Our Past Week

Warning: This entry contains a LOT of photos!! :)
**Also, spell checker isn't working on here tonight. Sorry for all the mistakes I am sure this long winded entry contains. *cringe*

Last week (and this week since there is none tomorrow) of school for Drew went GREAT! It is just such a HUGE switch from what we were dealing with last year at this point. He did have an incident this past Tuesday - not a big enough one to have the teacher come talk to me about it though. On Tuesday, Drew climbed in the van saying he had another good day, but then as I pulled forward out of the way so I could get out and seat belt him in, he mentioned that he had to miss some recess. He said that he and another little boy had been giggling in line, so he had to sit next to the fence for a few minutes at the beginning of recess. He said he was sad, but he sat like he was suppose to. This is HUGE HUGE HUGE for him - to serve his time-out without a major meltdown. WOW! Since I was so proud of how he handled the whole thing (and told him repeatedly), I wasn't quite sure how to handle the whole thing. So he and I discussed it on the drive home. I explained that it was sad he had to miss some recess, but good how he handled it and I verbalized that I wasn't sure what we should do about the day. He was quiet for a few minutes and then said that he thought he should loose his Lego Star Wars game for 3 days. I asked if he really thought he needed to loose it for three days - that this would mean he couldn't have it back until Friday. He said he thought that was fair. lol He was harder on himself than I would have been! Tomorrow is a teacher work day at the public schools here in town, which means Drew has the day off as well. We have haircuts for both the boys planned in the morning and then everyone from John's office is going to Campbell Farms for the evening. Should be fun - hayrides, pumpkin patch, corn maize, bonfire, etc.
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We had a pretty busy day last Saturday. Our morning started off with a trip to the north side of town to check out our Parents-As-Teachers "Safety Day". Since there were suppose to fire fighters, police officers and perimedics there, I thought the boys would enjoy the morning. When we arrived, the firetruck wasn't there though. We found out later that they had to go on a call and where suppose to be returning soon. So we decided to check out the rest of the activities they had after checking out the ambulance. Inside they had a variety of things to pick from: crafts, music, role playing, etc. While we were checking things out, we ran into Alex and his family (someone John works with). Drew and their son Spencer have met a few times and are almost a year a part in age, so they had a lot of fun checking things out together. They even rode the bikes through the obsticle course together. What they were really excited about (and many of the kids where since it was pretty crowded) was when the firetruck returned. The boys all had fun climbing around on it, and John even had to get on and remove Zach because he didn't want to get off. He was quite comfortable sitting inside the truck checking it all out.

After we finished there, Drew talked John into stopping by the new Rutledge-Wilson Farm. What a neat place! Our parks department just opened this farm this past summer, but we hadn't gotten a chance to check it out yet. Since it was their Harvest Festival, it was rather crowded, so we didn't stay too long. The boys got a chance to check out the pigs, miniture horses, goats, sheep, chickens and cows...and they had fun climbing around on the tractors they had setting out. And since Drew wouldn't pet the miniture horses and John wouldn't let Zach down off his shoulders when we were by them, I had to take a picture of other kids enjoy them. They were SO cute and were loving all the attention! I can't wait to go back when it is less crowded so the boys can try out the farm themed playground and check things out a little more. And since it doesn't cost anything, that makes it even better :) Before we headed off, we decided to go ahead and pick out a pumpkin in their pumpkin patch even though we are going to another one soon. That way if we don't make it to Campbell Farms before dark, at least we have one pumpkin. Picking out the perfect pumkpin was hard work, and Drew took his job very seriously. What a fun morning! We rounded it up with some driving around looking at land. We are still looking for some and are hoping and praying we might find the right place before the end of the year.
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It has been BEAUTIFUL weather around here this week. Something we are very thankful for since our a/c stopped working on Monday (and won't get looked at until Saturday)! It has been in the 60's and 70's most the time and dropping into the 40's at night. Perfect weather to me :) The boys and I took advantage of this weather and spent Monday afternoon (after picking up Drew from school) playin in the backyard. I had finally gotten around to replacing the battery for Drew's Power Wheels truck, so Zach got to play with that for the first time...and he LOVED it! When we first went out, he started trying to push the truck with Drew in it. This is something they do with a little ride-on toy Zach has...they take turns pushing each other around on the toy. I wish I had a video of Zach's reaction when Drew pushed the peddle and the truck started going. Pure surprise - and he almost face planted. I was really surprised at how well they shared the truck...taking turns. I thought for sure there would be a HUGE fight over it. Drew started out, but when I asked him if Zach could try it since he had never gotten to, he quickly got out of the truck and then proceeded to explain how it worked to Zach...and then walked beside the truck to help keep Zach from running into things.

They also spent some time playing with balls and swinging. I switched Zach to Drew's sling swing that has a back and switched Drew to a new sling swing. Zach LOVED it!! All-in-all a great afternoon!
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Since Monday night Zach hadn't slept very well, Drew and I spent a lot of time quietly building with Legos on Tuesday morning. Man this child has a BUNCH of Legos!! In fact, just a couple weekends ago, we had to move to a larger box to hold all of them. He is excited because now he has room for more. lol (the containers on top are the old ones that were over flowing)
Since I lack in the Lego building creativity, we spent time just building a house. It did come complete with staircase and second floor inside though . :)

Not to leave Zach out, here are a few photos of how he spends some of his time. He can often be found looking at books in Drew's room....if only I could get him to put them back on the shelf (instead of the floor) when he is finished with them. And with the windows open this week, he has enjoyed sitting in the chair in Drew's room watching cars drive by.
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What a great week it has been for us and I can't wait to spend tomorrow evening enjoying this beautiful fall weather around a bonfire. Yes, fall has arrived here...the trees in our front yard have even begun to change. And how about this, gas dropped below $3 per gallon in our town today! Woohoo!! ;)

Hope you all have a GREAT Friday and weekend! I will try to stop in on Saturday to share some about our evening at Campbell Farms.