Look What Wubba Can Do

Bryan was laying on the floor playing with his toys and getting up on his hands and knees or hands and feet and rocking. I ran to the laundry room to stick in some clothes and came back to discover Bryan sitting in the middle of the floor. I called Landon in to ask him if he sat him there and he got all excited and said Bryan is sitting all by himself. So he didn't sit him up. We have tried to get him to sit and he usually just tumbles over to one side or the other after a couple of seconds. This time however he sat there long enough for me to run and grab the camera and take a few pictures. He is not a big fan of the camera flash so he doesn't look to happy in the pictures but he was thrilled that we were all so excited for him.

[caption id="attachment_97" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="The Wubba can sit at 6 mos"][/caption]

Look who is 6 months old

[caption id="attachment_102" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="Look who is 6 months old"][/caption]

The Big Road Trip of Fall Break

On Saturday of fall break (back at the end of October) we decided we would take the kids to Cincinnati to see the Newport Aquarium and to visit Ikea. Mom volunteered to keep Wubba as he wasn't really interested in going to see fish and we need a judge's permission to take him out of state. On Saturday morning we load everyone up head up to Mom's to drop of the Wubman and Lexi says she doesn't want to go with us she wants to stay with Oma. Jason, Mom and I all tried to convince her that it would be more fun to go with us but she was insistent that she didn't want to go so Oma said she could stay. The remaining 5 Frenchs headed out for Cincinnati. First stop the Newport Aquarium, they were having a special Halloween promotion where kids got in for $5 if they wore costume so we got clothes out of the dress up box for them and took our Firefighter, Pirate and chicken to the aquarium.

We saw an underwater pirate show and after the show they invited the kids up to the "stage" to pose for pictures. The boys were excited to get up there and check things out, Brenna wasn't interested at all.

We saw giant turtle and the boys gave him Turtle High Five.

We went to shark video show. It was only few minutes long but you watched it standing on a platform that moved with the show. The show was like you were in a shark cage underwater. It was interesting but the movements were freaky.

The kids got to pick a little pumpkin from a pumpkin patch outside the frog bog. The frog bog was full of all kinds of frogs. I loved seeing the neon colored dart frogs to bad they are poisonous as they sure are cute.

After the frog bog we went to go see the otters and lorikeets but the stroller wasn't allowed in the lorikeet area so Jason took Brenna around and me and the boys went in. The otters were sleeping so not much to see and boy did they smell bad so we hurried over to the lorikeet area. You could buy a little cup of nectar for $1 to feed them but I had left my purse with Jason so we couldn't buy any. While we were watching the birds we found a cup that someone left and Landon really wanted a bird to stand on him so we tried to get one to come to him. I got one on my hand then it walked on Landon but then quickly came back to my hand and went up my arm on to my shoulder. Since he was on my shoulder I kept feeding him and then two more joined him and I became the the bird lady. The boys thought it was hilarious that the birds liked me. We were all laughing until one of the birds peed on my back then it wasn't so much fun for me. I got them off of me and we went out to meet Jason and Brenna. Jason laughed at me and the boys were so excited that they drug Jason back in to the exhibit so he could see the birds. Then Brenna wanted to go in so we left the stroller and headed back. Brenna was feeding one of the birds and it either nibbled her finger or got on her and freaked her out and she hollered and made the bird fly off towards a guy and his daughter behind Brenna, it scared the guy who was squatting behind his daughter and he fell backwards and the boys were laughing again. Here is a picture of our little friend.

After the fun of Lorikeet adventure we head on to a tunnel where they would be doing underwater pumpking carving. Liam really liked this and didn't want to leave until they finished the pumpkin carving. It takes a long time to carve a pumpkin underwater but did you know that when you are done the fish that live in the area are thrilled as they like to snack on pumpkin. Who would have thought that fish would like pumpkin. When were finally able to convince Liam to move on we happened on to the end of the underwater pirate show. The diver "pirates" are great. They really make a fuss with the kids watching. Landon found one and they played patty cake through the glass.

Then they helped direct him to attack the other pirate that was with him.

The boys thought that was just great. On to our last big stop. The shark petting area. Liam was in heaven. Landon and Brenna aren't quite calm enough to entice the sharks close enough to pet but Liam was incredibly patient and gently with the sharks.

Liam enjoyed the shark area so much he insisted on staying there while the other kids went to see the penguins near by. He eventually relented and joined the others at the penguins but kept asking to go back and pet the sharks. I guess he gets that from me. When Jason and I went to Florida last year I spent a very long time at the aquarium we visited's stingray petting tank. We were there so long that the volunteer that was there when we got to the tank left and came back for another rotation at the ray tank. After the penguins and the sharks we reached the end of our aquarium experience and we headed out with three happy and tired kiddos.

From the aquarium we went to check out the world of Ikea. That is one amazing store. We let the older boys go play in the kids only supervised indoor playground while Brenna, Jason and I checked out the rest of the store. Man is that one neat store. If we would have had room in the van and more money in our account we would have brought home all kinds of great things for the house and kids. We managed to get just a few little things and this high chair for the Wubba.

[caption id="attachment_100" align="aligncenter" width="250" caption="The Wubba's new chair"][/caption]

After taking in the whole Ikea store we checked out, gathered the boys, and it was time to head for home. We had a blast and I am so glad we all got to go on at least one day get away this year.

We got Pac Man Fever, Pac Man Fever...

Pac Man Fever took over our house for Halloween this year. The kids looked adorable in their outfits and Jason and I had a good time making them. It was fun to work on them with him. Usually I am sewing or crafting by myself but this time he helped make them the costumes. He cut out the ghosts and their eyes and I sewed them all together. Pac Man was a definitely a join effort. Jason created the frame and foundation and I worked on sewing the cover on and creating his mouth, which included a pouch so that people could "feed" pac man Liam's treats. Liam loved this part, but his favorite part was when the mouth was full we would empty it in to his bag. We came to calling it Pac Man puke, and Liam loved to say I think Pac Man needs to puke.

Here is Pinky

Inky

Blinky

and last but not least Clyde

Blinky is orange and Clyde is red but they both kind of turned out orangey red in their pictures, unfortunately. Mom and Bill came over to see the kids in their costumes and walked around with us for awhile. When we got back to our house after just one loop they were done with trick or treating and ready to pass out candy instead of collecting. Mom wanted a family picture of us with the kids so this is the best we could do. So I will leave you with our family picture and some random photos of the kids trick or treating.

Our first stop

and posing by the rock (it's in someone's yard but they love it)

Happy Halloween, Our Pumpkins for the year

Happy Halloween 2008. Tonight we will be going out with kids dressed as Pac Man and the 4 ghosts: Inky, Blinky, Pinky and Clyde. Pictures to follow as I have not been able to get all 5 of them together in costume for a picture. Until we have pictures of the Pac Man crew I have pictures of the family pumpkins for this year.

Of course we have Pac Man and the ghost for Liam


Then Lexi wanted a princess

Landon said he wanted a racecar until I found Leo from the Little Einstein and then he was thrilled with Leo

Finally Brenna is all about the happy face lately so I found this Happy for her

We got a little pumpkin for Wubba but it is too little to really carve in to something. I am going to try and get his picture in his costume with his little pumpkin.

And the Winner Is

You know how no good can come from kids being quiet. Jason and I were chilling on the couch and thought all the kiddos were playing in the basement or so we thought. When Brenna came in saying she needed a wipe



and one more



When she first walked in I thought she was bleeding but it turns out she just lost the battle with the burgundy sharpie. And in this case there was a second loser,

My kitchen table, luckily sharpie does wash off tile but not so much the painted wood areas. Just in case you need to know, baby wipes do a pretty good job of removing sharpie from 2 year old's eyelids, chin and nose. There is definitely not a lot of dull moments with 5 kids in the house.

Flashback: First Day of School Pics

I had trouble finding Landon's first day of school picture as Jason took him and to use our little camera to take the pic and when I download that camera the date is wacky and I never know where it puts the pictures. So now that I have found Landon's picture here are all the kiddos in their first day of school giddiness.

The Boy Wonder started 2nd Grade

Alexis entered the big world of Kindergarten and K+ allowing her to go all day.

Then Landon went to 4's Preschool and has the same teachers Liam and Lexi had.

Then Little Ms. Brenna started attending the 2's class

with a backpack almost as big as she is. She was so excited going to school, ran in and hugged the teachers and started playing and all was good until I said "Have fun and I will see you in a little bit" then the gig was up and she wanted no part of me leaving her there. But I sucked it up and headed out and she did fine and had a great time.

Here is how Kindergarten and 2nd grade ended for the oldest two.


I can't decide if they are happy to be home or are excited about their first day but they sure were happy getting off the bus.