Pumpkin Wednesday

We started Family Night off earlier than usual and headed to the pumpkin patch. Tony has been wanting to go all Fall and we weren't in any rush because I already had our pumpkins. The kids had fun with the beanbag toss and of course all the animals. The corn bin was a good time, but I think what topped it all was a mound of hay they had set up for kids to play on. All four boys spent most of their time there climbing, walking and wrestling on it.

Of course when it came time to leave they wanted to know why we weren't picking pumpkins and I had to remind them that my garden produced 8 pumpkins that we had at home. Lesson learned. I will never plant pumpkins again!!! Tony was devastated that we weren't picking pumpkins to carve. "But mom, it is the best part about coming to the pumpkin patch." I unfortunately took that tradition away from him this year. We settled for letting each of the kids pick a tiny pumpkin to bring home. But one thing is for sure, there will be no pumpkins in the garden next year! At least not big ones, maybe minis...

From the pumpkin patch we went home and had dinner. After dinner it was pumpkin carving time. All the boys did really good making faces for their pumpkins. Jake and Tony did the whole project by themselves while Will and I helped the younger boys. Tony did the honor of lighting the pumpkins outside and then we came in and had our Rice Crispie pumpkins for dessert!

Tot Book

Here is one of four "tot books" I have put together for Brodie. I found this wonderful blog that had these "tot books" listed that you could print off the template and put together. I am not sure who loves it more, Brodie or me. I am putting finishing touches on the other 3 books. I am not going to give them all to him right now. I will however put some pictures up of them when they are complete. They are so cool! If you are interested in these you can go here to find them and make them yourself!

Yesterday and today we have been doing lots of pumpkin activities. Yesterday we made pumpkins out of construction paper. We also colored some worksheets and made pumpkin bread. Today we read lots of books and painted paper plates with orange paint.

The kids got along really well with each other till about noon. Then once again we had to go down for naps and it was all downhill. Neither boy took a nap today. Needless to say they were pretty cranky by dinnertime. We did get out this evening and got Drew's haircut. It was every bit as bad as I thought it would be. He HATES getting his haircut. But, 15 minutes later with sweaty face and sobbing gasps of air he looked adorable. Soooo much better. I really put his haircut off a long time because I was dreading it! I will post pictures of him tomorrow. It was late when we got home and he was in no mood for pictures!

Brodie was very excited to tell me that this is what they saw in the backyard last night while Tony and I were at Piano and the store! They were back where the garden was. They are probably wondering what happened to all the plants because we just tore the rest of the garden out this weekend! They will have to go elsewhere for a snack!

Saturday was a great day. I got lots accomplished and so did Will. We also had some good quality time with friends and family.

I spent the morning cleaning house and helping Tony organize his entire room. A project I have been wanting to do for awhile. Plus it is always something I try and do before the holidays get here and his room becomes a home for new toys and crafts. So it is good to have that checked off the list. Now, only 3 more childrens rooms to do.

Will spent the day smoking some pork and chicken for our dinner we are having
today. He always does such a great job cooking and the food is wonderful. While the food was cooking he got some projects done around the house as well, like trimming bushes and raking leaves. He spent the entire morning cooking, getting things done and watching the two younger kids so I could be productive in the house.

Tony, Brodie, Drew and I made some Halloween crafts in the afternoon. They aren't quite finished so I will post some pics of those later. We also spent some time outside and the 2 younger kids and I made some homemade bird feeders using pine cones (which we have an abundance of right now), peanut butter and bird seed. The boys had fun until the peanut butter got on their hands. Brodie hates having his hands dirty.

We spent the evening with some friends and had a lovely dinner made by my husband and then played some cards. I love days like these.

Our weekend will be busy. We are having a birthday party in my honor tomorrow with my family and Will's parents. Tonight we are getting together with some friends of ours.

For now, my morning and afternoon are going to be filled with cleaning toilets and scrubbing floors. Hope you have something better planned!

Enjoy the weekend.

Wonderful Wednesday

I love Wednesdays. Family Night. It has become our little tradition and now I know the boys look forward to it each week.

This was my week. For dinner I made pizza burgers with alot of help from Brodie and Drew. After dinner each of the kids got to make their own concoction of broken crayon pieces that we melted in the oven to make new crayons blocks.


Then I had each child and adult make a ghost to hang on our door. It was funny to see all 5 boys coloring, cutting and gluing together. For dessert I made ghost pudding with coolwhip topping. A huge hit!



Then we ended off the night watching a Halloween Spongebob DVD I rented from the library. It was a good night and all the kids were in bed my 8:30pm. Ahhhh...

C is for Cookie...

Despite all the gloomy weather the last few days we have managed to keep ourselves busy. Thankfully Tuesday we got outside to get some outside work done before all the rain hit. The kids enjoyed playing and wrestling in the leaves. It is a shame I don't approve of wrestling, Drew is actually really good at that sport.

We are working on the letter "C" at our house. We'll at least Brodie is. Drew really has no interest in sitting down long enough to color or read a story. Brodie is at a perfect age to start learning all the letters and so far has done a great job. I have been proud of myself for writing down little lessons we can do each day to recognize what letter we are working on and so far things are going good. Here is a project we did for the letter C...
We actually baked cookies first and then we made these little cookies out of construction paper and glued real baby M&Ms on them. The boys loved it. Brodie split the candies between his mouth and the cookie.

Drew loved the cooking part better. He was especially facinated with the flour! He had a good time playing clean up in the water afterwards too.

I am guessing I am going to wish I would have spent more time playing outside yesterday. The weather is changing. Cold and rainy the next few days. Hopefully we can enjoy some of today yet.

The little boys had fun painting yesterday with potatoes. Will came home from work and joined them. Not sure who had more fun. The boys had fun with just plain potatoes, Will had to take it to the next level and carve the potatoes into cool stamps.

Jacob started jazz band yesterday. He is pretty excited about that. He will have practice now for that every Monday and Thursday at 6:45am for the rest of the year. Football is over on Thursday. That will free up his afternoons and evenings again. I am seeing lots of friends over for him in the near future.

Here is a picture of my awesome Craigslist find. I have been looking for some kind of cabinet to organize all my craft supplies for the kids. This is it. $25.00. It is perfect. I have all my stuff in one location now instead of all over the house. Yeah for me.

30...

I had a wonderful birthday. I feel like I just got back from a mini vacation. My dear husband had quite the weekend planned for me to celebrate my leaving the 20 something era.

It started Friday morning with him making me a wonderful breakfast. The best part of the birthday almost in my opinion. I love breakfast food. I got homemade waffles and strawberries, eggs, bacon and cinnamon rolls. The boys all greeted me with a sleepy hello and the older kids went off to school. Will worked from home so he could be a little more active in the birthday breakfast without rushing off. I had AWESOME signs to celebrate as well. Will might have topped the shirtless Matthew McConaughey pictures I got last year. They were of the Presidential candidates. Too funny. Here they are...






For lunch I went out with my step-mom to Noodle Zoo in Ankeny. I have never been there before. I will go back it was really good and it had a nice friendly atmoshpere. I had a little time to myself and did a little shopping before heading back home for the afternoon. Jenny came down at 4pm and Will and I got ready to go out. Jen took the kids to her house for the night and Will and I went out to dinner at Cafe Fusion. A new place for us. Just a little hole in the wall but wonderful Asian food. We will definately be returning there. Then we headed off to Valley West to walk around and do a little shoe shopping. We ended up at Cold Stone Creamery for dessert! We went home and laid on the couch and watched a DVD before cashing in for the night.

Saturday morning we woke up had breakfast and got our shed and Will's side of the garage cleaned out! It was great to be productive amongst all the fun we were having! It didn't take long with the two of us working. We headed up to Colo in the afternoon to check in with the crew who were all doing great. Jen offered to keep the kids another night so Will and I headed back to Des Moines and ended up spending a few quiet hours at Barnes and Noble! We ate dinner and then headed home and watched another DVD.

Sunday was Will's actual "gift" for me. We went on the picnic train and the Boone Scenic Valley Railroad. Will packed a wonderful picnic lunch to include: fancy cheese, crackers, grapes, Sparkling cider, sandwiches and of course dessert Oreos and Herserys chocolate. All my favorites. I have only posted a fraction of the pictures here. It was so beautiful and the weather was perfect. We spent most of the time outside on the back of the train. We went over some pretty high bridges. We got some amazing pictures. I have never been on a train before so this was a great experience!

After the train ride we headed back up to Colo and picked up the kids and Jen and went and ate pizza with my step brother.

It was a wonderful weekend and a wonderful way to welcome 30. THANK YOU JEN for making it possible. It will definately be a birthday I will remember.