Halloween Play Date & Janell Visit

We had a really busy day! This morning we had a fun Halloween-themed play date at Maggie's house. The boys got to dress up in costumes, decorate cookies and have a candy hunt. Both boys ran around like crazy kids and ate more cookies and candy than I probably should have allowed =) In fact, now that I think about it, the amount of sugar may have contributed to the amount of time it took me to get Gabe to settle down for a nap. He was one bouncing child for a good hour after we left!

After the morning play date, my friend Janell came up from Indiana to spend the afternoon with us. Henry LOVES her daughter Jayla. They are pretty close in age. Janell also has a son, Jayden, who is two weeks older than Gabe so they get along well too. Both kids had a ton of fun with Jayla and Jayden. Jayla was especially patient with Henry and his obsession with super heroes. She did a great job playing super hero with him. I was actually surprised he let her hold/play with his various heroes!

Janell also does my hair and moms hair when she comes sometimes. Today just Mom needed her hair done. I have no idea why I didn't take a picture! I guess I didn't think of it. Mom got all the kids cute little bags with a small toy, sucker and box of raisins. All the kids loved their surprise Halloween gifts.

Overall it was a great day. When everyone left later that night, both my boys were ready to fall into bed =) I love busy days because it does wear them out and it's so nice to not have to fight them to go to bed.

Weekend Fun

Friday night we went to Henry's school's Fall Festival party/fundraiser. It was extremely crowded but the boys had a great time. There were raffle baskets, games, food and prizes. Mike and I were also amused at how many people/kids knew Henry but he seemed clueless as to who they were! We recognized the teachers who greeted him but not the few kids or parents of kids in his preschool class who said "Hi Henry!" He would smile back shyly and sometimes wave.

We were lucky the games were simple enough the boys could play them. I was so proud of Gabe. He's young but it didn't take him long to watch older brother Henry handing his tickets to the game attendant to play a game and figure out the system. Gabe was very eager to hand over his own tickets and take a shot at the different games. We have to work on "waiting our turn" a bit with both boys but overall they did great. They both played ring toss, find the "O" under the floating ducks, shoot basketball hoops (Gabe especially likes basketball) and find a sucker with a red stick. Henry's favorite game was the "Cake Walk." We all walked in a circle with numbers on the floor. Once the music stopped, whatever number you had would be "your number" for a drawing. Gabe and I did not win, but Henry and Mike did! Henry walked away with a pile of sugar cookies to share. Gabe ended up wearing most of his frosting by the time we left. We didn't get pictures because of the crowdedness and trying to make sure we had both boys within reach.

Saturday we had a nice lazy morning before heading out to Grand Rapids to look at the Captain Beds I found. Mike was more impressed once we saw them, but he really wants bunk beds. I'm not sold on the idea of bunk beds. Obviously we can't do bunk beds now, but down the line Mike thinks the boys would like it. I'm torn now. We need to make a decision soon so the boys can get used to being in the same room together before the twins come.

After bed hunting, we stopped in at Rich and Lois's house to drop off the boys to play. They love going to Grandma and Grandpas and barely notice when we leave. Mike and I were able to have a very nice dinner together and spend some time talking about other important things we need to do before the babies arrive. Poor Mike is spread pretty thin at work right now so I don't have a lot of time to talk to him! After dinner we saw "Captain Phillips" with Steve, Tia and Audrey. It was a really nice evening!

Sunday was mostly Mike catching up on yard work but we did make a quick stop at the local cider mill and pumpkin patch to get our pumpkin for Halloween. The boys loved walking through all the pumpkins. They had a hard time picking just one! Luckily we found a keeper.

Later that night Mike helped Henry carve his first pumpkin. Gabe watched helpfully but didn't really participate. I tried to give him some of the pumpkin insides to play with but he was NOT impressed at all. Either was Henry. They both thought the pumpkin guts were gross. But, now we finally have a pumpkin for Halloween!

Big Boy Beds

I'm trying to resurrect the blog =) We'll see how it goes! I do like the new Blogger updates so maybe that will keep me interested. I'm too far behind to catch up so I'll have to just pick up with the present.

With the twins less than 16 weeks away (yikes!) from arriving, I'm pressuring Mike to start looking for "big boy" beds for Henry and Gabe. We'll be moving Gabe into Henry's room and turning Gabe's room into the twins new room. I did a lot of research on beds and neither Mike or I felt comfortable with bunk beds yet. Gabe is a huge climber and would take no time at all to figure out how to get to the highest point. Even with rails, I would worry he'd fall too far. The second problem is space. Henry's room is a decent size but two twin beds and two dressers would be too much. Both boys are in separate sizes so combining into one dresser would be tough. Thankfully I stumbled upon "Captain Beds" online. I think they're perfect for our needs!

Captain beds have the storage on the bottom so the kids will still have plenty of room to move around. They're taller but not so tall they'll hurt themselves if they fall. We'll also have a rail for the side to help keep them safe. 

Mike isn't sold on them yet but he's willing to look this weekend. We'll have to go to Grand Rapids to look though because locally none of the furniture stores carry Captain beds. I have no idea why... but besides the point. I hope the kids like them and we can find a decent deal! Mike was put out I wanted to buy two beds when we could just buy another bassinet. I kindly reminded him neither boy lasted more than three months in the bassinet because they were too large =) No matter what, with twins coming we have to buy two beds at some point!

At least this way the babies will get to borrow the cribs from Henry and Gabe and then when they're older, they'll get the Captain beds and Henry and Gabe can have the "full" size version of their crib-to-bed sets back. 

In other news, Gabe is showing signs of being "Potty Trained" ready. I am not, however, ready. I let him use the potty whenever he wants but when I tried to let him run around naked for awhile, he peed all over my floor a few times! Nope. Not ready for it yet =)

I'm officially 22 weeks now. I've consistently measured 5 weeks ahead so my belly is more 27 weeks at this point. I feel fine. If I didn't have a belly I would forget I'm pregnant most days. They are starting to move a bit more but usually only later at night. I keep worrying they're going to ask me to do kick counts soon and I just don't think they're active enough yet for that! I'm sure it will change but right now I'm okay with the occasional kick here or there =)