Welp, I managed to miss a few days in a row. We had a busy weekend. Henry had a soccer game in the morning. His team, The Quakes (he absolutely hates their team name for some reason and will only kind of mumble it when they do their team cheer) is tearing it up in the league. This more than likely means they'll be going to the Turkey Tournament or maybe it's commissioners tournament? I dunno, in November. Part of me thinks it's cool because I'll get to see him playing in the same tournaments I did as a kid, the other part thinks it just means an extended soccer season, wah.

After the game we took care of some things at home then traveled to Riverside for our nephew, Max's, 5th birthday party. 

 The kids had a lot of fun. It was great they came all the way from Utah so we could all celebrate together.


Sunday Johann had the teacher council meetings to run and I had subbing in Primary, and Thea girl had her first talk in primary to give. It took a while to get started, first she didn't want the mic, then she wanted me to repeat what she said into my ear, but then we got going and she did great.

Then we traveled back to Riverside to spend some more time with the family.

Finally a picture that Henry drew of a tardigrade wearing a birthday hat, because it makes me happy.

Blob

The weather was wonderful today and between that and having less on my mind to immediately get done I felt like a really content blob. It was the feeling I use to get after finishing a semester at school, where I didn't feel guilty taking a day to be in my pjs and only do a little here and there.

I hung out with Thea and Leo and watched Halloween Boo Fest. 

Then we went outside to water the plants and play, and Thea helped me sweep the patio with all the pine needles from yesterday's intense wind. 

Leo is getting more into playing with toys and it's pretty darn cute. Henry wasn't as in to action figure type stuff, but Leo seems to like all of that. 

The best part of all is finishing dishes after lunch and knowing I'm done with all of that until tomorrow because we're eating out. Henry had a birthday party where they were going to In-N-Out, so we thought it was *only fair* to take the little kids to get some too...we may have also had some. 

Now Johann's getting Henry from the birthday party and Leo is trying to convince me to play the xylophone with him while Thea, our early to bedder is sleeping away. Usually Leo is down by now but he had a late nap, so here we are. 

All in all, a good Friday. 

Willfulness, Wonderfulness, and Wizardry

Oh Leo, he's starting to have more and more opinions; lately it's been about his clothing. For instances, today he needed to wear two shirts. 

Oh Thea, it's hard when you don't want your lunch to "copy" your brothers and then realize you can't make your own lunch when your mom refuses to help you, then she feels bad and helps you but she helps you not in the way you want. Life is hard. 

 But then you have them all watching a youtube dance channel together in what is such an adorable sight that you might die from it. So much cute. 

And lastly my sister in law reminded me today that I haven't done any of the cool stuff on Pottermore so as a reward for myself for finishing up my last bigger church assignment for a while I took all the tests. Fun stuff. 

Thank Heaven for days that are getting to be cool enough in the afternoon after school so that I can say, "GO OUTSIDE AND PLAY!" 

 Found Leo like this last night. He likes rocking in the chair at night and fell asleep then slipped off part way. 

 We had a busy morning with school drop-off, preschool, visiting teaching and Sammy tending. My mom sometimes leaves treats for the kids at the house for them to find when we go there to see Sammy and these "mini" ice cream bars did not disappoint the kids for sure. 

 Henry had his after dinner, as seen behind Leo who made us put his pjs on this way so you could see the superman S on them and he was running around flexing saying, "ooopa mahn!!!" 

We also had Henry's soccer practice today and it was actually overcast and moist and windy. Felt so good! I also got to chat with a lady from our stake who's daughter's practice is at the same time. 

Baby Steps

I really want to start blogging again but it seems so overwhelming because I've missed so much. The most difficult part is getting the pictures together because our hard drive is full and moving things to the external drive and then back is a hassle. I know, my lazy is showing.
 I realize we're not going to remember half of the things about Thea we do of Henry, and ever less than half of what we remember about Thea for Leo. With that in mind I'm challenging myself to do a post a day while I work on catching up, just to get into the swing of things. Sometimes it might just be a picture a quick sentence, but hopefully it'll help me.

Today we dropped Henry at school, Johann went to work, Thea, Leo and I got ready and went to visit my old college roommate, friend and her family since they were in town briefly visiting family. The kids played well together while we chatted. It's always nice to find a way to keep up those ties.

Then we went and did our daily Mon-Fri visit to check-in on and feed my brother's dog/puppy, Sammy.

Home for lunch with Johann, Leo down for a quick nap, then school pick up.

My visiting teachers came over then we piled into the van to have family home evening, ie family business and a quick lesson about how we can help our family and what we would like to feel supported and loved in our family. Henry said help with his homework; Thea said to not delete her Geodude on pokemon go (Henry threatened this earlier); Leo said "sammy," and "church."

Then we got to costco where we had dinner, and went to get waffles for my nephew's upcoming birthday party this weekend. He's having a waffle bar and breakfast Minecraft party. I'm all for any reason to eat more breakfast. Then we came home, read a book and bed time.

Things I want to remember about today:
Leo is still hilarious about putting on his hat and backpack before he goes anywhere. The last time we were at someone's house he was loading up his backpack with their daughter's toys. We figured this must be why he brings it everywhere. Today he managed to not pillage anything at our visiting friend's house so I have hope. :-)

Thea is really, really in to Pokemon Go. The funniest thing is she is always talking about "involving" her Pokemon instead of "evolving" them. I couldn't help myself as asked her today what types of things she was thinking-some after school groups or sports groups. She wasn't impressed.

Henry is still my sensitive kid, but he is also funny, and insightful, and I appreciate having someone else in the house who's brain goes to the literal/silly conclusion for fun. For example, Johann said tonight during FHE that he would like us to all be put down to bed on time. Henry immediately conjured up a picture of me rocking Johann in a chair, singing lullabies, ie getting him put down to bed.

Well, I think that's about all!