First Snow Fall...

November 6th we had our first snow fall of the season. The boys have been looking forward to playing in the snow for a while now. They were pretty excited to see snow when we walked outside to take Oliver to the bus stop. Now its' time to find all our winter gear for the real fun to begin.

Sword Fighting...

After investing the couple dollars for foam Swords to go with the boys' Knight Costumes, it feels a shame not to let them play with them. So the other day, the boys and I brought their swords & shields outside to play. I thought that before we sword fight, we should probably set up some ground rules. BUT rules for playing seemed a little intense, instead we made up a "Knights Code". Before the battle ensued we reminded ourselves that:

"Knights are kind,
Knights are Brave,
Knight know when to use their swords
and when to use their words instead of fighting."

The boys picked up that this would be our special play time and that we'd attempt to follow the Knights code while playing.

We fought, we ran, we marched, we played and we hunted for dragons. It was a super fun hour or two with my sons!

Cousins...

It's been a little harder to get together with all the cousins lately, having only one car doesn't help matters. But the other day Lucius and I were able to drive over to Auntie Em's new house to play with the cousins (she was watching Auntie Micks two boys). It's always fun to see them all playing so nice together.

Of course, when I went to check on them they'd decided to rearrange Brianna's room and jump off her bed. Not sure Auntie Em really wanted that behavior encouraged, but I had to take a few pictures of what was really happening.

Here's the four of them, silly little monkeys on the bed.

Caution!!! This video is VERY loud...

Sleeping...

It's not often either Little Mister takes a nap these days. Not that I mind, they're getting quite good at following the rules of quiet time. But every once in a while someone falls asleep. The other day, towards the end of rest time, I stopped hearing Lucius talking. I walked into the room to find he was out cold. Looks like he was playing with the microphone just before passing out.

Baby Watching...

I've been watching a little three month old cutie once a week for the last four weeks. Lucius is beyond happy, he LOVES babies. He used to be content being the little brother, but recently he's been asking when he'll GET a little brother. Not going to happen, but he is happy we get to play with this little guy.

 Most of the time the baby just sleeps, but when he's not sleeping or eating he loves to watch Lucius play.

It's adorable. Especially when Lucius asks to hold the baby.

Or when Oliver and Lucius put on a little puppet show for the Baby.

Making Costumes & Trick or Treating...

The boys were going to be Knights for Halloween. I cut out cardboard shields and the boys colored them themselves. They were pretty excited about them.

 

 
Of course, meany that I am, I made them wait the two days till Halloween to play with them. We went out and took pictures of their new costumes before heading out for an evening of knocking on doors. The best part was the sword fight that Marmee actually gave permission for. They had a BLAST!

BUT Oliver wanted to be a wolf for Halloween. He wants to save his Knight costume for next year. He was so determined about this that he started signing all his art work and school papers as "Oliver Wolf" or just "Wolf". It's been more than a week and he's still talking about the wolf. So last minute I made him this wolf mask to go with his wolf costume I made earlier this spring. After our sword fight we went home for a quick costume change.

Time for Halloween evening!! We went to a friends house for pizza and trick or treating.

 

The boys got pounds of candy and a few weeks worth of chips. I think we were out for about an hour and a half, maybe a little more. It was a great time had by all, even if it was a little rainy.

Walking to school...

Typically Oliver takes the bus but as the days are still nice and I think he's got the whole bus thing down, we've been walking three or four days of the week to his school. It's lovely to spend the morning walking in the fresh air. The added bonus is the smiles and happy chatter I get to share with the boys. It's been the best part of my days.

Occasionally we're early, so we play on the school playground. Or bring our new toy airplane to shoot off across the wide open ball fields. 

One day Lucius and I found these workers chopping down a huge tree and cleaning it up with the crane truck. We just had to stop and watch for a while. 

But it's these beautiful skies, warm & cool morning breezes and nature we love to see!

(These are all photos from mid-October. Now that's it's getting colder out and we've had nasty colds it's been a week or two without morning walks, and I'm already starting to miss them. Hoping we'll be better soon so we can keep walking a day or two a week.)