Life as we know it

Time for a smattering of daily life pictures!

Elliot has been REALLY into origami lately. He had a good sized box filled with his folded creations. We got several library books that he promptly memorized, and he has taken to inventing his own creations. Here he is modeling his "Thinking Cap" while playing this online puzzle game called "SolveMe Mobiles." The puzzles are a fun way to practice algebraic thinking, and Elliot really likes them. He's gotten to hard levels with fractions and negative numbers. I love that this kid still likes to play with math!

Elliot has no interest in any extracurriculars. Instead, I invite James and Kelton over frequently. That always ends up being "build cool stuff" time. I also take them to the library after-school activities sometimes. The favorite so far was when they made tops out of marbles hot glued to CDs. There was naturally a battle bots type showdown on the steps outside afterwards. 

Annie is always wanting hairstyles. This is partially because I let her watch a video to keep her head still, but also because she's a fancy lady. It is her absolute favorite when her cousins come over and play salon with her. 

We have been teaching Annie how to ride a bike! It is slow and painful with plenty of tears. We are making progress thanks to heavy bribery. 

Annie with her buds playing primary during volleyball

This is my favorite picture Annie has ever drawn! The red lips kill me. She drew this after we watched the old batman at the beach. I think she missed most of the part of Poison Ivy being a bad guy and focused on her killer fashion sense instead. 

Meanwhile, Isaac has been keeping us all quite entertained. It is amazing how funny kids can be before they can even talk very much. He definitely has a sense of humor and loves to tease us. 

Isaac's ball obsession was replaced by a lengthy Magna-tiles phase. He is constantly begging people to build (he pronounces it "biw") with him. These stairs are an Aaron creation, but the little guy has gotten pretty good at building houses for his toys.

This is one of my all time favorite pictures of Isaac. I love having a little buddy to help me stop and acknowledge how awesome sprinklers are. 

He's a big fan of walks. We get in some good ones after dropping Annie off at preschool. 

Elliot and Annie still love making "Isaac entertainment centers." Bumbo by a fan with a ball was a big hit.

He loves his cousin Bree. Who am I kidding, everyone loves Bree. 

We spent a lot of time at the park this fall! Aaron takes the kids to the park a few evenings a week. He's way more fun than me and will race them down the slides. I don't know how he does it, slides hurt now that I'm an adult!

I prefer the "talking with the moms while the kids play" approach to the park. Luckily we have lots of people who are always willing to hang out at the park! This is our new neighbor Rocky. He kept on asking me what my name was, so I told him it was Ooda Ooda. He and his sister now call me Ooda Ooda all the time, and we are great buds. I'm Rocky's grasshopper catching buddy. 

A bunch of Bloods at a Barnett party

Aaron went to Chicago again for XR Day! His work took him on a boat tour of interesting architecture around the city and gave him lots of yummy food. 

XR Trading also sent Aaron a fancy pretzel box for his 1 year work anniversary. It was delicious! We heated them up in the oven and had multiple sweet and savory topping options. The french truffle mixed with sour cream to make a dip was my favorite. Aaron brought pretzels to his Rings of Power guys night and to a few other places- he got good mileage out of them! XR had their 25th anniversary of existing, so they sent each employee a really nice Yeti cooler. Aaron teases me because whenever we talk about how great his job is, I always reference the cooler. 

Prickly pear jelly is way easier with Stephen's juicer! I juiced in advance and then had a jelly canning party with Rachel Sevy again. 

My friend Hannah Gardner has a homestead nearby and invited us over to see her animals! There were baby chicks, kittens, roosters, and turkeys. 

Life is good over in this neighborhood!