Happy Halloween!

Once again I'm running just a 'little' behind on my posts... I'll skip to the photos - it's what you came to see anyway, right? ;)

Our visit to the local fire department open house early in October was a huge hit with the boys. There was lots to see and do!


Sitting in the back of an ambulance - someplace I hope they never end up!

Putting out a 'house on fire'...

Aiden having a turn.

Practicing putting out a fire with an extinguisher...


The backseat of a police car - another place I hope they don't end up!

A few weekends ago I took off for the weekend with friends for our annual spa weekend. We headed up to Brainerd, MN, for some relaxation and shopping. It's always so fun to get away and shop at the outlets - we even fit in a movie, without animated characters!

Coming home was back to the reality of life though. Brendan's sore throat and cough from the previous week got worse bringing us once again to the doctor to find out he had bronchitis and an ear infection. He missed a few days of school and was miserable, but was healthy enough to go on his class field trip to the Hugo Animal Farm that he had been so looking forward to.

For those of you who don't know, I love fall and Halloween decorations - not the scary ones, but the cute pumpkins, etc. I indulged in a hot knife this year to better 'carve' my craft pumpkins. Here is my first attempt with the new knife:
And then the next two I did...
The ones from last year that have been mauled by the cat (bad kitty!)...

The one from last year Brendan and I did together...

A random picture of Aiden and I hanging out in the office.

Aiden came down with the same cold/cough Brendan had earlier so he spent a day home from preschool and daycare this week. It has been a long-lasting cold with the first week bringing sniffles, sore throats and a cough; the second week bringing fevers and a really bad cough... lots of sleep lost for everyone and some sad little boys :(

And I'm so proud of my little Aiden, look he wrote his name for the first time all by himself this week!



About six weeks ago I emailed a few of the other moms in the neighborhood to see if they were interested in doing a Halloween party for the kids - seems like every year we miss seeing some of the kids during trick-or-treating and the kids sometimes don't see their friends at all depending on what time everyone goes out. Everyone was one board so we hosted it at our house! The planning for it went really well and we had a huge turnout for the event - 26 kids (plus 3 babies!); three kids were over age 6 and the rest were between 2yrs and 6yrs old. Along with the kids, parents were here as well. We had some game stations for them to rotate through, treats (of course!) and then we just let them play. Amazingly, with that many kids here it went pretty smooth. Only a couple minor injuries and no spills!

I'm sure I'll have more photos as time goes on from some of the other cameras going off during the party. It was a huge hit with kids and adults alike. Brendan gave us both a hug at night and thanked us for the best Halloween party ever - made all the work and stress leading up to it worth it ;)

Here are some of the decorations we put up for the party:
I found these online and it was something easy the kids and I could do. We used empty milk jugs to make the faces on and then put Christmas lights in them. The boys had so much fun; and yes, we drink a lot of milk.
The horrible spider web stuff over the shot glass collection. That stuff is so hard to put up - it truly clings to everything!
One of my favorites - the pumpkin in the aquarium! The kids thought it was so funny.

Somehow, we seem to plan our parties just right - right when Wellyn's parents come to town! Some extra hands to help get things ready for the party are always needed. Not to mention during the party to find drinks, napkins, etc for all the kids.

Party night! My biker dude hubby and reggae father-in-law ;)

Me with my little ninja... he was oblivious to the fact we were having our photo taken.

Our sick little Power Ranger... looking a little tired.
The kids waiting for their turn at the Eyeball Bounce game. Brendan kept getting hot with his costume on so it went off and on all night!
Pin the Nose on the Pumpkin was a huge hit.
Brendan with his friend Martina - one of the cutest, sweetest little girls around.

Halloween brought continued fevers and terrible coughing for Aiden sending us to urgent care once again. An antibiotic for bronchitis and we were on our way! Hopefully he'll feel better soon. Here the kids are all dressed up (and bundled up) to go trick or treating.

Our little Ninja ;)
And Power Ranger...
Such good brothers!
With biker dude daddy ;)
Kicking back after getting candy to do some coloring with Grandma Donna.

Hope you all have had a wonderful October and a Happy Halloween!

So Much to SEE and DO!

We had a very productive weekend in the garage last week - counter tops were cut and glued, pegboard was installed and then came the best part; putting away the tools! The boys were very involved in the project and each had their own area of interest. Aiden was very focused on using the shop vac to get all the dirt, dust, leaves, etc. that were on the counters and under the boxes we unpacked. Brendan really liked putting the hooks in the pegboard and hanging up the tools. He is meticulous and likes to have things organized so it was right up his alley. He did tend to use a lot of hooks for each item and some items probably don't need to be hung, but in the end he had a fabulous time and that was all that mattered!

Fall has definitely arrived in Minnesota. The temperature has dropped and we had several days of rainy weather before having a couple dry days mixed in. Unfortunately, Brendan played soccer last weekend in one of those cold and rainy days. He did pretty good considering the weather and still getting over his cold. Needless to say, it was way too cold to be taking pictures! We did get his official soccer photos though:

Thankfully, the following Sunday was a little nicer; in the 50s with brief sprinkles of rain. A good enough day to head to the apple orchard! This was our first family trip to pick apples at an orchard. We generally go to the pumpkin patches in the fall, but with both boys going on field trips with school to get pumpkins we decided to mix it up a little! We bought a 1/4 peck bag to fill, not realizing just how quickly that would fill up with two excited apple pickers. There was enough to do though that they were ready to move on anyways.





After we filled up the bag with apples it was off to eat some apple brats (hot dogs for the kids) and apple slices with caramel before doing all the rest of the activities offered. A very popular one was the tricycles! They had a blast racing around together. Aiden found that when he crashed into a hay bale it tipped him over - so he kept doing it!


What could be more fun than a pony ride? Definitely not the long line of kids waiting to ride the ponies - goodness it was a popular attraction.

Then on to a little hay ride behind the tractor.
The kids raced through the hay maze and had the most fun on the huge pile of hay for them to play on and jump off.

Our trip out would not have been complete without feeding the animals ;)


Aiden had a big week at preschool; no tears at drop offs AND his first bus ride! Wellyn took the morning off to go with him and his class to their annual pumpkin patch trip. Aiden had so much fun hanging out with his dad and vice versa. Getting ready for the big ride:
Hanging with his friend Ryan. He and Ryan both go to the same daycare part-time so it was perfect for them to be in the same preschool class.







Last Friday night we all had eye doctor appointments. Wellyn (aka Mr. Lasik) and Brendan checked out just fine. Me on the other hand, needed glasses - yeah, big shock there! A little more shocking was that Aiden needed some glasses too. We picked them up this morning so here's our little cutie with his new look... and mommy too.