Pumpkin Carving

A few weeks ago we went to the pumpkin patch and picked out some pumpkins. I was mad we forgot the camera, but it's just the way we usually work.
Every day since we went to get them one of the three kids has asked when we were going to carve the pumpkins. We finally decided that today had to be the day that we were going to do it. Brian picked up a Michigan State pumpkin carving kit with awesome patterns and a really great scooper and carving knife.
We all got into the action this morning. I helped Tom with his green pumpkin and Brianna worked on Charlie's.

Tom got a turn to dig out the pumpkin guts.

He still has a problem with how it feels to stick your hand inside the pumpkin.

We finally finished. Tom picked to have the Spartans helmet carved into his green pumpkin. Charlie wanted Brianna to carve the football into his. I think that we did a really good job with these. Some of the pieces were really close together, but they turned out really good.

We had 3 pumpkins and the third was Brian's. He fell asleep while we worked on the other two, so I had the boys draw a face and helped them cut it out. We had a really good time making Jack-O-Lanterns.

Priamary Program

Yesterday was the primary program in our ward. This is my FAVORITE week of the year (apart from church in our pajamas that was a couple of weeks ago) because it is time for the true teaching to happen.

This year the Primary theme was about eternal families and in creating the program the Primary presidency asked the kids what they thought about their families. Different things about faith or favorite things to do with their family. Both of my children said things about being together as a family. I think that is really complementary to our family that they would both like to spend time together. That is one of my favorite things about our family too--we love spending time with each other. I can't imagine our eternal without all of us being together. What a great message of which our boys bore testimony.

They did great singing and Tom said his speaking part. Charlie wanted nothing to do about talking into the microphone, he is surprising that way. I loved seeing their smiling faces the whole meeting.

Halloween Party

When the men are away (at Priesthood session) the rest will play. And play we did.
We had our annual Halloween party at my mom's this evening. We had great harvest themed soups and yummy flat bread sandwiches. The kids had chicken nuggets and apples.
Then we had a rousing game of "wig out," a really funny match game where you don't have to take turns. After we played for awhile we started on a project. My mom had gotten all the cousins wooden masks that they could color. They had a blast.

Charlie got Frankenstein. I wish I would have gotten his picture when he had his tongue sticking out, it was very funny.He even tried it on half way through his creation.

Tom had a mummy. He wasn't really excited about it, but when my mom suggested he color like a Ninja Turtle his was the hit.
We had to wait until he was finished before he revealed the final product.

Brianna even helped out with Sam's bat mask.

They wanted to go outside and show off their masks. I think they turned out really good. Tom did all the work by himself and Charlie did most of it alone and stayed in the lines. I helped a little with the face and hair. They did awesome!

My mom had a fun surprise that they could take home. A fun Pez dispenser and a great light up ball. I tried to take pictures of how fun they are. When they bounced around and the lights went off and they had so much fun with them.

Here's to the start of a fun Halloween season!

Trip 1 to Frightmares

Today we went to Lagoon's Frightmares. It's the Halloween themed fall time excuse to keep Lagoon open longer. We had never been, but with our season pass purchase, Frightmares was included, so we went.

Picture courtesy of Charlie (not bad)

They have most of the rides open, Halloween decorations up, different haunted sites, and these funny characters. On our way out we spotted these guys. Once we told the boys that Joker was there, Charlie had to snap another picture. He was very nice to stay and let Chuck get a picture.

Here is us upon entry to the park, Tom had suffered an injury while jumping onto the brick wall and wouldn't get in the picture despite my begging, so Charlie happily showed us how excited he was for us to be there.

The first ride we always hit is the space scrambler and today was no different. It isn't Brianna's favorite ride, so she got our picture as we were waiting for the ride to start. After the scrambler we headed to the bat, a roller coaster. You have to be 42 inches to ride the bat and Charlie was really close, but they wouldn't let him ride, so he and I waited for Brianna and Tom to finish their ride. Charlie cried, but after they were finished he chose to rid the lady bug bop.

Here we are waiting in line for the ride.

Here are Bree and Thomas waiting for us to finish our ride.

All over the park they have these vignettes set up for pictures. This one is my favorite.

Chuck was willing to step in too. Tom was still upset about his small injury to get his picture taken here.

But he was willing to try the fairy on for size. (Pink wings for the pink lady.)

Of course Charlie was game for this one too.

They liked this ninja shot too.

Ninja Charlie flying through the air.

Another favorite is the cars. They just are on a little track and they drive through, but I remember loving this one as a child too, so I can understand. Charlie usually wants the red car and doesn't hesitate to ask the ride attendant to let him have it.

Here's Tom at the end of the ride. He told me once that he does such a good job on this ride that he should get a drivers license. If only all roads had metal guides on them.

They wanted to head to the bumper cars, but they weren't there. In their place was a spook walk for the kids. They went through and they had little stations; one with a man with pumpkins, one with a witch making stew with eye balls and bats, one with a pirate, and one with a princess. They got a treat at each little station and came out with bag full.
This is Tom's happy face about the gummy earthworm they got (it really looked like a real earthworm and it smelled bad.) I wanted him to show his real emotion about the earthworm, but he eventually smiled about it.

Our trip got cut short because Tome and I went on the white wooden roller coaster and after getting banged around he had a huge headache. He cried the whole way out to the car. We had a good time today, next time we'll bring Brian and be prepared for headaches.

Someone has a WIGGLY Tooth

Can you guess WHO?

TOM does!!!!
It's the right front tooth. I love the space that is coming to make way for his new permanent tooth.
You can see it better in this one! (Along with his "third lip" from licking them all the time.)
Fun times!

Back to the Classroom

Over the summer, we decided that it was time for me to return to the classroom. I have been back for a few weeks and I have really liked it. There is only one reason for me to be able to go back and teach in a regular school--Brian.
I am so lucky that he has been so supportive of my going back to work. He is absolutely amazing!!! He has taken over the duties at home and I don't have to think about what we will eat for dinner, when I will clean the bathroom, and I wonder if the kids have gotten off to school okay. Brian has made it so that I can go to work and completely focus on what I am supposed to be doing rather than worrying about our house and the little boys. I am so grateful for his willingness to allow me to work on my career while he is taking care of everything else.
I love him for making me breakfast each morning.
I love him for getting my car filled with gas and making sure I'll be safe traveling everyday.
I love him for getting my lunch out and ready to go.
I love him for taking Tom to school each day.
I love him for staying with Charlie every day and putting up with his issues.
I love him for going to the store and making dinner for our family each night.
I love him for watching Brianna's volleyball games, Pete's and David's football games, and Tom's and Charlie's races.
I love him for taking care of Relief Society issues while I'm not at home.
I love him for letting me nap most days.
And most of all I love him! because without him our family would stop! He's the best!
I didn't intend for this to be an ode to Brian, but our life wouldn't function without him--for that, I am grateful.

Officially A High Schooler

I have been hesitant to post our back to school post, but now that it's Labor Day weekend, I no there is no return to summer. We had a really fun one too, but now it's time to return to school. The following pictures are of Brianna only. Now that I have gone back to work, and Tom leaves after I do--I didn't have a chance to remind Brian to take a picture before he left for school, so we'll have to have a beginning of school picture during the third week of school. (Refer to previous post for more on our situation.)

Here is Brianna on her very first day of high school. My mom and sister took her to get a bunch of new outfits for school, so for the first few weeks, she's worn really cute stuff. She had a good first day. There was enough time for her to walk home during lunch with a friend. It's nice that we only live about 2 blocks away from her school.

This is her first "B-day" outfit. At her school, they have block schedule, so they go to 4 classes one day and 4 different classes on the next day. She has a really hard schedule, but has seemed to do a great job the first little bit. I think that she'll have a good year.