Soccer Soccer Soccer Soccer...and Halloween

October was JAM packed with soccer...every weekend, almost every night of the week.  Exhausting - completely exhausting, but so fun.  Silas had his very first tournament and we went to Beavercreek for the Haunted Classic.  It was a lot fun hanging out with all he kids and families.  They had definitely done this a time or two based on how prepared they came for the tailgating!

Silas' team has had a rough season - trying to mesh a lot of boys to these 2 teams. This first tournament though, the played awesome!!  They won all 3 of their games and made it to the final playoff game.  They lost it by 1 or 2 goals but it was so great to see them all play hard, know where to go and what to do... so fun to watch their work come together.

Justin and Ella's Orange Strikers also had an awesome season. Undefeated during the regular season!!  They got bumped up to a tougher bracket in the last tournament and went 0-1-2 but they played so tough against these teams.  

Just as much as Ella loves playing, Justin loves coaching - funny for someone that never played soccer - ever!


There wasn't time for too much else in between soccer this season...though Ella and I got out for a couple walks and took some fall photos. Here is one of my favorites from Hayden Falls. 

I have a bunch from her and me that I should post.  She has a great eye!


We also managed to make time to get to the pumpkin patch (barely) in between Ella's last tournament games. That is why they have orange hair - they got sprayed with hairspray at the soccer game :)

We were totally behind in planning Halloween costumes. The Monday before Thursday Trick or Treating, we still weren't quite sure what they'd be.  Ella decided she wanted to be a scary baby doll and Silas originally wanted to be the Man with the Yellow Hat (from Curious George) but it was too hard to find an all yellow suit.  He ended up being a Zookeeper, Monkey Division.  Banana included.  They both looked really cute (ignore the photobomb in the window :)

The weather this year was perfect for Trick or Treat night.  50's and dry (unlike last year!).  They finished up with a firepit and hot cocoa at one of the neighbor's houses. 

And now, here we are in November...one more soccer tournament left next week (for Silas and it's going to be COLD!!) and then on to worrying about getting Christmas shopping done!

Gratitude and Humor

Many of my friends on Facebook and blogs are posting their 30 days of Thanks. I love reading what everyone is thankful for.

When I saw this picture, it was like my 30 days of Thankfulness all rolled into one.
It's so so rare to get my kids into a picture together. And to get them in a photo for ME is almost impossible.  We had Melissa work her magic recently and I just love this picture. Little Miss Silly Boo, Smiley Siley and this (edging towards maturity) teenage (Ma)son that I barely recognize sometimes - I haven't yet become accustomed to looking UP at him.

I admit, I am very biased, but when I see this picture, I see not only their handsomeness but also each unique personality.  We have some very smart kids. Very quirky kids. Very funny kids.  If there is one thing that I want my kids to have in life (besides happiness of course...) it's a great sense of humor, which I think breeds happiness.  The ability to laugh at yourself, connect with others through humor and to find some way to laugh in just about any situation life brings on. 

I'm thankful everyday for many things in my life.  Laughter is at the top of the list.  The ability to laugh in good times and bad, to hear the kids laugh and know they are happy, when you know someone hurts but still can experience even a moment of peace with a laugh.  I really am very thankful for humor and the ability to laugh.

I think we've created some pretty amazing little people...and we're so blessed.

2011 Pumpkin Show

It's almost mid-November and I'm still reliving October and trying to catch up blogging about it.
One of the highlighs of October is when we get to go to the Circleville Pumpkin Show.  Honestly, it's like the Frankin County Fair with 1000 pumpkins, fair food, freaky people and scary carnies but we still had fun. 

We went on Friday afternoon - the kids didn't have school (Oct. 21) and got off to a later start than we had planned...as usual.  We hit a huge traffic jam on the way there on 23 because a big truck carry corn or grain of some sort overturned on the highway so they were sweeping it up on the side of the road.  That put a damper on the beginning of the day.

It's nearly impossible these days to get all 3 kids in the same general vicinity, let alone to look at the camera and SMILE.

We spent a lot of time looking at all the HUGE prize winning pumpkins and eating everything in sight.  We had pumpkin pie, pumpkin bread, pumpkin cheese cake, french fries and my favorite...homemade pumpkin ice cream that was being churned right on the spot.  I craved it for weeks!!

During the long wait while stuck in traffic on the way there I had the chance (since we were
 at a dead stop) to snap a few pictures of a farm and barn.  Some of my favorite pictures of the day so I guess it was worth the wait!

Busy Week

It's wonderful to be sitting here on a lazy Saturday morning in my pj's with a cup of coffee - nothing scheduled for the day and no place that we need to be!!  It's been a rather crazy week.

Last Sunday, after Ella and Si's soccer games, Justin drove up to New York to see Jim (Grandpa J).  He's been in the hospital since September 17th.  The cancer in the bones has flared up and it was affecting the nerves and he wasn't able to walk.  He's been doing radiation and started a new chemo.  Praying that this give him some relief and enables him to get around again soon!
Monday and Tuesday I was flying solo with the kids so we concentrated on the basics like homework, dinner, bath, books, bed. And then I have a bad habit of staying up WAY too late working when Justin is gone, which is fine until the alarm goes off at 5:50am.
Justin got home around 1:30am so he was exhausted the rest of the week.  He and I are both really sucky night drivers.

Wednesday night I went to a concert with Donna and Sarah - Jason Mraz and he was awesome!

(not my photo...stolen from his Facebook fan page) 

 I love going to concerts but I have to be very selective about week night concerts these days...getting too old!

Thursday night I went to see author Kelly Corrigan with Margie.  Donna was supposed to go too but got stuck doing some work stuff.  Kelly is one of my new favorite authors.  She wrote The Middle Place and Lift.  I have quoted her books on here quite a few times.  She has an amazing gift of putting into words the thoughts,  feelings, anxiety and humor of being a mother, wife, daughter, friend and cancer survivor.  Her entire talk left me both laughing and crying at the same time. It was fantastic.  You can watch some of her videos here.

By end of the day on Friday, I was wiped out.  I  had been up until midnight or later every night of the week.  Justin went out with the boys for the evening so the kids and I had a relaxing night at home.  We watched movies and snuggled.  It was perfect.  After they went to bed, I watched Food, Inc. (We now have the Netflix on-demand and it is awesome - since we can never seem to get movies that we borrow back on time).  Excellent but disturbing documentary about the food industry. Since reading The Anti-cancer book, I've continued to research and learn very frightening stuff about the food that we consume, and how appalling the industry treats our farmers. Today starts Local Matters week, encouraging consumers to buy and eat local foods as much as possible.  

One of the highlights of my week was getting a free canvas 8x10 print of one of my photos.  I had taken this picture in Hocking Hills this summer, and winkflash had a deal for a free canvas.  It came this week and I love it!

I made some Thank You cards out of some of my photos and ordered (for free!) also. Can't wait to find another deal so I can get another print made!!

The other highlight of my week is that it is OCTOBER! My favorite month of the year!  Beautiful autumn weather, pumpkin picking, hay rides, apple crisp, the pumpkin fest, some fantastic photo opportunities...and my anniversary.  Yippee for October!!

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!!

'Tis the Season!

Autumn is my favorite time of year. I love the cooler weather, the smell of the leaves and the wonderful sleeping weather. I also love the ease of crock pot cooking and simmering pots of soup...

here is my first of the season...

'Tis also the Season for...

enjoying the cool air by an open window

...being silly and having fun with friends...

...wearing our Buckeye gear...

...and starting to think about costumes for Halloween...

(yeah, she hated me for this...)

Autumn is also the time of year that I love, love, love taking pictures....oranges, yellows, a bright blue sky and the light is beautiful....can't wait!!

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!!