American Girl

Peyton's grandmas took her on a special little journey yesterday.  I as the mother, got a babysitter and crashed the party!  That's acceptable, right?!!?

Peyton has been ranting and raving about how she WANTS an American Girl doll and that ALL her friends have one!  So, grandma Jeanne caught wind of this and ordered her one for Christmas.  A week later Grandma Farm was down babysitting the kids while Mike and I went out.  When we got home that night, all the kids were tucked in and sleeping and Grandma told me, "I'm gonna come get Peyton next Saturday and take her to American Girl and get her a doll."

"Ugh, well you better talk to Grandma Jeanne cause she already had one."

UH OH!!!

So the grandmas and the store worked it out.  Peyton has a "personal shopper" experience, picked out her doll and some accessories, AND got to have lunch/celebration at the bistro.  Peyton was in her glory…..and so were the grandmas!!!

super excited on the way

showing her "personal shopper" which one she wants

seeing it

making sure she is perfect before she comes out of the box

Meet Gabrianna "Gabby" Maria Friedman

Three….oops FOUR happy girls!

A picture with the party crasher/photographer (and mom too!)

getting ready to have some lunch

Gabby having a little pink lemonade

blowing out the candle on the "special occasion" cake

one last surprise…..the crutches (a must have accessory according to Peyton),
delivered to her during lunch

look at them big bags….I think she scored big!

We got home and Maddie went to work picking her out a doll

all dressed and ready for bed in their matching p.j's

Sisters

A little Saturday morning read a loud.  Maddie loves the weekends, when her brother and sister are home!!

poop

Jack and Peyton were sitting at the breakfast table today arguing over who had the most chocolate on their donut.  Jack clearly had the most and Peyton was a little sour about the situation.  He offered his sympathy by stating, "It's okay Peyton…it all comes out as poop anyway."

Well said, buddy.  Couldn't have said it better myself…...

Peyton's last soccer game

Well, it took until the last game, but I finally managed to bring my camera to Peyton's soccer game.  Chasing Maddie around during games doesn't leave much valuable camera time.  BUT, I DID make it happen before the season ended.  It ended up being a pretty good game to have the camera at - Peyton played goalie the first half and the field in second half.  She does great in goal…super aggressive and has a pretty impressive drop-kick for a seven year old as well.  They lost 1-2, but it was a good effort.  We dominated the game, but came up short.  Until indoor in January…..this is it for soccer.

taking one off the chest and knocking the wind out of her…..OUCH!

preparing for the drop kick

there it is…...

i thought this was funny - the girls chasing around an umbrella
in the rain at half time

always, ALWAYS got her tongue sticking out!!

"Saint Peter Pride"

And a few pics of the sideline fun……

Daddy, Maddie, and Grandma talking it over

Jack and Ella sharing some thoughts under the slide

weeeeee……...

Jack's last soccer game

Jack's last soccer game was a BUST!!  Right before his game came a HUGE storm…..like a spring time storm, eventho it's the middle of November.  So the game got cancelled.  His team went to CiCi's to celebrate their season and to pass out trophies.  Mike took Jack so that I could stay home and let Maddie take her nap.  Jack was happy as a clam with his new trophy and a full belly of cheap pizza!  Here is a picture of him in the kitchen with his new award.  Think he is proud??

We hope that next season brings less cartwheels and ninja moves, and more goals!!!  Basketball starts Thursday!!!

A bed full of Friedmans

Just a little show and a little reading in mom and dad's bed before hitting the sack……that's a lot of people in one bed!

A Quick Trip to the Farmers Market

This post is a little delinquent, as it happened a few weeks ago and I just came across the pictures on my phone.

Jack's class took a quick little trip down to Kirkwood's Farmers Market.  They got to play for a while and pick out a pumpkin.  Younger siblings got to go too, so Maddie got her first taste of kindergarten.

Some of the little girls in Jack's class thought she was the best thing ever.  She had some little mother hens….exactly what she is use to at home (PEYTON!).

tractor rides!

silly faces

two David Freese's looking over a baby

silly girl, in a mess of pumpkins

Lauren and Ella….two sweet little girls

Tommy makes it to kindergarten too!

Maddie and Andrew

Today we kept Andrew for a little while so Leigh-Anne could go to the doctor.  I put on my referee whistle and went to work.  These two are pretty funny!  Maddie wants EVERYTHING that Andrew picks up to play with.  But they actually did better today than they have in the past two weeks.  Maybe we are making some progress.  They played pretty well and we had a good ole time with our little buddy.

Maddie was happy to see Leigh-Anne return, because that meant the baby would be here.  Maddie LOVES babies.  She played with Luke for a little bit, and of course stole his binki too.

Andrew's got this screwdriver thing down pat

Maddie's trying to figure it out…..

ah, screw it, I'll just eat it

a little parallel play between the little ones

working and playing hard

some sweet snuggles for the sweet baby!!

Halloween!

Happy Halloween from some very special SUPER HEROS!!!  Peyton was Batwoman (I think she chose this costume, solely on the fact that the costume had "spikes " on the arms), Jack was Superman, and Maddie was Superwoman.

The Saturday night before Halloween we went to the kids' school for Trunk-or-Treat.  I think the kids had lots of fun.  As expected, Peyton came home with a pumpkin full of treats, as she clearly had a job to do at trunk-or-treat.  Jack on the other hand came home with a pumpkin that had about 5 treats in it (he clearly thought running around and playing with his friends sounded WAY more fun!).

Then Halloween night we took the kids to our old neighborhood.  It was raining, and YUCKY so Maddie, Mike and I stayed in the car and drove along the side of the big kids as they got out at trick-or-treated.  We saw some friendly old faces from our old neighborhood, and the kids made it out with LOTS of candy!  When we got back to our house there was still plenty of activity going on around here so we let the kids hit up a few houses here as well.

I think they would tell you they had a great Halloween!!

Wouldn't you agree….some cute little super heroes???

Once we got home the kids emptied out their loot and started taking inventory and sorting.  Maddie caught on QUICKLY and was quickly hoarding ALL the suckers.  It was hilarious!!  She then headed up the stairs with all of them.  She was headed to hide her goods.

good night….see you all later!  headed upstairs to make my stash

A Tea Party for 3

Three's a party!!