The Muench Bunch

Two in the tub is always better than one. I have always had the boys take a bath together. They are pretty entertaining!

This was my parents big Anniversary, the number 40. I tried to plan a nice party for them in Ames. It was not a surprise party, and I had it at the Legends restaurant in Ames. This is in campustown on the top floor of a very tall building. It looks over the whole city of Ames. It is a very neat view. We invited a few friends and relatives and expected roughly 25 people. The room we were in seated 25 and was very small. We were pretty packed in. We had a slidehow I put together and a cake for the party. Juggling the 3 kids, I felt terrible as I did not get a chance to get many photos and the one of them ended up blurry. Some photographer I am.

Jacob’s pre -school class took a field trip to the Ft. Dodge apple orchard and I got to go along. The kids got to take a tour of the apple orchard area and a brief tour through the apple cider area and apple sorting facility. Jacob has a short attention span and is usually off looking at something else or not paying attention. At the end the kids got to pick a small pumpkin out of the patch. It had rained so it was very muddy. It was fun to see all the kids and who Jacob's friends are. One of Jake’s best buddies is another boy named Jacob. He also has a girlfriend, Livia. She is a doll, super blonde hair. Turns out her mom, Peggy, used to play basketball against me from Webster City. We have had some fun talks while waiting to pick our kids up after pre -school.

Jayden has 3 best friends in school, Hannah, Claire, and Mckenna. She is already having friend troubles. The girls are all friends with Jayden, but not so much with one another. She has many days coming home asking mommy what should she do? I usually tell her to go play with the boys for awhile. Also, ever since the beginning of 3rd grade, Jayden and her friends all wear a little t-shirt bra I think it is kind of funny. Jayden has to wear one every day.

On Saturday the kids wanted to go to Grandma & Grandpa Muench’s for the day. Jayden was Grammer’s little cook in the kitchen. She helped core and slice apples for apple pies, then she made 2 batches of cookies. On another weekend when cousins Jaynie and Maggie were at Grandma’s too, Jayden made cookies with them. She read the recipe and supervised the cousins. She did it all without any help. They made 2 batches of peanut butter cookies. On Sunday morning, Jayden decided she wanted to make eggs as she had watched Po Po make them the day before. She made scrambled eggs over the stove all by herself. She did an excellent job. She continues to amaze us daily. She is always getting tea for Daddy, or mixing up a pink milk for herself and Jake. Whenever she gets a snack or drink for herself, she usually makes two and gets one for Jake. She is very considerate and so mature.

Jake is 100% all boy. He has been so into bugs and toads. He finds toads in the yard and has a little house for them. He likes crickets and locusts. He likes any bug that crawls except spiders and that comes from my fear of them. Most days Jake is muddy and dirty. He also enjoys rolling over the dog, tackling her to the ground and rolling and laying on her. He smells so awful after that! He also spends a lot of time in hi big sand box. We all joke that Jacob needs to got to an anger management class. He has such a temper and gets angry over the silliest things. Once he’s mad, he makes it worse on himself, such as throwing a toy away.. He is such a strong willed child. Lately when we ask him to do something he says in such a growly way, “All right, all right, all right!”

Adorable!, that is the word that best describes this phase for Luke. First he got two bottom teeth that came in together, then 4 top teeth came in together. None of them are completely in and he looks so cute. He flashes that big adorable smile all the time and giggles tons when tickled. At 8 months, he is sitting up really well for a long time, but eventually topples over, sometimes hard and cries. He has been working so hard on crawling. Luke gets up on all 4’s and rocks, puts his head on the ground, then straightens his legs. He also moves his front a little then slides on his belly to get somewhere. It’s not quite an army crawl, more like a seal. It is too funny. He enjoys the Johnny jumper and the exersaucer. Most of all, he loves outdoors. I set the playpen on the deck and he sits out there happy as can be. We have one cat that is infatuated with Luke and won’t leave him alone. We also go on stroller rides down the road, sometimes in the double jogger with Jake. He is eating bab

This is the first time I have ever seen butterflies in such a clump. There were thousands of them covering our trees. It was so cool.

Every year we take the kids to the big rodeo. It is always a challenge trying to find a good place to sit. The kids always want to be by friends or cousins and the place is super packed. It is also on the gigantic hill. Luke was with a sitter. We did end up with a row of lawn chairs by some of the cousins. Jake had his cowboy hat with his long long pheasant feather. He is proud of that feather and looks so darn cute in it. With his feather sticking way out, it brushed by everyone in passing. As soon as the large boom from the cannon went off, Jake had his ears covered. I felt bad for him. The songs and the announcer were so loud. I think my kids have extra sensitive ears. After an hour of holding his ears, I took him to the bathroom and stuffed T.P in them. I always like the Dayton rodeo, just wish I was running and not watching. They used to sanction the rodeo with some of the Iowa associations. Anymore you have to have a Pro card.