Pudge turns 8!

Pudge’s birthday fell on the kids’ Thanksgiving break so he got a few extra days to celebrate after Thanksgiving Day. 

Over the weekend he watched The Lion King 2, ate seafood, had a family dance party, 

Spent the morning looking at animals at one of the local pet stores...

He came home with 5 hermit crabs but wanted every animal in the store!

He got TWO cakes! Mama made him a strawberry and chocolate cake with chocolate whipped cream, fruit, and shredded coconut 

Then the next night was an Oreo cake with doughnuts on top (this is the cake thatbhe has requested for his birthday after seeing that Little Bear had a similar one years ago in one of our blog books).

and he spent a lot of time reading his new Dog Man series books. 

Cardboard City

Pudge’s grade had a really fun event at school where they made a world from recycled objects and crafts. The kids were broken into groups and assigned a building that would be found in a community (farm, store, school, firehouse, etc) to make as a group and then they each made an individual house. The parents were able to help but the kids were to mostly create them on their own and at the end everything was placed together to make a community.

His group was assigned a “store” and they decided to make it Target.

A weekend with Grandma

Grandma came down to visit Saturday evening at dinner time and stayed until Monday. Saturday, we had dinner and then went downstairs for the kids to play pool with her and then watch Mr. Bean while munching on popcorn.

Sunday morning, we made apple cinnamon oatmeal and cinnamon sugar biscuits and the adults relaxed by the fire while the kids ran around outside.  

The kids later convinced Grandma to play soccer with then in the morning.


In the afternoon, we checked the trail cameras and saw that we had a lot of deer, bunny, and squirrel visitors recently. We did some yard work and moved the outdoor furniture back into the sun room after lunch. The kids spent the afternoon playing pool and with play dough with Grandma. 

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Baby kisses from Cuatro

Cuatro has been obsessed with giving the baby kisses for the past few days. If I lay down, the kids are able to feel her move now which they think is the coolest thing. Cuatro is constantly lifting my shirt to kiss my belly which is adorable except when he tries to do it in public and then has a tantrum when I don’t let him. 

(He has a runny nose and had just had his face cleaned which is why his face looks red)

Halloween 2018

This year the kids were told to pick from the huge collection of costumes already in their playroom or closets for Halloween. They had fun deciding what they were going to be and had a tough time picking only one costume (so Pudge and Pequeño both ended up changing up their costumes between school and trick or treating).

School Parade:

Pequeño wanted to be a cat (he wore the Cat in the Hat costume and added a cat ear headband)

Pudge was an astronaut.... I was trying to figure out what was in his mouth and then he showed us...

The teacher had given the class glow in the dark vampire teeth so he had decided to make it a scary astronaut.

Middle school doesn’t wear costumes or have a parade.

That night, they were all excited to go trick or treating.

Little Bear was a soccer ref (he had a yellow card and a red card to hold up), Pudge was a vampire, Pequeño was The Cat in the Hat, and Cuatro was a giraffe.

Cuatro has to be bribed with a small lollipop to keep the hood up on his costume but he quickly forgot about it.

Titi C and her pup went with us too! They were Boo and Sully. 

Tio C joined us towards the end of the night and both Titi and Tio stayed over. 

Everyone had a fun time trick or treating and we had a lot of laughs when people thought that Titi C was one of our children. One person thought she was 12/13 years old (she was actually 27). 

We made it home before the rain started and the kids ran to the library to look through the candy and make trades. They all received SO MUCH CANDY. They all gave some to Tio C and were able to eat some, pack a ziplock bag of the ones they really wanted, and then the rest were put into a big container. 

Some of Little Bear’s candy (he had more in another zipper of that bag still)

Pudge’s candy (Cuatro for a few things from each brother but we didn’t have him get candy while walking around because he was happy to have one lollipop the entire time and wave at all the neighbors)

Pequeño’s candy

The next morning, Abuelo and Abuela came down to spend the day with us. Little Bear was supposed to have a soccer game but it was cancelled due to rain so we spent the day relaxing at the house which was nice.

The kids ran around with Stella, played with Tio C and Titi C, read with Abuela, and played pool with Abuelo.

There was a Penn State game on so of course that’s how we spent the evening. 

*Our area celebrates Halloween on the Friday before the actual date. 

Baby #5 is a..

GIRL!

I think that we are all still a little in shock that we will be adding a little girl to our crew in a few months. 

Since the kids weren’t able to join us for the anatomy scan this time, we wanted to surprise them when they got home. They were all really excited to find out and their initial reactions were varied since they all had been thinking that they would have another brother. 

(not the prettiest cake ... but no one was concerned with the outside...)

Pink!

They’re all coming around to the idea that they will have a sister but Pudge and Pequeño have made it known that they are a little concerned that the playroom is going to be attacked with the color pink. 

Roba’s 2018

This year our trip to Roba’s was a quick one. Tio E and family were able to come which made it even more fun.

Feeding the animals is always one of their favorite things about going to Roba’s. 


They chose the big corn maze this year and multiple kids slipped and got covered in mud before we found our way out. They had a blast! 

The crew:


When we exited the corn maze, it was starting to sleet and the wind was picking up so we went to one of the big tents to make our plans. 

Abuela gave the kids a few French fries while we were waiting for the sleet to stop. Papa, Pudge, and Pequeño went to play some of the games while the others ate a snack. 




Once everyone was done, the kids were getting cold so we decided to pack up and head to Abuelo’s house for lunch and to spend the afternoon together. (Once we got there, we threw the kids muddy clothes in the washer so they were wearing shorts that Abuela had at the house.)

Even though we didn’t get to spend the whole day at the farm like we usually would, the kids had a great time and have already asked if their cousins can come with us when we go next year too!