September Part 2

The second half of September started with a fun family weekend for the OSU v. WSU game. We have been looking forward to this game since last year when Alex went to Corvallis for the game there. I love that while we live here I will be able to see the Beavers play at least once every two years :) Our weekend started with some Grandma Terece fun :) She spent the week with us helping out with our every day crazy, but on Thursday we took the kids for some fun after school.

Little birdies are sure to surround you whenever you eat around here ;)

When we picked the kids up on Thursday we went to campus and started out at Ferdinand's, because you can't not stop there. Cheap, amazing ice cream, and Grandma had never been! I always feel a little guilty because I think I love this ice cream more than my home town Tillamook, but Tillamook Cheddar can't be beat (Ferdinand's comes close and we get it often, though!).

We walked across campus, stopped in at Alex's office (he was busy getting ready for the game, but we came in and wrecked havoc anyway), and headed to the Bonner Museum, which has been on our list to visit since we moved here.

The Bonner museum is in a  couple little rooms in a random building on campus, but it was lots of fun. Taxidermy animals of every type, and it may replace Cabela's to be the new 'dead animal zoo' that my kids love to visit :).

Go Beavers!! The kids picked their favorite animal to cheer on for the game the next day. O is all about Cougars now (she has fallen victim to peer pressure of her classmates and friends here), Carter is still on the fence (he wants us to know that he loves the Beavers most but wants the Cougars to win also), but Makenzie and Hunter are still loyal :).

'Wow, Mom! Did you know that this is Justin's Daddy's favorite animal!? And it's pink and it can stand on one leg!!'

We closed out the museum and picked Alex up on our ride home. Pizza night was in full swing while we waited for Grandma Mary and Grandpa Gary, Grandpa Turkey Buzzard, and the Bryan Johnson clan that evening.

The next morning we hung out and played with cousins before gearing up for the game. It's always fun to bust out every piece of Orange and Black that we can find and figure out how to make it all work together :). On our way out the door we paused for some fun cousin pictures :).

We were quite a crowd as we walked toward the game, but anytime you let 7 little kids get all dressed up they are a huge hit.

Casqueiro family picture, and a big group picture in front of the Coug :)

We headed over to Cougville for some bouncy fun before the game started. It was pretty warm, but we were happy to be there before the crowds so the kids got to do lots of activities.

I think it's hilarious how differently our kids did the slide from their cousins. Justin and Kylie were into a more traditional approach, but I love Justin's head first!!

I loved this shot of two 6 year olds and two five year olds just heading in to the game :)

We had a perfect view of the game from Olivia's standard, because we were right in front of the Beaver cheerleaders. Once they came out, she spent the entire game copying every move :)

After a few unsuccessful attempts at putting Olivia on the top of this pyramid, the girls figured out the better way to do it :).

I love all these kiddos with their grandparent buddies. You might notice Justin missing from the above group picture. He's actually not missing, just asleep under Grandma Terece's feet. He slept the entire first half, woke up for a big of snuggling, then went back to sleep for the third quarter. Pretty impressive in this venue!

See all the Washington State fans in the background pouring out and just pretend it's because the Beavers were winning :)

On Sunday we took the fam to church and played for a while as all of the Johnsons headed back home. The Casqueiros were staying for another couple days. It was a great weekend that we look forward to repeating in a couple years!

This next picture represents a major labor of love on the part of both of our dads. My dad went to IKEA BY HIMSELF! to pick up our new huge kitchen table and chairs; he ended up driving around to the warehouse to get the actual table, and was able to get everything up to us in one piece. We were so grateful, there is no way for us to get to an IKEA reasonably, and this table was exactly what we wanted at 1/2 the price of comparable tables. Then, Monday morning when Alex was at work, Gary busted out all the pieces and put it together with Makenzie. He actually assembled the new table, all six chairs, our new coffee table, and the entry bench that we had just ordered. He was assembling all day long, and it made a huge difference in our living room. Thanks to both dads for your help! We can now actually fit at our table as a family, and we even have room to invite friends and family to join us :).

After we have family visit and leave, both of the kids that don't go to school need a little extra mom love for a few days. They totally love the extra attention that they get from cousins, grandparents, aunts and uncles. Luckily for me, they are super fun and goofy, so it works out pretty well.

To celebrate the 20th anniversary of our local Dairy Queen, they gave out .20 cones all day. That is an opportunity we can't resist, so we went out, in pouring down rain to get some. We weren't alone, the dairy queen was pretty crazy, but the kids were able to snag this table while I waited in line. I'm pretty sure the guy next to us was super nervous about all these kids and no adults when I was waiting for the cones :).

In order to count it as an after school snack, I added a vegetable (french fries) to the menu. Hunter had a french fry graveyard going on: he would take a tiny bite out of each fry then put it on the table and grab another. In hindsight I'm thinking maybe it was just to ensure that he would get his fair share.

When we got home, I mentioned all the muddy footprints that we were leaving on the new floor, and the kids asked if they could mop if they got their chores done quickly :). I just accepted it as a sign of amazing parenting and said of course! They ran around to do homework and chores, then mopped the floor together as their reward.

That evening I started a Love and Logic class that the school district put on. It was a really interesting class with very different ideas than I have heard before. I'm always game for adding new tools to my parenting toolbox (and getting out of bedtime once a week for 6 weeks doesn't hurt :)) so I was totally in.

We absolutely love our new table. We are still bench shopping for the back row, and have since ditched the cushions, but everything about the table is just what we wanted. It has this length, plus a big leaf to put in if we need extra room :).

Random picture of the kids playing while we waited for the big kids to get done with school one day.

This summer we started Friday Night, Movie Night, Pizza Night, and the tradition has lived on into the fall. The kids look forward to it all week, and are constantly planning the movie lineup for weeks to come. I'm not sure they realize that we can watch movies at other times, but that works for us! It may have been September, but the weather got cold for a few days so we busted out Elf as an intro to Christmas. I could totally watch Christmas movies, listen to music, and just have Christmas year round, but Alex was pretty hesitant when I busted this out :)

The next day was the 4th home football game in a row, so Alex was gone at work all day, but the kids and I headed to the Science Center. I don't tend to do very many things like this with the kids by myself (it's just a few too many feet going in different directions) but we talked about sticking together and helping Mom to have a good time, and they totally did. We didn't have any problems, no one complained about missing the last room, and in return they were promised another trip soon.

They also had their first soccer game that morning. Both of these kids are super enthusiastic about soccer, and they had a really fun team with the two of them, three kids that are siblings and some of their best friends, and a new friend who is in Kinder with Carter.

The score was pretty ugly, but at this level we 'don't keep track'. Their favorite part of the day? Huge pinecones and snacks of course!

We were feeling pretty stir crazy and I wasn't up for another activity in the rain, so we busted out some long-lost craft supplies that afternoon. Hunter was in absolute heaven playing in these beads, and the bigger kids were quick to finish their bat painting and come over to show him the 'right way' to play with them. Usually the right way in our house includes sorting, which is in no way genetic or because of their mom ;).

The last day of school in September was Twin Day. O and her best friend Piper dressed up alike in these adorable fox shirts, and planned everything down to skinny jeans and black shoes :). Carter didn't put any planning into it (surprise, surprise) but was concerned about not having a twin, so he (along with 60% of the school) wore Cougar stuff and fit right in :).

Just a baby lounging and reading :) Book messes are the one mess in our house that doesn't bother me at all and I totally encourage.

I really can't remember why I took the kids to the mall after school that day (a crazy sale on something we needed at Old Navy maybe?) but we went and I again gave the kids the talk about '4 kids, 1 mom, if we want to keep doing stuff like this we have to work together as a team to get everything done and have a good attitude'. The talk totally worked. I give it about 5 times a week for different things and it totally works. I don't know why Carter and Makenzie took this as holding hands, but they were super sweet the entire time and held hands as we walked through the mall, then back again for cookies on the way out.

And we get to end our month with this sweetness from Carter :) My first love note from him, and I was totally impressed with all the letters he used.