Big Boy Bike Riding! {times two}

Look who finally figured out how to ride his bike without training wheels!!! 

 And now he's a pro... even turning around on his own. ;) Now that he can ride without training wheels he doesn't want to get off, and bugs me nearly every day to go out riding. Only problem is he waited until the last possible moment to learn how to ride this summer and now... summers over... and the rain has settled in and it's going to be here for some time. Poor disappointed guy. If we had a better place to ride I'd let him ride in the rain {never hurt anybody to get a little wet while riding} but we don't.

This boy of course wanted his training wheels off as soon as he saw Bubu riding without his... and guess what... he figured out how to ride without them in about a half of an hour! Such a determined and competitive little boy!

 And away he goes...

Crash landing! He did many of these, but he was so graceful about it... practically jumping off and just letting the bike fall. He did end up figuring out how to stop in a way that was a little easier on the bike. :)

 Bubu in bike riding bliss. :)

 Right away Spike did not want any more help getting going. He is the only kid I have ever heard ask for a parent to not help, with in minutes of taking the training wheels off! That's Spike though, since he was super tiny, always wants to do everything on his own and be the best at it.

 Then there is super adorable Atty, still content to putts around on his little bike with training wheels, and falling off of that, ha ha! He did ask to get his training wheels off too, but I'm thinking we might just wait until spring for that one, being as the weather has now taken a turn for the worst. We did manage to find another slightly larger bike with training wheels that we are going to transition him to, and after he gets the hang of that then we will talk about the training wheels coming off. :) Lala's got the tricycle down pat, and is sure she's ready for the next step. I on the other hand think she is so stinking adorable riding around on this little red trike that I might be super sad to see it go...

Autumn tidbits

I can't seem to blog anymore, and it frustrates me! There is so much going on and I want to write about it so I can look back and really remember it all, but life is so busy I can't seem to squeeze in the time. And then when I do make the time {as in neglect to do the dishes and choose to blog instead} I'm overwhelmed as to where to start...

I guess I'll start with some yearly pumpkin patch pictures.

I can't believe how grown she is!

My always goofy middle child. :)

Too busy enjoying his apple to give me a real smile... they all were.  Guess I should have made them wait until after pictures, ha ha! This pumpkin farm has an apple orchard and the kids love being able to pick their very own apple,  this was the first year that Atty got to pick his own apple and eat the whole thing! It's the small stuff that makes us happy. :)

I can hardly ever get Bubu to smile for pictures anymore... sigh.  Maybe it's just a boy thing, I remember J being like this at Bubu's age.  He's still determined to grow his hair out for locks of love, and has inspired all of us, including his brothers, to do so as well... I'm thinking it might last until next summer. :)

Me and the kiddos with a stand in scarecrow. :) Bubu is getting so tall!

Now I think I'll throw in some fall colors from the front garden just for fun...

These are the chairs I refurnished from old chairs that use to me my grandmothers, the seats are made out of the salvaged window sills from her house. I sanded, cut boards, screwed stuff together, and stained. First time ever! There's one more by my front door. Ryder barely helped at all, I was super proud of myself. :)

And now for some more random Autumn pictures...

Enjoying some almond flour holiday cut out cookies! They were super good, with some left over paleo chocolate frosting and colored shredded coconut as sprinkles. :)

Radar is growing like a weed, and super sassy right now... wish I could skip to the grown up, potty trained, easy going dog part. :) He is pretty cute though, so all is forgiven most days. :)

Carving the pumpkin we got at the pumpkin patch. The kids did most of the cleaning out on there own this year, and  then we counted the seeds. Oh my goodness... there were 1,274 seeds... never want to do that again. ;) Bubu was super excited about it though and it was good counting practice. Then we roasted the seeds, and ate all 1,274 of them, but not all in one day. :)

The finished pumpkins. We were too impatient to wait until dark so we lit them up in the bathroom with the door shut, ha ha! 

Bug Squad!

My girl had one fantastic party to celebrate turning three. Yes you read that right, my little sweetheart is three! Pinch me, I must be dreaming! 

Birthday pancakes are a must, and this girl has been talking about them for weeks now, so funny! She was really into planning her party this time around. All the way down to her chocolate cake with strawberries on top and more chocolate, ha ha! She was very insistent about that part. :)

 Lala loves the Ladybug Girl books, and so we decided to have a Ladybug girl party, which meant that every one needed to dress up as a bug, and of course Leiella was Ladybug girl! :)

 The boys also got to pick what they wanted to be, and we did a little research to figure it out... Bubu chose to be a Southern Black Widow Spider, ack!  Spike decided he wanted to be a Giant Dessert Centipede, the flashy colors caught his eye. :) And Atty wanted to be a Common Grey Moth. I was pressed for time, so I simply bought some cheap sweats and matching shirts and sewed the details onto those. Atty's was easy, just add wings and antennas. Spike I had to limit him to twenty legs... poor thing. With Bubu I just added the right amount of spider legs and the red hourglass mark, and done! That's my kind of costume making. ;) I hardly measured a thing. Use the good ol' eye ball. 

Guess what they will be this Halloween... :)

 Cute little bugs.

 Ahhhhhh! There is a giant spider in my house!

 Cutest centipede I've ever seen... He insisted that I add the pinchers on the back, apparently that was the coolest part.

There were some really cute bugs at her party, got some awesome pictures of her with her buggy friends. :)

 We played pin the spots on the ladybug. Everybody won kind of game. :)

 And of course we had to paint ladybug rocks, they turned out pretty stinkin' cute, wish I had snapped a picture of those before the kids took them home.

 I was a busy bee, as usual. ;)

 Lala and her little bee friend. Buzzzzzzz!

 We were blessed to have some amazing friends there, fun times! 

 Make a wish birthday girl!

 This right here is a coconut flour cake with home made chocolate frosting, it's a paleo recipe. There were a few other kids there that are gluten or dairy free or on the paleo diet {or GAPS diet} so I just made one cake for all. Ended up being barely enough to serve all the kids, sorry parents. The kids loved it! And all the parents that managed to nibble on a piece of their kids cake loved it too, so bonus! :)

 In all the excitement of the day I almost flunked big time... I totally forgot Lala's presents from us! So right before bed I scrambled to wrap them up {yes they weren't even wrapped yet, oops} and give them to her. Can you tell she was excited about that Strawberry Shortcake blanket I found for her bed. 

{Yes there is another redhead in the picture that is not Atty... she is an adorable little friend who happened to be spending the night, best birthday ever.}

She of course got some more Ladybug Girl books for her collection. :) And a ladybug game, and some clothes that fit. I can not believe how much she grew this summer!!!  And I love that she actually gets excited about her new clothes, not something I ever experienced with the boys, ha ha!

So happy birthday to my amazingly smart and sassy, not to mention absolutely adorable, not so little, little Ladybug Girl.

{Oh and by the way... the puppy is not really cutting it with stopping the baby cravings, and my littlest turning three isn't really helping either... when does it stop! I mean I have four already, good grief!}