Happy Halloween 2010

Ahh...Halloween!  I love this time of year.  I love dressing the boys up, getting pumpkins carved, Halloween parties and candies.  This year has been an off year of sorts.  With my really bad work schedule (7:25 AM to 4:00 PM), several after school classes, tutoring, and my church calling we haven't been able to celebrate in the way I would like.

Yesterday morning was the first time we had to carve pumpkins.  We went to the pumpkin patch on Conference weekend and have had the cute things sitting on our front porch since, but we finally got to carve them.  We started cleaning them out and the boys were all about helping us out.  When we moved onto the marking the stencil, they quickly found something better to do.  I was left sticking pins in the Frank pumpkin and Brian got to trace the Vampire one.  When they were done I think they turned out nicely.

 Here are the funny boys in their costumes.  We had Darth Vader...

 and wolverine.

 We had such big plans for trick or treating.  We were going to go to a trunk or treat at our old ward, but got there after it ended, so we headed down to a cute shopping plaza were they were handing out candy.  Right after we got there it started a huge down pour--a real Ohio rain.  My right side was soaking and my jeans up to almost my knee were drenched.  We made it to about five stores and then decided to end at the video store and rent the boys a video game.  We ordered pizza on our way home.

We thought if the rain ended we would go up the street to another neighborhood and trick or treat.  The boys were so into their video game that they wanted to stay home and even helped pass out candy to the 15 or so people that stopped by.  I felt bad that they weren't going to get a haul of candy, but they didn't mind.  It was a fun night and we stayed warm.  Next year will be better.

Blue Slips

This post is serving two purposes.  One to send Grandma an "I love you" message, and two try out posting with my new toy I got from school.  We'll see how it goes.
I came home today from work with my new Flip camera and this is the story the boys told me right away.  They were so proud of themselves.  Charlie especially--he wanted a blue slip so bad the other week he made up a story that he had gotten one, but they wouldn't let him bring it home because they didn't want him to loose it.  Well his good behavior paid off, and he earned one today.
I'm sure proud of these boys.

Soccer Season Begins--Charlie's First Game

Chuck's first game was Tuesday.  I didn't know what to expect when he went to play.  I thought that he would pull the shy card or not be into it.  I was totally wrong.  He was the super star of his team.  When the coach put him in mid-way through the first quarter Charlie dominated the possession of the ball on his team.  He ran it down the field several times, but didn't every finish it off for a goal.  He had a really good time too.  The other team one this game, but they looked like the were just barely in the under 6 age group and had all played before.  It should be an eventful season.

If you notice, Tom was right on the side lines the entire time.  He was coaching Chuck and telling him what he needed to do.  One time the ball was heading the wrong direction and Tom nearly jumped right in to help out Charlie's team.  He's excited for his first game tomorrow.

Our International Child

I have worried about Charlie writing his name for a long time.  With Tom, it was easy--TOM.  Poor Charlie has more letters and most of them are curvy ones.  I also practiced more with Tom and Charlie, I feel, gets the short end of the stick most of the time. 

He had to "sign" an acceptable use form and this is what he wrote.

I can't tell if it's Arabic or Cyrillic, but either way this was his best signature.

Back to School

Brianna getting ready to start her Junior year of high school.

Heading out for day 1.  She's taking some hard classes this year:  AP US history, Pre Calculus, Honors English, Biology, Sports Marketing and Entertainment, Jewelry Making, Weight Training for HS sports, and Seminary.  She's going to do great.

Charlie getting dressed for his VERY first day of school.  I was really upset that I didn't take the day off to experience him going to school the first time.  Next time I'll know better.

Tom was so excited to go back to school and see all of this friends.  2nd grade will be fun for him.

Both boys before the head up the hill for school.  Brian went with them for the flag raising and said they were easily the best looking boys in the whole school.  I would definitely have to agree.

We even got a picture of Pete for his first day of classes.  He's taking the train and bus to school.  With his school ID he gets to ride for free.  He's liking his schedule and spends most of the day at school and then practice.

We were just missing David's first day picture.  He didn't start classes until Tuesday, so Monday would have been a stretch for him.  I think he's finally decided on a major.  I think we just might have another educator in the family.
I'm so excited for these guys to have a great school year.  Keep posted for fun updates.

It's feelin' like FOOTBALL

This past Saturday we went to Pete's scrimmage.  I forget how much I love football season and I'm excited that we can check out some of the games this year.
Here's some pictures of the day (beware there's lots):

Here's what Tom and Charlie did during the scrimmage:

Moving--blah!

We didn't take any pictures but the one of these two.  I think they were two of the cutest moving helpers we had.
If we don't move ever again it would be too soon.