For Aunt Jackie and Uncle Sherm

Happy Birthday Mom/Yaya/Carolyn!!!

a long time coming

I've been promising a family update for a long loooooong time. Sorry it's been a while! We've had a busy October. Joseph's football season came to a close, Carolyn's vocabulary has launched her into a whole new realm of hilarity, Joe's work continues to keep him busy (which is a good thing), and I am doing my best to document it all for posterity's sake.

The kids and I decided to go to Florida for a long weekend at Halloween, because Joseph had some time off of school. In preparaion, we took the kids to see Miss Libia for haircuts:

Carolyn got her sunglasses out and ready to take to the beach:And the night before we left, we scooped out pumpkins and Joe helped carve the faces.Carolyn continues to be enthralled with spiders, and The Itsy Bitsy Spider is the ONLY book she wants to read at night. So this is hers:Joseph's had a face that was either on fire or crying, depending on who you ask:We got to Florida with no mishaps. Carolyn, however, decided this time she would not stay in her pack and play. So there were various attempts to get her to fall asleep in our arms each night.Joseph and I took an afternoon to go to the beach by ourselves.Can you even stand how grown up he looks in this picture?Carolyn is in a phase right now where she prefers to hang out in as little clothing as possible.I have never ever in my life spent a Halloween afternoon lounging in the sun at the beach. I will admit, I loved it and would prefer to spend it no other way. These two agree:Carolyn modeling her costume. The cutest little ballerina you ever saw:My little Halloweenies:

A good time was had by all.

We got home, and a few days later Carolyn decided to pull her potty chair out to play with it. What you can't see here is that she removed her leggings AND her diaper all on her own, and is sitting on her potty! She didn't produce anything yet, but this game kept her occupied for about 2 hours Saturday morning. We celebrated Joseph's report card by going to BW-3 the other night. He did extremely well (the equivalent of all As, 2 levels higher than he needs to be in Reading, and a sticker on the report that said A+) and we were very proud.

Joe happened to check on Carolyn later that night to make sure she was under all of her covers. This is what he found:

We can't believe it's already November! Stay tuned for another hit from the O'Lear Family Birthday Singers, coming soon . . .

Some Clips from the Fair

In the car on the way to the fair . . .Wading through the swarms of people going in . . .A rare moment when Joseph would let me photograph him!

Carolyn and Tinnie. This made us laugh.

The kids on a ride.

Carolyn would nibble out the onion and leave the fried part.

Mad that she had to get off the Merry Go Round. Joseph actually let me hold his hand.

The kids were thrilled with hot dogs and fries in a cup.

And this is the fried basket we discovered last year - zucchini, shrooms, onions, cauliflower and broccoli. Happy girl.

Some clips of our day!

Happy Birthday Mr Morris the Girl

itsy bitsy spider

She got a book about the Itsy Bitsy Spider for her birthday, and reads it about a million times a day. And she sings.

Mental Health Day

So, I'm feeling a little lazy today, and Carolyn and The Great 2 Year Molar Extravaganza of Oh Nine has her a bit out of sorts, so we're going easy on the productivity. So, I set up the camera to capture a few minutes of our singing, counting, and coloring. Enjoy!