I Think I'm Falling for Fall!

I stole that title from Moose A. Moose's song on Nick Jr. Aaron loves the song, and we've got it stuck in our heads around here. To be quite honest, I sort of like the song, too. I don't have all the pictures I need to convey the sort of Fall we've had around here, but the handful I am posting will be sufficient to prove that the kids are enjoying themselves immensely.

The kids love going to Bonnybrook Farms. I haven't gone with them the last couple of years since it would be too much for Melina, but I am looking forward to next year.

Melina loves the leaves as much as her siblings do. Tim was lucky to capture her sweet face before the other kids poured the leaves over her head.

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Aaron turned 5 just after Halloween, but we celebrated the day before so as to spread out the festivities. It was quite the weekend of celebration, and because we had both sets of grandparents here, Aaron felt more special than usual, I think. The entire time the grandparents were here, though, we didn't think to take a picture of the kids with them!

Aaron loves spider webs and spiders, so I found a picture of a cake I was able to recreate.

Could he be any more cheesy?

Aaron also celebrated his birthday at school. He loves his teacher. Again, the cheesy smile!

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And finally, Halloween itself!
Melina didn't actually dress up. She just went for a ride around the neighborhood while Zoe, Talia, and Aaron stocked up on candy. It was a pretty nice night to be out, and the kids stayed up too late. Isn't that what Halloween is all about?

Tag, You're It!

As I walked out the front door to leave for work yesterday afternoon, I called out to the girls to tell them I was leaving.

Me: Goodbye, Ladies. I love you.
Z and T: Bye-bye, Mommy. I love you.
Me: What are you both doing? [At the time Z was running across the front yard, away from T.]
Z and T: We are playing tag.
T: Yeah [big smile on her face]! I am H1N1 flu.

Let us all hope it stays as a game of tag for our household. We've had enough germs already this fall.

NaBloPoMo

I thought (briefly) about trying to post 1 item a day, considering it is National Blog Posting Month (hence NaBloPoMo).

Seeing as it is November 2nd, and there was no post yesterday, it's not happening. If you'd like to actually keep up on a family whose blogger will successfully complete NaBloPoMo, check out our friend Kelsey and her family. They always have lots of good stories to share.

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Let's keep our fingers crossed for the Phillies. They need all the help they can get right now.

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We had a great Halloween as well as a super celebration for Aaron's 5th birthday. He informed us that he is "halfway to 10" or something like that. I hope he is as excited about math at 10 as he is now.

I don't have the pictures from this weekend handy, but I will ask Tim to load them up so you all can see some of the fun stuff we did.

Thank you to both sets of grandparents for making the trip out here to help us have such a wonderful weekend.

Wheelin'

Aaron learned (today) to ride a bike without training wheels. Aaron did wipe out a couple of times in his quest to master his task, but courageously hopped back on the horse. I wish I had a picture. Tim just said "Well, we would have had pictures, but we were too busy chasing after him to get any." Maybe next time.

Sleep Issues and Sweatshirts

Let it be said I am happy to have a child that loves life. Let it also be said that she could be a better sleeper.

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I found, in a box of clothes that we had loaned a friend, a little gray sweatshirt that the girls received back in 2002. Actually, we have two of them. There is nothing special about these sweatshirts, other than the fact that they were worn daily by the twins, and then by Aaron, and then by this other little child, and NOW by Melina.

Five kids will have gone through these sweatshirts, and really, I'll probably pass them on to someone else. Never underestimate the power of a good sweatshirt, eh? If everything we owned were made as well as these sweatshirts are, I think we'd all be better off.

Happy Weekend!

Silence

I met a woman the other day at a lovely book party. She said she loves order and silence. She only has one child, and that might be it for them, partly due to her penchant for order and silence. I guess when you have twins first, you never get order and silence, but I could use a bit right now. Then again, I shouldn't complain, as the only thing I hear right this instant are the keys I am tapping and the whir of the washing machine. Yum.

Yesterday morning -- after having to say to the kids multiple times to "sit down, finish breakfast, get shoes on, get moving!" -- I told them that I wanted to take a break from mornings.

Me: I am going to let Daddy do mornings from now on. I will just sit with my cup of coffee in peace.
Talia: What are you going to do? Just sit there?
Me: Yes, sit and drink my coffee.
Talia: And watch TV, right?
Me: [chuckling] No. I'll just sit and enjoy the silence.
Talia: What silence?

At that point, I realized she was right. Even if Daddy took care of things in the morning, silence would be hard to come by. And to be honest (as I've said multiple times), I wouldn't have it any other way.

Back At It Again!

This past weekend, I ran a half-marathon. It wasn't my first, but it was the first race I've done since having children. In fact, part of the reason I signed up for the race was to get back into shape. That, and MaryAnne made me (just kidding). So, I asked Tara if she wanted to join us in the pursuit of the 13.1 mile trek. She said yes.

Did we have goals? Yes, we all did, I'd say. MaryAnne, Tara, and I all run at different paces, and actually ran our long runs at different times. We figured we might not actually "run" the race together. But in the end, we'd feel like we accomplished something with each other. And hopefully, we'd fulfill some goals.

I am happy to report that we all surpassed our goals. I finally feel as though I might actually be able to run at the pace I did pre-children. Yippee! Now, if I can just find the time to stay in the running game. I don't have a picture of MaryAnne, but Tim was lucky enough to have to be up when we left on Saturday, so he snapped a picture.

Melina and I were standing right under the floodlight, hence the odd-looking hair on both of us.

All finishers were given a medal, which was cut off of the picture. Melina carries the look off better than I ever could!