October 5

The boys got anxious to carve pumpkins tonight with a friend. Adam said both were hesitant to touch the guts, which is different than in years past!

Grayson's is on the far left, Brayden's is in the middle, and Neylan just wanted his simple pirate

October 4

Mary Had a Little Lamb

As performed by pianist Neylan

The bathroom is starting to take shape with a frame now!

September 30

This morning was beautiful and with the invite to go to the farm with friends for a bit, we jumped! Neylan decided he needed his rain coat and winter gloves today. It's really not that cold, but I know better than to argue with a 3 year old!

After a short visit to the farm, we had our first dentist appointments! Grayson asked to go first! He was a rock star and did fabulous! A good report for him 

Neylan also did a great job

Grayson asked if we could come back again soon! 

September 26

I think we have two exhausted little guys today! They were asleep shortly after we walked through the door. Too bad I have to wake them both up and leave the house!

September 24

It's apple season! So, Matt made an apple pie tonight. I have to say that for being thrown together without a recipe, it was really good!

September 23

With 20 people heading our way for Thanksgiving, we decided this was a good excuse to finish the basement. We won't have long, but our contractor has promised it will be done in time!

We are quickly approaching our deadline to have the basement ready to start construction. So, I spent the afternoon finishing up the organizing and cleaning. We are ready to start! I can't wait to get it going and see the end product.

September 14

Happy Chusok!

This weekend is the harvest festival (or Thanksgiving) in Korea. For the last few years, we have been going to the KC Korean-American Society's Chusok festival. They put on a great party and we have so much fun catching up with our adoption friends. 

A traditional Korean activity is the jumping boards. They look like a see-saw that you stand on. The object is that one person jumps, making the other person fly up in the air. When that person comes down the other person is supposed to pop up in the air. I hear it takes quite a bit of balance and is not easy. But Grayson really wanted to give it a try. 

He actually did pretty good!

We got to watch the TKD demo, which was pretty fun to see

The meal is always tasty! It's Thanksgiving dinner in September!

What a fun afternoon celebrating a holiday that is really big and important in Korea. I'm so glad we have opportunities like this to infuse the culture a little bit and stay connected to the wonderful country Neylan came from. 

September 13

By the time Friday rolls around and I've worked for 4 days and have driven kids all over the place, I'm pretty beat and don't care what happens around the house. Tonight was one of those nights. The boys found a bunch of stickers and decided to decorate their bathroom!

Stickers on the counter, mirror, wall, in the shower, on their drinking cups, and anywhere else they would stick!

September 11

The boys found their puddle jumpers in the car after school today. Neylan thought it would be fun to put it on his head! And after telling him not to do it, he did it anyway. He learned quickly that it wasn't the best idea.  I have a hard time finding sympathy for stupidity so I let him suffer for a while. I tried to coach him through getting it off

Grayson demonstrated how to get it on and off

And Neylan just got more frustrated and panicked when I told him he would have to wear it the entire 30 minute ride home! We finally came to a stop light where I could climb back and relieve him. I hope he learned his lesson and never tries this again!

September 10

Tonight we happened to be outside when some kids from down the street came by on their way to the elementary school in the neighborhood. Their first grader is in the gardening club and volunteers to water the plants around the school every so often. So, tonight we joined them to "water the school". It took quite a while to turn all of the hoses on, water the front flower beds, and then water the garden that is full of vegetables. These 6 little ones had a blast working together to get the job done and we met some new friends! It's fun to meet more boys on the street. 

September 9

And the celebration continues with more sugar! Matt bought Adam a cookie cake to add to the collection of sweets we have! It was yummy!

September 8

Happy Birthday Daddy!

Grayson chose to make him brownies this afternoon. We let them cook while we had lunch and then wanted to serve them immediately. Occasionally, I have some moments where I don't think through things completely before executing them. This was one of those times! I stuck the candles in and they immediately started melting because the brownies had just been taken out of the oven! So, we just ate around the wax that melted inside!

September 6

Our Friday night treat to start Adam's birthday weekend. We have no plans, so this might be as exciting as it gets!

Turning 30 must deserve a special cone with 2 BIG scoops!

It appears as if they are sharing, but really, Neylan had the chance to eat a spoonful of "full dairy ice cream" and jumped at the opportunity! And then he went back for more, and more, and more! Grayson was very nice to share, but we may have problems tomorrow with Neylan!

September 5

Each day when Grayson comes into school, he has to sign in. He has his own folder that he is practicing in. I had a couple extra minutes to stay and watch today and was thoroughly impressed with his well he is writing his name now after only a few days practice! 

September 2

Happy Labor Day!

It's Labor Day and Adam suggested we labor in the yard today! Hey, if he volunteers to do work around the house, you don't argue. This might be the only day of the year this happens!! 

So, the guys started by cutting down a dead tree in the backyard

It was a team effort

in pajamas and snow boots, nonetheless!

Then, we started working in the front flower bed

Grayson and I ran to Home Depot to buy some flowering bushes

and we planted 4 evergreen trees

The yard took all day to do these few things, but it looks much better. It's exciting to finally have some nice plants in the front of the house. The bed had been empty ever since we moved in.