Halloween decorations

"Spider Pig" (Off of the Simpson's movie commercial)

Today Jonathan really wanted to make some Halloween decorations, so I pulled out the construction paper and we went to work. I was very impressed at what he came up with. At one point he said "Mom, this is my dream come true" I just laughed and asked him to elaborate a little. He said "I have always wanted to do this." Kids are so funny sometimes. I don't guess I had ever dreamed of making Halloween decorations.


So, without further ado:

Day in the City........and the Zoo (Saturday)

Well, yesterday was our churches annual Day in The City. Non-OKC people may know this better as Community Care, or something along those lines. It is a day when we get out and help anyone who needs help.

This year the kids and I went to the Feed The Children warehouse and helped put together Family food boxes. It was a little scary considering there were three forklifts driving around, but before the morning got started the drivers were made aware of the children and we made a little area so that if they got bored helping they could play around a bit and not wander. Oh what you can do with large pieces of cardboard and boxes. The coordinator for FTC gave the kids a package of crayons and they had fun. They each did their share of helping out. I tried to get a few pictures, but since we were there to be productive I didn't take too many.

Here is how it went: There were two college girls taping boxes that we (the four of us) were to put on a rolling belt where others would place needed items in the boxes. SO, after the girls taped the boxes we put them on the belt. Our job was to make sure that the belt was full at all times. Every child took turns, at one point Jonathan said "Mom, you said this was going to be fun, this is not very fun" so we had the "we are helping others talk" and he seemed to do a little better after that. He and Abbey enjoyed putting the cereal boxes in each box, but the placement of the cereal box in the box seemed to be a little bit of a challenge since neither of them could actually see into the box. Fortunately the others helping were very patient and friendly and enjoyed letting the children help out.

We lasted for about four hours and then left. All three kids were covered in black, Mollie was exhausted from a lack of a morning nap and all three were hungry. So, we ate and then went to the Zoo.
What else do you do after a long morning????

The Zoo was actually a request from Jonathan. Since he is in school he doesn't get to go with us during the day, so it had been a while for him. Little did I know that it would be PACKED. It was the Garden Gala and also Zoo Character Day. We did manage to walk around for a couple hours. When we got home all three kids fell asleep and I was wishing that I could too.

I am a little behind, so I am going to play a little weekend catch up.

Friday is our Zoo day, so we went and enjoyed a cool morning. Several of the animals were enjoying their morning routine, so we got several pictures. The first picture is of the turkeys........I just have to wonder who ever thought "yum, that looks good enough to eat!!"

The deer was feeling friendly and walked up to the glass while Abbey was standing there.

The Mexican wolves looked like they were on long treadmill. You can see a little path in the picture and all three were non stop going round and round on that path. It was kind of amusing to watch, due to the speed at which they were going.

This next picture may have you asking "when did the Zoo get a roller coaster," but no it is really just Abbey and Mollie saying "roar" and doing the motions.

Pretty girls on a lioness:

The Infamous Bamboo. Two weeks ago........

If I remember correctly that tiny twig dangling on the left is the one that actually gave her the cut (seriously). It looks like it hasn't fared so well these past two weeks. Serves it right for cutting my baby!!! To update on the finger: the stitches did come out Friday evening. The much anticipated event required a few tears, but all in all she did great. Roy gave her a cup to keep her stitches in and she is very proud of them. They almost made it to church with us this morning.

Late night...

Ok, so I am staying up WAY too late, but I saw this on Sarah's blog and was curious....




I am wondering why the 4-5%, why not just say 0%. I guess it was fun. I want to try the morph thing another time.

Mostly Abbey's prayers

Okay I have to share that when Abbey doesn't want to go to bed she pulls out all the stops. She has already gotten out of bed twice and this time (the third) she had a question and since I am trying to blog I told her I would hear it. She told me "there is a boy at my school and his name is Cole and he likes banana yogurt." Well, okay, perhaps when we have to bring snack, we will bring banana yogurt. Goodnight Abbey!

Alright, to the pictures. On Monday I was made aware of a huge spider web right outside my front door. Actually, it was so huge that I am not sure how we did not run into it Sunday the several times that we went in and out that door. Maybe he/she was just a quick web making spider. Anyway- I have a decent picture of the web, but I am even more impressed with the picture of Mr. Spider. He is a large fellow. I really did take this picture. I just cropped the roof out, but this is probably close to actual size FYI.

Since I booted him from the front door he has started a new web in the front of the house above the bushes. As long as he stays outside we will get along just fine!
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Oh yeah, and don't leave Queso on the counter even if you think your youngest can not reach it, because : SHE CAN!!!!(note the globs of cheese in her hair) Yummy cheese......

Sorry, I have many very unrelated stories today, but I just have to share them.

Tonight at the dinner table Abbey led the prayer and she said "Thank you for the wonderful dinner," and after the prayer she said "this looks delicious," and then proceeded to say "that's just yummy yummy!" She wasn't quite so enthusiastic after a minute or so of actually eating the food.

Well, tomorrow is day 14 of stitches for Abbey and I guess we talked about getting them out at some point today, because in her bedtime prayer she was going through her thank yous and said "and thank you that I get to get my black things out tomorrow." I made sure to email Roy and give him a heads up so that hopefully her prayer of thanks will be fulfilled.

Bagger Vance?..... no wait that's Jonathan :)

This first picture is from Mollie's first day of Sonshine School a few weeks ago. Apparently we need to work on Eye placement. Bartimaeus can now see.....well, sort of. :)

Last night we went to eat at a place that Roy really likes and then to Putt-a-round. It was the kids first time to play there and they all really enjoyed it.

Jonathan has been talking about it all day and Abbey, of course, wanted to go back today. Mollie enjoyed throwing the rocks.
There were several ponds at this course and only once did Roy and I both run to grab her for fear that she would fall in and turn blue from the dye in the water. (Our choices were blue, or green. I guess since "green is the new black" we would have preferred that over blue).


After putt-a-round we went to Freddy's for some yummy concretes and enjoyed a few fireworks on the side. Lucky for us UCO's homecoming was last night and after the game they shot a few fireworks off just a mile from where we were. A good end to the evening.

Bye Bye Balloon

It's not every day that we draw a huge hot air balloon on our driveway, so I thought looking at our great driveway art would be neat yesterday morning. Here is how it looked:Just thought I would share. I'm glad that I took the pictures that night.

Last night on the way to church (I guess Abbey was admiring the band aid on her finger) she said "Mom, how does God make Care bear band aids?" She is so cute.
For those of you who are wondering I told her that God gives us all of the things to make the band aids, but that he doesn't actually put them together for us.

Today was a pretty long day, for all of us. So, of course I thought, kids in bed by 8:30, me by 9 all is good. That is until we go outside and the weather is so amazing and we start doing sidewalk chalk. Somewhere we got an idea to draw a hot air balloon and it turned out pretty well, so I have to share it. The pictures do make it look a little gargantuan, and while it is large I think :objects in picture appear larger than in reality.


The kids had a lot of fun, Jonathan drew a rocket and a balloon underneath it and Abbey drew a balloon also. They both helped color in the big balloon. I am curious to see what it looks like in daylight. We think the colors are white, blue and pink...we shall see tomorrow. Some of the white looks a little yellow.

After the art session we did a little wading around in whatever liquid was causing a stream at the end of the driveway. Mollie was having fun until she fell into the stream, then she was ready to go inside, so we did. Seriously, I can not get her to do this for anyone else.

State Fair, part II

Last night we went to the fair again and we were able to do a few more things. We saw a "wiener pig" and a "cow rabbit." I did not take pictures, because really it was just a pig laying out Superman style and Jonathan thought said "Hey look how long that pig is.....I guess it is a wiener pig!" and Abbey saw a black and white spotted bunny rabbit and said "Look mom, a cow rabbit!" I thought they were both pretty cute.

Jonathan liked "Bull man" in the kids' Agtropolis area- and thus the pictures:

We mostly just walked around, listened to a little music, played a few games and the highlight for most of us was riding in the wind tower. For those of you non-OKC-ites our local electric company has an educational tower that is as tall as a wind tower and you can ride up it and spin around (slowly) for a few minutes while they inform you about the process, or something like that, I wouldn't know because Jonathan was about to rip my arm off. He wasn't as excited as the rest of us about going up in the elevator. When we came down he said "I liked it more than I didn't like it" and by the time we got out to the car he had really enjoyed the ride and getting to see daddy's work buildings (or somewhere in the vicinity) and all of the city lights. Abbey made sure that I knew she was having fun and that she wasn't crying. After that it was home and to bed. We had a fun night.

I love the fair.....

Yesterday we went to the State Fair. We walked around a little bit, Roy won an animal for Jonathan, Jonathan and Abbey both got to play a game, we pet/fed some animals in the petting zoo and then the boys went and played while the girls went to Disney Princesses on Ice.

Abbey LOVED the princesses, but Mollie lost interest until the bubbles. (The song "Under the Sea") Mollie clapped on demand, kind of like golf clapping, and pretty much ignored the rest. I guess I shouldn't say that Abbey "loved" it, because when the fire breathing dragon, from Mulan, came out she was hysterical crying and wanted to go home. But other than that she did really love it. She wanted to go back twice today. I would call that a success!

***Just a "short" update on Abbey's finger situation. This morning we took the plastic splint off, which required much drama. But, of course, after it came off she didn't remember she'd ever even had it on. She was pushing on her thumb and using it as she normally would, when she wouldn't think about it. Thank goodness for Dora band aids. When she is conscious of her thumb I am very impressed at the things she can do with out using her thumb. She has started coloring with her left hand and she proudly announced to me today that she could unbuckle her seat belt without using her thumb. She hasn't been much into showing it off, or even telling people about it. Jonathan, on the other hand, tells everyone that we see about his sister getting her finger cut, at the Zoo, by bamboo. We wouldn't want to leave out any details. SO, to sum it all up: the finger is good.

Beware of Bamboo Shoots...and graphic pictures!!!!!

GRAPHIC PICTURES!!!!!! Just thought I would let those with weak stomachs get prepared.......

There is something about turning four in the Greenway family. The day after Jonathan turned four this happened and now, about a week and a half after Abbey turned four this: happened. While Abbey's looks a bit less urgent it is really quite deep. The nurse was even shocked upon closer evaluation, however my camera would not get that detailed that close. I guess we will need to lock Mollie in her room for a week, or two after her fourth birthday. :)

Here is the story behind the three stitches that Abbey got in her thumb today......we were at the local Zoo , we got to see the Elephants up close, feed some crackers to the ducks, sit on a few statues, eat lunch, but then.....while in the children's' area Abbey was fascinated with pulling the leaves off of the bamboo shoots. Well after asking her to stop she started sliding her hand down the shoots. Apparently they can be pretty sharp, because one of them gave her a pretty deep cut in her right thumb. I guess they don't feel compelled to put up a sign saying BEWARE OF SHARP BAMBOO SHOOTS!!!! (Perhaps we parents should pay more attention to our children messing with nature :) ) After deciding not to spend three hours in the ER we went to our Pediatricians office where Abbey was a very brave girl and did amazingly well. (She actually handled today a little better than the four shots that she received on Monday). The doctor told her that it was a good thing that she had had all of those shots on Monday, otherwise they would have had to have given her another one today (she got two in her thumb to numb it--very painful and REALLY not fun for mom).

Anyway- we have pictures of her in her car seat while leaving the Zoo, her cut before the stitches(This picture is up at the top with those of Jonathan. I will attach after pictures later as it currently has a little splint on it and a band aid), and some after we got home. Note the smile on her face at home. Somewhere in there mom took her to Build a Bear to make it all better.

She now has a new pink poodle named "Bambi." (Get it? Bamboo----Bambi??? clever huh?) Bambi came in very handy while at the doctors office.

Now to the Mollie pictures. I just had to include them, because she has started this little toothy smile when I have the camera out. I can not get her to do it for anyone else, but the other day and this afternoon she wouldn't stop. When I would ask Abbey, or Jonathan, to look at me Mollie would stop what she is doing and run in front of the camera and smile a huge, toothy smile. It just makes me laugh.

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Funny!-- this one is a few days late, but it's been a little busy around here.

On Wednesday I had asked Abbey to go clean up her room and the hall right outside her door where she and a friend had stacked all of her toys. She kept telling me "it's too hard" and to that I would say "do it anyway." So, after a few moments of silence I went to check on what she was doing and this is what I found. Apparently it was "too hard" to move her pillow from the hallway to her bed to start her nap. I left her there and she didn't get up for a good hour and half. Whatever works for her......and yes, she did have to clean it up later.

Well Child Check ups for J and A

For those of you who have three year olds, be informed, your little one will have to get FOUR shots at their four year well child check up.
Jonathan(6) and Abbey(4) had their well child exams today -hilarious- while Dr. C was asking me developmental questions Jonathan was hopping around the room in circles, wearing nothing but his Optimus Prime, Transformer underwear. I could barely control my laughter. Dr. C kept telling Jonathan that he needed to cheer up. HA!

Abbey on the other hand as the doctor was walking in she was walking out because she "needed to go potty." Fortunately it was just across the hall from our appointed room. After several minutes and Dr. C asking if everything was coming out alright I went to check on her (for the third time) as she comes waltzing out the door in her princess underwear. She did go in with just Jonathan's shirt on (well child's involve a thorough exam), but I wasn't expecting her to come out as she did. It was an interesting appointment, to say the least. They both checked out fine. For those of you who are up to date on the percentiles for children's growth: Abbey is 10th for height and weight and Jonathan is 90th for height and 97th for weight. (Abbey is taller than 10% of four year old girls and weighs more than 10% of four year old girls, Jonathan is...........) Surely you can figure that one out.

Jonathan was giggling excitedly when he learned the lingo that the nurse and I were using to determine the number of shots each child would have to have: Abbey- 4, Jonathan- 0. Fortunately, Abbey didn't catch on until the nurse came in with her little basket full of syringes, poor Abbey. Needless to say Abbey did not enjoy her shots, but all was well when she realized "Hey mom look, I have Tweety band aid." So, we took pictures,of course.

Tonight we went to get Jonathan's hair cut and afterwards stopped in the Starbucks next door for a little mommy pick me up. I had to take pictures of Mollie with a "don't touch me or you'll get it" hold on her Starbucks cup (NO, I did not get her coffee, she shared a yummy Strawberries n' cream frappucino with Jonathan).

She has become quite the little poser today. When I say "Mollie, look here" she turns to me with a very big grin on her face. Very cute.

I threw in a few more pictures that I thought were cute. J, A, and I had a little fun with the camera after dinner.

J took this one. Mom took this one.

Incredible Pizza

Picture, if you will, a long line of people waiting to redeem their tickets in the little ticket counter machine. This line is long because there are five people trying to unload a target bag half full of tickets into the machine. Yes, you guessed it those five people were Roy, Jonathan, Abbey, Mollie and me (sorry if that wasn't proper English listing). I guess Abbey really just stood there sucking her thumb, but Mollie and Jonathan both helped. You ask yourselves, "Why a Target bag half full of tickets?" Well, because we have stock piled Incredible Pizza tickets so that the kids could get "good" prizes and tonight was the chosen night that the kids wanted to cash their tickets in. Great idea guys. Saturday night, at the hottest kids spot in OKC-won't be doin' that again!

I have failed to take pictures of the "amazing" prizes that were awarded, but I will attach them later, if that is possible. (For those of you who are wondering:) Jonathan chose a large overstuffed Black Spider man hand. Sort of like the Mickey Mouse hands, only for Spider man. Abbey chose a sweet little Strawberry Shortcake Princess doll and a purple plastic ring. Mollie got nothing. Maybe when she actually cares about the cheap ticket toys we will make sure and include her, but that hasn't started yet, thank goodness.

This trip to Incredible Pizza was because the child with the birthday gets to choose where to have dinner, but since Abbey's was on Wednesday and school has started and work schedules are even crazier than usual, Wednesday just didn't work out for us, so we did it today.

Today we had the lovely Hello Kitty (by mom) cake that we should have had on her birthday. I was much more impressed with my Spider man skills than my Hello Kitty skills. Fortunately I just do these for fun. Abbey did tell me that it looked "Bee-you-ti-ful." She is so sweet.

Well, after (yes, sugar very late) Incredible Pizza we came home to do presents from Dad, Mom, Jonathan and Mollie..... and cake. So here are pictures.

Roy got Abbey a Barbie phone, so that she would actually talk to him on the phone. She is not a huge fan of talking to either of us on the phone and he thought this would help. Hopefully this won't be the start to a long and painful life of waiting for her to get off of the phone. :) Oh, and get this, a Barbie phone just wouldn't be complete with out a very ANNOYING ring. (If you have heard the jingle on the Barbie commercial you have heard the ring). Thankfully, Roy picked one that has two ring options and the other one is much more tolerable.

The kids and I got Abbey another phone type thing, but it is a tv game, not an actual phone. I don't have any pictures of that yet. I will have to get some when she plays it and attach those later, along with the glove and doll photos.

Wow!

Okay, so today I was cleaning out the garage, which really was a great task. In the process of throwing out a large piece of trash I was startled by a large animal by the trash can. I looked down and saw this:

A huge turtle that is gearing up for a good run from the human. I am not kidding this creature could move. Of course, the older two were at school so I had to catch him for later viewings. After several attempts to cage him I finally did in our recycling box.


After a few "Can we keep hims" we took him to a nearby pond and set him free. He seemed much happier swimming than trying desperately to get out of a recycling box. Seriously though, this guy (?) was a good 8 inches in length.


Anyway, the pictures are of him and then of the kids saying bye. I don't think I got it in a still picture, but Mollie said "bye, bye" and waved as he climbed into the water. It was too cute.

The last picture is just one that was taken by my budding photographer, Abbey. Occasionally I let the kids take a few, and I liked this one, so I thought that I would share. Mollie and Mommy, aren't we cute???

ABBEY IS 4!!!!!

(Abbey's 4 year old picture)

Okay, I don't usually get sentimental on birthdays, but for some reason tonight was rough. Usually our bedtime routine is prayers, song, kiss goodnight-see ya in the morning. Well, on days when Abbey doesn't get her nap in (like today) she is usually asleep before I get in there to give her a kiss goodnight. As I expected she was asleep tonight when I went in her room, so I thought "Oh good, I can just kiss her and go to bed a few minutes early." Well, after I kissed her she barely opened her eyes and said "I want you to sing me a song." Of course, she was out before I could get the first verse done, but for some reason looking at her sweet (and very asleep) face I just couldn't help but think of where I was four years ago. I know it is cheesy, and really I don't usually think things like that, but she is such a little princess. I remember the first time I saw her just thinking that she looked like a little doll, and she still does. (All of my children were dolls, but the other two were much bigger dolls :)).

Alright, enough of that.

We don't have much to share in the way of pictures.

I had big plans for her cake today, Hello Kitty face, just like the Spider man face.......but they flopped, so we had a store bought cake AND we were not going to do presents until the weekend.....key words being "were not." Funny/VERY sweet story: On the way home from church tonight Jonathan was telling me about his bible class and Abbey kept trying to interrupt- finally it was her turn. In her little voice she said "Mommy, if today is my birthday, then why don't I get to open any presents?" Now, who in their right mind is not going to wrap something and give it to her. Fortunately, Jonathan bought a Cinderella Princess doll months ago that he both remembered we had. I was trying to quickly come up with some grand present that she could unwrap on her birthday. I do not think that she was too excited about the gift, but at least she got to open something on her birthday.HAPPY 4th BIRTHDAY ABBEY!

Sidewalk chalk, spiders, siblings......

It is amazing how you can work up a sweat doing sidewalk chalk. Who woulda thunk it? Jonathan and I were enjoying some time while the girls were napping, so we decided to do a little side walk chalk. We had a lot of fun, as you can see. Jonathan wanted to draw a horse race track and then he wanted to race. Oh yeah, Mollie woke up and wanted to draw too. J and I raced and then daddy came into the picture (sorry, no pics) and raced as well. I think you can see the track in the picture. It stretches the width of the drive way. Bet you can't guess whose horse won BOTH times???? Such a fast horse, bet it doesn't have anything to do with the fact that he is only six and has knees that work.

The other day the kids and I were outside and when coming back in a saw what I thought was a cicada skin on the doorjamb, Oh no, this was a huge spider. Well, I guess the spider wasn't so huge as the size of its abdomen. Guess I can bet on having thousands of those wonderful babies crawling around soon. Oh, I am so proud. And if you were wondering, no, I did not kill it. I am not a huge fan of splattering sounds especially when it involves a shoe that I would like to wear again. Needless to say, we closed the door and didn't look back. This picture is sideways, but that circle just underneath the spider is a nail head. I was going to try and hold my finger up next to it, so you could compare size, but I was not about to get close to that thing. Sorry mom. Your enthusiasm for nature did not rub off on this girl.

These last pictures are of Abbey and her "hair like mommy." She looks about two years older when her hair is straight, so I am not sure why I do it. We decided to get the other two in the pictures as well. Can't you tell that they just love having their pictures taken. I can't help it, they're just so absolutely adorable.

Boy, does time fly, so now I get to play catch up with the blog.

Let's see....Jonathan finally "lost" his second bottom tooth. It was sort of a forced loss. I asked Jonathan if I could feel it and he jerked and the thing came out. Took us a while to find it on the floor and we haven't seen it since. Does that make me a bad parent? Loosing your son's second lost tooth? I guess there will be many more to cherish......oh well.

We also had the kids (J and A) family birthday party. For those of you who are unaware the kids bdays are so close that we do one family party so that they only have to travel once. Seems like a good idea, right?

The kids always love getting new toys (what kid doesn't).

Here is a picture of the chaos of opening presents (in the background). Mollie is in the forefront, because I felt she should be the main thing in something. :)

Jonathan got a new scooter for his birthday and Abbey got the protective gear to wear with hers....that she has had since Christmas? Anyway, she has had it for a while. They both got all geared up to go for a roll and Abbey decided she wasn't much for rolling, so she walked. They do look pretty cute in their gear though.

And wouldn't you know it, after a hot ride on the scooter, an afternoon of cake and ice cream we heard that much anticipated song coming from none other than the ICE CREAM TRUCK. Thank you Grandpa for the Bratz and Tweety heads. They were delicious and ohh so sugary.

Jonathan needs to be a model or something. Doesn't he strike a nice pose with his ice cream. Such a funny kid.