Holloway answering service

Last night after I picked the kids up from school, we came home and played outside.  I was trying to hook up a light outside so the kids could play in the dark and of course, since I wasn't holding Brynn, she was crying.  Ethan went inside to get a snack and through the chaos I didn't hear the phone ring.

Never fear...my personal answering service was available inside (since he was getting a snack).  He came out some time later and told me someone called on the phone for me.  Good thing we have caller ID because "someone" is a little vague.  I figured it was a telemarketer, but Ethan said it was Daddy.  He didn't say anything about the conversation that took place other than that he talked to whoever it was.

So I checked the caller ID and saw that it was my co-worker.  I had called her from the house line earlier in the day, so she must have just called me back at that number.  So anyway, I asked her today if she got the privilege of speaking with my 3 year old.  She said yes, she called (not realizing what time it was) and he answered.  She asked if she could speak to me and he said "No".  And then he hung up.

Looks like we're going to have to have a discussion about phone etiquette :)

Ethan and Brynn

I love that Ethan and Brynn play so well together (most of the time).  Ethan really is a great big brother and lets Brynn get her way almost as much as she'd like to.

Here they are watching Dora together:

And being silly together:

Brynn has learned how to say "Cheese!" now when I break out the camera.  She looks so pretty in this picture, but also looks so much older.

Indoor Soccer

Last Saturday (or actually 2 Saturdays ago) Ethan started indoor soccer.

Here's what's great about indoor soccer:
1. It's for 3-4 year olds and does NOT require parent involvement
2. There are 2 coaches and they are actually making an attempt to teach the kids how to play soccer
3. There are no games, which means I don't have to bring snacks
4. It's indoors, which means no cleats
5. No cleats means no shin guards
6. There are no teams, therefore no jerseys I have to buy
7. Ethan has a lot of learning to do, starting with learning that soccer means no hands on the ball.  In the first class they had an exercise where the coach asked them to get all of the balls from one goal clear across the field to the other goal.  They should have been a little more specific as Ethan thought that was pretty darn easy. Just walk over there, pick up the ball, and carry it to the other goal.
8. Brynn LOVES watching Ethan play soccer.  And waving at him.  And yelling "Ethan! Ethan!" at him.
9. Ethan loves it

What's not so great about indoor soccer:
1. I have to entertain Blythe and Brynn for 50 minutes in a very small space
2. There are 2 coaches, but probably 2 too many kids.  And there's one kid who just cries the whole time distracting the other kids.  But the parents keep making him stay out there.
3. It's 20 minutes away and at 9am on a Saturday.  Means we got to get our butts moving in the morning!
4. If Ethan doesn't hear Brynn shouting at him or see him waving at her, she cries
5. Considering it doesn't come with a jersey or any other form of equipment, it's not all that cheap.

As you can see, the good list outweighs the bad.  Especially #9 on the good list.

And look....he's a natural! (he's wearing blue on the right side of the field)

Blythe's Parent/Teacher conference

Yesterday we had our very first ever parent/teacher conference.  Okay, actually we had one when Blythe was 2 (she had a really great teacher at the time).  But anyway, first one in public schools.  Since we have 3 kids, it's not feasible for both of us to attend, so Braden went to the conference.  Here is the report:

• Blythe is doing great in her writing
• Blythe is very interested in reading and is doing very well
• Blythe is a natural leader and the other kids listen when Blythe talks
• Blythe is popular
• Blythe talks too much

Okay, so nothing all together enlightening there.  I'm going to guess we'll get generally the same feedback at every parent/teacher conference we ever have for Blythe.  

In general, she has good behavior.  She's on "green" most days at school, but occasionally gets put on "yellow" because she's talking too much when she's not supposed to.  In ballet on Wednesday the instructor told me that  she has to separate Blythe and her friend Anna because if she doesn't, they talk too much and don't listen.

I guess the girl just has a lot to say.  

In school, if they are on "green" for the whole week, they get to pick out a "treasure" from the treasure box.  This motivated Blythe the first month or so of school, but now not so much.  I need to find something at home to reward her if she is on green all week that might be better than a pencil from the treasure box.  Ideas are welcome!

Halloween

It's ridiculous how much candy we have in our house right now.  Because:
1. My kids went trick or treating in my parents neighborhood on Saturday
2. Ethan and Brynn had Halloween parties at school.  The note said to bring in some candy and a treat for their party (all optional though).  So I sent Ethan with some Halloween fruit rollups (1 for each of the kids in his class) and 2 pieces of candy per kid in his class.  Brynn same thing except instead of fruit rollups, it was fruit snacks.  I must have missed the fine print (written in invisible ink) that said "put together really awesomely cute goodie bags and include at least 15-20 items per goody bag.  Make custom name tags for each child in the class and it's optional, but recommended, you have Halloween photos taken of your child and make gift tags from the photos".  Seriously!  WTF?  These other parents work full-time too.  Where do they find the time?
3. We have LOTS of kids in our neighborhood, so I bought LOTS of candy to give out (in our last neighborhood we would usually run out of candy at some point and I'd have to start giving away the candy our kids trick or treated for).  But this year it rained.  Boo for rain on Halloween.  It rained from 5pm until about 9pm with a few minutes here and there of no rain.  Therefore, I think the really little kids stuck to only a few houses instead of venturing out in their wagons to rest of the neighborhood.  So we ended up with quite a bit of the candy we started with.
4. Our kids went trick-or-treating in the rain.  They held umbrellas and away they went.  They hit up quite a few houses before they got too cold.  I think they did pretty well...basically all good candy and not any crappy or weird candy.

They were pretty proud of the costumes they picked out this year.  Blythe loved the makeup job I did for her (after I googled "Easy witch makeup for kids").  I love Google.  Makes my kids think I know EVERYTHING (which of course, I do....I just reference Google for verification).  Ethan's face is also a shade of yellow.  Yellow doesn't quite cover the face like green face paint does.

And with Daddy (as scary, mean-looking guy) and Brynn (as a beautiful butterfly):

I should clarify point #4 above.  By "kids went trick-or-treating", I mean Ethan and Blythe.  Other than the picture above where she is eating a fruit snack, Brynn spent the rest of the evening like this:

which meant no trick-or-treating for her.  Not if I had to carry the screaming, wiggly toddler while carrying an umbrella and a candy bag.  It's not like she needed to bring home any MORE candy.

Boo at the Zoo

My parents live about a half hour from the NC Zoo in Asheboro.  It's a beautiful zoo and it HUGE.  I've been a couple of times, but last year heard of their Halloween event, Boo at the Zoo.  So this year we decided to go.  The weather looked better on Sunday, so Saturday we drove to my parents house and spent the night there before heading to the zoo on Sunday.  Worked out well because my parents neighborhood had their big Halloween event on Saturday night.  It consisted of a hay ride, some trick or treating, and food and games at the clubhouse.  The event was free for kids 6 and under (therefore all 5 of my parents grandkids were free!).  Suckers.

Brynn didn't so much love the hayride, but the other kids had lots of fun.  We had to break out some secondary costumes so as not to mess up our real Halloween costumes.  And it was kind of cold, so had to get some WARM costumes as well.

Blythe was a cowgirl, Brynn was an owl, Ethan was a monkey, Ada was a skeleton, and Harper was a chicken.

Sunday we headed to Boo at the Zoo.  We didn't get to see ALL of the animals at the zoo (since that zoo is SO big), but we hit most of the big ones.  The best ones were the chimpanzees (because there was a baby/toddler monkey and she was SO cute!) and the ostriches, zebras, and giraffes.  The last 3 were all together and at one point the zebras were chasing the ostriches and the giraffes were chasing the zebras.  They were playing!  Those giraffes were running all over the place.  Giraffes are incredible to watch running. They look like they are floating on air!  I think my parents said something like, "Wow, they really put on a show for us!".  So the next day, Blythe and Ethan were pretending to be the ostriches and said to me, "remember the show we saw?"  I looked lost, so they said, "with the ostriches and the giraffes?".  Guess they  figured that was a planned show!  

Anyway, Boo at the Zoo was a success!