Halloween= greatest holiday of the year!

The kids had a day off school today, so we enjoyed the afternoon carving pumpkins, and roasting the seeds!

We then got into costumes to head to grandma's house to trick-or-treat....followed by hitting up the neighborhood!

Madison made a measly attempt at a 'vampire' costume.....sad effort at best! She would not lay down and allow me to coat her face in fake blood!

Madison's attempt trumped Mallory though, as this is a n0 - effort put in at all costume. Later, she carried around Zodiac and said she was a plain clothes witch! SAD attempt!

Cameron put in a good effort this year....although I am not sure what you call this!

And the phantom ninja - well played Preston!

Quincy was a black cat - shhhh don't tell her that the sweatshirt is really navy blue!! :)

Despite my efforts to help Harper be the cutest rabbit in the world, she was not a willing participant in my Halloween expectations this year! She was clearly not amused with her rabbit ears, and she only wore the tail until she discovered it was back there, and that got thrown off as well!

Colin tried to tell me he was too old for Halloween.....however he was willing to put in a 1% effort on a costume in order to get to go to Grandma's (she gives out the good candy)!

Harper did wear the rabbit costume for a few minutes at a time....luckily I snapped photos quick! She helped Mallory answer the door tonight wearing no trace of the rabbit!

For Grandma, I will be a rabbit for 25 seconds! After we get home, you can forget it!

My tribe - scary enough on the average day, awesome on Halloween!

Happy Anniversary!

Yesterday was Jim and my 18th wedding anniversary! We had a nice day, and it was much nicer weather than the day we got married.....! I feel that the past 18 years have been very blessed! We have an awesome family and I am so lucky to have such a great husband and father for our kids! I suppose that I should have taken a photo of Jim, or perhaps one of us together, but I failed in that little mission, so how about some photos of how we spent our day? At Preston and Quincy's flag football games! Oh the romance! In fairness, Jim did offer to take me out for dinner, but I just haven't felt in the mood to go anywhere lately!

Thank you for the last 18 years, Jim, I am looking forward to the future with you!

Pumpkin patch (finally)

We finally made it to the pumpkin patch today. I admit that this is more for me than for the kids....I love to go! Preston, Quincy and Harper had a marvelous time! It was not a perfect trip because Jim had Colin and Cameron working on tearing out a ball field for the city, but after multiple attempts to get there and failing, it was today or forget it this year! I was not willing to forgo the trip, so I went a couple of kids short. The boys did not really care! They did want a pumpkin to carve, so I picked out a couple....but as far as the trip to the patch, well they are more mature than that! Mallory and Madison were dragged against their will - I think the sunshine and fresh air did them good! I also refused to leave unless they got their photo taken by the "how tall this fall" sign. If you look close, you can see mortified looks and eye rolling! Oh well, the advantage of paying their cell phone bill is that sometimes I can use it to get things I want!

I am glad we went, it was fun. I am however, sorry that I watched a special on the Dust Bowl a few days ago on the History channel.....as I watched the dirt blowing and was almost choking on it in the pumpkin patch, it kind of gave me a creepy feeling!

A couple photos from yesterday

Yesterday the Overbrook school kids had a parade downtown to trick-or-treat the merchants. Jim handed out candy, but I think his office assistant was getting nervous that they would run out! They didn't run out, but they did cut it pretty close!!
This is Quincy in her cat costume. I tried to get a photo of her daddy giving her candy, but all I got was a black blob and nothing that even looked like a cat!

And then I totally missed Preston going by Jim - probably because he is a phantom ninja - so it is impossible to see him!
I only tracked him down by finding his teacher!

And last night, the high school band performed at the halftime show dressed as zombies. I did not go, because it was so cold and Jim wanted to go to watch the band and the football game, so I stayed home with the little ones. I did not get a photo of them with their zombie makeup, but I understand that the band put on a pretty cool performance! They won't dress alike very often, so when they look like twins, I have to take advantage!!!

Tales from the too-short weekend

The kids had Friday off school....so I thought it would be a great day to take them all to the Pumpkin Patch. BUT, when they came home from school on Thursday I realized that this was just not going to happen! Colin got invited to go to Worlds of Fun with some of his friends, Mallory and Madison had band rehearsal, and it was Cow Pie Bingo night at the high school football game, and I was summoned to come out to help set everything up. Luckily, my dad was willing to help us by letting us use his catch pen, and then he was also willing to educate all the band people on how to properly construct a catch pen!

I was sad about not getting to go to the pumpkin patch, but I am hoping that next weekend will work a little better!

Cameron agreed to do advertising for the band, so long as he could watch the football game too! He did a great job of walking through the stands and reminding people that we were selling tickets and this was the last chance to get in on the action! I think the band raised quite a bit of money, and I am definitely happy to have this little project over with!



The girls were a little concerned that the band didn't sound as good as they could have, but I thought they did a great job!

Saturday morning, Cameron's football team had their football tournament. Jim had to go to a work retreat, so I was all alone in not knowing how long I was going to be stranded in North Topeka! Cam's team played really great, but lost out in the first round. They had a good season I think, and Cam learned a lot! This momma is happy the season is over though, because I would like to sleep in a little on Saturday mornings! (Like that will happen!!)

While I was at the football tournament, Madison took Quincy to a skating party. I really appreciated Madison doing some of the running for me this weekend! Madison was very impressed with how fast Quincy picked up skating - especially considering she had never been before. I suspect it is because the child had absolutely NO fear! It is much easier to learn to do things when you don't worry about getting hurt! Quincy was very happy at having won the limbo, and getting a tube of candy lipstick!

Saturday evening we went to a first birthday party for my nephew! I cannot believe how fast that year went by! The kids had a lot of fun helping him celebrate!

The boy liked his cake!

Saturday night we also celebrated Preston's birthday. He had a slumber party with 5 of his friends. Jim took them all fishing, and we cooked and ate dinner at the city lake. They then came back and spent the night. I think it was a good idea to take them to the city lake, let them run like mad and fish and play on the playground, because they were tired! They played (very loudly) really well together, and we had no fighting, and when I plugged in a movie for them, every one of them was out within 20 minutes!

Preston had a great time at his party, and was very pleased with his fish cake from grandma!

And I was pleased that the boys slept, got along, and I did not go into labor with all those extra kids here!

Preston and Quincy played flag football today. They are having a lot of fun playing, and it was nice to have an hour to sit down- the weather was nice and I enjoyed being outside!

Next weekend, the kids have Friday and Monday off school....I wonder if a four day weekend will go by as quickly and busily as the three day one did?

Preston is 7!

Yesterday was Preston's 7th birthday! He had a pretty good day I think! He is such a funny kid- I asked him what he wanted to take for his birthday treats at school and he said brownies. I said that will work - I bought brownie mix a while ago on sale. Exasperation filled his face and he said "Not that kind mom - you know the Little Debbie ones with sprinkles?" LOL! He knows what he likes - and Cosmic Brownies are definitely his favorite! Bonus for me - I didn't have to cook, and try to figure out how to cut a pan of brownies into exactly the same size pieces for his class! Preston is a very picky eater.....for his birthday dinner he requested corn dogs - with no vegetable side dish! :) At least it was easy cooking!

Preston is a great brother - he is generous, and kind to his siblings. He is also incredibly smart - I can't believe how his reading skills have taken off and he is reading big books now! He also gets a lot of compliments from his teacher regarding how nice of manners he has! We are very proud of you, Preston, and love that you are such a blessing!

Other news of the week - it has been a busy one. Besides Preston's birthday, we have worked the bees over for winter - the mentor treated the hive for mites. Don't remember if I mentioned it or not, but Cameron was a little disappointed that we forgot a step in the hive assembly (spraying the boxes with sugar) and so the bees were not interested in the top boxes - which is where you harvest honey from. Therefore, Cam got no honey from his hive this year. It was a hard lesson, but at least we didn't kill the bees, which means we can start again in the spring! We have been feeding them so there is plenty of food for them to survive the winter.

Cam also has been in his last week of football practices in preparation for his tournament this weekend. He is pretty excited about the tournament.

Colin's football season ended, and he started Jr. High wrestling this week. Of course, he loves wrestling and is pretty excited about the new season, as well as the new coach.

Mallory and Madison have been crazy busy with fundraising, and marching band. They had to play at senior night for volleyball this week, and I sold tickets for more squares on Cow Pie Bingo - I will be very happy when this little project ends tomorrow night!

Quincy got another yellow day at school. I asked her what she did and she refused to tell me. So I mentioned to her that if she didn't tell me, she may not get a piece of birthday cake. This is when she started jumping up and down, flailing her arms and yelling out LA LA LA LA LA LA LA! I grabbed her arm and said "stop that and tell me what you did at school to get in trouble" she responded "that is what I did" apparently this is not appropriate line behavior! I admit that I started laughing....I figure if acting like a 5 year old is what got her in trouble, then we are probably ok!