy! I think i'm done".  I was ok with that...I mean seriously...does ANYBODY need more than 1/3 of that dollar pumpkin pail worth of candy? NO...it's all junk. I figured if my kids can get 1/3 pail full (and be happy)....it's plenty to last for a while. Then, I find myself also looking through. Not good....but you know I'll be the first one at Walmart on Nov 1st trying to half off candy and snacks for next year. Im also looking for outdoor stuff. It has taken my husband 10 years, but he's finally getting the Halloween spirit and hopes to put up a haunted house next year in the garage.

The set up. 

our kids treat or treated at our house last.