Pig Tails, Tree Trimming, Lego Fest, and Bike Theft

Hallie got the kids a pre-Halloween treat in the form of Franken Berry cereal. We know by our experience with Lucky Charms that Landon does not like the dehydrated marshmallows. Eliza has no such problem, as she showed when she snuck a few extra when she thought no one was looking.

Caught!

Eliza’s hair is getting long enough that it’s starting to get a bit unruly, so we are trying to get her used to the idea of wearing rubber bands in her hair. So cute!

"What're you looking at?"

Fall is really reaching a peak here, and throughout the neighborhood we see trees displaying their varied shades and leaves littering the ground in giant piles. Last week, a couple of guys had come down the street looking to trim back trees for a modest fee. Hallie has attempted to get the city to trim back our locust tree, but as the city continues to drag its bureaucratic heels, she decided to take the opportunity as it presented itself. Unfortunately, when the men came back, Hallie was out picking up the kids. They claimed to have finished the job, wanting nearly double what they’d offered to do it for, and they didn’t bother to clean up a significant portion of the litter. Oh, brother. The city is still coming to finish the job within the next few weeks, but we cleared out the mess, which we’ll use in the fire pit.

Hallie had wanted to take Landon to see a movie on Thursday, but Landon decided not to behave so well, so she kept the babysitter and had her own outing. Landon may have learned his lesson, because he managed to behave himself well enough on Friday to attend the Lego KidsFest out in Novi.

Note that he is using the awesome Lego camera he received a while back from Grandma and Grandpa. Every time Mike wanted to take his picture, Landon wanted to take one too. 

The Lighting McQueen sweatshirt was a nice touch. 

Landon put his little piece of the giant US map visitors put together in Texas. Very interesting. 

Ahoy, matey! 

Hallie and Eliza had their own girls’ night out at IKEA, where Hallie bought some organizational materials and Eliza pretended to play in a kid-sized kitchen. We’re really happy to see her beginning to chat and engage in imaginative play. She’s becoming quite the little mimic.

After we came home and as we were getting ready for bed, Hallie happened to look down at the garage (it’s detached and faces the back alley), and she noticed that the light was on. Mike went down to check, and he discovered that Hallie’s bike had been stolen. What’s peculiar about the situation is that whoever stole the bike took the time to remove the wicker basket hanging on the front of it and leave it behind. What? You can’t fence a basket as well as the rest of the bike. It appears that Hallie’s bike was the only thing stolen, and everyone else’s bike plus all other equipment remained pretty well untouched.

Landon played his last soccer game until April on Saturday. Rain threatened the whole time, but we dressed warm, and we managed to avoid getting wet. As goalie, Landon stopped two shots on goal. Good job! Later on, the grown-ups did some chores around the house while they watched the Tigers win a nail-biter over the Yankees. Should have been a shutout, but we’ll take the win. 

What with General Conference last week and all, we forgot it was Fast Sunday this week. We must have been too excited to try out Hallie’s super duper French toast. So delicious to our tummies. . . .