Halloween Party & Carving Pumpkins

Today was Danielle's Halloween party at school. Tyler's was today, too, but he's been out of school since Wednesday because he has the flu. At least, I think it's the flu. He has the "right" symptoms, but they're very mild. If this is as bad as the H1N1 virus gets for us, given all the horror stories I've read, I feel pretty lucky. Tyler should now have antibodies built up to fight this off for the rest of the season, too. Hopefully it will be as mild if the rest of us get it.

Anyway, I was relieved I didn't have to run back and forth between the two parties and could focus on Danielle. (Thank you to Uncle Ron for staying with Tyler so I could go.) Danielle chose to be a frog this year. I made her costume, and I think it turned out pretty good. Danielle LOVES it, so I would consider it a success. I was glad she chose to be something unique. Out of 9 girls in her class, 6 of them were princesses or fairies. She had fun at her party and at the very end her loose tooth fell out, making it an even better party!

After Ron got home from his business trip tonight, we carved our pumpkins. The kids' pumpkins were huge. We didn't actually put them on a scale, but I am positive Danielle's pumpkin weighed more than she did! Ron and I carved the little pie pumpkins we got while on the scout outing last weekend.

I like this picture of Danielle because you can really see the gap in her front teeth!

I still think it's funny that Tyler thinks it's gross to touch the guts but Danielle digs right in.

Tyler's, Ron's, Danielle's, & mine

More Fall Fun

The kids had an early release day yesterday, so we planned for Ron to take off work early so we could go to the pumpkin farm. We couldn't find a pumpkin farm that was open on Friday that we thought was worth the money though, so we decided to go to a pumpkin festival instead. It was chilly and wet, but we bundled up and the rain cleared shortly after we got there. We ended up having a very nice time. The kids enjoyed the giant pumpkins and we even bought their pumpkins (to carve) there. They are HUGE! We passed up the pumpkin chili, the deep fried pumpkin blossom, and the pumpkin burgers but tried the pumpkin ice cream. It was surprisingly good! We had a really good time.



















This afternoon we joined Tyler's Cub Scout pack at a local pumpkin farm. It's the same one Danielle's preschool class visited the past 2 years, but we did a lot more tonight. The kids enjoyed all the different activities.




We walked throught the maze.



The kids rode in the cow train several times.



Ron and the kids played laser tag with these special guns & headbands. It was fun to watch.

















The corn cannon was pretty cool, too. Ron impressed Tyler by hitting the target on his second try.



Our admission price also included a pie sized pumpkin. Danielle found a "baby" pumpkin that she thought was "cute". Their pumpkins were very picked over.



Tyler was also awarded his first badge tonight. He's earned patches, but this was his first badge, which will become a permanent part of his uniform. We finished off our evening by roasting hot dogs and marshmallows. It was another good fall day, despite the below average fall temperatures.

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And in other news, Tyler and I went to a Lego Club meeting this morning. We had a really good time. It was fun to watch Tyler interact with all the other Lego-crazed kids. I forgot my camera, though, and still haven't figured out how to get pictures off my not-so-new phone, so you'll have to take my word for it.

I think Danielle is excited about our upcoming vacation. We are going on a cruise and have been talking to the kids about going snorkeling. Now that they can swim and are not as afraid of the water, we though they might enjoy trying it. Danielle drew this earlier today.

Enjoying Fall...Finally

The planets finally aligned today - it stopped raining, the sun was mostly out, it warmed up a little, and Danielle was out of school - so the two of us went for a walk in the woods to enjoy the beautiful fall foilage after running our errands today. The leaves are at their peak right now, and they are absolutely gorgeous.

Here are some pictures from our day. You can't tell in the pictures, but many times the leaves were falling like rain. It was so pretty. My company was pretty great, too.

More Scouting Fun

Yesterday we attended a fall party for all the Cub Scouts in Tyler's pack. It was a lot of fun.

The kids carved pumpkins, launched rockets they made from 2ltr bottles, played games, fired bb guns, and shot arrows. Tyler hit the target with all 5 bbs and scored enough to earn a shooting patch!

We ate dinner there, which included a roasted hog. ("Is that his skull? Wait...is that his brain?!") We didn't notice how cold it was (upper 30s) until we sat down to eat dinner.

After dinner the scouts had a flag retiring ceremony. I thought that was neat because they discussed the flag's history and its importance and then saluted each flag as it burned.

Danielle and I left after the flag retiring ceremony, but Tyler and Ron stayed to camp out. Tyler and his friends played with their flashlights in the dark field and had a lot of fun until bed time. Ron and Tyler toughed it out in freezing temperatures until around 4 am. Tyler finally asked to come home, so the boys finished out the night in their warm beds. By the time they left, the temperature was 30 but felt like 25. I was glad they came home. Other than the freezing-at-night part, the kids had a great time.

I am really enjoying all the scouting activities because the kids are gaining the opportunity to further develop friendships (several of the kids are in Tyler's class at school) while learning things they wouldn't normally be exposed to. It has really been a good experience so far.

This and That

Not much has been going on lately, but a lot has been going on. I guess you understand this if you have (had) young kids. Tyler & Danielle have been enjoying AWANA. We've always known Tyler has a good memory, but Danielle is really good at memorization. She is learning her verses quickly and really enjoying it. Yesterday while she was taking a shower, she insisted on writing one of her verses on the steamy shower doors. I'm glad to know they're also being written on her heart.

Tyler is enjoying Cub Scouts. At their meeting yesterday they made rockets out of 2 ltr pop bottles. They will be launching them this weekend at the Harvest Party. He also brought home a giant pumpkin to gut for the pumpkin carving contest. The Harvest Party is a family event, so Danielle and I will be going for all the fun, games, & food; however, we are leaving when it's time for the camp out! It's supposed to be in the 30s this weekend!! I could barely make it in the backyard when it dropped to the 60s! So, Danielle and I are going to camp out at home. For a bonus, we might actually turn the heat on. :) I think Tyler is a little excited about the camp out. He made this out of Legos last night. It's Tyler & Ron sitting next to a tent and roasting marshmallows over a fire.

Danielle's class had a field trip to the firestation today. The school is close enough that the kids can walk there. She had a good time. When I go on field trips with Tyler, he enjoys hanging out with me. Danielle was glad to have me there and often looked around to make sure I was in the vicinity, but was happy to hang out with her friends and do her own thing. It was different, but neat. It's amazing how different two children can be. Life would be so boring if they weren't. Afterward the kids all walked over to McDonalds for ice cream sundaes.