Chess

Lincoln goes to chess club at his school on Fridays.  He REALLY loves playing and got to participate in his first Saturday tournament.  They play 6 games, and it is an ALL DAY affair because they wait for everyone to finish before starting the next game.   Most everyone in Lincoln's age division (k-2) finishes within 10-15 minutes, but there are high school kids that play so it is usually an hour before the next game begins.  The kids leave the gym when they are done with their match, and could either play outside or wait in the cafeteria.  Lincoln played outside some, but at least when I was there, wanted to play more chess with Matt while he waited!

Fingers in the mouth seems to be the thinking pose

Getting a medal- they gave to the top 15 in each age division and he got 12th.   He was not expecting this and didn't know what he was supposed to do when they called his name.  Very proud of him just hoping he doesn't get crushed if he doesn't get one next time!

His school got 1st place in their division.  Pretty exciting!

Lyla Dancing at Preschool

I went to Lyla's preschool class with her for Parent's Day.  It was neat to see what the kids did and observe Lyla in various situations.  One thing I observed was pretty funny, but what she said afterward about it was even funnier!  She was doing some version of break dancing or something, and they had to freeze when the music stopped. At the end of the day we played a game called "Bananas." The kids drew cards out of a can and if they drew a letter name they had to say the letter name, and if they drew a banana they got to do whatever they wanted, go crazy, be silly!
When we got in the car to go home she said, "I didn't want to draw the bananas."  I asked why, and said she didn't seem to mind dancing crazy in front of everyone during the song.  She looks at me with a most sincere and straight face and says, "but that wasn't dancing silly."
I had to FIGHT to keep my face in check because I was really laughing on the inside!

"This is so funny"

Lyla was "reading" a book to emmit one day.  She was spelling the words and came across a picture of something "so funny."

Lyla Riding Bike

Lyla has been riding her bike with no training wheels for awhile now.  She asked me- and kept asking me until I did it... to take her training wheels off and after a few days she got the hang of it.  The first video is when she was learning to ride without the training wheels.  The second is about a month later.  We loaded up the bikes in the van and drove to a park with bike trails.  We had never done this before and it was alot of fun. The kids wanted to keep going but I reminded them we would eventually have to turn around.  I finally just went back myself with Emmit and then drove the van to pick them up!  They were pretty proud with how far they had gotten!

October

Gp Doug and a cute little monkey!

Went to Gp and Gm's to surprise them for their birthdays!

At the pumpkin patch

Happy Birthday Dad!

I don't know what to call these.  Overstimulation?


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZK9N4B5Eng&feature=youtu.be

video of Emmit and Lyla talking

Emmit, Preschool, and Birthdays

This is how we often find Emmit these days.  He is pretty quick to spit out the pacifier and find his thumb!

Lyla's preschool

Lyla does a great job of talking to Emmit.  Going to post a video of it.

Lincoln giving a card to Emmit.  He will often say, "I am making a card for my favorite person."

Lincoln had 6 friends from his school come for his birthday party.  It was pretty wild around here!

Birthday take 2!  Lincoln also got to have his cousin's over lat that night for another birthday.  We sort of spoiled him rotten!   We thought it was important for him to have friends over since it was his first year at school, but he couldn't let the cousin sleepover idea go (he did this last year).  We caved and let him do both.  That's what you call bad parenting.:)  Yes, we were exhausted at the end of all the craziness...but it was alot of FUN!

Bo really liked the flashlight.

This is not the night before as you would think, but in the MORNING!  Apparently the kids were up at 5:30??  Matt told them they could get up at 6:00 so thats when they came barreling in the house.  I couldn't believe how much energy they all had! Here they are using  the new toy bug zapper and searching for bugs.  I think they were looking at a map someone drew too.

Examining their findings.  

Brock told me he saw a bug above my cupboards and climbed up and zapped it for me. 

Playing with all the new toys!  They all seemed to get along really well and had alot of fun!

Lyla and Lincoln get to play on the same team this fall.  This is Lylas first time playing.

Playing "party" with Emmit.  "party" or "sleepover" means piling up toys and blankets!

Granda Brenda's birthday.  A rare fuss from Emmit.  Seriously, he hardly ever cries!It was a big one though- I think he was mad because the restaurant was so loud we didn't hear him crying in his stoller! Poor guy!

Celebrating Lincoln's birthday at school

First time I noticed him smiling at himself in the mirror

Crazy but he can worm his way off the blanket already, and also flip over.  Lyla and Lincoln didnt move until they were like 9 months, I think Lyla not until 10!  He seems to really enjoy being on the floor, tolerates the bouncy, highchair, swing, but will stay on the floor a very long time!