Ten on Tuesday

E feeding the fish and learning about water lillies

Painting Pumpkins

B helping in the midst of Grandma's garden in the fall.

Lady M helping with fall chores

1.  While I was in DC, the kids went to fall Farm Camp for a couple days.  This is the first time since we've moved to OK that fall break has coincided with my DC trip.  I have to say, I don't think anyone minded as they had two fun full days with Grandma and one of the days also features the Korenak Boys and Uncle Able -- You can read the stories here and here as I missed out on the fun!

2.  I made it safely home to a busy Saturday.  Brent went to the foodball game with his Dadd.  B had a birthday party with friends and had to find new long pants for fall.  We all needed groceries.  I spent the evening enjoying the OKC Ballet's production of Cinderella.  It was so very beautifully done. I think it was my favorite production of theirs ever.  I'm so excited about the coming season with this beautiful beginning. It was the largest selling ballet performance (other than the Nutcracker) ever in Oklahoma, which I think is also a great testament to the growth and beauty of the company in recent years.

3.  On Sunday, we went to Pumpkinville (which is getting its own post), but the other big story was the family October Halloween party at the Korenak casa.  Everyone had on costumes, at least briefly, and it was lots of delicious fun.  It was great to carve pumpkins as a group, even if a bit crazy with so many kids wandering through the mix. Grandma's birthday present was a Hammock and very popular with every one. (You can read much more about the party on Audra's blog). 

4.  Monday, randomly, was still fall break and just not well planned at all.  I'll admit this was news to me as I knew the littles were off-school, but thought B was going for some reason.  I also didn't really check my calendar before Brent left for work and discovered I had four hours straight of meetings.  Right.  So before work we were "beary workers" and cleaned the kids rooms, straightened the house, vaccuumed, etc... I also packed them lunches and stashed them in the fridge for later.  Then the calls began.  They had some electronics time, then B supervised lunch.  Then some playtime of various kinds, E's nap, etc... We did manage to end in style with---

Traditional climbing the lion statue picture + real smile!

Watching Alligator feeding time!

Baby Rupert!

5.  Zoo Trip!! We really haven't been to the zoo much this year and I did hesitate as I bought my membership, but when we do go we love it.  Our schedules just don't work as well as they once did.  This was my first time going with Audra and her boys so it was extra awesome.  My favorite parts were getting to meet Rupert the baby Rhino and riding the carousel.  (My least favorite part was thinking I'd lost my car key and searching for it for 10 minutes... found it, it  a very safe place.  Of course).

6.  Today, went pretty much equally poorly as far as timing of work/life balance.  Some of it just makes no sense like driving ages across Edmond to take M to the park, only to discover that she has no interest in playing there without her brothers.  (This was to the great chagrin of a 3yo girl who desperately wanted to play with her).  We did rally with a picnic in the backyard, during which M learned to love Brie :)  I, meanwhile, got to work later into the afternoon, run at the gym, and work later in to the night.... of course.

7.  Home improvement update!! One of our big annoying long term issues has been the fact that the door of our mail box broke off ummmm let's say a year ago.  Yes, I know we're horrible home owners.  All the solutions we found seemed to require rebricking the mailbox or somehow chiseling the box out or other things that cost around $400. Enter Bayshore Mailbox Door Replacement (no this isn't sponsored, I'm just sharing this awesome solution). Just over 5 minutes and $50 late voila!  Yes, I'm easily excited.

8.  Baseball season is over and we asked B to pick his next activity.  To my 100% surprise, he chose Spanish and is diving head in asking for any and all the Spanish I know.  Keep in mind, I've studied years of French since I last studied any Spanish so this is rough.  Also, M is learning French still so they both want everything in both languages.  It is SO reminiscent of in college when I took French and Spanish the same semester, the classes met consecutive hours in adjoining rooms.  It seemed insane at the time, but apparently it was preparing me for this.  It would just be awesome if they could maintain this enthusiasm long enough to learn something.  Attention span for activities in the long term is not their Hallmark, but here's hoping.  Diner time, meanwhile, is a cacophony of languages and looking words up.  E, meanwhile, wants to sing the (English) abc song for his bedtime song, and then immediately asks for it in French. It is adorable and all just a riot. Brent is specializing in catching me when I have sentences with mixes of both languages in them.  He speaks neither, but is fairly good at spotting when I accidentally blend things, which is very helpful.

9. E is currently loving superheros.  He knows almost nothing about them other than that they are there to save the day.  He adores his super hero shirts though and will immediately show them to anyone.  He does not always correctly identify who he is wearing, but is always saving the day. (No, I think he has no clue what that might entail).

10.  Halloween adventures this week with B's school carnival on Friday, Myriad Gardens Monster Mash on Saturday, and then school and family parties the following week.  So far, the kids are going as Batman (E), Pumpkin (M), and Bobba Fett (B), but I wouldn't be surprised if at least M rotates through costumes during the week.  For the recent Halloween party, I went as Elsa and Brent went as a scarecrow --- our costumes were, of course, designed by M.