The Carving of the Pumpkins

As is our standard operating procedure around here, it was last minute pumpkin carving on Wednesday (the night before Trick-or-Treat). Sometimes, when it was just Mason, we did same day but now that there are 3 kids, it's quite the ordeal and takes awhile...

Silas loved making his pumpkin's face, but REALLY hated the guts. He'd freak out a bit each time he'd come into contact with it.


For Ella, on the other hand, that was her favorite part - she picked all of the seeds and guts out of her pumpkin.
She helped me sort out the pumpkin seeds and we roasted them. They were Yummy!


(you'll notice Mason carving his pumpkin without a shirt on...so that he didn't get pumpkin guts on it - so he says...)


Here are the final products! Not sure if you can tell on mine, but the stem is my nose.

(L to R top: Me, Justin, Mason
bottom: Silas and Ella)

Happy Halloween!!

Happy (belated) Anniversary to Us

Friday (October 23rd) was our wedding anniversary - we spent the morning driving to the Finger Lakes to visit Grandpa J and to celebrate our 10 years of wedded bliss by going to some vineyards.


We left at 4:30am so that we would have plenty of time to enjoy the day there on Friday. The weather was beautiful (after a bit of rain on Saturday morning). The kids didn't sleep much on the drive but were pretty good. We rolled in by noon and stopped at a vineyard to celebrate our arrival.

We always make sure to watch closely for Hector Falls once we get into the area.

There is something about this beautiful area that I find very peaceful and relaxing (something besides just the wine)...I made my first trip to the Finger Lakes 16 years ago this month (and if you know that Mason will be 15 in July and can do a little math...November, December, January, February, March, April, May, June, JULY!) and it has felt like a 2nd home since.

The scenery makes a perfect place for major picture taking. It was somewhat difficult to juggle both the camera AND the glass of wine.

I love this family picture!

Grandpa J was kind enough to put us up for the weekend (along with Donna and Lee), Amanda took the kids to the movies while Justin, me, Donna and Lee were escorted to the wineries by Grandpa J.

It was a perfectly perfect weekend and way to spend our anniversary - great family, great friends, great wine and incredibly beautiful views.

Happy anniversary to us!

(slide show of all the pictures)

Beware...

...if you are near Ella when she says anything starting with a "th" - you're bound to get spat upon...


They are falling like dominoes now - the Tooth Fairy is going to need to get a small-business loan soon...

Sickos!

Flu bug, Flu bug - go away, Ella and Si want to got out to play...

(or not...)

Silas missed 2 days of school this week - woke up at 2:30am with a 102.5 temp, cough, runny nose and congestion. Even 4 days later he is sacked out at 7:30pm. He was watching the Scooby Doo marathon all day and this is how we found him at the end of our bed...

oh, I love sleeping "babies"...

Ella was fine on Friday (she and Silas went to see Where the Wild Things are with my parents) but then Saturday morning woke up with a fever and started quickly feeling like death warmed over. She stayed on the couch all day Saturday (missing a classmate's birthday party) and most of today.

(Saturday on the couch)

She woke us up this morning starving (asking Daddy to make her a yummy breakfast).
Tonight she got a warm bath and felt much better, though still has a headache.
All my kids are pretty good troopers when they are sick but Ella is a really
good sick person.

(tonight in the tub)

Hopefully my sugies are on the mend and the rest of us can avoid it altogether!!

HUH? Mediocre What??

So, I was reading some of Mason's homework the other day and I probed him a bit about his plans after high school. We talked and I told him how our assumption is that he will go to college, etc. but I wanted to hear what he was thinking. He's a Freshman now and it's time to start taking this stuff seriously...yada, yada.

About 20 minutes later I get a text from Mason:

R u vicariously livin thru me n the hope that my accomplishments will validate ur mediocre life and n sum way compensate 4 all the opportunities u botched?

HUH?? First of all, he's texting me this??
2nd, where the heck is he??
3rd, I realize that he's on the john and texting me - GROSS!

I wait for him to come out and in that 10...15 minutes try to decide if I'm mad or not. Some but not a lot.
He comes out and I corner him. We have a brief discussion about choices. I do NOT bring up the "mediocre life" thing at this point (which is what got my dander up). A bit later, I tell him that I'm impressed that he knows how to spell "mediocre" and "vicariously".

He says "oh, yeah - I copied that from the Calvin & Hobbes book that I was reading in the bathroom" ... when he sent the text...

DUH! I KNEW that sounded familiar!! I just thought that I'd told MY parents that long ago...

Pumpkin Patch '09

Sunday was a beautiful day for the

Pumpkin Patch!

We made our annual trek to Kulhwein's (which has gotten quite expensive...) and had a great time on the hayride, in the corn maze and walking in the muddy pumpkin patch.

A man there with his 2 daughters
asked me to take a family picture of them,
and was nice enough to return the favor.
1st time we've had a picture of all of us there together.

Miss Ella looking all toothless and golden.

I always love being in the cornfield looking up on a blue sky day.
I like the contrast between the colors.

Even though Silas looks like such a big boy to me these days,
he still looks tiny in the middle of the corn maze.

Silas James lugging his perfect pumpkin around.

Ella on her pony ride. His name was Tony (for real).

Silas on his pony - his name was Gizmo (so says Si)

A quick flashback - this is one of my favorite pumpkin picking
photos of Mason (2002, age 7)

And 7 years later...Mason has a new hat that he likes to wear.
He's cool like that.

It was a perfect pumpkin picking day - sunny, not too cold, great colors...beautiful,
beautiful, beautiful. One of the reasons that it's my favorite time of year!!

Homecoming

Mr. Mason got all gussied up for his 9th grade Homecoming. NO date...apparently the thing is to just go with a group of friends. Fine by me! He looked very handsome, none the less.

Mason and Justin...no resemblance there at all...

All 3 of my boys

I tried to get him to take me as his date.
I probably still have my Homecoming dress...
I feel really short next to him!

Looking all GQ meets Pottery Barn

He said he had a great time - apparently he even danced :-) It's starting to sink in that my kid is in High School. Zoinks!! (yes, we watch Scooby Doo about 12 times a day around here).

Hmmmm....

This was in the preschool newsletter today...why do I feel like Mrs. P is talking directly to ME?

"Playgroups this week were, Kitchen area
and block area. In the kitchen we made
each other dinner, coffee, cake. I found
out who’s moms drink coffee, tea or just
beer and wine. You never know what your
child might say."



Silas swears that his mommy only drinks TEA!

Today Was Picture Day...

Let's hope he found a SMILE at school....

Lost Another...

Looks like the Tooth Fairy will be making a visit to our house tonight!!

More pictures than words

I know that I've posted a LOT of Cleo pictures lately but this cat is just a trip. She sprawls like a Playboy pin-up.

rrrhhhh, growl like a Tiger girl!

Mr. Silas does NOT have a death grip on her -
she is quite happy to be there in his embrace...really.

And this is NOT a pity shot of Zoe...who never gets a picture taken any more...

We've laid out blankets, kitty beds, etc - she likes the PopTart box...
to each her own.

though Ella did try to go around saying
"kitten for sale...5 dolla kitten for sale..."

And this is a tree. And a really pinky sky...2 of my favorite things.

I've had a very rough time taking pictures lately. My most favorite lens is going to have to be shipped off for repair. It just bit the dust which bums me out greatly. But I have a plan...

Adorable

Watching Marley and Me yesterday (for the 100th time over the weekend)...

Silas: Is Marley cute?

Me: yes, he is cute - he's adorable.

Si: what does adorable mean?

Me: it means very, VERY cute

Si: I'M adorable...aren't I?