Trick or Treat!

Tonight was our town's trick-or-treat night. Tyler had a fever and cough, but how can you make a kid miss the one night a year that's designed especially for kids?! We gave him some Tylenol and let him do what he felt he could, which turned out to be quite a bit (except he couldn't take a good picture, apparently). He's supposed to have a field trip to the pumpkin patch, a costume parade, and party at school tomorrow. Hopefully he'll feel better.

We had so many kids this year. We always have a lot, but there were even more this year. I went through 8 bags of candy bars in the first 50 minutes! After that I resorted to pilfering candy from the stuff the kids had already brought home. Not all the neighboring towns had their trick-or-treat nights tonight, so I'm sure we had a lot of people from other neighborhoods. I've decided there should be a rule that no one older than 6th grade should be allowed to trick-or-treat and another rule stating you must wear a costume in order to get candy. The late high school age kid that walked up to me and held his jacket pocket out for me to put candy into really cemeted my feelings on those issues.

Anyway... my kids had fun, looked cute, and got way too much candy. Happy Halloween!

Halloweens Past

I was thinking about the kids' costumes in years past and remembering how cute the kids looked, so I thought I'd pull up the pictures and take a look. Since I had them up anyway, I thought I'd share them.


2002 - Tyler the giraffe




2003 - Tyler the puppy (my favorite of Tyler's)





2004 - Tyler the puppy again, Danielle the skunk (my favorite of Danielle's)






2005 - Tyler the police officer (the first costume he picked out), Danielle the koala bear




2006 - Tyler the firefighter, Danielle the koala bear again





2007 - Tyler the skeleton, Danielle as Sleeping Beauty (the first costume she picked out)

My "BUTT" Problem, Revisited

Awhile ago I had a couple postings about our “butt problem”. It has been much better lately. Tyler thinks he’s pretty cool because he can correctly spell “dumb”, so that’s his forbidden word of choice for the most part.

Sunday night I was putting the rest of the dishes in the dishwasher and tidying up the kitchen for the night. The kids were in bed, and we were headed there next. As I reached to turn the light off in the kitchen, the kids’ easel in the kitchen caught my eye. There were some doodles, which I had noticed earlier in the day, on the dry erase board. What I hadn’t seen earlier, though, was “Mom is a butt.” It was written in very nice handwriting, spelled perfectly, and scrunched down in the corner of the board. Ugg. Not again!

Before Tyler left for school the next morning, I pulled him aside and asked him about it. He acted confused, read the board, and promised me he didn’t write it. He was quite adamant about it, but I’ve been fooled before. Still not sure, I dropped it and sent him off to school.

Later in the morning I decided to ask Danielle about it. Trying to hide her grin, she quickly looked away. Finally she admitted that she had been mad at me Sunday night and had written it. She apologized and promised not to do it any more.

I didn’t tell her, but I was actually quite impressed! I knew she could spell “butt”, but she actually put the entire sentence together with correct letter formation, capitalization and punctuation. It seems her butt problem is starting nearly a full year earlier than Tyler’s. I’m so proud. :)

Carving Pumpkins

We carved our pumpkins this afternoon. This year Tyler was able to do everything by himself. He still doesn't like to touch the guts, though, so we did help him with that part.

Danielle didn't have enough strength in her hands & arms yet to cut through the pumpkin, so Ron cut out what she drew and she cleaned up some of the stringy stuff.

Our happy pumpkin family.

Life With a Boy, Part 2

This was courtesy of the 37 year old boy.

Boo at the Zoo

Today was Tyler's last flag football game. He really learned a lot and improved so much over the course of the season. I think he really enjoyed playing, too. I couldn't help but feel extra proud of him today as we watched him play.

His coach had a bowling and pizza party for the team after the game. They all got tshirts and trophies.

Later this afternoon we went to Boo at the Zoo. I don't know what Danielle's problem was - she couldn't just smile for a picture, she had to strike a pose. (She looks so bulky because it was cold out. She had 3 shirts and a sweatshirt on under her costume!)

Tyler wanted to be a vampire this year, but I vetoed that. He chose to be a bat instead. Thankfully he did not want to be Batman, just a bat. I made his costume based on some ideas I found online. He really likes it, so I would consider it a success. He got several compliments while we were at the zoo tonight, so that made him feel good, too.

Danielle chose to be a butterfly. I cheated and bought everything. After making all those wings for the party, I didn't want to make any more. I did buy it all on sale, though, so I guess that makes it a little better. She got several compliments, too, and will enjoy playing dress-up with it once Halloween is over.

We had a nice afternoon.

A Day Full of Fall Fun

We kind of had a busy day today. It was a good day, though.

Danielle has been wanting to make homemade bird feeders out of pinecones, honey, & birdseed for awhile. We found some pinecones last week but most of them were too small to use. This one made the cut, though, and she had fun with it. We hung it up outside and did see one bird picking seeds off it a couple hours later.





Ron got off work early today and met us at the pumpkin patch after Tyler got out of school. We went some place different this year - the place we picked strawberries this summer. I don't think I enjoyed it as much, but it was closer and less expensive. The kids seemed to have a great time, and that's the most important thing. They had a couple giant inflatables, which the kids loved. I gave Tyler the camera to take into the haunted house. He got some cute pictures. He took the one of Danielle by the skeleton. And just like in the summer, we finished up our trip with some slushies. The kids had raspberry but Ron tried an apple cider slushy. We'll probably carve our pumpkins this weekend.






















Tonight was Tyler's last football practice, so the coach decided the kids should scrimmage the parents. I played, too, but I couldn't miss the chance to take some pictures. The coach made the kids come up with their own plays. It was about as organized as you would expect, and it was a lot of fun. Ron really enjoyed making faces at Tyler, and Tyler enjoyed getting to block his dad. Tyler's last game is Saturday morning.

Danielle's Song

Danielle performed a “show” for me this morning, as she does quite often. These shows involve holding an imaginary microphone, making up words to about 50 different songs, dancing around a lot, and exaggerated bowing while I clap. Today she threw in a familiar song that she learned at preschool: Lord I Lift Your Name On High. We also sing it in church occasionally. (I'm assuming those of you reading this do too and know what the words should be.) Danielle usually forgets a lot of the words, but she gets enough of it that the song is recognizable. She had a good morning today, though, and remembered almost all the words:

Lord I lift your name on high

I’m so glad you’re in my life
I’m so glad you came to save us

You came from Heaven to earth
To show the way

From the earth to the cross
My Dad to pay

From the cross to the grave
From the grave to the SKY (shouted)
Lord I lift your name on high.

I couldn't help but smile. I know how I feel when I listen to our kids pray or sing songs about Jesus. I can only imagine how it makes God feel.

This and That

How do you know when your dog is really old? She'd rather be repeatedly bumped by the vacuum (which she once feared) rather than move to the other room.

Danielle had school pictures today. (I took this one.)

Before school today she asked me to read "Whoton Hears a Hort". It was a slip of the tongue, but we laughed about that for quite awhile. I had the opportunity to volunteer in Danielle's class on Friday. I was amazed at the differences in skill levels among the kids in her class, and very proud of Danielle. I think as the second child, we have the tendency to overlook her accomplishments. Not so much because they aren't noteworthy, but more because we forget exactly where she should be. She really is an amazing kid...and she's smart, too.

And speaking of smart kids, how do you scold your inquisitive 7 year old, who is supposed to be sleeping but is obviously reading, when he pops out of his room and says, "Hey mom, did you know that some people think hummingbirds look like flying rainbows? And their nests are made out of spiderwebs, leaves, and grass? And their babies are the tiniest baby birds in the world?" I love that he's discovering how wonderful books can be, even if he supposed to be sleeping.

Here are a couple pictures of the kids decorating the driveway tonight.

And happy birthday to Annalise. Tyler mentioned her about 3 different times tonight.

Fall Fun

Today was a beautiful fall day. The sky was blue, the air crisp, and the leaves crunchy - a perfect day for jumping in the leaves.