Halloween Weekend

The kids, Luke, Grace, Eva, and Lily later joined by Reina and Ryan went to 27 houses and ran the entire way.  The kids loved trick or treating so much this year. 

One of Luke's friends hosted the entire first grade class for a Halloween party.  Here they are posing for a picture before the hike.

For the fall birthdays in my family we went for the hike with the cousins.  The kids sprinted ahead and tried to scare us by jumping out of the bushes.

 

Eva got her own girl cake this year.  She has always liked this Dora cake when she would see it in the store.

Sorry this one is a little off center, but here are Bennett, Andrew, and Boden with their Angry Birds cake and the rest of the cousins.

Now, on to a shower for Dave's sister Jackie.  Here she is holding Drew, the newest addition to the Krause side.

 

 Jackie and Riley completed a relay to test their physical readiness to have a baby, a drinking test, and a intellectual quiz to see who was the more prepared parent.  Jackie won 2/3.

 

Sunday hike with the kids

 

 

What would I do without my pink laundry?

Eva has sugar and spice and everything nice.  Girls have a special way about them.  I love how she skips everywhere, dances in the grocery store, and sings instead of talking.  She is the greatest example of living life to the fullest and she gives me a reason to as well.  I love when she comments on things being beautiful or amazing.  I love how she laughs at everything.  She is so caring and kind.  She helps Luke when he gets hurt by bringing him bandaids and his favorite stuffed animal.  She still gives great hugs and says I love you often.  I am so lucky to have her and I don't know what I would do without her.

Although she is sweet she can keep up with all of the older boys... like her brother and her 6 boy cousins and she will be leading the younger boys as well, her new brother in November and new boy cousin in January.  She will try anything.  She is good at batting, running, scooting, biking, doing the monkey bars, etc.  The picture below is of Eva doing her "wheelie."  The have scooter races with the neighbors and they call anytime they lift up one foot a wheelie.  She is actually a little too good and too fast on this scooter for a three year old.

Who knew a three year old could also ride a bike without training wheels?  Second children do learn everything so fast.  I love her boy bike and boy helmet as she pedals around our street.

Eva has also been doing so well with spelling words and beginning to read.  She really enjoys it.  I think girls just like some aspects of school more than boys.

 

And now... she is four!  I will miss my three year old Eva but I love her more and more every day.  We had such a special day today.  Eva helped make her cake and muffins for school.  She got to orbit the sun four times at her Montessori celebration.  Luke helped decorate her room.  Eva danced in her new dress up outfits to the music from her new piano.  Luke gave her a magnadoodle which they both loved.  I love seeing the sparkle in Eva's eye on such a special day.

You will always be my favorite girl.

Luke lately

Luke's curiosity level is so high it is good he was born in the age of Google.  Luke loves looking up some of the biggest and fastest things in the world.  He asks me, I estimate and am usually off by a factor of 5, and then we check on the computer.  Here are some of his favorites on You-tube or Google.

Top 5 fastest men ever in 100m
Fastest superbike in the world
Smallest weight in the universe
Bloodhound scc breaks the 1,000 mile barrier
2011 ReMax World Long Drive Championship
260 mph drag boat
15 fastest things in the universe...the problem is number one is a hypothetical physics theory of a tachyon that travels faster than the speed of light.  Luke loves it and pretrends to travel on one and calculates the time it will take to get to Eris.  The only thing is that in his mind it is not hypothetical.

Yesterday Luke wanted to calculate the weight of everyone on Pluto...

• Luke 3.08 pounds
• Eva 2.04 pounds
• Baby 0.5 pounds
• Ollie the stuffed animal 4.95 grams
• Lewis the stuffed animal 5.09 grams
• Lamby the stuffed animal 8.7 grams

He also wants to go to Australia to golf on the longest golf course in the world.  I told him that tickets were a little expensive, $2,000 each.  So here is his plan... right now his rate is 25 cents a job above and beyond his normal chores.  If he does really well he can earn about $10 a month, $120 a year.  Then when he is 12 years old I am having on him do some babysitting where he should get payed better, he may even be a caddy at 14 so I figured $240 a year.  When he is 16 he can get a job at Aldi where he can make $11/hour and he will need to work there for about 18 weeks.  He was asking about his training and how he will know the codes to everything and I reassured him about the training process.  So in 10 years he will have saved over $4,000 for plane tickets.  He plans to pay for Eva's ticket in full.  He also wants to have some money left over.  These calculations don't include giving or spending... but he is so sweet in his goal setting and taking care of his little sister.