Elementary School Halloween Parade & Kindergarten Class Party!

Every year for Halloween, our Elementary school does an all school costume parade and parents and family can come and see their kids parade around the school and to the different classrooms! It's so fun for the kids, because they like to show off their costumes! This year for Halloween, Ian was Mario - from Super Mario Brothers video games - and Luke was Luigi (Mario's brother!) They were so cute! It was by far the most popular costume this year, because I saw at least a dozen 'Mario's' parading around!
Luke had his Kindergarten class Halloween party after the parade, and I volunteered to help. It was fun to see him having fun! They did an eyeball on a spoon relay, played 'musical pumpkin' (hot potato with a stuft pumpkin), and played Halloween Bingo. Ian also had his class party, but I wasn't able to go since both parties were at the same time! I think he had fun! They both got fun treat bags to bring home too!

Ian during the parade.


Luke, eating his cupcake after the parade in the cafeteria.

Luke playing Halloween Bingo.

Luke's Kindergarten class!

Family Pictures 2010

Pumpkin Patch with the Kiddos!

Yesterday we took the boys over to Coulter's Pumpkin Patch! I like this pumpkin patch because they give you a free hay ride out to the field, the pumpkins are very reasonably priced, and they have a fun little playground where the boys can play... and it's free! The boys had a great time riding out to the patch, and it was a beautiful fall afternoon to spend together! Luke had a field trip the day before here, so he picked out a pumpkin for me since he got one for himself the day before. Ian, of course, wanted a big FAT pumpkin! He loves it! Mason was happy with any of them! He liked riding with the tractor and hayride! We're all set for Halloween now, except ONE costume! I still need to find one for Mason! Ian and Luke have their costumes and are ready to go! I can't wait to see what they want to carve their pumpkins into this year! I love Halloween!

I need to sum up September!!!

Ok, I'm a slacker and just realized I haven't blogged about anything for the entire month of September!!! What!? Ok, so we did a few things that were fun, and actually the last picture was taken in October. So sue me. :)

First we went to Dave's twin brother's daughters 2nd birthday party! YEAH! The boys had so much fun at their cousin Kaitlyn's birthday party! They had a TON of fun too when they put up the HU-NORMOUS bounce slide!!! They had so much fun! All the kids did, and MAN O MAN did they stink after they were done! I have never smelled such stinky boys! It was chilly outside, and a little rainy, but they were sweatin' up a storm and -pee-ewe!!! But they had fun! As you can see!

We stayed over night after the party, and went to church the next day, so here are the boys all set to go to church... not so stinky this day! They had fun meeting new friends.

Next fun thing was we went to my friend, Carolyn's house, (my best friend from High School) and played, had a BBQ and the boys did some fun pumpkins! Mason especially LOVED his, and refused to go to sleep without it that night! It was so cute how he hugged it to sleep!!!

Lastly, this is me and my friend Carolyn, at a scrapbooking night my mom had at her house and we got to make a fun halloween craft! We are being silly here reminiscing about our old tennis days! (Only Carolyn will get it) :) I had a blast!

First Day of School!

Well, it's finally here! The first day of school and summer is officially over! I feel like I can now get back into somewhat of a routine!
This year, Ian started 2nd Grade! He is so tall now, and has changed so much over the past year! He had lost a lot of teeth, so his smile is now at the beginning stages of his 'grown up' mouth! haha! (in other words... he's gonna need braces) haha! Ian was very anxious to go back to school, as he has told me repeatedly that our house is boring. I agree with him! haha! But he likes to have his schedule, so I'm glad that he's gonna get back into it now. He was pleased that a lot of the kids from his 1st grade class are again in his class this year, although, some of the same trouble makers are back too, so we'll see how that goes!Luke started Kindergarten this year and has been anxiously awaiting today all summer! Even though his preschool teacher said back in February that he wouldn't be ready for kindergarten this year, I went with my gut and threw him in all day. I think he will benefit a LOT from a schedule as well, even though one of the first questions out of his mouth this morning was, 'mom, are we gonna get to play in kindergarten?' I assured him that, yes, kindergartener's get to play a lot during school, but they also have to listen to their teacher when it's work time! He was good with that!
When we dropped them off this morning at the school, I hugged and kissed them both, and they took off into the school... neither one of them looked back and waved, but I'm ok with that. They are great kids and I'm glad that they are independent and ready for this year!Mason, on the other hand, was VERY sad that his brothers didn't take him with them! But he got over it.Mom and Dad.... we were VERY excited to see them walking into that school with confidence and smiles on their faces! (oh, yes, and FREEDOM!!!) We love our boys and are proud of who they are becoming!

Laundry Buddy

Mason just loves to help with the laundry - and he gets mad if I don't let him help too! He wants to help put the clothes in the washer - even if they are the clean ones already done, and he likes to push the wet ones into the dryer. Well, the other day, he was curious, I guess, to see what the clothes see when they go into the dryer! He thought he was so cool in the dryer, and threw a complete fit when I took him out! Poor kid.... life is so unfair when you get pulled out of the dryer! ;)

Nature Museum and Lincoln Park Zoo

Last Monday, the boys and I got to go up to Chicago with my friend Judi, to the Nature Museum and Lincoln Park Zoo for the day! It was beautiful and warm, and we had a great time! The boys really liked the hands on fun at the Museum, and their favorite part was the butterfly room. There were hundreds of butterflies and moths in this sunroom and it was very neat. there was a fun play room and they boys really had a good time. We even got to see a different kind of bird watching the fish on the shore of the pond, waiting to 'catch' the right one for his lunch. We didn't get to see him get his lunch, but he was being pretty stealthy!

After the Museum, we went over to the Lincoln Park Zoo, that was across the street, and walked around there for a while. We got to see the Gorillas, the lions, tigers and cheetah, and the reptile house, and some larger animals too. It was warm out, so we treated the kids to snow cones! They really liked those a lot! We had a fun time with our friends and are grateful that they wanted us to go with them!

Segway Tour in Chicago!!!

Last Friday, our friends, Michelle and Bill, took us up to Chicago to go on a Segway Tour! It was 3 hours of TOTAL fun, and I am so glad we got the opportunity to go! We also got to spend the day with our friends, kid-free! That was a bonus! We started our tour in Millennium Park and went as far down the lake shore as the old Meigs Field! We went to Buckingham Fountain, Celebration Gardens, the Museum Campus, the beach, Soldier Field, the old Meigs Field, and we even got to watch as the Blue Angels did some practice runs for the air and water show that took place the following day! It was so amazing! The weather was GREAT! I don't think there wasn't a time I was not smiling on that thing! Dave and I would try to race each other - they go up to 13 miles per hour! It was just SO much fun and I definately want to do it again!
Watch Video clip of me just learning how HERE!











After the Segway Tour, we went to Millennium Park again and visited The Bean! Dave has never been there before, and I have never taken pictures of me by it! It was very cool.







After The Bean, we went to Hard Rock Cafe for dinner and stuffed ourselves silly! I ate SO much food! It was so good! After Hard Rock, we walked down to Navy Pier to catch a Ferris wheel ride! Dave hadn't ever been on the Ferris wheel either, so it was fun. We made it on as one of the last ones to go before they closed... it was good timing too, because a thunderstorm was rolling in and we had to book it to catch our train! We made it and it was a fun filled day!


Finish the night off with a kiss on the Ferris wheel!