oooo spooky

We carved our pumpkins today, well Bill's & my own since Ethan's was already carved from 2 weeks ago (and is now in the trash b/c it was all moldy - ewww). I let E draw my face on, and he tried to help carve it, but it was too hard for him to do.


Our pumpkin seeds are soaking in water right now, I'm going to bake them tomorrow. E said he really really wanted to eat them, and then told me he tried them at school and they were gross...so I'm betting he isn't really going to eat them, typical.


Here are a few pictures from the park yesterday, and one of our pumpkin pizza we had for dinner last night - it was really cute but didn't taste that great way too much cheese!

Happy Birthday Sami (Yesterday)

Sorry Sami! We didn't forget, I was trying to get a good picture of Ethan, but have decided that is not going to happen because my camera is not cooperating, so happy birthday!

Bill is in shock that you are a teenager - and I gotta say it's making me feel really old too!

Here's to a wonderful year for you! We love you!

Look what Ethan found

Grandma Pat this is for you...we found this cute little tiny snake in our driveway today. At first we thought it was a worm, but it's just a teeny snake. It's so cute & also dead. Bill thinks maybe a bird dropped it out of it's mouth, and I'm hoping so because I don't want to think that mama snake is around our yard somewhere...ewww!


It was another nice day and we played chalk & bubbles. The ice cream man even came by today...zooming down the hill. I'm fairly certain he couldn't have stopped at our house if we wanted him to since he was going so fast down the hill. Ethan wrote some messages in the chalk, and I have to say his handwriting is already improving yay!

Happy Birthday Papa!

Today was a lovely day - probably mid 70s I'm guessing. We played outside most of the afternoon. Funny how all summer long all this kid wanted to do was play video games, and now he wants to play outside. He did all the things he didn't want to do this summer - played in his sand box, played with (in) his water table, even got out the sprinkler.

Happy Birthday to Papa! Hope you have a great day!! We didn't pick this outfit intentionally, but after we realized that I had dressed him in that today, Bill thought it was really funny.


Bill found out today that his leave days for Christmas will be December 20 - January 2 so we will mostly likely be in Wisconsin then. I have to find out when E's last day of school before Christmas is, don't want him to miss anything good (like a Christmas party!).

First Week of School

E's first week of school in the new class was successful. He was a bit crabby a few days, and didn't want to go, but once he was there he had fun. He is definately more challenged in this class, and is actually learning things. Right now they have him working on his writing, which is for sure the area he needs the most work on. He knows how the letters go, but he's very messy and not good at keeping them the same size.

On Thursday of this week, he has his first field trip - to the pumpkin farm. I asked if I could go, and they said I can. Ethan informed me that he's not sitting next to me on the bus - he's sitting next to a girl. He's so sweet =P

He's getting into the groove of getting up early & going to bed earlier. Of course, this backfires on us when it's Saturday morning and he's up at 6:30, but I guess that's better than him not wanting to get up the rest of the week.

He also carved the first of his pumpkins this week - well ok, he picked the stencil and I carved it. It's supposed to be Minnie Mouse, but the knife thingy broke in the middle of it, and it kind of looks like a blob. He's happy though, so that's what matters. The rest of our pumpkins are going to be traditional faces though!

I guess in the picture it does kind of look like Minnie. Awesome!

I tried to take a few pictures of Ethan & Elvis together yesterday, because Elvis was sitting nice. Of course as soon as E comes and sits next to him, he starts giving him dog kisses - GROSS!

Mommy's Little Devil

Here's a little sneak peek of E in his Halloween costume, tons more pictures to come I'm sure. We finally found a pitch fork at the PX today, and I let him try on his costume...he's still wearing it 4 hours later...at least he likes it!

Pumpkin Patch

Yesterday we went to the pumpkin patch in the next town over. For the most part, it was a nice day - sun was out, and it was in the high 50s. As soon as we got there, we went on the hay ride out to the pumpkin patch to pick our own pumpkins. Now this is a wonderful idea, expect for the fact that it's rained a lot lately. It was really muddy & slippery, but E only fell once, and I managed not to fall at all somehow..woo hoo!on the hayride

looking for a good one

E must have looked at about 50 pumpkins before making his decision. It had to be perfectly round & really orange. I'm glad that we went yesterday, instead of next weekend as we had originally planned, because they were already pretty picked over.

found one!

After we picked out our pumpkins, E wanted to do the haunted house (it was a big blow up thing and I think he thought it was a bouncy house) and the corn maze. The corn maze was pretty neat, but again, slippery. E was completely covered in mud by the time we got home yesterday. He liked to be the leader and lead us down the wrong ways. Then at the end this dang kid jumped out and scared the crap out of me, didn't phase him at all.

in the corn maze

After the maze, he wanted to play in this big sandbox that was filled with corn. It was underneath an aluminum shed. Well, somehow Bill walked into the roof of the shed and cut his head open. The people didn't seem to upset by it that worked there - they told him where some dirty napkins were on the floor inside their garage so he could clean up the blood. Nice, huh? Needless to say, Bill spent the rest of the time in the car while me & E waited for the haunted house & the cow train.

Once we got to the front of the line, E stuck his head in the haunted house and said NO WAY too scary!! So we skipped that (I was secrectly glad because I HATE haunted houses, even wimpy ones) and he rode on the cow train. It was cute, a bunch of cars pulled by a little tractor. He told me it was lame afterwards.In his cow, Nellie, on the cow train.

They had animals also, and this big pile of hay bales set up where you could jump onto an old mattress. That was E's favorite part even though it was giving me a heart attack.

he wanted to know why the pigs were hairy

So, even though it didn't have pumpkin people & delicious cookies, it was a pretty nifty place. Aside from Bill's injury we had fun.

I'm Afraid of Heights

At the bottom, touching the Arch.

Yesterday we went with mom & dad and drove over to St. Louis. We met up with Dodo, Paul, Dale & Nancy. E was soo excited to see Dodo! Took him a while, but he did warm up to Nancy too, and well we all know he likes girls better than boys, so I'm sure he was glad to see Paul & Dale too, even if he wasn't overly excited =P

Anywho, we headed downtown to go up in the Gateway Arch. All the way there, and most of this week, after I showed him the picture of it, E kept telling me he was afraid of heights, and he wasn't sure about it because it was very high. So we got there and he was standing at the bottom looking up telling me it's high and he was a little bit scared.

Granny & Papa sugared him up before we went up.

He did good in the tiny little elevator, he wasn't scared at all. That thing zooms you right up there too! I was a little freaked out by it, but E was fine. I don't think Bill was liking it too much either, he was pretty quiet the whole ride.

In the elevator on the way up

When we got to the top, Ethan jumped right up on the windows and looked out - he wasn't afraid at all and now he is not scared of heights. Oh, sorry he just told me he was "never" scared of heights - sassy boy.Looking out one of the windows

He had the camera and we have liek 50 pictures of the same view, but he had fun. As soon as we came back down he told us that he "missed the arch".Downtown St. Louis

Happy Birthday Uncle Nate

I know I know, it was Friday, and yes we called Uncle Nate on his real birthday. But wanted to put it on here too. So...

Happy Birthday!! Now you're old like Bill.

Here's Ethan doing his happy birthday dance.

First Day of School - Reover

Thurday was E's first day of school - again. He started his new morning class. It will be a big change to get up and ready to go 5 days a week instead of laying in bed watching TV for an hour before doing anything, but I think he'll really like this class.

After his first day he told me that he wrote in a journal (had to finish a story & practice his letter E), played marching band (he was the tamborine), splatter painted with a toothbrush & had story time. They also get an hour of free play at the end of class, and he told me that the kids are nice, so that's already an improvement on his old class. Sounds like they are at least keeping him busy so it's not "borning".

He only went Thursday, and now he's on a 4 day weekend. Hopefully he continues to like it!

Apple Fest

Today we met up with mom & dad in Versailles (pronounced Ver- Sales - still bugs me. If you are going to steal a French city's name, at least pronounce it right!) for Apple Fest. There were not many apples there, like we were thinking. It was more like a fair type event, with booths of food & people selling things. E liked the hay ride shuttle that took you from one part of town to the other, but not too exciting other than that. Oh wait, he also liked the parade that kept going on and on and on and on. He got quite a bit of candy from the floats that were throwing it. He's eating some Dots right now before bed - good bedtime snack, no?

I don't have any pictures of the festival because I left the camera in teh car and it was way too cold to walk back. I think the high today was 57* and we were outside all day. Luckily I brought Ethan's beanie & his jacket, I didn't bring one for myself though - someone *coughmomcough* told me it was giong to be in the mid 60s so I thought my sweater would be warm enough. That wind was quite chilly though!

Ethan's "big boy" Mario backpack came in the mail today. He's pretty excited about it (the backpack, not his new class) - he starts his new class on Thursday and then has a 4 day weekend next weekend. Silly yes, but what are you gonna do.

Yummy Caramel Apples

We took on quite the messy project today - making our own caramel apples. It turned out to be quite easy, just took a while for the caramel to melt. No one got burned or injured, so I consider it a success. Eating them is quite the task though. They are pretty big & there is LOTS of caramel on them. Ethan took about 12 bites and still wasn't at the apple.


We had another lazy day spent at home playing board games & doing crafts. E played Monopoly for the first time and won! Bill quit because E was winning - he's such a baby.

This is my lazy shirt

We didn't really do anything today but made some crafts & play video games. It was a blah rainy day & everyone was lazy today. I did take some pictures of E in his "lazy" shirt though and wanted to share. My regular (broken) camera is out of batteries so I have been using my old (broken) camera lately. It works just fine as long as I'm in natural light.


Also, this is the picture I wanted to use yesterday to wish Debby a Happy Birthday, but I couldn't find it last night, so here you go...happy birthday again! Hope it was a good one. Enjoy your last year of your 30s!