Ho-Ho-Halloween!

More October fun today! We were running a little late carving our pumpkins because of my Chicago trip, so we did it this afternoon before trick-or-treating.

Then we had a fun filled Trick-or-Treat evening with all our neighborhood buddies.

The Moms took the kids around the 'hood, keeping warm with some coffee and Bailey's, the Dads handed out the candy...it's becoming a fine tradition!


McKenna, Silas, Sam, Allysa, Ella, Ashlee

Ella was Hannah Montana this year.
Mason was the scary thing from Scream - gross....

But Silas stole the show...(notice the lack of photos of Ella and Mason...)

For the last couple weeks, Silas has said he wants to be Santa for Halloween.
Turns out that he really meant it, so today Justin and I found an old outfit of Ella's, got fabric adhesive and some quilt batting and Justin got to work on cutting and adhering! A Santa hat, one of my belts, a beard net from one of the plants that Justin has done work in (with the batting glued to it as well) and....SANTA!

He was a big hit around the neighborhood. He took it pretty seriously too. Said his Ho-ho-ho's and everything!

How about our spooky house!?

happy halloween!!

Pumpkin Patch

Saturday we finally made it to the Pumpkin patch - loads of fun as usual. We did the hayride, ran through the corn maze, picked our pumpkins and slogged through a little mud.

Ella in the jumping thing - looking like a raging lunatic!

I Do, I Did and Would Do Again

Today is our anniversary! We both kinda forgot until about halfway through the morning. The romantic version of the story goes like this (bulleted for your reading and my writing ease...)

• We met at the Ground Round - remember the restaurant where it was okay to throw your peanut shells and whatever else on the ground?? What a mess!
  
• We dated for 6 years (with a few on-again-off-again rounds in there)
• We did things COMPLETELY backwards...we dated, had a baby, bought a house...THEN got married.
• We got a lot of the bad stuff out of our relationship early on - so we REALLY knew what we were getting when we said I DO.
• October has always been my favorite month of the year - I had always wanted an October wedding. Justin decided the last week of September 1999 to begin talking about getting married. My response was "it's either next month or a year from next month" - after 6 years, what's another year of waiting!?
• We planned our wedding in 3 weeks...married at the old Historic church in our town, a new local restaurant had a beautiful upstairs reception area that no one knew about yet so it was open for the evening, found a DJ, a friend took the pictures, got a video guy (that screwed up the recording on our vows so got it for free...), my grandpa Jack is a baker so he made our cake, bought some rings, called our preacher, ordered some invitations, got a marriage license...just like that - we had a wedding planned!
• On very little notice - we had all the family come in from New York, Arizona, etc. - they weren't about to miss what they had long awaited!
  
• My dress cost $63 on a clearance rack at a store someplace in the City Center...I found it on my lunch hour.
• I got sleeted on as I was coming into the church to walk down the aisle. Brrr...but did I care?!
  
• We danced and danced at the reception...and then paid the DJ more money to stay 2 hours longer...and then some of the guests ended up at Otie's (but not the bride and groom)
  
• The champagne we toasted with is the NASTIEST stuff I have ever, EVER tasted!
• I lost my voice and sounded like a 40-year chain smoker by the end of the night.
• My "honeymoon" week, I had walking pneumonia and had to sit in a career assessment class from 8am - 5pm Monday thru Friday.
• We did get to go to Hawaii 6 months later so that was worth the wait.
• For years after - Mason would always say "Remember at our wedding..."
  

• We danced to True Companion by Mark Cohn (video to the song linked)

It was as perfect a wedding as I'd ever want or wish for...and it has led to even more wonderful blessings...

NOW, I can see that some things are worth waiting for.

Herding Cats

This is Dad's first post. After two seasons (Spring and Fall) of coaching 5 year old girls soccer, my impression of Kindergarten or any other event that gathers multiple 5 year olds together for any kind of scheduled activity is, it must be like herding cats.

Today, after Ella came home from school, she showed me the pumpkin she had colored and cut out at school. I asked her if everybody listens to Mrs. S when she is teaching. Ella replied, " Well, just two people didn't. Dylan cut his shirt and Natalie cut her hair."

At least Ella didn't bring home a cat-or a new haircut.

Pumpkin Show

We had a fantastic time at the Circleville Pumpkin show yesterday. It was a bit chilly out but we spent over 3 hours there looking at the huge pumpkins and eating pumpkin everything. We stopped at the farm market on the way back and got some fresh pressed apple cider - Yum!

Ella and Si holding hands on the way

Justin Ella and Si in front of the pumpkin tower.

So much pumpkin food! We had pumpkin burgers, pumpkin waffles and pumpkin pie (and brought a pie home with us too)

The biggest pumpkin - funky pumpkin heads - yummy pumpkin waffles

Ella wanted to ride the Ferris wheel so I took her on - she was a bit unsure at first but then loved it :)

The Ferris Wheel from our view

While we were on the Ferris wheel, Silas drove the cars - he thought it was pretty cool to drive with no hands!

The Michelin Man was there - Si gave him a high-five.
Ella kept calling him the Ice Cream man - she thinks he looks like vanilla twist ice cream :)

Oh, how I love October!!

One chickie flew the coop

Mason is off to Washington DC for his 8th grade trip - I dropped him off at the school Friday morning at 3:30AM - that was painful...not a time of day that I like to be up and about. This is a picture that he sent me from his phone camera.


He spent most of his money the first day there (on a Redskins jersey...he's a goober!) - good thing they feed him meals!

New Rug

We finally found a new area rug that we liked for the family room. It is SO thick it's crazy. Now in addition to having a dog that sheds like mad, we've got a wool rug that is just as bad!

Going Once....Going Twice....

Sunny Sunday

I so love sunny autumn days! Not much can go wrong on days like today.

I went to a friend's baby shower brunch today and it was wonderful - congrats to Katy!

When I got home, we started decorating for Halloween. I bought some scary stuff this year...like tombstones and cobwebs - oohhhhhhhh....and black lights!


I snapped a few photos of the kids while they were out playing and a group picture from the baby brunch.












































































And Greg spotted a hawk for me perched on the neighbor's swingset.
Oh I wish this weather would last forever!!

So much to blog, so little time!

What a great weekend! I will have to break this into several posts to keep it all straight. Saturday I was lucky enough to get to go to the OSU - Purdue game at the shoe (thanks to Sarah). We had a lot of fun but it was hotter than heck on the sunny side of the stadium all day!




















I was a little confused at first when I tried to take a picture of me and Sarah...first I pushed the wrong button and turned off the camera. Then I forgot I was the one that had to snap the picture...so I'm waiting....der...



Ahhh, here we go!



Sarah and I pimped our ride for the game :)







I missed getting scripted Ohio on video but here is the next little jig!

Any resemblance?

Ella got her kindergarten pictures back this week. Very cute. click to enlarge and you will see that she has her missing tooth front and center.

And who is that strange little girl beside her? Well, I'll give you one guess...



Yes...me. My mom was a little scissor happy, we didn't have quite the fashionable clothing back in '75 or whenever this was...but this is me in kindergarten.
Don't you think I resemble a young Shawn Cassidy?


Well, maybe it's just the hairdo. and the nose. and the freaky 70's look.

Anybody seen my baby??

He's apparently missing and been replaced with THIS kid!
In the Levi jeans and his "work boots" (which he wants to wear all the time now because they are like Daddy's) he just looks all grown up :(

My Smiley Siley...looking absolutely as rotten as can be...

I love free things. DZ brought me a fun bag of stuff from the Limited/VS sale (where Lee works). I love these jammies - they are warm and comfortable (and oh so sexy). I just can't figure out why the kids ask me if they can have a lollipop every time I wear them...




We instituted a new bedtime this week. Friday night, Ella and Silas were screaming, crying, fighting and being miserable to be around by 7:30pm. We had plans to go to the James' but knew it would be a disaster so we jammied the kids up and got them into bed at 8:15pm. They both slept until almost 8am. We decided that they were both sleep deprived and since then, we have been getting them to bed at least an hour earlier (it had been 9-9:30pm - yes, way too late!). You'd think after being parents for the last 13+ years we'd catch on to the clues of exhausted children!!