Fall activities

I have been contemplating joining the local YMCA for about a year now, and I finally did it!  

I did a trial run and loved the child care (which was my biggest concern) so here we are.  

I also really meant to get Spencer into swimming lessons this summer but we just ... dropped the ball.  They offer swim classes in the afternoons, so we signed up and he has already had two lessons.  He is loving it and doing really well.  

They also offer a bunch of free classes there.  One of them is a kid's karate class, and Spencer has been SOOO excited about this.  He told me one day, "Mom, I am so excited for karate.  I have told ALL of my friends about it." Ha. I didn't know we had reached that stage where they chat about things like that - schedules of weekly happenings, but I guess we have.  

It did NOT disappoint.  The teacher has been a karate instructor for about 25 years and he is super great with the kids.  There is a karate class for adults right after Spencer's and I'm thinking I might try it next week.  It looks so fun! 

One of Spencer's best buddies had a birthday last week and it was a Halloween themed party.  The kids all got to come in their costumes and they played a ton of really cute games.  The best part was the live music.  Her grandpa is a musician and was in town and he jammed out on the keyboard the whole time.  I loved it!  And so did Daniel, he is such a music loving baby.  He bops his head to the music, it's adorable. 

Checkin' out the goods from the awesome party favor bag.  :) 

I opened up my phone one night this week and somehow this had become my lock screen.  Hmm ... 

:) 

Yummy recipe that we love.  

Pork chops with apples and onions.  It is delish!

I added potatoes this time to kind of make an all in one pan meal - and it was okay, but the potatoes were a little bland.  I should have seasoned them before they went in.  Just in case you try it at home ... 

We have discovered that Fridays are a great time to play with Jack.  

(Now it is "just Jack" we have dropped the "brown hair" label) 

Ha!  Every time I hear "just Jack" I think of Will and Grace .... anyone else? 

I digress ....

So, we were playing with Jack and it was chilly outside.  It has been getting down to the 50's lately some evenings!  That is COLD for us fair weather Californians!  

Anyhow, Daniel was cold and needed to borrow a sweatshirt from Caroline.  I just thought he looked too cute in it.  Maybe we could make a cute little girl someday.  :) I kind of picture us with all boys.  

We'll see ...

This morning we had a YARD SALE! 

Spencer has been talking about doing a yard sale for quite a while now.  He loves to come with me to yard sales around the neighborhood.  Sometimes people will give him little toys for free, or if he has any allowance saved up, he can usually buy something for a dollar.  

Recently, he realized that if he got rid of some of HIS toys, he could make some money.  Hooray!  So, a few months ago during his quiet time in the afternoon, he took all of his toy bins and went through each one.  He put everything he wanted to sell into a box and brought it out.  I was pretty impressed!  He asked if we could have a yard sale.  I wasn't sure we had much we could sell, so I told him we would look through our things and see.  And guess what? We did.  We had quite a bit!  

So, we set up shop, posted an ad and he and Gordon drove around and posted signs in the neighborhood.  

Spencer had such a blast and he was such a salesman!  Whenever anyone walked up he would tell them he was selling all of his toys for $1 and demonstrate how the different cars worked, etc.  It was hilarious.  

He ended up making $14 and is SOOO excited about it.  He squealed out loud when he made his first sale and ran to tell Gordon.  It was so cute.  :) 

Can you find the one object amongst the clothes that is NOT for sale?  Daniel was such a trooper baby and hung outside with us for the first little bit while Gordon ran to the bank to get change.  

The first hour went by kind of slowly ... not much traffic. But we brought out some games and hot chocolate and just played while we waited.  

But, then he just got too cold and had to take a bit of a rest.  Poor kid.  :) 

But he really wanted to stay out there with me! 

It picked up for a bit and then the sun came out and it slowed down again.  

So, we broke out the ipad and Spencer taught me how to play Plants vs Zombies.  I have seen him play a few times, but never tried it myself.  It's kind of awesome. 

Afterwards, Spencer helped Daddy clean up the sawdust in the garage from their latest project.  Such a helper.  :) 

And this guy is just a peach. 

He is such a happy and fun baby!!!

He is ALMOST crawling now.  He will scooch on his tummy and pivot around to get what he wants.  If he rolls to the hardwood floor, he can scoot backwards across the room pretty well.  He is a crackup. He claps his hand on command, dances to music, tries to do his fingers to "Itsy Bitsy Spider" and bobs his head to dance to music.  He LOVES any babyfood mixed with spinach and just learned yesterday how to drink out of a sippy cup.  Yay!  He tries to wave "bye bye" and "hi" and we think he is trying to say "bye bye" sometimes, but it's not official yet.  He LOVES to be outside and loves to giggle, especially when he is tired.  He will laugh at just about anything, just like his Mama.  

We love you, Daniel!!!!