Cooped Up

Put another tick mark down for a childhood rite of passage. RJ has hand, foot, and mouth disease. It has been pretty rough for him. His mouth has been sore. His elbow has lots of sores, so it is tender. But, the worst part is definitely being confined to the house. We had to reschedule Ryleigh's birthday pictures and skip soccer and Ryleigh's music class (just in case Ry is carrying the virus). We're hopeful that RJ will be ready to go back to school by Wednesday.

Before the virus appeared, the kids got to have some playground fun Monday and Tuesday. The playground we went to on Monday had fresh wood chips. With no rain to wash them, they are dusty. I think RJ managed to get every speck of dust on his face.

On Tuesday, Jip had to drop his motorcycle off for its periodic service appointment. So, we met him at the dealership and then headed to a playground until it became too dark to play anymore.

After dinner, we went up the road a couple miles to see a local Halloween House that has been all over YouTube the last few years. We listened to a little music while the faces sang and the ghosts danced.

Speaking of Halloween house, here's ours as it looks this week.

And our pumpkins...

Wish us all luck this week as we try to survive a few more days being confined!

Happy Birthday to Our Best Girl!

Ryleigh is 3 today!

Birthday montage

The birthday girl will be very happy.

Criss-cross applesauce.

RJ's quite the helper.

And quite the hugger.

Ry's "something to read" -- we do "something they want, something they need, something to wear, and something to read."

Dad, please, please open Barbie's car.

Ry is in love with Anna from Frozen.

 After we opened gifts, we did our normal Sunday routine.  Jip ran.  I made breakfast.  I started laundry.  We hung out.  Then we took off for Chuck E. Cheese.  We really don't have much for pictures from Chuck E. Cheese--Ryleigh stayed glued to our sides the entire time.  I think a giant mouse going around giving high-fives gave her the creeps.  (Me, too, Ry.)

After a little nap on the drive home, we worked on some Halloween stuff.  Then we enjoyed dinner.  And we finally got to celebrate the big 3 with some blue cupcakes, as requested by Ry.

Post dinner messy face.

Post dinner cute face.

The blue cupcakes from the outside.

And from the inside.  The buttercream recipe I found was amazing!

It was a good birthday for our best girl and a good day for her family!

Spooky

With Halloween fast approaching, Ry has added some holiday-related words to her vocabulary. Her favorite, though, is "spooky." Everything is spooky. Spooky pumpkins. Spooky witches. And spooky spiders.

RJ insisted that this year was the year of the spider. So, the kids have spider silhouettes in their windows, backlit by orange LEDs. Their doors have glittery webs with giant tarantulas on them. On Halloween night, the driveway will be lined with luminaries covered in spiders. But, the real work of art is Jip's take on a Pinterest craft.

Presenting: Spooky Spider

We're still working on the best way to make the web standout at night. Once we do that and implement another trick we have up our sleeves, we should be ready for this year's Halloween fun!

The Weekend Without Naps

No naps on Saturday or Sunday. The results? Tired and cranky kids! But, we all survived (barely).

So, what prevented naps? Soccer, haircuts, and Halloween preps. Pictures of the results of the Halloween preps are still to come. But, here are a few other pics.

This week promises to be busy. We're going to hit a small Halloween carnival Monday, attend RJ's school fundraiser (Luau) on Friday, the usual Saturday craziness, and then Ryleigh's birthday on Sunday.

We hope your week is great!

Packing It In

We hit an anniversary this week.  We have been living in the States for 1 year as of this week.  Let me tell you--it is nice to say that!

Before I forget, let me post a pic I promised a couple weeks ago.  Ryleigh finally got the "colors" on her bed.  She and I both think it is positively delightful!

We had a fun week while RJ was on his fall break from school.  We hung out with some friends at the playground and at McD's on Tuesday.  On Wednesday, we went to the Children's Discovery Museum in Escondido.  RJ had a speech evaluation on Thursday.  And Friday was another "giant playdate" at a park with some moms and kids from the military moms meetup group I started.  Jip was in DC for a meeting Wednesday through Friday, so the kids got a little spoiled with getting to camp out in Mom and Dad's bed for two nights.

Saturday was just plain busy.  First, we took the kids to the Home Depot monthly kids' workshop.  This month the featured project was an ambulance.  There were so many kids at the workshop that we had to build ours on the floor.  But, we made it work and the kids had a great time!

 We were able to go back home for an hour, then Ryleigh and I were off to Gymboree music class.

After music class, we met RJ and Jip at Taco Bell for lunch.  It was the first time I had been inside a Taco Bell (drive-thru doesn't count) since... get this... Japan.  

After lunch, we quickly went to RJ's first day of soccer.  We're doing soccer through i9 just like t-ball, so they have the practice and a game immediately follows.  It was quite hot yesterday to be out for 2 hours, but it was nice to do it all at one time.  

There were a few kids who have obviously played before and have parents that like soccer and play with them.  It was obvious that RJ hasn't really played an organized soccer game before and it was even more obvious that his parents don't care one iota about soccer.  Poor kiddo didn't really get the whole goalie thing.  Or trying to kick the ball if it came toward him.  But, that will come.  Hopefully what will also come will be RJ getting used to wearing a mouth guard.  i9 requires that a mouth guard be worn for soccer.  I bought him a flavored one and molded it to his mouth.  But it is just weird for him and that can be seen in the pictures.  Anyway, here's what soccer for 4-5 year-olds in too-big jerseys looks like.

After it was over, RJ said, "I don't know why I was nervous.  I had so much fun today."  As long as that is true kiddo, we'll be a soccer family for you!

Oh, one last thing--I FINALLY updated the wreath I made in July.  I love my argyle Halloween/autumn wreath!  The base is a whole skein of gray yarn wrapped around a straw wreath form (with the plastic still on it).  The diamonds are felt.  And the criss-cross is white yarn.

I wonder if I can leave it through November?