thank you notes

on sunday, the 23rd we went to a party at aunt geri and uncle tom's house to celebrate birthdays. it was a different dynamic without daddy! the kids were all over me and rex asked to go home about 576 times before we left!!!

opening presents from aunt lori.

playing disney apples to apples

sending daddy a silly pictures while he's a phish

minion trouble! 

 DADDY'S HOME!!!! the kids were excited to see him. i was too!!! malloy wanted to know all about the concert! she grilled him: did you sleep? what did you eat? who cooked? who were you with?

the kids had dr appts  to get physicals for school. they're both doing great! rex is off the charts for height and is proportionate for weight. the dr called malloy a rectangle - long and thin. no news there!!! malloy is taller, rex is heavier. they both had to read eye charts for the first time. when we got in the exam room, rex was drawing away on his boogie board and then held it up: mom, can you read this? he had drawn an eye chart. it's hard to see but it's a big E at the top, then F and P and then shapes (he got to do shapes while malloy had to read letters). i love his brain and his ideas!!!  rex got 2 shots and we don't need to worry about vaccines for a while! he cried but just a bit. we went to rossi's to pick up pizza for dinner. while we waited for the pizza, the kids got ice cream BEFORE dinner as a treat for being good at the doctor's. 

 i was looking up healthy breakfast ideas - more protein filled breakfasts for when school starts. malloy saw an idea to make a yogurt parfait in an ice cream cone and thought it was brilliant, so we got to work! she made a parfait with peach yogurt, blueberries, nectarine, and mangoes, topped with almonds, coconut, cool whip and a cherry.

rex LOVES his new sticker book from roro and papa!!! you get to make silly alien faces. he was occupied for quiet some time!

photo courtesy of malloy

more trouble! 

the kids are very independent these days. they took it upon themselves to get some cups down for breakfast

talking on their banana phones

 we went to the mission with grandma to look for halloween stuff. we came back with a snow white costume, a belle costume, a spiderman costume and a bumblebee transformer costume! plus some new games. the kids played superhero and princess all afternoon! malloy was in her room pacing saying "but mother! you let me roam the castle freely when i was 3. i need to be free again! oh, mother, why don't you understand?! i just need to be free!" this girl is a born actress! rex was the superhero who lived in the bottomless pit in the princess' bedroom.

 malloy can blow up a balloon by herself!

spidergirl

grandpa and grandma took the kids to chuck e cheese for a surprise. they had a blast! then i met them at target to get some school shopping done. grandma and i took the kids to sam's got a pretzel, then to aldi's and finally home!
the kids had a muffin tin meal and watched a movie for dinner after a long day of excitement!

 we're very into making our own movies at the moment. instructional movies. "hi, my name's malloy and i'm six. i'm going to show you how to blow up a balloon today..."
rex was taking a video of malloy demonstrating how to eat a strawberry. just in case you didn't know how.

grandpa don left us a funny surprise when he was at our house. the kids found it the next day.

swimming? 

little miss thing

on friday, we went to the depot to eat dinner and hear some irish music with grandpa gary and melissa. the kids had a blast running around, climbing on the train, and dancing!

neal taught the kids how to use google hangouts to chat with people. they spent all saturday sending messages mainly to me and neal but also to grandpa gary and uncle ryan. malloy picked it up quickly and LOVED it! rex sent many many many pictures and random letters!

carrying her brother in the pool

after dinner tonight, malloy got up and cleared her dishes. then she cleared everyone elses dishes!!! this was with no asking or hinting at her to do so! i was so proud!!! love when she helps out!

love that they dress alike!

we had a fire saturday night with grandma val, grandpa don, and jesse. jesse helped rex find one of his guys. when they found it, he said "thanks big J!" this kid comes up with some great one liners!

grandpa let off a lantern - it was pretty cool!

an example of malloy's messaging: