Dave’s parents came to visit over Columbus Day Weekend. We were able to cram a lot into the time they were here.

Adam had a very chilly soccer game on Saturday morning. That afternoon, we took the kids to the zoo to go trick-or-treating. We got a lot of comments on their costumes (more on those later) and they had a great time. On the way to the zoo, we stopped to check out a sailboat that Grandpa Kurt had been wanting to see in person. Adam thought it was really cool too.

Sunday, we visited a local pumpkin patch and went on a hayride. Adam and Grandma Cathy took their job of finding the perfect pumpkin very seriously, and they found a great one.

We kept Grandpa Kurt busy with all sorts of projects (he’s going to stop “vacationing” with us if we’re not careful). He and Dave built an amazing new bookshelf for Maggie.

It turned out great and I just need to get it painted.

They also built a very heavy, very sturdy, very awesome picnic table.

It was a fun, and productive, visit.

This girl is just a ball of fire.

One of my favorite things she does right now, is when she sneezes, she immediately says, “Bless you, me” afterwards.

For some reason, Adam refers to these as his “Elvis Pants”. I don’t know where he came up with that name or what he thinks it means, but it cracks me up. Adam dresses up for school one day a week. I normally have him do it on Wednesdays, since he has church school and doesn’t have gym or art. So “Elvis Pants” are becoming his Wednesday favorite.

Luke, on the other hand, has a style all his own. One day last week he told me that he wants to wear his “shirt with the dots”. I was confused, because he doesn’t have any polka-dot shirts. I asked him if maybe he meant the striped shirt, and he pointed to a button down plaid shirt. Then he asked me if I would help him “to do the dots” – that’s when I realized he was calling buttons “dots”.

I also love how he asks each morning if he should wear shorts or “pants with sleeves”.

I am less enamored with how he is fighting me on cutting his fingernails because, “kitties have long claws”.

These are the little things I want to remember – like how Adam always used to say “to why” instead of because. Eventually I will get around to baby books for them all – maybe before they graduate high school. If not, at least I’m capturing some of it here.

I snapped a picture of Maggie during her gymnastics class.

Dave helped coach Luke’s soccer team. One of the regular coaches was out of town, and as you can see, Dave took his responsibilities very seriously.

Luke’s team spent some time practicing and then scrimmaged against some of the other teams.

Luke participated for almost the entire practice.

Almost.

I’m not sure I’ve mentioned it here, but the organization the kids play soccer in is huge. There are 110 kids that play in the 4-year-old age division. There are 12 teams in Adam’s division (1st grade co-ed) and there are another 6 girls only 1st grade teams. If there are 11 kids on each team, that’s almost 200 first graders.

Hopefully Luke will decide he wants to play in the spring, and not just meow on the sidelines.