2. Ouf of the Mouths of Babes

• Evelyn started to read "If You Give a Moose a Muffin" out loud and said, "Once upon a time, there was a moose."  Not exactly how the story starts, but super cute.
• When we were on our Mexico trip, Aunt Rachel asked Evelyn if she wanted to talk to us on the phone, and Evelyn said "No, thanks." She was having too much fun with her current activity.
• Maggie has been wanting to be 5 1/2 (instead of just 5) for a long time.  We told her that she would be 5 1/2 after Halloween, and she took that literally.  She said in her prayer today that she was grateful that she was 5 1/2.  Since Evelyn is 2 1/2, Maggie also said, "Evy and I are the only ones in the family who are 'in a half.' Jared is not 'in a half.'"
• Evy looked straight up at Alan today while they were standing toe to toe and asked "How are you today?"  Alan said, "I'm fine!  How are you today, Evelyn?"  "I'm good."
• Evelyn wore a tiger costume for Halloween, but she insisted she was "Daniel Tiger" from one of her favorite shows.  We were trying to get her to tell others that she was Daniel Tiger, so we said, "Evy, who are you today?" and instead of saying "Daniel Tiger" she said, "I'm Evy."
• Jared still pretends he has "The Force."  He used it just today to open and shut our automatic door on our car.  He didn't know anyone was watching.
• Evelyn sometimes gets sad when Maggie and Jared are gone and will say "I need Maggie" or "I need Jared."
• We told Evelyn not to jump on the bed, and she said "I'm just leaping."
• While I was changing Evy's poopy diaper this week, I asked rhetorically, "Evelyn, why are you so stinky?" and she said, "Because a big poop came out of my bum."  
• Maggie and Evelyn like to pretend to be kitties.  They crawl on all fours and meow in a high voice.
• We were trying to convince Jared to read the Harry Potter books, and he said "Over my dead body."  Then he started reading them on our trip to Cancun and couldn't put them down.  He read the second one in one day.  

Lost tooth

Maggie lost her first tooth last week!  There was some trauma with trying to pull it out, but once it finally came out, she was so excited to see what the tooth fairy would bring her.

Also, I found this hilarious shirt for Jared at Target.  I thought it was funny on so many levels.  He loves Despicable Me, he loves learning about the periodic table, and he is, quite frankly, a little genius.

Oh, and here's a little preview for Halloween next week:

Evelyn keeps calling herself Daniel Tiger.  She loves watching that show on Netflix.

1. Out of the Mouths of Babes

Alan and I decided that we want to take 10 minutes each week to write down funny things the kids say and do.  Since not many people read this blog anymore, this is mostly just a way for us to journal.

• Evelyn always says "mine" instead of "my": "I need mine sippy" or "Where is mine blanket?"
• Evelyn says "I don't need that" whenever she is done with something. We took the kids to an art museum, and she said, "I don't need these pictures." In fairness, the pictures were rather strange.
• On Sept. 26th there was a blood moon/super moon.  Jared was outside looking at it with us and said (very poetically), "In the shadow of the earth the moon may blush."  We laughed and wondered where on earth he had heard that.  It was from a flash card about the moon that he has, but we were amazed that he could recall it verbatim.
• Maggie likes to hide under her favorite pink blanket right outside our bedroom door and pretend to be a "lump."  She will stay there for a long time waiting for us to open our door and come out.  
• Maggie still says "flamily" instead of family and "amilals" instead of animals.  Her made-up pronunciation is more difficult than the correct pronunciation. 
• Jared makes up meaningless statistics to try and prove his point: "99.7% of the time I obey you without arguing."  Any readers should note this is not anywhere near true.  :)
• Jared still partially believes he has the Force and can use Jedi mind tricks on people.  
• When we told Maggie yesterday that we were going out to breakfast she shouted, "Yay!  That makes me want to scream!"  
• Maggie always wants to make sure she is older than her other 5-year-old cousins.  She asks Jenny all the time if she is bigger than Summer and Gabe.  
• Maggie does a pretty good rendition of Barbra Streisand's "I'm five, I'm five" song.

Pinewood Derby

One of the necessary evils of being a cub scout is having to participate in the Pinewood Derby.  Seriously, I wonder what the benefits of such a competition are...

In August, Alan and Jared put together Jared's car.  They didn't do anything super fancy, but it still took a lot of time.  Well, Jared's car got 10th place out of 21 total cars.  We were pretty happy to be in the middle somewhere and not come in dead last or anything. :)  The guy who was in charge of the track said at the beginning of the race that it was pretty good to have your car come in under 3 seconds, so we were proud of our 2.94 average time!  

Jared got the "Greased Lightning" award

And....a random picture of Maggie and Evy before church one day

1st Day of School!

We actually had two first days of school around here, since Jared started 3rd grade a week before Maggie started PM Kindergarten.  

I did not have ANY apprehension for the beginning of the year this year.  Both of my kids were assigned great teachers, and both were really excited for the school year to start.  

Jared's first day of 3rd grade

Lining up after the bell rang

Maggie's first day of Kindergarten--still working on eye contact for pictures.  Ha ha.

Maggie and the school mascot.  Many Kindergarteners and younger siblings were scared of the eagle, but Evelyn loved it!  She still often talks about the eagle we saw.  

Maggie and her principal, Miss K.

Maggie and her cousin are in the same class!

Maggie is sitting right by two friends from our ward

PM Kindergarten is the best.  I love that Maggie still gets to be my buddy all morning long this year. I love having her around to help me and to play with Evelyn.  Lately they have learned to play better together.  She has grown up so much lately!

Zoo

The zoo is so expensive, and we live too far away to make good use of an annual pass, so usually we only go to the zoo on the free days in the winter.  This last year we went on December 31st, and the temperature was in the single digits when we arrived in the morning!  

This summer Alan's sister Alana told me she had a pass where she could get a couple guests in free, so she was so awesome to meet us there the day before school started for the kids.  It was such a great ending to our summer break.  

 They had their Zoorassic Park exhibits up with the robotic dinosaurs.  They looked very real and kind of scared Evy.  She even started trembling sometimes when we got too close!

Maggie on the lighthouse slids

 The kids loved the carousel!  Maggie rode on a polar bear, Evy rode on a rhino, and Jared picked a snake (of course.)

 Of course, we have to get the classic pictures in the lion's mouth.  I have pictures of me doing the exact same thing when I was little.

This robotic dinosaur spit water at Jared and Maggie.  

We got to pet a snake on our way out of the zoo

End of Summer

I barely remembered before summer was over to get some pictures of my kids swimming with their cousins at Grandma C.'s pool.  Seriously, we are so lucky that she has a pool for us to use all the time!  We seriously went swimming 2-3 times a week on average, and both Jared and Maggie have gotten so good!  I can't wait to see how well they do next time in swimming lessons.  

Maggie and Summer in the hot tub.  You have to be 5 years old in order to be allowed in the hot tub, so this was a big summer for both of them.  

Jared and Charity

Evy liked to dip her feet in the hot tub, since she wasn't allowed

Evy and Grandma

Maggie showing me her moves!

We also obtained some free passes to Seven Peaks at the end of the summer, so we went there one day, too.  I didn't take any pictures, but it was super fun!

 Aunt Emma and Angela came and spent a night with us recently.  Here is Emma cuddling with Evy.