Happy Halloween!

This is the first year that the boys have been talking non-stop about Halloween and counting down the days! They came home about a month ago requesting to be Transformers. They had no clue who they were...they just knew they were cool and everyone was going as them. To make things simple for me, I ordered them Transformer costumes (mortal enemy costumes at that). Connor went as Bumblebee and Brady went as Megatron. To give them some idea of what the Transformers are, I also got them their first Transformer toy.

Halloween finally arrived! The boys spent a quiet day at home before heading out to Mimi's and Papa's for the first round of trick-or-treating. We visited a few houses in their neighborhood while visiting with their cousins, D & E. We then stayed for our annual Halloween dinner before heading to Grandma Darla's and Papa's. We visited a few houses in their neighborhood and then decided we were done for the night. We stayed at Grandma's for a visit and desserts. As if we needed Brownies after loading up the bags with candy!

Considering the fact that the boys only went to about 10-12 houses, they ended up with a 1/2 a bag each. They were still a little shy this year about saying trick-or-treat until they got to my parents neighborhood. By then, Brady was saying "trick or treat, give me something good to eat" and Connor was in story-telling mode. He would say "Guess what or I have something to tell you" and if they entertained his question, he would proceed to tell them all about the train we saw on the way over and why trains don't have cabooses anymore. Yet again, we skipped our neighborhood and we missed all the trick-or-treaters. Guess that means more candy for us!

Happy Halloween to all our friends and family!

Autumn Fest

Friday night, we ventured out to an autumn fest at a nearby church. Even though it was a rainy night, they managed to put on a good evening of fun and games for the kids. They had food booths set up under a massive tent, so we started the evening with a nice dinner of pizza, hot dogs, chili and desserts (for only $6).

We then proceeded inside where they had several game booths setup for the kids to win candy. It was crowded, but the boys didn't seem to mind. We then headed to the petting zoo area where they had a few rabbits, a couple goats, a guinea pig and RATS! The boys were typical - wouldn't touch them but talked non-stop about them afterwards. The final stop was the inflatable bounce houses. For the older kids, they had a mechanical bull, bungee trampoline, and rock climbing wall. Connor got a big kick out of watching kids try to get on and stay on the bull. We weren't sure if Brady was going to make it through one of the inflatables that required climbing a large wall and then sliding down the other side, but he managed it just fine.

It turned out to be a nice evening out with the boys, saw a few people we knew, and now have a Halloween activity we may venture to every year.

Connor's Field Trip to Mayse Farm

Connor's school takes an annual trip to Mayse Farm's Pumpkin Patch...here are a few pictures from the field trip. I love the one where it looks like he is directing or something. After they returned, they decorated their pumpkin as an afternoon craft project.

Haunted Hayride Fun

This year, we decided to try a new fall activity, the Wesselman Nature Preserve's Haunted Hayride and Harvest Festival. Saturday night, we met up with a couple of the boys' friends from school and their parents. At first, it was not going well. Brady had his feelings hurt when they wouldn't give him an admission armband because he was a free participant (since he was three). He cried and sobbed for over 20 minutes while we were waiting for one of their friends. Luckily, Carac's mom came to the rescue with a toy bracelet that made Brady's bracelet "special".

We then rode the hayride back to the Nature Preserve where they had craft activities set up for the kids and you could sign up for special shows. Connor and Jesse got right into making craft spiders and coloring owl masks while Brady and Carac where still adjusting. We ended up outside where we got the kids hot dogs and juice and that seemed to lift all their spirits and they were running around like crazy Owls. Before heading back inside, we made sure to check out the bonfire and campfire music.

We then rode the hayride through the Haunted Forest making sure to check out all the inflatable figurines. We did that a couple times before heading back to the Nature Preserve where the boys all made a second owl mask. We even got to see a family of deer during the hayride. The kids then visited for a little bit more before we caught another hayride back to our cars and said our goodbyes.

I think in the end the boys had fun together and Wesselman's did a nice job for the kids. We ran into the boys' cousins while we were there and another friend of theirs (their Valentine playdate). We will probably return again and perhaps we can do the night walk next year.

Friday night playdate

Friday night was a new first for the boys...their first playdate without the child's parents staying for a visit. We offered to watch the boys' best friend, Carac for the evening while his parents had a football game to attend (Carac's dad coaches). Lately, we have been spending a lot of time with them, so we figured we were past the "out of school" awkwardness.

When he arrived, my boys got very WILD. I guess they were super-excited to have a friend over or were trying to fight the exhaustion from a long day at school. Brady was especially out of control with tackling and bear hugs. Carac's mom ended up hanging out a little longer than planned to make sure that they were going to be okay. After we separated Brady for a brief timeout in his bedroom, things seemed to go smoothly after that.

The boys had pizza for dinner and then played together for awhile. There were a few more wrestling sessions until they eventually sat down to watch a show. After the show, we let them make the pumpkin and ghost cookies that Carac brought for the evening. The evening ended with Carac and Brady dancing around and rolling around together. Connor at one point yelled "You boys need to calm down". Brady and Carac were sitting on the floor together and I would've swore it was Connor. Carac was doing everything in his power to get Brady's attention or annoy Brady with his kicks and hugs and crawling all over him. Just like Brady does with Connor....he ignored him. It was so funny!

I think the boys passed the test of having a friend over for a visit and Carac reported to his parents that he had fun. We'll have to do it again sometime!

Baby Bump

Okay, it's time to admit that the baby bump is making its appearance. The funny thing is that it is pretty high up, because I am still wearing my pre-pregnancy jeans with no problems and no button extenders. However, the shirts are making the bump known.

Everyone at work has obviously been very nice about making comments that I am not even showing yet (except for the one comment from my boob-envy friend). Last week, I ran into a lady I know that I haven't seen in 6-7 years. She glanced down at my belly, then looked at me and asked how my children were. When I proceeded to give her an update on Connor and Brady and then told her I was expecting, she exclaimed "I thought so". I went back to work and called my co-workers bluffs!

Time to get the maternity clothes out of storage....they just aren't that fun to wear!

Soccer Pics

This fall, the boys played Soccer together and with a couple of their friends through the YMCA. That session has now ended and probably not soon enough as the kids were starting to dread the cold and rainy Saturdays of play. However, we did get a nice souvenier picture.

My Goofy Boys and their underwear

Every time I turn around, Connor and Brady are stripping down to their underwear (they would probably go all the way if I hadn't put a rule down somewhere along the way). It's like it is some prerequisite for being at home and playing games together. I constantly hear "Wait, we can't keep playing clothed, this game requires underwear only". I was even banned one time from playing in the office with them unless I was willing to get down to my panties - no thanks, guess I will pass this time.

Tonight, there was a new game and boy did we get some good footage for the future wives of our dear boys. They stripped down to their undies and then proceeded to take turns bending over into a V formation while the other popped a beach ball off the bottom. They felt like they got extra points if they managed to bounce it hard enough to hit twice....once on the bottom and then came right back to hit again.

On a side note, they do a pretty good job of taking their stripped clothes into the laundry room or hamper in their bathroom. Not always as I have found the occasional sock or shirt left somewhere random, but usually.

Great weekend!

Some weekends, it is nice not to have anything to rush around to so you can kick back and relax a little bit more than some weekends. Friday night, we kicked off the weekend with breakfast for dinner and then the boys played Aquadoodle on the floor for what seemed like hours. Saturday morning, they decided to skip Soccer since it was really cold (and I wasn't about to argue for the same reason). We were planning on just hanging around the house all day. That morning, we had an unplanned visit from the boys' best friend, Carac. Carac was a little disappointed that the boys skipped Soccer, so he came to them instead. They had such a blast playing with him upstairs and showing him all their toys while the parents all visited downstairs. Later that afternoon we did venture to Toys R Us for a few birthday and christmas presents. The boys were clueless that we were buying gifts for our family. We ended the evening with the boys playing throughout the house (and I mean throughout by the evidence left behind), while mom and dad relaxed.

Sunday started out as normal with a big breakfast for the boys while mommy headed to Hot Yoga. After lunch, Connor and mommy went to a classmate's birthday party. The theme was Smurf and the whole backyard was setup like a Smurf Village including a mushroom house, Papa Smurf's Lab (Koolaid and Pop Rocks), and Smurf hats for everyone. This classmate's mom thought of everything! The kids ran around and had a lot of fun while mommy got to visit with and meet some of the classmates' parents. The rest of Sunday was more fun for the boys around the house. The laundry baskets were the focus of the day. When they weren't using them as TV pods, they were used as stadiums for Connor to conduct interviews about our local Zoo.

These low-key weekends are nice, but I know we are also looking forward to the next couple weekends of Halloween fall fun!

Our Inventor....

Why do you need a bean bag when you can invent your own TV watching pod? Later in the day, Brady also joined in after Connor created one for him also.

Connor's Dreams

As I was tucking Connor into bed tonight, he expressed concern...."Mommy - I can't get Brady out of my head. He is in my dreams, he is always talking to me and bugging me, he is always there." This explains the dream he awoke to at 4am this morning where he was dreaming about Brady - something about Brady getting on a bus.

I told him he needs to dream about mommy and he said "but you're not in my head"!

Pumpkin Patch Fun

Tis the season for pumpkin patch fall fun....here are some pictures from the boys visit to the Goebel Farms Pumpkin Patch with the grandparents a couple weekends ago and our visit to Mayse Farm last week.

Does this look like a sick kid to you?

Last week, Brady was sent home supposedly sick from school. I left the room and when I returned, here is what I found. Does this look like a sick kid to you? By the way, he was fully clothed when I left the room.

School Activities

I love the fact that we get weekly emails and pictures from the boys teachers letting us know what is going on for the week. They usually let us know what new activities have been introduced, what the letter of the week is, and anything else we may find interesting. This month, both of the boys classes are focusing on all the bones in the skeletal structure (which is appropriate to introduce at Halloween). Here's a quote from each of the boys teachers - do you know what half these bones are (I know I don't)?? Apparently, Connor and Brady will be able to tell us if they are paying attention.

Connor's Teacher: "The bones we are learning from head to toe (and the order of the skeleton song) are Skull, mandible, vertebrae, clavicle, clavicle, scapula, scapula, humerus, humerus, radius, radius, ulna, ulna, carpals, phalanges. Sternum, ribcage, pelvis, coccis, femur, femur, patella, patella. Tibia, tibia, fibula, fibula, metatarsals, metatarsals, phalanges, and that's our skeleton."

Brady's Teacher: "Before the end of the month, the children will have been presented the names of every bone in the body. We will even learn the names of our teeth and the malleus, incus and stapes. (Those small bones in the inner ear.)"

Here are a few pictures of how they spend their day...

Fall Festival Adventures

On Sunday, we had plans to take the boys to the Family Fun day at the Fall Festival. We had heard it was a great day to do this for the shorter rides and daylight hours. Unfortunately, Connor woke up with a fever that day and we had to postpone our Fall Festival Trip. He was more upset by that and missing his friend Jesse then the fact that he was also going to miss a couple days of school. Even though his fever broke on Sunday, we decided to keep him home a couple days to make sure nothing further developed and in case he was contagious.

We decided to make the trip down there Wednesday night instead and we found out we could meet up with his friend, Carac and his parents. Carac and Connor started Montessori together and are in the same class, so they have become good buddies over the last year. I used to work with Carac's dad and have really enjoyed getting to know his mom, so spending the evening with them was a lot of fun and I hope we can do it again! We even lucked out in being able to park at their house which was just a few blocks from the Fall Fest.

After pulling the boys away from all of Carac's neat toys (definitely need to arrange a play date), we arrived to find out that it was going to be a busy night with long lines. With some reservation, we decided to go ahead and purchase the armbands for unlimited rides since it seemed like we ran through the tickets very quickly last year. We ventured to the ride area to learn that most of the rides were restricted to 42" (which I did not remember being the case last year). We lead the boys to the back area where the ride lines were shorter and we were able to avoid the restrictions for Brady.

Since our main goal was for the boys to have fun riding rides, the parents traded off to go get food. We sent the dads to get food first while we stayed with the boys in line and they brought the boys back some pronto pups that they ate in between rides. The boys had a blast and rode several rides in the course of a couple hours and I think we got our money's worth (for armbands vs. tickets).

Since it was getting late and we wanted to venture a little further down the food booths, we led the boys out of the ride area with the promise of a dessert item. Unfortunately, it was getting late and some of the booths were selling out for the night. We finally ended up with some Elephant Toes for the boys to share and some Apple Cider.

While it was a late night for everyone, it seemed to go rather well with no major meltdowns and fights avoided. You could tell the boys were getting tired towards the end, but I think they still had a great time and were well behaved. I am so glad we met the Johnsons down there and hope we can do that again next year!

Click here for my friend's posting about our trip together to the Fall Festival

Click here if you are curious about last year's trip to the Fall Festival

Surprise Outing...

On Saturday, we pulled into the driveway after soccer right next to Mimi's vehicle. The boys were overjoyed that Mimi and Papa came to visit them. What they soon found out was that Mimi and Papa had their cousin, E, with them and they were going to have a fun Saturday together. We didn't tell the boys, so this was a huge surprise for them.

They took the kids first to Goebel Farms to pick out Pumpkins and gourds in the Pumpkin Patch. They got some very nice pumpkins for us to carve later this month and now mommy has some nice decorations like Mimi. Then it was time for lunch and guess where they went - Cracker Barrel of course! After Cracker Barrel, they headed to Angel Mounds for some kite flying on a perfectly windy day. I think the boys even flew the kite this year rather than letting Papa do all the work. After a fun afternoon of activities, they went back to Mimi and Papa's house for some downtime playing in the garage. No naps, of course since they were still on their maple syrup high!

Mommy and Daddy took advantage of the kid-free day and spent our day shopping and even getting a little Christmas shopping in. We ended up meeting up with them later that night for dinner along with their other cousin, D and her mom. We had a typical dinner with 4 kids (wild) at Pizza Hut before heading home for the evening. It ended up being a very nice Saturday of fall family fun!

Looking forward to seeing some of the pictures Mimi and Papa took....

Here's a reality dose...

The boys were asking if the baby would go to Montessori, which then made us realize that they will both be gone from Montessori before the baby is old enough to go there at age 3. That then made us think about where the kids will be at different stages of their education. Connor and Brady are only one year apart in school, so they will be closely following each other. The baby will be 5 years behind Connor.

The result....

All three kids will be in school until 2031 (assuming 4-yr college) and we will be in our mid-50s.

We will have 3 schools to deal with in 2019 - one in HS, one in MS, and one still in Elementary.

The baby will still be in elementary for one more year when the boys are both in high school.

The good news is that Connor and Brady will both presumably be done with college before Baby #3 needs the college fund! BTW, the college fund is intended for the end of the schooling to prevent them from starting their post-college years with a huge college debt. Chris and I strongly believe that there is a strong value and focus placed on the education if you have to help pay for it and work while going to school as we did.

Happy Anniversary - 10 years down, several more to go!

Last weekend, Chris and I celebrated our 10-year wedding anniversary. We had the opportunity to go out for a nice dinner and then we went to see a hilarious movie. Since we hadn't been out in awhile, it was nice just to get out with just the two of us (while the boys had a sleepover at Grandma Darla's).

It's hard to believe that it has already been 10 years, but then again, the years seem to have flown by. Chris and I are very lucky to have found each other and I am especially lucky to have him. He is very good to both me and the boys and plays a strong role in our family. Chris and I also have a lot to point to in the last 10 years...following are just a few! I look forward to many more years with Chris and making memories with our family!

• Two wonderful, toddler boys and one baby on the way
• 3 houses - we survived the first fixer upper and survived not just building 1, but 2 different houses. We also survived the temporary residences in between (one of them with my parents).
• We each completed a 2nd college degree - I got my Master's and he got a 2nd Bachelor's degree (which he had to finish after the boys were born).
• We have went on three cruises - Bahamas, Eastern Caribbean, and Baja. We have also went on several family vacations and hope to go on several more with the kids. We didn't get to vacation much with our families, so we hope to experience vacationing and the various sites across the country through our kids.

Brady's Stitches

The dreaded call that we have avoided up to this point (surprisingly)...an injury at school with one of the boys that requires a trip to the ER. Chris received the call at around 4:45 that Brady had an accident that most likely needed stitches. Apparently, Brady was having a race with another friend and met his match with a metal bench on the playground. He received a nice gash above his right eyebrow. He was immediately consoled by the teacher while waiting for Daddy and then I met the boys at the emergency room.

Now if Papa was in charge, he would have proposed you wrap it up in butterfly bandage and call it a day. Right, Dad? I have the scar above my right eye to prove that may not always be the best approach. You know that thought ran through my mind and had to share....

Luckily we got there at a good time, because the ER is not a place you want to hang out when the swine flu is making its rounds and we aren't sick yet. We got called back pretty quickly, but then had to wait while the numbing agent took effect. When they were ready, they came in with a special device that would wrap Brady up like a tortilla while they did the stitches. I was quick to retreat with Connor to the lobby area, but we didn't stay there long (lots of people there with symptoms we didn't want).

The end result was 5 stitches for our brave little Brady. He did great the entire time, although he would like the stitches out NOW! He isn't as impressed with the battle wound now. We will return in about 5 days to have them removed and he will be as good as new!

Brave Brady...showing off battle wound

Waiting for numbing agent to work

Result - 5 stitches and not very happy about it