What's Up With the Pomeroy's

A Week of Firsts!

Last week was a big week for Brendan - lots of "firsts" happened. Last Monday he swam with no flotation devices for the first time! He is doing awesome at lessons and will be moving to the next swimming level in January. Here he is waiting to start his lesson:

Here are some pics of the boys being cute together ;)

And, the biggest news for Brendan - he lost his first tooth! It had been loose for over a week and was really bothering him the day it finally came out. He was able to get it out on his own, something I'm very thankful for - I did not want anything to do with trying to pull it out! The next morning he was up bright and early to see the letter the Tooth Fairy left him and count his money. He was excited that the Tooth Fairy had signed the letter "Love, The Tooth Fairy"...funny! Then he came home from school saying that his friend Marilyn had told him the Tooth Fairy wasn't real, it was really just his parents... That Marilyn, she's been nothing but trouble for me! She is also the one who told him that Obama steals money from people...

On Tuesday I picked him up from school and he wanted to hurry and get home so he could have a Q-tip for his ear...which made me ask "why". Which led to the answer, "there is a rock in my ear"..."how did a rock get in your ear?"..."I don't know"..."Did you put it in your ear?"..."no"..."Did someone else put a rock in your ear?"..."no"..."Did a rock accidentally fall in your ear?"..."YES!"....Hmmmm... So home we went and it turned out it wasn't a rock but half of a bean he had found on the carpet in class and put in his ear "to see if it would fit". I had to take a picture once I determined it wasn't going to be necessary to run to the ER. He finally let me use tweezers to get it out, but it was a lot of work talking him into it. I do believe he will not try that again!

In other news, Wellyn finished up the duplex and we signed a lease with a couple who will be moving in next month. This is one of the bedrooms before, one of the other ones was navy blue:

And after, a "little" more neutral:

This was the color of the living room to start:

And this was it after we were done (notice the new floor Wellyn put in!):

The kitchen before:

The kitchen after a new floor, new paint and a touch-up of the cabinets:

Happy Halloween!!

I didn't think we would have a Halloween as warm as we did last year, but this year was even nicer! Temps were a mild 61 during the day with a low of 40 so trick-or-treating was really a treat this year! The boys were obviously excited to go out and get some CANDY...it was hard to get them to eat dinner, but they got enough down to call it a meal and then came the process of getting dressed. Even though it was warm, we did have the boys put a couple light layers under their costumes. Brendan's friend from kindergarten, Olivia, and her brother Hayden joined us for the big night. Wellyn dressed as a graduate and walked (with beer) around the neighborhood with their dad. I love handing out the candy to the kids and seeing all the neighborhood kids all dressed up - not to mention in between kids coming, I am able to clean up the house some.

Brendan picked out a Special Operations costume. He was very serious about the whole picture taking - wanting to get it done so he could go get some CANDY! Notice the pumpkin next to him. He picked out that design and he cut out the windows and painted it with just a little help from me. It's a craft pumpkin so we'll be using it every year!

Aiden went as a racecar driver - very appropriate since he loves the movie Cars and wants to buy every hot wheels type toy advertised.

Here is the whole crew waiting (patiently) for us to release them into the night to get some CANDY!

The boys holding the loot from the night.

And, the first pieces of CANDY they picked out to eat.

Saturday, Wellyn and Brendan went to the duplex for the morning and then Aiden and I joined them for a "picnic" lunch. We are almost done with the duplex, thanks largely to Wellyn's dad who spent a day there with him and did some work on it while we were vacationing in Vegas. We don't have renters yet, but have a likely candidate. It will be nice to get it done and have some free time as a family again. I'll have to post some before and afters another time.

Today was another beautiful day. The rain missed us and we made the most of it by trying out the playground at a nearby elementary school. The boys had tons of fun and were running the whole time. Here are a few pictures of the kids.

Vegas

Well, like always, we've had a lot going on! Last week started out with some pumpkin painting - always a lot of fun.

Aiden was very meticulous about painting his little gourd.

The final product:

Here's Brendan with his pumpkin...

And then, they found the glitter glue... and it turned into this!

On Thursday, Donna and Herb arrived to take care of the boys while Wellyn and I headed out for Las Vegas to relax and celebrate our 10 years of marriage. The kids were super excited to see them and were ready to wrestle!

We had a good flight to Las Vegas with just a little turbulance over the Rockies. It was a few hours before we could check into our room so we walked through the courtyard at the Flamingo and grabbed some lunch. The flamingo habitat was beautiful and I loved the koi - I need to put a koi pond in here; heated of course, so the poor little guys don't freeze in the winter!

Our plan for the trip had been to take it easy and relax... we packed lots of books, sunscreen and planned to hang out at the pool for hours. And then we got there. There was so much to see and do, we ended up trying to fit as much as possible in - and the pool didn't make the cut!

After checking in, we headed out to explore. We walked through the Venitian which has such beautiful detailing. This is at the fountain in front of the Forum Shops by Caesar's Palace.

Of course we had to see the fountains at the Bellagio too.

We did a bus tour to the Hoover Dam and Lake Mead - a truly amazing sight. They are building a new bridge over the river since trucks are no longer permitted to use the dam for travel due to the risk of terrorism.

No trip would be complete without the sign!

Us (very tired!) after dinner at Caesar's Palace.

As much fun as we had, it was great to get home and see the boys. They were excited to see us and had all sorts of things to tell us about and show us. Grandma and Grandpa had kept them busy while we were gone!

Now, I'm really excited about planning our next "big" trip!

Play, play, play!

This past weekend we went to see Playhouse Disney Live. The boys were super excited about going and we left early - good thing because we had to compete with Vikings fans to get downtown Minneapolis. After parking we walked to the Target Center...only to find it all locked up. Well, after checking our tickets a little more closely, we discovered the show was at the Excel Energy Center - in St. Paul! We raced over and amazingly only missed 20 minutes of the show...and didn't get any speeding tickets either! The kids had a good time seeing Mickey Mouse and the Little Einsteins.