Happy Halloween!

Here we are just before heading out. Note Justin's shoes. The kids had a great time. Justin starts out like a mad man, running, jumping, and dashing around. But he tires out about halfway. Dragging himself up the driveways, riding in the stroller between houses. Finally at the end not even getting out of the stroller. Jessica is pretty steady but after an hour or so she is done. Now we have more candy than I need to have in the house- I have already had more than my fair share- yum! The kids got a bunch of full size Baby Ruth bars- are those popular? do you think there was a sale on those? That is what I was thinking as I ate mine tonight. Hope you are all enjoying your sugar high (or crash) as well.

Guess what Jessica is for Halloween?

Did you figure it out? Of course you did. Jessica found these shoes in Walmart in September and really wanted them- so we decided she should be Dorothy for Halloween. I made her the costume- [patting myself on the back]. When she got home from school today she was a good sport and agreed to get into her costume early so that I could take some pictures- then get out of it. Here she is, my beautiful Dorothy looking for the yellow brick road.


Best part of any dress is the spin factor- this one rated high.

Justin's Costume

Justin just couldn't make up his mind this year as to what he wanted to be for Halloween. First it was a Knight, then a Police Officer, then a ghost and one day this week when I picked him up from school his teachers said they couldn't wait to see Justin's Tree costume. Um, his what? Needless to say I decided not to shell out a ton of money on a costume that wouldn't get worn. So I bought the sheet for the ghost costume. Put the sheet over his head, cut the hole for the eyes, mouth and arms and then he threw it off in a panic. We discussed that if he couldn't wear the costume for 5 minutes he would not make it through trick or treating, he agreed. So we decided on the police officer costume that he got for his birthday. Of course he refused to wear the belt/ handcuffs/ or any of the accessories- oh well. Here he is, just before school today.

Pumpkin Carving

The kids were very excited to carve pumpkins this year. I let them both do their own pumpkin. If you use the little carvers that come with the templates it is pretty safe and easy for them. That's not to say that if Justin wanted to he couldn't make mayhem. But here they are concentrating very hard on their work.

[ignore the goofy hair on Jessica. She is currently growing out her hair and has discovered how to put in ponies herself and she is "experimenting" with her look.]

For the past 8 or 9 years on my birthday, Dee, Marc and I get together to carve pumpkins. We use the templates and end up quite impressed with ourselves (or at least with Marc) by the end of the evening. There is much hilarity and mocking involved- good times. Below you will see the outcome of our hard work.

This is Marc's...
Justin's... he did the whole thing except for the mouth. He had no time for my plan of drawing the face on the pumpkin first before carving...

Mine! - besides her own, this is Jessica's favorite :)

Jessica's... she did it all by herself (she went with the drawing the face first plan).
This is Dee's pumpkin (after Marc did some emergency dental work).

Today is my Birthday

Today is my 38th birthday. Yeah yeah thanks. Anyway I already know how I want to celebrate my 40th birthday in two years. I am putting this out there so that if you want to come with me you can prepare now. I am going on an Outlander tour of Scotland. What, you say? What is she talking about?

First of all let me tell you a little bit about The Outlander. It is a book written by Diana Gabaldon. I first heard about the series from my college friend Sharon. She was in love with the books and Scotland, having spent her junior year in Edinburgh. I remember thinking I wanted to read the books she mentioned but never followed through- shocking. Then when I was visiting my sister in 2005 after Ryan was born I saw she owned them all and was thrilled for me to read them too.

The series begins in Scotland in the 1940s, but it is not long before Claire- our heroine- slips "through the rocks" and goes back in time. I love a good time travel novel, I love historical fiction, and I love a good romance- this book has all three. Beware it is a LONG book, all of them are around 1,000 pages. I will also say it is a little tough to get into. The first 150 pages drag but are necessary to set up the premise and character. After that though it wizzes along.

Here is the deal. I invite anyone that has read at least the first book to come with me. It will most likely be a "girl" trip since someone has to stay home with the kids. That is not to say that men aren't welcome just letting you know. We will probably go in September 2010, kids in school and weather will still be nice. Get reading folks!

Fall Festival

Last Saturday, the 18th, there was a Fall Festival in town. Justin's preschool class from last year was asked to perform a "revival" of their Cat Show from last year. Mrs B invited the siblings to join too if they wanted and Jessica was so excited. She has been listening to the music too so she was ready. It was fun to see all of our friends. Truth be told I think Justin's favorite part was goofing around and pigpiling on his friends before the show.

Jessica, practicing her "cool cat" look.

Justin quite happily agreed to be the skunk again and really hammed it up this time- here he is skunking everyone.

What's new pussycat, whooooooa...

Here are Luke and Connor, really giving it their all.

Now here is when things turned ugly. Justin was thirsty. He loudly announced this many times at the end. I gave him a drink once or twice but this might have been the time I told him no.

Hmm maybe this is the time I told him no, he ignored me and came over and grabbed the bottle of water.

Wait, why is crying here then? Oh this must have been after Karen took away the bottle because he was hitting other children with it. [photo courtesy of Michelle]

I love these next pictures- Mother and Photographer- neither compromised.


After the singing and crying we went and enjoyed the rest of the festival. It was a very chilly day and by then the sun went down- so I skidaddled as soon as I could. Both kids loved the donut on the string game.


how is that for catching up my blog?

Is there anything better....

than a sleeping child? hmm a little suspcious after my previous post but oh well. I went up one night to make sure Justin turned off his light- he didn't. I found him surrounded by his books and his face rested on one. What's a mom to do? I went downstairs, got my camera and then came back up. By then he had rolled over, but I still got a few cute pics before I turned off the light.


If you look closely you can see the crease on his face where the book was before.

Such a Grump

Justin has been such a grump lately. He is mad at the world and blames everyone for all of the horrible things that go wrong. A large part of his day is spent screaming or crying. Sound like fun? Here he is, my grumpy grump- but at least he is looking at the camera!

New Septic System

Sorry I am so behind in blogging, but if you check my other blog you will see I have been busy. Anyway I realize I never blogged about the upheaval we went through a few weeks ago. In order to sell our house we had to pass Title V- meaning our septic had to be up to code. Well it wasn't. So we had to completely re-do the septic system. It shocked us how much of our yard was all dug up. For your viewing pleasure...

This is day one, our plumbing had to be completely re-routed in the basement. For a few hours this day I had to say over and over- don't flush don't flush don't flush.

Here is the new tank going in.

Check out the piles of dirt in my backyard. Wait, can you see the backyard?

here is another view- this is where the leech (sp?) field goes

This is the leech field after it is in place and they covering it up.
No after pictures- sorry. But imagine my backyard the way it used to be but intead of grass there is dirt with seeds that aren't sprouting spread on top.

The Ladies who lunch

Jessica is always asking for a "girl day", where she and I go do "girl" things together. Today she had no school and Justin did so off we went to do enjoy our girl morning. We went and had manicures and pedicures. First you pick your colors. Jessica had settled on some nice pinks UNTIL she saw the display with the bright fushia colors. Down went the subtle pinks and up came the bright pink and the turquoise. Here she is at the beginning of her pedicure.

I realized a bit too late that I hadn't really filled her in on all that would occur. Warm bath for the feet, massages, lotions, filing and all those things. So she was a bit nervous about the whole thing. I had a total flashback to when she was 18 months old or so and she would be nervous in a new situation. She was put on this strained smile and give this little nervous laugh- in fact her smile would look something like this...

By the time we were ready for our manicures she was in the swing of things. She was very quiet almost the whole time- besides the nervous laugh. The workers tried to talk to her but they had very strong Asian accents and she wasn't always sure what they were saying (me either). But they had lots of smiles for her and she for them. I think if we do this again, she will be talking up a storm, now that she is an expert.

Here she is end the end for the massage while she dries her fingers. She announced she really likes the massages.

Our final results. My color was a bit darker than I expected- but I stink at choosing nail colors. Not sure if you can see from these pictures but she got little flowers painted on her toe and thumb nails.

After our beauty time we went to buy birthday presents for some upcoming parties and then we went out to lunch. Not a cheap morning, but definitely a fun morning.

Biking to Friendlys

Jessica and Marc have been talking about biking to Friendlys for dinner. Well Monday night they set out. Justin decided he wanted to come too- and not in the car. So the 3 of them set off and I followed close by in the car in case someone (Justin) got tired and couldn't finish the trip. Well we were all pleasantly surprised. They made the trip with very few breaks and minimal whining/ crying (of course there was some of both but that seems to be how we roll these days). Here are my pictures from the pace car.



Jessica even biked 1/2 home before she called it quits.

This one took my breathe away...

This is Carly and her Daddy. We were on the sidelines at soccer practice today. I was playing around with backlighting at sunset and with a lens I rented for the two weddings this weekend. After going through the pics, this one took my breathe away as soon as I edited it. Nice in color- LOVE it in B&W.

This Boy...

... has recently decided that he would prefer to wear one shoe from two different pairs. As long as he puts on the shoes himself, I don't care.
... talks non-stop lately about everything and nothing. he does a lot of whining and complaining, but also makes up some crazy stories.
... can make me laugh and scream within a 5 minute period.
... seems to be really enjoying school this year. repeating things he learns and telling me about his day.
... will be going to school 4 days a week starting tomorrow.
... can be amazingly sweet sometimes. as I left school on Monday he poked his head out the door and yelled, "Bye Mommy, I love you!" and then blew me karate kisses.
... has to touch EVERYTHING. it makes me crazy, he cannot keep his hands to himself at all. the one plus side of this habit is that I have come realize he is the best helper for putting away groceries. he knows where everything goes because he has opened and explored every drawer, cabinet and closet I own.
... still cannot sit still for a haircut, he moves and turns his head, he complains that it hurts, he cries, he accuses the stylist of all sorts of horrible things- and he is FIVE for goodness sakes.

oh and one more thing, this boy will not look at my camera- it makes me CRAZY.