School Pictures - The Girls

School pictures arrived today!  Always an exciting moment here, considering these pictures are the only ones I actually hang up on my wall each year and pass out to friends and family.  I look forward to seeing how much they've grown and how cute they are.  Only the girls got theirs today, so hopefully we'll get Noah's tomorrow, but I was so pleased with how the girls' pictures turned out!

This is Madie's picture from today - her 6th grade year. 

This is Madie's kindergarten picture.  I can't get over how much Madie has changed!  She's grown up so much.  She's turning into such a beautiful young lady.

And, Livie doesn't look like my baby anymore.  She'll be 7 yrs old in just a couple months and she looks more and more grown up every day.  What beautiful, amazing girls I have!

Carving

I posted on FB last night this status update:

"When did "Let's carve the pumpkins!" turn into "Hey, we're going to watch tv while you and daddy sit and carve scary bats and grinning cats onto our pumpkins. And sorry the tools we gave you keep breaking, just make up your own tools using paper towels wrapped around saw blades. The paper towel will help soak up the blood when you lose a finger. Oh, and could you keep the cursing to a minimum, please. We're trying to watch Phineaus and Ferb here."?"

You may see cute picture of what looks like my kids actually participating in the pumpkin carving extravaganza, but don't let it fool you.  It's not true.  My FB status t is a much more accurate description of what happens when you decide to "carve the pumpkins!".  Livie actually pulled the guts out of one pumpkin, but that is as far as she got, before leaving to do something else.  Noah stuck his hand in once and left to go watch cartoons and Madie helped for a few minutes, before ultimately joining Noah as well.  Here is how the story unfolded....

Realizing that Halloween is just a few days away, I say "Hey kids!  Let's carve the pumpkins!"  Cheers were heard, excitement began to grow, and the kids dropped everything and headed to the kitchen table.  I cut off the top of the biggest pumpkin first and told the kids to dig out the insides.  As I told you earlier, it didn't quite happen like I was expecting it too.

Next thing I know, I'm starting to cut out some crazy cat-sitting-on-a-pumpkin design on that pumpkin, while Madie and Noah relax and watch Phineas and Ferb.  Livie, the most involved child, de-gutted her little pumpkin after valiently de-gutting the big one.  See the smile on Pete's face?  Yeah.  That's because he just started the process.  See mine?  I'm halfway in.

This was a rare moment when the kids came back to check our progress.  They told us what they wanted and left the room, expecting beautiful things to happen to their pumpkins, while we struggled with the designs and stupid, lame tools we had!  Notice, Pete's face isn't quite as "smiley" as it was in the earlier picture. ;-)

I finally finished my two designs.  Halfway through the one with the bat, my little saw broke, so I had to use the paper-towel-wrapped-around-a-sawblade one that Pete created to finish the job.  Oh, and the pattern I had for that one didn't work, so I freehanded that thing! 

In all honestly, as frustrated as we were last night at our sorry attempt to carve 4 pumpkins while the kids gleefully enjoyed an evening of relaxation, I know that most of what we did, they can't actually do.  It's just too hard for them.  But, it's pretty fun for me to vent about it in my own little way. :-)  At least they are done and look pretty cute in front of our door!  Yet another Halloween chore, er... I mean, tradition completed!

Pumpkin Patch

After a very busy month that has included 5Ks and dances and all that, we finally made it to the pumpkin patch!  And, we very quickly realized that the earlier you go in October the better.

As you can see, it was a teeny bit busy there today....  The reason?  Well, not only do we have the tail-end of pumpkin season upon us.  We also had a Civil War reenactment to contend with.  One of the largest in the state in fact!  So, it was packed with people when we got there this afternoon.

We got there a little ahead of Jill and Adam, so we started out playing on a few things until they got there.  The hay stacks are always a hit, so the kids ran right to them!

I remember when they could barely climb on these things and now they are leaping from hay stack to hay stack!

They rearranged things this year and painted the castle, firetruck, and pirate ship that they've added in recent years.  Looked really cool!  The kids, of course, loved it!

Since we had some time to kill, we figured we should walk up and check out what this reenactment was all about.  They had some horses in this pen, so the kids were checking them out.

They had all their tents and stuff set up, but weren't there we were arrived.  They were already getting into position on the battlefield. Madie and Noah were checking out the dying campfire by the union tents.

We decided to pay to go to see the battle reenactment.  Only Madie, Noah, and I went, because Pete and Livie were waiting down by the parking area for Jill and Adam to arrive.  They joined us up on the hill shortly after it started, once they got there.  The cannons were so loud and the kids thought that was really, really awesome!!

The reenactment only lasted about 30 min, but that was enough to see some cool things.  The kids enjoyed it and that's all that mattered.  They were ready, though, to get back to the patch!

We stopped on the way to the train to get some quick snacks.  The honey sticks are a fav!

They're all old enough to ride alone, so we sat and chatted while they filled up the caboose and rode it.  They screamed the whole time, so they tell me, because guys dressed like skeletons jumped out at them.  Feel bad for the other passengers that had to listen to all that screaming!

We headed over to the teepee.  Trevor was acting like a "chill indian". ;-)  Hilarious!

Here we are with our goofy kids!

The kids love picking out the gourds, so they dug deep and found some favorites.  Madie always looks for the tiniest, while Noah looks for the most interesting.  I don't know if Livie has a "type" that she likes best.

While Jill and Trevor did a little shopping, we all headed over to play in the houses.  See Ty and Noah at the top of the castle?  They had the best time!

Every year I have to get a picture of my three in the windows of this church.  They are growing up so fast!  I was lucky to get this picture, because there were so many kids running in and out of there.  I was determined to get this picture though!  I've been taking these pictures since 2003, wasn't about to stop now!

After over 2 hours of fun, we finally made our way to pick out some pumpkins!  Look at those red faces!  All of that running around on this beautiful day nearly did them in. They weren't complaining though.  They loved every minute of it!

The kids each got to pick out one pumpkin and a gourd each.  I picked out several gourds for myself and Pete picked out his own giant pumpkin too.  They took their time looking for just the right one!  There were, as always, tons to select from.

Noah and Livie found theirs pretty quickly.  Madie spent more time carefully picking out the perfect one.  While she did, I picked out my gourds and the other two ran over and did a quick corn maze in the barn nearby.

Let's just say, with all the time we spent picking out pumpkins, we were quite thankful to find a cart to haul them all in!  Especially with soooo many people there and so few carts.  We walked up at just the right moment to get it!

Adam found a cart for them to use too, so they loaded up this GIGANTIC white pumpkin in their cart.  Took up the whole thing!! :-)  What a great picture of those boys!  Love them!

Pete went in and paid for everything while we waited.  The kids were really excited to get so many great pumpkins and gourds.  They liked showing them off in this picture.

While Pete and Adam went to pull the cars closer to the patch (we parked quite a distance away, because of all the people there for the reenactment), we chowed down on some great carnie food!  Nachos, slushies, lemon shake-ups, elephant ears, etc..  all for a crazy amount of money, but oh so yummy!  Noah had his first taste of an elephant ear and I think he was officially in heaven!  Thankfully he shared, because the girls wanted a taste too.

What a great day spent with a great group of cousins!!  Thanks, Jill and Adam, for joining us again this year. :-)  We always have the best time!

Colorful Birthday Party

Today Madie and Livie were invited to go to their friend Janessa's house for her birthday party.  Janessa wanted everyone to dress up in colorful outfits.  They were going to be judged for prizes, so the girls wanted to make sure they were every color of the rainbow!

Gotta tell you, I'm actually loving the outfits, even if they are all over the place!  Livie ended up winning and got to eat a candy bar.  She was so excited!

The girls did each other's nails and put on make-up.  Livie was a werewolf. ;-)  These girls are forming such great friendships.  It's been so fun to see!  They had a great time and loved every minute of it!

Halloween Dance

Today Madie went to her very first dance!  Now that she's in 6th grade, they don't have class parties anymore.  They have dances.  This one was a costume dance, so they could dress up.  She was really excited to go with her friends and looked so cute in her Monster High gear.  When she got there, she saw one of her friends, Skylar, so she stood outside with her waiting until the doors opened.  I saw her standing there with all these tall 7th and 8th graders and I thought, "Is she ready for this?!".  Should've been more like "Am I ready for this?!".  She's just so small for her age, that it gives me this feeling that she's not ready for these new things entering her life, but I know that she is.  When I went to pick her up, she said she danced like 90% of the time and loved it!  She took lots of pictures with her friends while she was there, I guess.  Had some drama happen between a friend of hers and a jealous boy.  And, even had a picture taken with a boy dressed up like dracula, since she was "his daughter, Draculara".  So my Madie Moo is growing up!  Experiencing new things and entering a new phase of her life called Middle School.  Am I ready for those challenges?  Nope.  But gonna give it my best shot!

Our Ikea Purchase

As I told you in earlier posts, we went to Ikea when we were up in Schaumburg for the weekend.  One of the reasons I wanted to go there is that I had found this awesome buffet/dresser back when I was there with my bestie Michelle a few months ago.  I had been saving up money to get it, though Pete had to bail me out in the end, because I spent so much of it on other things while we were there!

This was our makeshift buffet before.  It was Pete's parents old entertainment center that they gave us when we got married.  We used it as a tv stand until we moved to our current home when Madie was 1.  Let's just say, it's been around the block.  I painted it, add baskets and have used it as a buffet for 10 yrs.  Tater chewed on the corner when he was a puppy, it's gotten dinged up and tossed around and I really wanted something more substantial to store things.

I started building it last night while Pete worked on homework with the girls.  I did the whole frame myself!  I was quite proud!

Pete (and Tater, the helpful dog that he is!) helped finish up the rest of the frame last night and a couple drawers, then I finished up the drawers this morning.



Voila!  Our new, BIG buffet!!  There is so much storage, I don't know what to do with myself.  I know I'll fill up all those drawers in no time though.  Just so excited to have such a great piece!