Tuesday, October 31, 2017

Happy Halloween

This first picture is actually from about a month ago when we went to a garden place for a fall fest and the kids got to try a pumpkin catapult, go on hay rides, eat popcorn and generally enjoy a fun fall day outside together.
This Halloween Jason and I decided to get the uniforms for our daily jobs: referees! Notice the white cap for me (head ref) and the black for him. We make a good team!
Here are our cute trick or treaters: A tigress, a skeleton, a storm trooper and a busy bee!
 Jake kept up really well with the big kids. He would say "trick-or-treat" continuously until given a treat, would then say thank you and then sometimes start again, wanting more:) I took all four out for about an hour, then we came home for dinner and Jason took the older three out again. Jake was not ok being left behind, grabbed his costume and ran to the door trying to get out with the others. I offered TV instead, and he settled right down. He did, however, get upset anytime trick-or-treaters came to our door and got some of our candy (or in his mind, HIS candy), so he also had to get a piece from me every time someone came to the door! The older kids got around 250 pieces of candy each! I declare Halloween a success!

Sunday, October 29, 2017

Pumpkins

Our three older kids carved their pumpkins this year with very little help from us. I love how closely they mirror their personalities and likes: Eli's is a silly face, Logan's is an artsy "Boo" with ghosts, and Ali's is a dog. We got one for Jake too but he wasn't interested in the activity, and that was fine by me! 
Jake did, however, like the final outcomes and has to run out and check on the pumpkins now whenever we go outside.

Friday, October 27, 2017

Poster Contest

The kids' art teacher told them about a county-wide fall poster contest, "Pumpkins on a Farm," and Logan was super excited to enter. He sketched out a few rough drafts and then spent about 6 hours working on this beauty.
Eli wanted to follow his brother's example, and came up with his own great contribution. Eli loves to draw lately and spends some time every day doing so.

Tuesday, October 24, 2017

What's the Fuss all about?

Jake grabbed a handful of legos the other day and played with them for awhile. I could see his little mind thinking, "I've got to see what all this fuss is about these things!" Legos are still a very popular toy around here for the bigger kids.

Sunday, October 22, 2017

Halloween Party

We had our 4th annual Eldredge Kids' Halloween party the other day. Here is the spread that I started making three days before the event!

Hardly any of the kids sat. They just surrounded the food and inhaled!
Cute Crafty Girls.
We had about 25 kids this year. Two of my friends stayed to help too, so it was a good group. We had fun!

Friday, October 20, 2017

If it makes him happy...

Ali's discovered that sometime it's easier to just humor Jake than to make him go away.

Tuesday, October 17, 2017

Happy Birthday Eli

Eli is 7! We are sure lucky to have this fun, smart, happy, silly, kind boy in our family! He got to take some friends to play lazer tag for his birthday party. He requested a cake with stick figures shooting lazer guns at each other:)
Mason (neighbor), Keegan (church friend), Anvith (school friend), and Marshall (not pictured, church friend) helped to celebrate.
Then on Sunday we celebrated with Amy, Steve and Paige. The legos, pokemon cards, and race track were all a huge hit (I think his family knows him!).
Happy Birthday Eli!

Sunday, October 15, 2017

Mustache

Misters Mustache


Friday, October 13, 2017

Jake Days

I decided that at least once a week I should take Jake somewhere fun during the day. He spends most of his days running errands with me, going to my presidency meetings, religion classes, or whatever, so he deserves to do something fun every once in awhile. Here are some of our recent outings:

He earned a free pass to the Children's Museum in Naperville. We used to have a pass years ago, but he's never been there and he loved it. I was glad it was just me and him because he ran all over the place! He did love the air parts and stayed put there for quite awhile.
Cantigny had hay rides one day, and this boy LOVES hay rides, so we went there and did a few back to back rides.
The Brookfield Zoo has free days sometimes, so we took advantage of one of the last 70 degree fall days and spent the morning running around looking at the animals.
On a funny side note, I've never taken a selfies until recently. Jake will not stand still and smile for a picture (plus somehow it's a little sad to have only one little friend in the shot), but if I take a selfie (so he can see himself on the camera) he stands still and grins. So you may see more pictures of me in the future:)

Tuesday, October 10, 2017

Shedd Aquarium

Grandma and Grandpa visited in September both on their way to and from my brother's house in Virginia, but never on a weekend day. Because of that the older kids weren't going to get to spend much time with them, which I decided was unacceptable. So one weekday we pulled them out of school and went downtown to the Shedd Aquarium. I wondered if they would like it because they have never been a fan of zoos, but they loved it!

When we got there we went right to the dolphin show. Jake was sitting on my lap, and he looked up at me and said, unprompted and unquestioned, "Like it!" So cute.
This cute manatee kept coming up close to us, turning to look at us, and talking to us! Cool!
Petting the sting rays was a highlight.
And so was the shark viewing area.
Great day!

Saturday, October 7, 2017

Group Shots

Here are the group shots I loved.
I sure do love this family of mine!

Tuesday, October 3, 2017

Kids Photos

In the end, these are the ones I loved of my kids. I used the first of each for my wall.