Sunday, October 31, 2010

Soccer boy

B played on a soccer team for the first time this season. He was so excited to be a soccer player. He did well, scored a few goals & had lots of fun. And the best part.....

He got a trophy!

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Halloween costumes 2010

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A repeated last year's Felicity costume. That was easy.


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J wanted to be a police officer and was happy with the cheap costume from the temporary Halloween store. I talked my way into a 20% discount too! Made me feel better about spending $20 on such a cheaply made costume.

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B told me weeks ago that he wanted to be a werewolf. I didn't do anything about it because I thought for sure he would change his mind and want to be a football player again. Yesterday he still had not changed his mind so I quickly made a werewolf costume.

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with fangs & nose
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He wore the costume to the party last night & to the Halloween parade this afternoon but by the time he went trick or treating, he was in a football costume. I should have told him no and saved myself the trouble. At least I have cute pictures.

Halloween pumpkins

It's that time of year again. Pumpkin carving. I don't really like pumpkin carving. It's kind of like decorating a christmas tree. It is suppose to be all kinds of family togetherness & happy times, but it ends up being a lot of work with bickering in between. I shouldn't complain because the kids were very good this year. Very little bickering.


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A carved her own pumpkin again this year. Her skills are definitely improving.

air show

Friday A&J had the day off for parent teacher conferences. B went to school in the morning and then tagged along on the girl scout ice skating outing. I forgot I can take pictures with my phone or I would have shots of them on ice.

DH & J went to an air show rehearsal with his friend Jack & Jack's dad. The actual airshow was on Saturday & Sunday but they do a practice run through of the show on Fridays. Jack's dad's company got tickets to the practice. They were in a tent on the tarmac with front row seats. According to J, it was AWESOME!!!

They rode Jeeps on a off road track. DH drove a big one, J got to ride a little one. They saw all kinds of planes, the Blue Angels & sky divers. Do you know what J & DH talked about the most? The world's fastest school bus with a jet engine attached to the back.


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Monday, October 25, 2010

How to build a scarecrow by B

This morning as we were driving to preschool, B saw a house decorated for halloween. I missed it because I was driving. (Why do my children get mad at me for not seeing things while I am driving? I'm driving, I'm looking at the road not checking out the halloween decorations!)

He decided that we should make scarecrows for our yard and told me that he knows how to do it. Here are his instructions:

1. Get a big long pole.
2. Get cow food or horse food.
3. Make eyes.
4. Glue them on.
5. Get yarn or stitching stuff.
6. Stick the pole in the ground.

And then you have a scarecrow.

I did have to ask what the yarn or stitching stuff was for. He told it was to make the clothes, with a sigh as if it was so obvious I should have figured it out on my own. At least I knew what cow food was!

If he gets around to making a scarecrow, I'll be sure to take pictures!

Thursday, October 21, 2010

cocooning

Or should I say chrysalising?

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It is sort of hard to see in these pictures, but the caterpillar is making a chrysalis. If you look above the caterpillar head & the 'K' in Kerr, you can see the threads reflecting in the flash.

It is fascinating to watch!

Another caterpillar

The boys found another caterpillar under a tree at the park after school today. We put it in a g2 bottle until we got home to identify it.


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This is the hugest caterpillar I have ever seen. When it isn't scrunched up on a stick like it is in the pictures, it is probably 3 inches long and a thick as a thumb.

We entered "giant green caterpillar" into google and quickly discovered that it a giant silkworm or polyphemus caterpillar. Very cool. I'm not sure if we'll keep this one or not. We need to find some leaves it likes to eat or we'll return it back to the park where we found it.

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Garden bounty

Now that the high temperatures have dropped below 90, my garden is finally starting to grow.

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Too bad the kids don't like green peppers and jalapenos, we have plenty! I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I might actually get some tomatoes this season.

Preview of weekend

DH went shopping this afternoon in anticipation of weekend activities.

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He and J are going to the Cub Scout Family Campout. Yes, it is a family campout, but A&B have soccer games & ballet lessons so it's just the two of them this year.

A said there was no way she was going camping until she saw the blowup air mattresses that DH bought then she decided that camping might be okay.

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Maybe we'll buy another tent and more air mattresses and go camping as a family. Our friends in Chicago did it with more kids than we have and they survived!

Saturday, October 16, 2010

Playoffs, Take 2

Last night I went to the first American League Championship game in Texas Rangers history. It was a monumental night, or it would have been if they had managed to win. Oh well.

DH had committed himself to helping set up the Autumnfest at school so I took my dad with me instead. We had a scenic drive to the ballpark. I got on the highway and hit traffic way before I ever expected. I pulled out my smart phone and followed back streets all the way there. It took us about 40 minutes to get there once we got out of the traffic, which isn't bad at all.

The game was great until the 7th inning. Poor Rangers. Losing to the dreaded Yankees once again!! Hopefully they will do better today!


The banner
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The teams
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The flyover
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The first pitch
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The mascot
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Dad & the huge ice cream
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The angry man who shouted all kinds of obscenities at the Yankee fans. He spent the last inning looking backwards instead of at the game!
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Friday, October 15, 2010

shadows

Yesterday evening we went on a cub scout outing to the planetarium at St. Mark's School. J loved it. Despite not really wanting to go (A) and not understanding what it was (B), the siblings loved it too.

(Aside, I was appalled by the behavior of the boy scouts. Okay, maybe I'm overreacting and maybe I'm used to girls instead of boys, but they were making loud comments and jokes and speaking when the planetarium speaker was doing his presentation. I wanted to scream. Finally one of the mom/den leaders asked them to calm down but it didn't last long. It convinced me that I am truly a mean girl scout leader because if it had been my troop I would have stopped him and yelled! At a break I made J move from sitting with a bunch of 2nd grade boys to sit with me. I didn't want him being a part of it!)

When we got home it was getting late & dark. I sent all of the kids outside to play with the dog. We've been so busy lately, Frankie hasn't been getting a lot of attention. They obeyed without complaining. However, after 10 minutes, I realized that Frankie was sent inside and the kids were outside. I had to go figure out what they were up to.

Here is what I found, chalk shadows!

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I love it when they actually cooperate and get along together!

Monday, October 11, 2010

dancing

We're two weeks into the Nutcracker training. A is thoroughly enjoying it. Last night she realized that she had a cd of the Nutcracker music in her room and she was practicing in her room. I can't wait. We found out that she is dancing on Saturday afternoon. Her friend is dancing on Fri night & Sunday afternoon. They decided that since they are about the same height, they must be sharing a costume. They wanted to dance together but at least they are getting to know the other two girls who will be preforming with them.

A's not the only dancer in the family. B was home from school today for fair day. He spent a bit of time on some Disney website. They had an imagination movers video that inspired him to shake his booty. He's quite the dancer. Luckily I remembered my phone can video tape things!

Playoffs

Dh & I headed to the ballpark yesterday to watch the Rangers playoff games. We had such high hopes. This could be the first Rangers playoff win at home. This could be the first Rangers playoff series win.

Everyone was excited.
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Towels were waived
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Great first pitch
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Unfortunately it went downhill from there. Despite a rally in the 6th, the Rangers were never able to pull it together. They head back to FL for game 5. Maybe this will be it. We'll keep our fingers crossed.

The highlights of the afternoon were the periodic text updates from the Chicago Marathon tracking. S#1 ran the marathon yesterday. Big cheers to Barbara for pulling off what the Rangers couldn't, an amazing victory and celebration of all your hard work & training! Congrats to you!