Flummery and Foofaraw

Hello again! I tried to update with Halloween pics earlier, but the camera wasn’t talking to the computer. Apparently they had a fight, but it seems to be resolved now.

Trick-or-treating was pretty fun – mostly because we were at the zoo. However, I do think next year a community party and parties at daycare will be enough. Halloween evening we can watch movies in the dark and eat candy. It’s so much more enjoyable to me than walking around the neighborhood. But we’ll see what happens!

We haven’t had a great November, but we’re trying to stay positive and happy. We did have a great Thanksgiving! We got to see a lot of family and eat a lot of fabulous food. (I think A Bear probably ate the most – he has quite the appetite!)

craft night owl puppets. (After K Bear and I had worked for awhile, I got Flum to join in the fun too!)	He hurt his pinky – apparently he had to keep it elevated (he sat like that for a LONG time)	Just relaxin’
watching movies – I love that she didn’t hesitate to just sit on Flum	gorgeous Thanksgiving day weather!	afternoon pie time

And now I have to remember K’s words from that Saturday morning weeks ago – Stay. Happy.
December is going to be better!

This year our house is doing Halloween. Flum and I aren’t big Halloween people. Typically we would choose that evening to run errands (the stores are so quiet!) or go to a movie – anything to be out of the house to avoid having to hide inside and ignore the doorbell. So why is this year different? Because we have a child who is SO EXCITED about being a shark for Halloween. And it doesn’t hurt that we have a dragon costume that will fit the other child in our house. So today we plan to go to a community Halloween party in our neighborhood, tomorrow K will have a Halloween party at school, and after school/work tomorrow we’ll all be going to the zoo for HallZooween. Going to the zoo is a way for us to avoid having to go trick-or-treating or hide inside our house. (I’m going to have to ease into that one – if I chose to partake at all.) I don’t mean to be a Halloween scrooge – I just don’t really care for answering my door every 5 minutes. We’ll post photos of our shark and dragon sometime. (Hopefully soon!)

In other topics, we have a couch that is new to our house; however the couch itself is old…very very old. (It may be nearly my age.) But it’s in great condition and it’s still super comfy. It’s really great for napping (aka falling asleep while watching a movie). It’s nice to have a “real” couch in our living room. The futon was getting uncomfortable for couching, so now it’s upstairs. We really need to figure out how that room is going to be laid out. We have A’s bed set up too for when he’s ready for that transition. (I’m planning to wait until he’s better at stairs – just in case someone leaves the gate open in the middle of the night.)

K Man is all about singing. Lately he’s liked to sit at the piano to play and sing. It makes me think I need to get some beginning piano books for him. He got to go to an apple orchard and pumpkin patch a couple weeks ago. He came home with a small pie pumpkin and asked for pie. How could I say no? I got a couple more pumpkins at the grocery store, as I wasn’t sure his would be big enough for a pie (and I wanted to make pumpkin bread). So last week I made my very first pumpkin pie from a real pumpkin! And it turned out pretty well. I also had enough pumpkin to make a couple batches of pumpkin bread – plus I had even more pumpkin to freeze for another day! It’s good fun.

A Man is changing every day – and I’m not just saying that. He has been looking different to me each day this week. It’s really bizarre. He likes to practice stairs and he’s getting fairly good (or at least better). He still hasn’t taken to the handrail we put up at home, but he tends to use the one at daycare. He’s starting to do a lot of mimicking, which is usually pretty hilarious. And the past couple days he’s started to randomly dance – when no music is playing. Though, it wouldn’t surprise me if the music is always in his head. I can relate to that. He’s talking more and more, though most of it is gibberish. He says “hi” often and has started to say “da” when he’s done eating. And he barks.

And for those of you not on Facebook — One day we were all grocery shopping and K picked up a package of cookies and said: Remember when we got these? They were good. And WE ATE THEM.
     (It was a compelling argument, but I chose to not buy them.)

Couple making out in the garden when we arrived for wedding festivities	Pham Foto!	Wedding party
Bride and Groom!	Eating time	Cupcake face
Early morning football game – blanket skirts are a must	OR you could chew on your mitten	Pickup football
Helping with yard work		New (old) couch (we did get a cover for it – since that fabric doesn’t match our home style)
Don’t know if you can see that he put my phone headset on – he was working like mommy		“Bandaids” on his legs

We just had a very lovely weekend with Flum’s family. They were in town for a spectacular wedding celebration! It was really fun and we’re so happy for the……happy couple. But I won’t be showing you any of our pictures from the weekend because I haven’t retrieved them from the memory card yet.

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Since last we wrote, we’ve been to a couple zoos. It’s such entertainment to go to a zoo with kids. It’s also fun to have opportunities to talk with zookeepers. At the zoo in Duluth, we were able to chat with the zookeeper in the nocturnal area. We learned a bit about the fox and some nocturnal cats for which I cannot remember a name. We also go to see them feed the Kodiak bear an afternoon snack of cantaloupe!

A Bear was trying to get through the glass to give that lynx a hug!	So close! Someday we’ll get this picture, Gma Ivey!	One upon a night, K Bear and Flum went to find a game. A while later, I went in and found this: Flum tripped* and fell onto the bed, and K Bear was rolling over him repeatedly.
		“Phoebe! Up!”

*I cannot claim this part to be 100% true.

While down at Canal Park, we were fortunate to be able to see a ship come in. No matter how many times I see it, it’s still amazing to me. (In college, we saw one come in from GERMANY! You can take a boat from Germany to Minnesota! Isn’t that crazy amazing?!)

	Another family picture this year! We’re really on a roll!
Here comes the ship!
		And there it goes!

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silly face	scary face
daddy face	playing together!

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And speaking of playing together, this morning when Micah and I woke up we heard through the kid monitor the boys playing together. They were blowing raspberries at each other for a little while and giggling. Then we hear K Bear say “I’m going to go downstairs. Stay Happy! Ok? STAY. HAPPY.”

And so to you, my friends & family, I say: stay happy!

Sometimes I think it’s hard to choose between fall and spring – to pick which one is better. However, today I’m willing to say that fall is my favorite. I love when the cool weather blows in and clothing can be worn in layers. It’s bliss. So needless to say, I’m really enjoying the weather we’re having.

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Today K Bear decided we should make malts, but I told him we wouldn’t be having malts today. He replied “You made my heart sad!” But even though I broke his heart, I did not cave and make malts.

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We had some tickets to the amusement park at the MOA and decided to head there one evening for entertainment. Of course, the rides K Bear likes best are the ones that take quarters, not tickets. *sigh* I did get him to go on a couple rides, which means he also got me to go on a couple rides. I have to admit, I felt very silly sitting in the back of the big rig. But we had fun!

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We took a trip to IA for Labor Day weekend. It was a great time, and we got some fun pictures!

Trying to get a photo of the kids with their grandparents	Maybe it will work with the parents…or not.	Wheee!
Swinging is the best!	Barrel of fun
	this space intentionally left blank	“Hi, duck hat!”
Let me out!	Trying on Grandma’s shoes	Peek!

How much does A Bear look like his Grandpa Ivey??

Which one is which?!