Halloween Pictures

Ok, so I tried to do some fun stuff with Picasa, but I can't figure out how to link to the album instead of uploading each picture individually. This is as far as I got so far.

Happy Halloween

Whew it has been a long day! Halloween festivities wherever you turn. The day started out with costume preparation, and then lunch and photo ops before Quinn had to pack up his costume and get on the bus. From there it was make up application for Avery and get dressed, more photo ops (only a little cheese involved there) before shipping her off to her day at school and Halloween party. After that it was home for a few minutes, a few phone calls, and a bit of clean up before heading out with Kaleigh to Quinns Halloween parade at school. All of the kindergarteners marched around the school in their costumes. It was too cute. As soon as (and I mean as soon as) that was over, it was back in the car to get back to Averys school and participate in their scavenger hunt. After helping her find all the clues (she did much bettter at this than last year... and it was quite windy too) it was load up and head home. We were keeping one of her friends until her Mom got out of work, so the girls played and I finished the clean-up and waited for Quinn to get off the bus. Once he was home, we had a short time to refresh costumes, do some Kaleigh photos and wait for Scott to get home before heading out to Aunt Mary and Uncle Marks for dinner and Trick or Treating. It was so strange this year going while it was still light out and it being so warm, but the kids had a great time and are loaded up with sugar for about a year and a half. Dinner was delicious (as usual) and after visiting with Opa and Mark and Marys friends we headed out to Em and Bobs for a quick visit with Ella, Soph, Lucy, and "Darth Grampy" and "Bug Grammy". We headed home around 8pm and after the kids got their baths and sorted through their candy, it was finally time for them to get to bed. Hopefully tomorrow they won't be bears, Quinn has an all day field trip to the science center tomorrow, if he's too grouchy they might decide to make him an exhibit. Hope you all had a Happy Halloween!

P.S.
Not like I haven't already put up too many pictures, but

I have more to post, so I think I'll have to put up a slide.

Corn Maze Catch Up

I hadn't realized it has been a whole week since the last post until today. So I guess I have some catching up to do. Well I am now a part time employee of Hallmark. They were hiring for a very part time postion of a couple nights a week and one weekend day, and since it is a fun place to visit I thought, why not. That and Scott and I decided it would help boost the budget (even if it is just a miniscule amount). I don't actually start until next week and even that will be training, but hey, for me it is a reason to get out every other day.

The rest of the week was spent in various tasks, some work, some fun, a night out (thanks to Aunt Mary) to the annual T-town Breast Cancer Fundraiser with a couple of friends. Friday Saturday and Sunday, Gary and Devin were in town to visit and attend hockey and football games, Quinn was very excited to have an older boy cousin here and they all had a great time. Sunday was spent at church and the Pumpkin Patch Party, where the kids got to paint yet another pumpkin and bounce in the moonwalk. After that we headed to the corn maze with the "Young Adults" group from church (although only 3 other people showed up) we had a great time. Devin and Quinn were pretty adventurous... piggy backing their way through.

This week looks to be full of more fun with Halloween parties and trick or treating up and coming. I'll try to be more prompt with the updates!

Fabulous Fall

Another Beautiful fall day around here, and we made the best of it. After church and lunch, Scott and Quinn worked on unloading some wood from the truck, while Avery and Kaleigh sat for a quick photo shoot with the mums. After that it was off to get some pumpkins with Grammy and a birthday party for Avery. While Avery was at the party we headed back to Grammy and Grampys to carve the pumpkins. Quinn carved his own pumpkin this year with only minimal help, and here he is posing with his creation.

Kaleigh was more interested in the lady bug that decided to take a visit in her pumpkin. She must have put that poor bug in and out of that pumpkin about 50 times at least. Our little biologist that is for sure.

After the pumpkins were carved, Grampy let Quinn take the John Deere for a ride. He was so excited that he got to drive, even though the start up was a little rough at times. Soon six o'clock rolled around and it was time to pick up Avery, who had a good time at the party, minus the clown with the chinchillas. :)

Halloween Haunts and a Day at the Park

Ok, so Avery really is just like her mom, poor thing. We attended the co-op Halloween Party this afternoon, and it was a great time, except for the fear of 2 big dogs and one little dog, some bees, and some cupcake falling on the princess dress, oh and the "scary" room in the barn. Really the kids did have a good time at this years barn party fundraiser. The people who hosted the party even had an old fashioned cider press, which they used to make cider for everyone to take home, except for us, as we forgot our jug to put it in... and the age of the machine really was not something I was to excited about drinking something out of.

The rest of the day today was spent playing photographer. My friend Lisa asked if I would take their family portraits at the park today, as her husband is only home on weekends, and the thought of spending 2+ hours sweating in a small JCPenny studio was not appealing to them. I borrowed Bobs camera and we got some pretty good shots I think. We'll see when they get printed on paper, but for an amateur (and a really nice camera) I think I did alright. I could see myself taking photography up as a second carrer (but that would probably take the fun out of it) so I'll stick to it as a hobby for now.

That was about it for the day, besides watching some TV. Hope you all had a Happy Sweetest Day!
P.S. Pictures to follow as Blogger doesn't want to cooperate at the moment!

Wormy Worm and Basketsoccer

After dinner tonight Scott took the kids out to play basketball in the driveway. It was a great night for being outside and the kids always like playing ball with Dad, even though the attention spans are short for actually getting the ball in the basket. Kaleigh didn't take long to find the sand box and the discovery of a new friend, "Wormy Worm" who she played with the rest of the time that she was outside. Wormy Worm soon became Wormy WormS as she played with it long enough for it to divide into 2. Avery and Quinn continued to play various forms of basketsoccer etc. until Quinn decided he'd rather take pictures. These are some shots he took of his Dad and sisters playing ( a little blurry, really the lightings fault and not his as most of my pictures turned out that way too).

A Second to Post

Ok, I have a second to post... the girls are just finished with tub time and Scott and Quinn are working on homework (Quinns not Scotts). Sunday after church we headed to Tecumseh for the Appleumpkin Festival, for Aunt Mary and the middle schools Haunted House and Carnival. The kids had a BLAST, they got tickets to play all kinds of games like rat ring toss, ghosts in the air, skull bowling, face painting etc., and won tickets for prizes. After the games they decided they were brave enough to go in the "Haunted Schoolhouse" (middle school haunted... not too scary). Quinn was a little sheepish at first, but he wanted to be "brave" and do it. The girls were gung ho... Kaleigh was even brave enough to hold a skeletons hand (no fear in that girl). They thought they were so cool when they got done, it was hilarious. After that we walked around the festival for a bit before stopping at Doby's Smoke House for a barbeque lunch. Scott ran into more than a few past Products employees, one of which was our waitress, if that says anything. After lunch we headed back to Uncle Mark and Aunt Marys because it was raining and visited with Uncle Mark for a bit before heading out. After leaving there we stopped at Grammy and Grampys for a visit and Grammy treated us to mac and cheese for dinner. Yum! Well my second is up, Quinn is now done with homework and showered, so it's time for me to get the rascals to bed. Have a great night!

Football and Chocolate Chip Saturday

Scott, Quinn and Tom are off at the football game. Quinn was so excited to go... hopefully he is having as good a time as he expected. He doesn't really care about the football, but was looking forward to getting some popcorn. Cheap thrills. On the way home from dropping the guys at the game (it's cheaper and faster to drive them and pick them up than pay $20+ for a place to park), Kaleigh fell asleep, so Avery and I let her nap and decided to make some chocolate chip cookies. They turned out yummy, and minus a few chips as Avery had to taste test of course. And Kaleigh sure was happy to find cookies to eat when she woke up. Hope you are all having a fantastic Fall Saturday!

Adventures of Cow Wrangling, Pumpkin Painting and Grandparents at Kindergarten

It has been an exciting day. Started off with trying to get Direct TV and being unsuccessful as the technician who attempted the install said it would not be possible due to the trees in the yard. Although we are seeking a second opinion as he did not look too professional (that being a MAJOR understatement)... lets just say I would not have opened the door for him had I not known that he was supposed to be here. After that it was time for Quinn to go off to school and Grandparents Day... Grammy and Grandpa both got to come and boy was he excited! You'll have to look to Mom's blog for the details, as Quinn is not exactly a good source for telling us what happened, but the scoop from Jack was that they all had a great time. While Quinn was off at school, the girls and I headed out to the annual Co-op field trip to Lodi Farms nursery. The kids had fun with a hayride, a straw maze and painting pumpkins. Unfortunately I didn' t get as many pictures as I wanted because my battery was going on me. After that it was time to come home and visit with Grandpa. The kids had fun showing him their costumes for halloween and reading more than a few books. After dinner and Grandpas departure, we headed to Grampys to store some stuff in the attic (Scott is trying to clean the basement out and it is just too packed so he moved some stuff to the attic to make room to work). The kids got in a quick tractor ride while we were there and then it was back home to bath and jammie time. On the way home though we stopped to do some calf wrangling. One of the farms between Grampys and home had a calf who was in the road, so I pulled into the farm. No one was home so Scott went over and herded it back into the field while I went up the road to another farm (part of the same family) where there was someone home and they came tearing down the road in their 4x4's to get it back in the fence. They were very appreciative and said that the same calf has gotten out before and they can't figure out how. I was just glad that we saw it because it is at a part of the road with limited sight distance and there would have been hamburger in the middle of the road if someone would have hit it. So it has been a day full of adventure... now I think I'll sit down and watch some tv. Have a nice weekend y'all :)

Mystery Meat

Ok so I really should post, even though I don't have too much to say. Things here have been routine (except for the visit from Uncle Andy and soon to be Aunt Christie on Sunday). Kim and I have been working on our scrapbooks a little here and there, which has been nice (I've got a lot of catching up to do), but the blogging has "slacked" as Scott says. So here I am even though there is not much new to report.

Since I have not taken many pictures lately I decided to randomly choose a video. I had no idea what this was until it uploaded... it's kind of like mystery meat. Always good to have something unexpected in your day don't you think? (well maybe, maybe not). Ok, that is enough from me... I really should start coming up with something to say BEFORE I start typing.

The Smurfs

We have On Demand with Comcast and although Comcast is not the greatest, it is a nice service to have. I don't think the kids have watched a DVD in weeks. PBS On Demand for us the majority of TV viewing time, no commercials, no scratching up the DVD, it is great! Last night though, we were flipping through the shows and found that they have the Smurfs! Quinn has really enjoyed that (even though he has a hard time saying Smurf and calls them Surfs) and I am surprised that I remember as much as I do about them. Gargamel, Papa Smurf, Brainy, even the background music... came right back to me... dum, dum, da dum dum da da dum... ok I know I need help, it's a slow blog day...