The Annual Halloween Party

The tradition of inviting over our friends and hosting dinner and trick or treating is one of my favorites. This year was extra special since we were in our new house with lots of space and Halloween is a Saturday we invited some friends from work that don't have kids and my parents. We had 14 adults and 9 kids. Because there were so many people I didn't manage to get the kids lined up for pictures before dark and trying to get a group shot while trick or treating... ha ya right. This is the best I got of the train, knight, storm trooper, ninja zebra, viking, turtle, penguin and ewok (the tiger, my Godson Evan stayed home to nap with my parents).

We packed up some treats for the adults for the trick or treating madness too,

Poor Eli couldn't really navigate the stairs with the train costume I made because it was too long on his body. So instead he trick or treated as Eli and the train rode in the radio flyer. We did loose an Isaac shoe at some point, but we all had a blast.

And I got some better train pictures on Sunday with Eli. Other than loosing the steam engine stack it's holding up really well and the kids enjoy playing with it.

Isaac is 15 months old

I almost missed Isaac's 15 month check up, but at the end of August he came down with another ear infection, so we needed an ear re-check and the check-up and shots. Not a big surprise he's short- 2 feet 5.88 inches 7th percentile. His weight 22 pounds 9.2 ounces which is 44th percentile. His head is 18.75" which is the 70th percentile and his BMI is the 75th percentile.

He's in the toddler room and has been for over a month. He is pretty well transitioned to one nap a day, but needs to sleep before 8 PM. His little legs are totally bowed, but he can still walk and run. He is talking more, repeating what we say:

All Done
Momma
Dadda
Adam
Dog
Moo

Eli's 4 Year old Stats

I found something that was lost in my house! Moving is really hard and so is unpacking and I can't seem to find anything. I loose stuff getting ready in the morning! But I finally found Eli's 4 year old check up statistics.

His height as of June was 3 feet 2.5" which was 7th percentile (shorty). And his weight was 31 pounds tenth percentile (skiny miny). So of course his BMI is only 19th percentile. He's my compact middle man!

Cub Scout Camp

This weekend I got to take Adam and Eli to camp for the first time. It was half-day camp, but it was camp! Two of the best summers after high school graduation were spent being a boy scout camp counselor.

At camp we launched rockets, bounced on a bouncy pad, drove peddle carts, shot bb-guns and archery, played giant bowling and got to know the other pack/den members. Our Tiger den exploded- last year we were 5 lions and after one moved away we were 4, now we are 14 Tigers! When we got in the car Eli was asleep before we exited the camp gates.

Pirate Park at Golden Hour

I went to the pirate park with my friend Brooke after dinner in September (while the men golfed) and brought my fancy camera. I was happy to capture many beautiful pictures during the Golden Hour. Mostly I captured the younger three, because my big two were playing hard. Eli and Adam had never walked around the obstacle bike course or the skate park and had fun running up and down the ramps.

1st Day of Four Year Old Preschool

And then it was Eli's turn to for a first day of school, so Adam photo bombed the picture! It's what big brothers do best.

But he got two cool for his first day of school fast. Mom, are you done yet? I want to go to school and learn! 

I think he's ready to go to school two days a week to prepare for kindergarten. We are working on letters at home, because he has colors and shapes down!

Sheep Says

"iZ what does a sheep say?"

"Baah"

"What does a cow say?"

"Baah"

"What does a dog say?"

"Baah"

"What does a goat say?"

Pause

"Baah"

I love that kid!

Adam is Six... and 1/4 now

I didn't want to buy our new house on Adam's sixth birthday, so we set a closing date instead of June 22nd- Adam's original due date and the date we bought our first house. Except Adam's birthday still fell on the Friday after we bought our new house, which meant we were moving. Oh well.

We decorated his door and then Grandma and grandpa came to town to help celebrate and move us. So we went with them to the driving range together and then out to the ever constant birthday mainstay of Buffalo Wild Wings Friday night on his actual birthday.

 

My parents came out on Saturday to celebrate and we had cake with 6 candles.

Adam really wanted to have his birthday party in our new house, so we waited until July to invite his friends over for a ninja birthday party. It was wild but fun. Next year I decided the theme will be color crayons and coloring books to have a more low key party (Adam doesn't think that's funny).

We usually hold Adam's birthday mid week since weekends most people are out of town in the summer. So we had everyone over after daycare for supper. We had "sashimi" melon chunks and Swedish fish rice krispies, turkey and ham "sushi" rolls, fresh veggies and of course Adam's favorite pizza and cupcakes.

Each boy had a ninja headband with their name on it. They also had a decorate your ninja noodle staff with decorative tape from 3M of course!

 

There was a bad guy piñata that needed to be defeated.

 

 

 

 

 

Thankfully Adam's Godparents came to help manage the crazy kids and they brought water ballons for the kids to play with. The last ninja training activity before the party was over and parents came to pick up their kids.





 

 

 It was a fun party, but I'm a little exhausted just writing about it again. Drop off parties with 7 invited boys invited plus my 3 boys is a lot. Like I said I'm pushing a coloring themed seventh birthday party. We'll see!  

 



1st Day of 1st Grade

Adam has been excited about going back to school practically all summer long. If I ever accidently told Adam that going to daycare was "a school day" he would enthusiastically ask, really? So when the day finally came I could tell he was ready to face West Elementary again.

 

Tuesday was orientation and I remember last year being stressed to put away school supplies while holding baby Isaac and being so flustered and probably nervous about Adam starting school that I couldn't really focus and understand much of what his teacher said during her presentation. So this year was going to be different we were going to go early with plenty of time to park and unpack supplies before his teacher started talking. So I was completely taken a back when I walked into Adam's classroom 10 minutes early to then end of his teachers presentation. I thought his orientation started at 11:30, but it started at 11. It was okay but I still feel like I'm missing information from that presentation that I didn't get to watch. I just assumed I would find a packet in his folders with all the information printed so I could read it later. Maybe I'll get his teacher to email the presentation to me?

 

 

 

Back to Adam's first day of school. He said it went great. Only kindergartners are young enough to need snack, kindergartners also wear a different color bus pass on their way home and today I caught him trying to leave his bus tag that he's supposed to wear around his neck at home. I guess 1st graders are too cool to wear bus numbers, "because, ma-ahm I know which bus to ride!" But the real question is when will he be too cool to hold up his grade and smile for pictures? I hope not any time soon.

Eli's A Biker Too

We probably officially qualify to have a bike gang with two little bikers in the house. Shortly after Adam learned to bike without training wheels Eli did too (less than a week). Adam was super encouraging and Eli spent some time on the strider bike learning balance.

 

I can't believe I have a four year old biking. Since my boys figured out how to bike without training wheels, our old neighbor Ethan and Nate both borrowed our strider and are biking without training wheels. I'm so glad I bought Eli that bike when he turned three even if it took over a year to get use.

So When Did Isaac Start Walking... another question I cannot exactly answer

I can't pinpoint the day Isaac started walking. It was after his first birthday, but before we moved into the new house. He's a walker now, well more like a bow-legged, drunken sailor toddler.

This picture is from June 13th- so we'll call that the day he started walking, you know when all else fails search through your pictures to find an answer. He had a pretty good face plant that day on the patio, so we'll go with it.

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Isaac 12 Month Picture

Where I left off on my blog-the day Isaac turned 1, Tuesday June 9th, 2015 we had just had our very first showing on our home. It was slightly chaotic- having to straighten the house up and remove the normal "Schwedskala Birthday" streamers and balloons, but we bought a new house and really wanted to sell our old house. So we took the birthday celebrations and grandma to Buffalo Wild Wings. That night we got the feedback on the showing, expecting a "looks nice, but pass". Instead the potential buyers said, "Interior- Average, floor plan- average, pricing- above market value, Buyers will put in an offer on Wednesday". When our relator sent a text that said, "feedback doesn't get much better than that" I knew it was real. We accepted their offer on Thursday and sold our house!

The month of May/beginning of June was physically filled with getting our house ready to sell and emotionally negotiating the purchase of a new home. The rest of June/July was filled with physically moving and emotionally the negotiation of the sale of our old home. Thankfully the emotional/really stressful parts seem to be over, but the physical unpacking will be going on all of August (please let us finish this year). Our garage is full of boxes and we really need to unpack.

But in the midst of everything I did finally remember to take Isaac's 12 month picture at the new house (a couple weeks late, but he wasn't 13 months... yet). Stoic baby boy is done with the month stickers and immediately removed it from his onsie.

 

We did finally get Isaac to smile, thanks to Eli, who makes an appearance in a tickle picture below.