I heart public libraries

Last Saturday our local library held their fall festival. I needed to be at the church all day for our Super Saturday but suggested Mark take Jared and Lydia to the festival.  He did and they had a blast. I wish I could have gone with them. I am glad they could go with Mark and spend some time with just him but it sounded pretty fun so I was a little bummed. They had a bounce house, obstacle course, fall crafts, some goats and bunnies to pet and a cookie contest. I wish I would have heard about the cookie contest before because I would have loved to make some sugar cookies for them, oh well.

 Jared loved this bounce house! He had never been on one before and had a blast

I love all the community events they plan. We go to story time almost every week and pretty much always have 15 - 20 books checked out. My kids love going to play and read there. When we lived in Egypt public libraries were one of the things I missed the most. I wish I would have majored in Library Services instead of History Education. If I were to ever go back to school that is what I would major in. I think they are so great!!!

Birthdays and Bikes

Despite having pretty horrible colds we are enjoying our Fall and Jared's pre-birthday celebrations. Jared took cupcakes to his preschool this week and loved having his birthday celebrated at school. He is the first kid in his class to have a birthday so I think he felt pretty special. We have never done an actual birthday party with friends for Jared, we do lots of special celebrations that day but never a party. I think that was why he enjoyed having it at school so much and I am so glad he could go. I wasn't sure he would be able to because of his cold but it worked out fine. He requested mint chocolate chip cupcakes and they turned out great. I was quite surprised when he requested mint chocolate chip and wondered if Mark put a bug in his ear...He also really wanted to bring lollipops to school so we made little tootsie roll ghosts which are so simple and cute. I was really surprised he wanted to take lollipops because I am pretty sure he has had maybe 2 in his life. But he was thrilled with them.

I searched high and low for these cone cupcake toppers so they are for sure getting their picture on here! I ended up having to order them online and while they were not super expensive they were more then I would typically pay for something for a dessert. Jared has requested a construction worker cake so I will use them on there and I am really excited to make his cake. I know he will play with them a ton too so its like another birthday gift.  He had to choose between a garbage truck cake or construction worker cake and thankfully he picked a construction worker cake. I wasn't sure how to pull off a garbage truck cake. Grandma Sue is arriving today and we are so happy she can celebrate Jared's birthday with us. Jared has actually had Grandma Sue at all his birthdays except his first one.  His second was in Utah and she came out here last year for his 3rd and now his 4th. We are so happy she moved to Utah and we can see her so much more!

As far as bikes go, Jared can now successfully ride his bike (with training wheels).  We tried to encourage him all summer and offered to teach him but he kept telling us he would ride it when he was 4. Well he met his goal right in time. I love hearing him talk about how fast he goes and how fun it is. He just really picked it up in the last week. Now that he is actually riding his bike we will have to get him a helmet but I am tempted to wait till spring because he might grow and then have it not fit when he can ride again after it warms up. There will be days we can ride it this winter but not that regularly. Decisions Decisions.

 

Lydia is enjoying the little tricycle too.

 

I am enjoying the beautiful weather, these colors and my kids!



 

 They constantly ask if they can have "slides" Jared looks so big in these pictures!

 

Since the nights have gotten a little cooler we have been putting them both in warmer pajamas, good parenting right?  Well this is what Lydia looks like every morning when we put her in them. I go and check on both kids before I go to bed and she is always asleep without her pants on. She might be a bit irritated when the footed sleepers come out. I so rarely get picture with her looking at the camera (and this one is really funny) so I had to throw it in there. 

I also successfully found a new hair style for Lydia. She pretty much has pigtails or a half up half down pony tail so I was really excited when I was able to do this one. I didn't even have to look it up I just did it. She is growing up so fast!

We are looking forward to a week of fun with Grandma Sue and birthday celebrations.

Ventucci Farm

 

 

Jared's preschool class went to Ventucci Farm today.  Tanner, Lydia and I came along and it was hard. I know that sounds silly but it was. Keeping track of a 20 month old, a three year old and almost four year old wore me out. Tanner and Jared are about 9 months apart and are pretty good but they wanted to run and jump around which was very difficult for Lydia. She does well on even ground but fields not so much. I felt bad because a farm is a good place to run around but not when there are like 250 other kids there, tons of buses and me trying to keep track of them and Lydia. Poor little Lydia got dragged along a lot and I got a really good arm workout carrying her around. I have heard from various people that having three kids was a bigger adjustment and today made me really happy with my two.
We checked out some horses, pigs, chickens and chicks, goats and a HUMONGOUS pig. It was insane how large it was.  I did not take a picture because taking pictures with these three kids proved very difficult. (See above) The highlights were climbing on the tractor and picking out a pumpkin. It was a gorgeous fall day so it was very nice to be outside.

 

Even though it was hard I think the kids had a good time. Jared had two meltdowns which was a bummer. One when I told him not to run ahead (other preschool kids were so that made it extra hard but I couldn't keep up with him carrying Lydia and she really wanted a chance to walk around) and when he tried to carry his pumpkin to the car.  The rule was you had to be able to carry your pumpkin out. It was an uphill battle but he did it. I don't think I would bring my family to this farm but then again if it was just us and Mark was with me it would probably be a lot more enjoyable. Hats off to all those parents who manage so well. 

A dream come true

 

Jared LOVES garbage trucks. He has been in love with them for the past 2 years at least. It helps that we have a communal dumpster so he gets to see the garbage truck 3 times a week.  This Saturday the local recycling center was holding an open house to celebrate their 1 year anniversary. They are a combo recycling and garbage center so we headed over to check it out. They gave tours, had popcorn and pizza, showed a short movie and for the main event (in Jared's eyes) had 4 trucks out that kids could climb on. He was in heaven. Their event was really well planned and I loved being able to take Jared and watch him enjoy the trucks and have this dream come true. Most days he says he wants to be a construction worker when he grows up but yesterday all he kept saying again and again that he wanted to be a garbage man. I also love that Jared still loves garbage trucks so much.  We have been talking about Halloween costumes and as I look at the most popular ones (superheroes) it just makes me happy that he is still just a little boy in love with garbage trucks and construction workers. Its also much less expensive!
I was so happy when I found out about their event.  I subscribe to a local calender of events program. Each week they send out an email with a list of events happening around town.  Most often there is nothing we would attend (we are pretty limited in the times we can go do things because of naps which I am not complaining about at all) but 2 or 3 times a year that have an event like yesterdays on here which is perfect for us. FYI:  It's called Macaroni kids, I think its a national group so you could look up your city.
It was a super fun day. Sadly Mark could not come as he was conducting a Baptism. He kindly took Lydia with him so I could stay longer with Jared and enjoy some one-on-one time with him. We found out some fun facts like a trash collector typically gets in and out of their truck 600 times a day!! Also here in the Springs you do not have to sort your reclying they do it at their facility. This company has this whole superhero theme going with MRF (Material Recovery Facility) Man. So yesterday they were handing out these superhero capes and free t shirts which is why Jared is wearing one.

He could have stayed and climbed on these trucks for HOURS!

 He was really happy to see the "Hopper" all full.

The timing of this event was perfect too. I had called some companies in town to see if I could bring Jared over to their facility for a tour for his birthday and hadn't heard back from anybody so it was cool that I found out about this one.  It was perfect, a dream come true for a sweet little almost 4 year old boy.

Picking...

Raspberries.

You were expecting apples and pumpkins right? I know I was.  We drove down to Happy Apple Farm in Penrose today to celebrate the first day of fall. Sadly we got there and found out that they (very sadly for them) lost all their apples in April in a freeze.  This happened to this poor little farm last year too.  So far I am not doing so well in my Fall activities which is ironic since they are my favorite type. But I will not give up, we are just getting started! It was still a beautiful day and something new and different to do.

 

They did have a super strong raspberry crop and their pumpkins were out so we picked those instead.  Mark loves raspberries so he was pretty pleased. We went on a tractor ride to the fields (notice I said tractor not hay ride. They had a hay ride but were not using that tractor today what gives?) which Jared was thrilled about and had fun enjoying the perfect fall weather.  After we filled two containers of raspberries we headed over to the pumpkin patch to find some pumpkins.

I am happy we could pick some raspberries and pumpkins. But I really wanted to pick apples. I had some apple recipes in mind but don't have anything in mind for raspberries. We stocked up on raspberry jam about a month ago so we will have to find something else. Or just make more I guess. We got 4 little pumpkins and they make our house look extra festive.

In other news, I had the most amazing run last night. I typically go running around 6:20 in the morning M-W-F.  When I went to bed Thursday night my right foot was killing me.  I have no idea what happened. It hurt to put any pressure on it and even hurt when I was laying in bed.  So when I went to bed I figured I would not be running Friday morning. I got up and tried running in place and it still hurt so I went back to bed.  When I got ready to leave and put my shoes on later that morning my foot felt better. I went about my day with my foot still hurting but feeling way better when I had shoes on then when I didn't. So after we got Jared to bed I just decided to go on my run. It was awesome. There was a huge full moon, the harvest moon and I ran and ran.  On Friday's I typically run 3.15 miles and have to stop around 23 minutes and walk a little. Last night I got to my usual stopping place and just kept on running. I kept thinking I will stop at this spot, okay I will stop here but by then I was almost done so I kept it up. What was amazing was how good I felt. I am not a good runner. I go and feel good after I finish but mostly just because I did it not because it felt good. But last night was awesome and I finally got to experience that runners high. When I got to our street entrance I felt like I could even keep going but I needed to cool down before I went inside.  I can't describe how exciting this was and how happy it made me. I have been doing a Jillian Micheal's DVD on the mornings I don't run and I think it has made a big difference. I never really knew that having a stronger core would help you run better but it really does. Mark has been talking about this since he has been coaching cross country and I see a big difference in my running over the last month from when I started her DVD. So thank you Jillian Micheal's. Or maybe it was because it was dark out and I wanted to get home as soon as possible.... Either way I loved it which is not something I can honestly say very often about my running.

HAPPY FALL!