Alena's sleepover at Grandma and Grandpa's house

While Alena was having her special sleepover, Nora packed as much fun into the weekend that she could.  She would write out things she wanted to do on a peice of paper and then cross them out at completion.  Some of the things she did when she was the biggest sister of the house:  Just the two of us went to Playtime Poppy.  On the way home we stopped at Dairy Queen, then to the All Saint's playground.  That night, Nora and Rowan rode their scooters up and down the street and crashed them into leaf piles.  Nora missed sleeping with Alena, so I stayed with her until she fell asleep for a treat.  The next morning she wanted to go for a bike ride to Bever Park and she did the monkey bars over and over.  Then we did puzzles and played games.  And she even watched a movie.  It is fun to hang out with your sister, but sometimes it is fun to have some special alone time.

Alena had quite the fun time with Grandma and Grandpa.  First, Grandma took her shopping.  She bought her a pretty Christmas dress and new shoes.  She got her nails painted and had Little Caesar's pizza for supper.  Then the three of them when to Orange Leaf for frozen yogurt.  Grandpa let Alena get whatever she wanted, but was shocked when their total bill was over $17.  I am afraid Alena won't be able to convince him to take her there again.

The next day after church, they went to Grandma's friend's house to see his animals.  Alena got to hold multiple snakes and watch a snake eating a rat.  She got to take two huge snake skins home with her.  There was an alligator and a black bear and emus.  But the highlight was riding on a tortoise.  How many kids can say they have done that?

The treehouse

Alena and Nora like to go on top of the playhouse in the backyard to play.  They call it their tree house.  Some days they eat a snack up there, and sometimes they bring their stuffed animals. 

Alena brought a paper with a fun idea for a snack home from school.  We made this neat eggs out of yogurt and a peach half.  The girls want to remember this idea for April Fool's Day.

Pumpkin contest

Now that Nora is in Kindergarten, she was able to compete in the annual Erskine pumpkin contest.  There are different categories, and Nora chose to enter the "most patriotic" category.  She designed and painted her pumpkin herself, and it turned out really well.  Alena is a purest and always likes to carve a scary face on her pumpkin.  She has become an expert at using the carving saws. There wasn't any real category for her to enter, but she took it to school to show off anyway.  It was fun to see the different designs families came up with.

More farming and a visit from the MN cousins

Grandpa Ed had his last day of harvest last weekend.  The Pennimans and Hostetlers were visiting, so cousin club was back in force!  The kids had one last chance to jump in the corn. Saturday was Aunt Kristina's bridal shower.  Lily, Alena, and Nora went along and had a great time gorging on all of the delicious food at Janet's house.  Saturday night we took Lily and Finn back to our house for a sleep over.  Poor Nora was so tired she fell asleep in the van, but when we got home she was energetic enough to share in the fun of telling stories and laughing up in Alena's room.  The next day, Alena and Lily had a joint birthday cake and had presents to open.  Then the cousins were off after too short of a visit.

Alena lost her top tooth!

Alena's top front tooth was getting smaller and pinker but not very wiggly.  It was a strange looking tooth.  I told her to get it out, and she pulled and pulled until she got it out.  When Alena sets her mind to pulling a tooth, she doesn't waste time!  She likes to stick Ice Breakers in the new hole.

Happy little girl

Look at this sweet little girl!  She is 10 months and really starting to hit her stride.  We have almost completely weaned her from sleeping in her swing, and she is doing a great job of sleeping in her crib.  She has been sleeping progressively longer the past few nights and even slept 10 hours straight without crying at all last night.  We are really excited for that to continue!  She is so much happier when she is well rested.  Her favorite activities continue to be standing up on everything and everyone and spending time outside.  She has been more interested in catching the kitties and always crawls over to the new houseplant in the living room to try to eat dirt or play with electrical cords.  She does not give up on that easily.  Good thing she is still not a speedy crawler.  We can usually catch her before she gets in too much trouble.  The other night she tried to stand up on the floor lamp.  Nora came running from the dining room and caught it, right before it crashed to the floor.  Edith is really babbling now.  She says "uh-muh" and now ta-ta-ta a lot.  I think she is working on Mommy and Daddy.

Mississippi River Museum

We decided to take a road trip to Dubuque on Saturday to visit the Mississippi River Museum.  I had wanted to check out the fall colors, but not many leaves had changed yet.  The museum was fun, though.  The highlight was the stingray tank.  A bunch of stingrays were swimming in a shallow tank and they let us reach in and pet them.  There were different aquariums representing North American habitats and even a sea turtle and an alligator.  There were two different ships we got to walk through.  We had joked that maybe there was a play area for little kids where babies could crawl around with tortoises.  As luck would have it, there was!  Unfortunately no live tortoises this time.  Edith was a great baby for the trip.  We were there during her afternoon nap and she started to get tired.  As soon as we started the van she fell asleep and took a nice nap the whole way home.

As soon as she got home she had to go over to the plant and eat dirt!

Happy 8th birthday to Alena!

Alena got to celebrate her birthday several times this year.  Friday night we had the Jensen side over for walking tacos and cake.  Alena was excited to receive a new stuffed snake.  We got her a new alarm clock for her bedroom which surprisingly she really liked, even though she had never asked for one.  Some of her other stuffed animals even got into the spirit and dressed in party hats.  She wanted a Harry Potter themed party, but it was difficult to find any decorations in that theme.  I made her a mint cake decorated with Hedwig.  Alena still does not like frosting, but I told her I couldn't decorate without it.  She was fine scraping it off.  Ben thought it would be a fun idea to put special candles on the cake that sparkled.  Alena decided that she was scared of them, though, and almost didn't have enough courage to even blow them out.

Edith was excited to celebrate her big sister's big day.  She was sporting a forehead bruise and a scratch by her mouth.

We celebrated a second time with Grandma Dee, Grandpa Ed, Kristina and Francis.  Alena got a new scooter and a cute bear pillow among other things.  Grandma made her a chocolate cake with no frosting!

The final celebration!  On Alena's actual birthday there was the fall festival at Erskine.  Despite having a terrible cold, Ben and I managed to put a pot of Wisconsin Cheese Soup together to take second place at the school soup cook off.  The girls played on the playground with their friends and then Alena came home and opened the best gift of all--a Hermione magic wand!

 

Alena decided awhile ago that Jones's birthday is the same as hers.  All Jones got for his birthday was a deep tissue massage from Edith.  She loves him but the relationship seems to be one sided.  It was a fair fight, at least.  They are both around 19.5 lbs.

Alena lost her 3rd baby tooth

Look at that hole!  Alena pulled her third tooth during Nora's dance class.  Grandma Diane gave Alena and Tillie little tooth fairies to put their teeth in.  It worked, because the tooth fairy left a silver dollar.  That was good news, because Alena said she is collecting silver dollars.  She told me she is happy she doesn't have her classmate Leah's tooth fairy.  She left her a t shirt for a tooth, and Alena said she doesn't like t shirts.  I replied, "You are wearing a t shirt right now."  "Well, I don't like sports teams t shirts."  Good to know.  I am trying to get her to pull her top tooth now.  It appears to be getting shorter and shorter and is a little pink in color.  It is really weird.

Little farmers

I had a chance to go ride the combine with Grandpa Ed last weekend while the girls were at Camp Wapsie.  This weekend we brought the whole family down to farm.  The girls liked playing in the corn wagon and riding in the combine and tractor.  Nora especially liked all of the candy Grandpa and Jim keep in their tractors.  There has been beautiful weather for the harvest this year and great yields for grandpa, averaging over 200 bushels/ acre for corn.

Look closely, it's Farmer Ben!  Grandpa let Ben drive the combine all afternoon.

Nora riding out to get another load of corn.  She sang songs to Grandpa when her mouth wasn't too busy eating fruit snacks.

Edie's fun day

There was no school all week due to the flood.  We all took turns being sick, but Friday everyone was healthy.  Alena went to an all day play date at Maya's house, so Nora thought we should make it into a fun day for Edith.  I pulled the two girls in the wagon down to the farm at Bever Park.  Edith enjoyed looking at the ducks.  Nora was very insistent that it be a great day for Edith and spent all of her efforts in holding her and playing with her, even when Edith felt she had been held enough.  After visiting the animals, Nora pulled the wagon back to the playground and held Edith as they went down progressively larger slides.  Edith didn't dislike it, but I decided to draw the line at the big curly slide.  She is only 10 month old, after all!  They both rode in the wagon back to the house and Nora sang songs about flowers to us the entire way.  It was a good outing for Edie and she didn't cry the entire time we were out!

Nora's first Camp Wapsie campout

We just arrived at Camp Wapsie and Nora already loves it!  She chose the guide name of "Princess Puppy"


The traditional top bunk.


Multi-tasking, chugging hot cocoa and checking her bingo card for I-19.

Fall weather

This week it is finally feeling like fall.  Our last two monarchs came out of their chrysalises and tried to warm up in the sun before flying off.

Edith enjoyed some good swing time while Daddy harvested okra: the largest, longest producing okra I have ever seen.  I have cooked it in multiple ways and we are finally getting tired of it.

Alena and Nora were excited to start raking leaves.  There weren't as many as they would have liked, but it still amused them.  Sita and Big Bear came out to play.  The girls also set up a spa outside on the slide with makeup, hair accessories, and lotion.  Alena said when she grows up she will probably run a store with Lily and Finn because they really like having stores.  Wouldn't that be a fun job?