220 weeks

The cardboard box of fun...

Round #3

Is it Halloween yet?

This has totally been the Halloween month in our house. We have gone to 3 pumpkin patches, watched all the classic Halloween shows, made many treats, decorated the house, gone to parties, and carved pumpkins...the countdown to Friday is on! Costumes are ready and treat bags are eager to be filled with candy! Until then, here are a few pictures from our pumpkin carving afternoon last Saturday!

Tyler, washing the pumpkins off with the hose (this kept him busy for like a 1/2 hour, it was awesome!)

Chloe soaking up the sun on the deck

Chloe digging into her pumpkin. She loves the way the inside of pumpkins feel. Who knew such a girly girl would enjoy something so slimy!

Tyler with his carved pumpkin, a cute smiley face he drew, and then, with help from Eric, cut it out.

Chloe with one of the pumpkins she carved. This one is a bat with stars. She did an awesome job carving this pumpkin, it's so cute!

Me and my plain Jane pumpkin.

Eric with his pumpkin-it's kind of hard to see his pumpkin, but it's very artistic. His pumpkin is sporting eyebrows and teeth!

It was actually pitch dark when I took this picture it was night & the kids are in their Halloween PJ's- I guess the flash on our camera works really well. The pumpkins all have LED lights in them to make them glow...and our cat Lyndsay decided to get her tail in on the photo...lol!

GO OBAMA!

I'm not a very political person, but I can't let the next few weeks go by without expressing how much I want Obama to be President! Yes, I have already voted, my ballot was mailed in yesterday. Please exercise your right to vote, it is so very important. We have so many freedoms in this country, and voting is right at the top of the list. Oh, and please vote for the right candidate :)

And as my sweet 4 year old boy would say, "GO OBAMA, NO MCCAIN!"

To John McCain, all I can say is, "May the landslide bring you down."

Pumpkin Patch, Round #2

Tyler's class had a field trip to Bauman Farms last Friday. Eric joined the group for a hayride, pumpkin picking, watching how cider is made and general good times. Kudos to Eric for taking the pictures!

Tyler was just hanging out in the pumpkin fields, checking everything out. I heard a rumor at school that several people took a picture similar to this. He was pretty happy and content just being in the field of pumpkins.

Then he realized people were watching him.

Peek a boo!

I think this is the last pumpkin patch trip. This year so far, he has been on 3 of them. We drove by a pumpkin patch over the weekend, and he told me he didn't need to go, because he'd already been to 3, it totally made me laugh. I think it's time to start carving those pumpkins!

219 weeks

Deep in Nascar play...

218 weeks

How sweet it is....

Pumpkin Patch

We took the kids to the pumpkin patch this weekend. We've been taking the kids to Heiser Farms Pumpkin Patch for several years now. They have a corn maze, a hay ride, a pumpkin slide, a hay tower, a petting zoo and many other fun activities. The kids always have a blast at the farm. This year we came home with a trunk full of pumpkins. Stay tuned for more pictures when we carve them up. For now, here are a few pictures from our fun day at the patch.

Every year they have a giant pumpkin that you can guess the weight of. It's one of Chloe's favorite things to do, and in keeping with tradition, we took her picture next to the huge pumpkin.

They have quite a collection of John Deere tractors for the kids to get in and play with.

Chloe and Tyler on top of the hay tower.

This is the top of the giant pumpkin slide. The kids were the only ones on it the day we went, there were many laughs coming from inside the slide, I think it was one of their favorite parts!

Our 2 little pumpkins.

Even Eric and I joined in on the fun. Do we look like farmers? Lol!

Tyler taking off to go get his pumpkin.

This is the hay-pumpkin-spider. The kids are pretty good climbers to get on top of it.

Tyler in the field of pumpkins.

217 weeks

The 4 year old pastry chef...

Our sweet pumpkin

It's hard to believe, but if you know Tyler, you know that behind this cute pre-Halloween smile, there is a little mastermind scheming up a plot that will surprise us all! Boo!

Catch up, not to be confused with ketsup

I wish I had something super exciting to write about, but life has been keeping at a constant steady-busy-same-old-nothing new-everyday pace. My Mom told me tonight sometimes the boring same old weeks are the best weeks. I'm thinking that is something I'm going to have be to older and much wiser to understand. I'm just not quite there yet on that one, but I trust what she says :)

We took on the BIG, and I capitalize the word BIG because it was HUGE PROJECT of cleaning out our garage. Yes, if you have ever been to our house, you have probably seen the black hole that is our garage. College books, tools, crafts, household items, furniture, jogging strollers, old car seats, old bikes, gym equipment, sports equipment, many empty boxes, kitchen items that don't get used all that often (did I mention I have a crock pot that is just for the Christmas Pot roast?), yes, the list goes on and on and on.

It all started 2 weeks ago. Eric and I spent about 15 combined hours just getting things ready for our garage sale. I lost track of how much time we spent last week and Friday getting ready...Yes, oh yes, we had a garage sale yesterday. Let me just say that was quite the experience. I'd have another one, but not for a long time. We were able to get rid of a lot of things, and made a few bucks along the way, which was nice. The very best part was that after the garage sale was over we were able to donate everything that didn't sale to Goodwill. I now have almost enough room in the garage to park a car, which seems so dreamy. Just a few things to go up into the attic and one more Goodwill run for the larger furniture items. Ahhhh, it's one of the few winter things I'm looking forward to, parking my car in the garage..no more getting wet while getting in and out of the car.

I'm really looking forward to this weekend. It's a girls weekend with some of my very dear friends, and it's long overdue. Being able to have some time with my girls is just what I need right now. Eating, shopping, dancing and girl talk. What more can you ask for with girlfriends?

The kids are both busy with school. Chloe is enjoying Howard Street. She keeps mentioning how much she likes drama class, which is funny to me, because Chloe is such a calm and mellow mannered kid - but she is really enjoying the dramatic acting. Who would have known that was in Chloe? The kids constantly amaze me.

Tyler is in second year preschool and things seem to be going fairly smooth at school - at least I haven't heard any differently. Tyler is so into writing his name right now - he writes it everywhere. He opened up a new tablet of paper this morning and instantly wrote his name on the inside cover. He cracks me up. I didn't laugh so hard when I came out of the bathroom and he had gotten into the peanut butter and started to write his name on the kitchen wall. He only made it as far a T. I should have taken a picture, but didn't think about it at the time. Like I said, the above, the kids constantly amaze me.

Eric and I don't seem to have much time together, but I suppose that once the kids are raised we'll have all the time we need, so until then, we are just trying to make it through this crazy life!

Speaking of, I can hear Tyler in the bathtub - he said he's going surfing and I can hear water splashing out of the tub and onto the floor - time to end this post!