Pumpkin Carving

We carved pumpkins today with some of the students. Cass & KK had a great time. Bzr spent a lot of time removing pumpkin seeds from Brog's mouth. I believe at one time he pulled 6 out. Brog seemed to like the taste and even took a chunk or two out of some eye left-overs. The Boy was hungry! All together the group carved about 32 pumpkins! Tomorrow we will light them on the chapel terrace for "Evensong". After that, they get moved over to the Head Master's house to line his walkway for the Halloween Party and Trick or Treating on Friday. SO much fun!

Summer photo Shoot

We had these pictures taken this Summer while we were up at Camp. THANK YOU, Howard! We think they turned out wonderful and we appreciate the time you spent with us! Tell us what YOU think...

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Fall scrapbooking

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

The Great Pumpkin

We went to get pumpkins today. The girls had a blast and were very good at selecting pumpkins with interesting stems. Because we were gathering pumpkins for a party at the school we were able to get 32 pumpkins. It was fun to find that many in a variety of sizes. Too bad the girls don't get to carve them all. But, they do each get to do one this Wednesday. I'm sure we'll post photo's again then.

Mommy and Me

KK and Mom hanging out at the park. She's a snuggle bug these days...no complaints from the mommy!

Sleeping Beauty

Cass has recently started reading chapter books. She is currently loving the "Mrs. Piggle Wiggle" book series. The other night she fell asleep reading...very much like her daddy.

I'm a BIG KID now

Oh! What happened to our baby boy? He just isn't a baby any more. He's a big kid now who is remarkably independent, strong willed, CUTE, helpful (?), and snuggly. Here he is standing on his own, and very pleased with himself for snagging a sucker from the candy dish....playing in the bark and trying to ingest several metric tons of wood chips (augh!)....and "helping" us unload the dishes, which is actually one of his VERY favorite things to do right now. It is bitter sweet to have your last little baby no longer be a baby. Fortunately there are still SO many wonderfully fun big days ahead for all of us. But, we sure are going to miss the baby stage...although, we won't miss the seemingly endless sleepless nights. Welcome to the wonderful "toddler" years. Oh, joy!

Let's celebrate Columbus!

In honor of Columbus sailing the ocean blue the public schools closed their doors and gave us the opportunity to spend the day together as a family. We started with an early morning jaunt to the duck pond to feed the ducks....well, at least we THOUGHT we would feed the ducks. In fact, the vicious seagulls hogged all the bread! Bad seagulls! We then trollied on over to the park and played for about an hour. Back home for lunch and a brief (40 minute) nap for the boy. Then we played in the leaves outside. 'Cause that's just what you are supposed to do in Fall. And we rounded out the days activities with a trip to the apple orchard. (No photos 'cause Bzr took the camera to soccer for some funny bloopers.) I believe I was just a bit more exhausted then they were by the end of the day but the kids went to bed without any fuss at all. No extra trips to the bathroom, requests for more stories, attempts to get more snuggles, calling for a drink...just peace and quiet. SO worth all the effort.

Equal Representation!

I always feel badly when I fail to equally document my kids. 'Cause, let's face it...they are ALL so dang cute! Cass is probably the one who loves Fall the most and she is the one I have the least amount of photos of while playing in the leaves this year. She literally counts down the days until leaves start to fall and then she will start making piles of leaves as soon as there are enough to make piles with. BUT, somehow I find myself without the camera far too often. Cass embodies the joy and pure indulgence of fall...everything from the leaves, to the apple picking, the birds flying south (to Egypt, she tells me), Halloween and Thanksgiving. She embraces this time of year and I just wish I caught it on film more often.

Proof that he loves the leaves

In an earlier posting I put some pictures of Brog and KK playing in the leaves. Brog's face doesn't look happy, although I assure you he is. In this little clip, you will see that when he gets excited, he tends to scrunch up his face...if you get pictures during the scrunching, he does indeed look upset. He isn't though. Just very, very excited!

KK's Nature Walk

It's KK's turn to be behind the camera. These are the pictures she took while on our walk this afternoon.

A Fall Afternoon

Sometimes it does happen....we have fun while Cassidy is away at school. I took KK and Broggie out for a walk this afternoon. It was warm. It was beautiful. It couldn't be helped. They played in piles of leaves and had such a wonderful time. I know Brog doesn't exactly LOOK happy, but HONESTLY, this was one excited little boy, and his energy was obvious. Kayla had a blast. She brought her pumpkin bucket with so that she could collect leaves. She filled it up and dumped it repeatedly over Brog's head...much to his joy and entertainment!

Cass's 1st photo shoot

This is what happened when we gave Cass the digital camera for 5 minutes. Not bad for a first time!

Newest Addition

We are now home owners! Our "traditional" family photo (without me, someone had to take the picture) standing by the SOLD sign. The other picture is a view of the house from the opposite side of the lake. There are other pictures of the house on our other computer, so I will upload a few more images from there...but for now, this will have to do. We're excited! Next step: renovations. We are planning on renting the home, so if you know anyone traveling to the area looking for a very reasonably priced vacation getaway, hook us up.

Honey....where's my super suit?

Bzr in preparation for assisting in the removal of the camp dock. The water was a cool crisp 58 degrees. The wet suit did very little to hold off the chill but fortunately he didn't go in much past his knees. He did manage to "sit down" at one point and emitted a shriek of epic proportions, but it only took once to learn from that mistake.

One precious moment...

Cass gives Broggie a ride in the wagon. What a SWEET big sister!

Limited time only

So the baby gates went up in our house at the end of August (because we were gone most of the month) and they already seem to be on a limited use schedule. At this rate we will need to double stack them for any sort of protection. Brog navigates stairs without any difficulty and was found at the top the other day with a rather pensive look on his face obviously trying to decide the best way to go down. He climbs on everything. Chairs, toy boxes, ladders, sisters, etc. This will make the whole baby proofing effort somewhat more challenging. We're always up for a good challenge though.

Let's Nap!

Cass worries that sometimes the other kids have TOO much fun when she is away at school. But, in truth, there is a lot of napping going on. Brog frequently falls asleep in his jumper . He loves the jumper. KK made princess crowns for all her animals and then tucked them in on her window seat before crawling up there herself for a little rest. Don't worry Cass, you aren't missing much. The fun really begins when she gets home!

Coach Schroyer(s)

This year Bzr is the referee for the club soccer program. It's a pretty sweet deal. He has 2 games on Mon & Fri and 1 game on Tues & Thurs. He's done by 4 on those days. On Mon. & Fri. we go and watch because the park is right next to the field the games happen on. Bzr comes over and plays with the kids at the park during his breaks. Brogan has some serious love for Bzr's whistle. We were surprised at how quickly he figured out how to make it work. He was very upset when Bzr had to leave and take the whistle with him. The boy has a very clear idea of things he likes and things he doesn't like. He didn't like having the whistle taken away from him.