Really?

This video showed up a few weeks late. Fletcher's team could have used this in flag football!

Happy Fall!

We had a fall party and bonfire for Fletcher's first grade class this weekend.  I was hoping to get some great pictures of the kids playing in the leaf pile, but  my camera needed to be on a different setting because I couldn't get any action shots.  They had so much fun roasting marshmellows, going on a hayride and playing in the leaves.  It was really cold so after the sun went down I put my camera away and stood by the fire to stay warm!

Friday Round Up

Luke came home Thursday afternoon with this large pink horse in his backpack.  At first I thought he might have accidentally swiped another child's toy that she brought for Show-N-Share.  But Luke kept saying, "No, Mommy, dis is Sammy."  Turns out (after I read the note) Sammy is the class pet and Sammy gets to go home with a different child each weekend and have adventures. Sammy has a journal in which parents record all of his (Luke insisted that he is a boy even though he is pink) fun times.  So far we know that Sammy is a very good listener and obeys very well.  We are hoping Sammy sets a very good example for some other boys in our house while he is visiting with us.  

 Fletcher has been studying all about Indians in his class at school.  They made Indian headbands and necklaces.  Note the bear claw and eagle claw on his necklace.  He says they did an Indian dance.  I hope to get that on video because, well, you just know it is going to be spectacular. 

 Finally, it has been raining for two days here making the ground too wet for either of the boys to get out and play at school or at home.  They were wound up Thursday night.  I walked in Luke's room and found this massive vehicle pile up. It almost looks like a work of art. 

Happy Weekend!

Who Dat! (one last time)

Fletcher is #4.  He is playing defense in the first clip, then he is the quarterback in the second clip.  

Kevin put up new shelves in his room to display the trophies.  (It usually isn't this clean.  I took this picture while Fletcher was in school the moment the cleaning people left.)

 And I included this picture just because he is cute and he endured flag football season by happily playing in his sandbox during practices and games.  I'm not sure what we will do about basketball season since I can't bring the sandbox in the gym. 

Dun Dun Dun DunDa Dun DunDa Dun

The Friday before Halloween a friend and I decided it would be fun to carve pumpkins with the boys.  I wanted to do a very simple, basic, traditional, not too difficult jack-o-lantern face consisting of triangle eyes, a triangle nose and a zig zag mouth.  My friend is the artsy type.  She thought the boys would enjoy something related to Star Wars since they were both dressing up as Star Wars characters.   I am not at all confident in my artistic abilities.  When I taught Geometry, my students made fun of the triangles I drew if that tells you anything.  But I stretched myself to my artistic limits (and my hand and arm are still sore from all the punching and sawing and teeny tiny details). 

Oh and the "with the boys" part?  They were in the kitchen for approximately 2 mintues - long enough to take obligatory photos then they were off to play leaving the moms with all the work and the clean up.  They did come back later and try the pumpkin seeds we roasted. 

The light saber fighting while mom prepares.

 Luke getting in on the action.

 Removing the top and seeing the stringy insides.  Ewwww!

 Fletcher and Tucker decidee they want to help me scoop out the insides.  I brought gloves for me to use, but they wanted to use them too.  I am not a big fan of sticky stuff getting on my fingers. 

 Fletcher went to town.  Tucker not so much. 

 In fact, Teresa (Tucker's mom) captured him throwing up a little bit in his mouth. 

Luke wanted to try too. 

 The goggles - just in case any pumpkin guts splattered out. 

 Note that there are two pumpkins here.  We realized that we were going to have to make two Star Wars characters because if we only made one then whose house would it go to?  Both boys would want it. 

 The finished product.  May the force be with you. 

I told Teresa that next year I'm choosing the theme and the template.  :)

P.S.  The title is supposed to be the Star Wars theme music.  Do you hear it now? 

Halloween 2010

Halloween 2010 has come and gone.  We made some fun memories with friends and now I am trying to figure out a way to hide or dispose of some of the candy so a certain little person in our house doesn't spend every waking and almost asleep moment asking for more candy.  This little person has no recollection of last year's event so this (not to quote a Disney movie) was a whole new world for him.  Strangers?  Giving him candy?  Lots of it?  Yes!!!

We went to our friends' house and had pizza before we headed out to a nearby neighborhood.  Since our neighborhood isn't built out yet (only 40 of 200 homes are built), we decided it might be easier with the little kids to go to another friend's neighborhood where houses were closer together. 

Getting ready for the group shot.Star Wars was well represented.  I love that Bob the Builder has his tool belt on upside down.  Glad none of his tools fell out. 

 Here they are. 

 Piling in the golf cart to ride over to the next neighborhood.

 Brothers. 

 Bob and Bob's dad. 

 Checking out the loot.  Tucker (far left) told me he was "organizing his candy."  Note that Fletcher and Luke didn't bother organizing.  They went straight to eating.  Luke wanted to stop at each house and eat the candy right then.  It took alot of convincing for us to get him to keep going. 

 I couldn't get a great picture, but the homeowner at this house was wearing a giant Pink Panther suit.  Between Pink Panther and the skeleton guy in the corner I thought there was no way the kids would go to the door.  Luke wasn't sure at first but once he saw Fletcher do it, he followed right along. 

Boo! (Update added at the end)

No, not "boo" as in ghosts and Halloween, but "boo" as in what people say when someone calls a bad play in a sporting event.  As in "this stinks."

Right before I went to bed Saturday night, I posted a picture of our pumpkin on Facebook and checked email.  Everything was fine.

Sunday morning, I tried to turn the computer on and nothing.  Fan runs, it grinds a little bit but that's it.  We have no idea what's going on.  Kevin is trying to figure it out.  Of course,  I can't remember the last time I backed up my pictures.  Boo!  I had some great blog posts planned for this week.  Boo!  We'll probably have to buy a new computer.  Boo! 

Our monitor quit just a few weeks ago too.  I wonder if any of this is related to our lightning strike awhile back.  Like a delayed reaction or something. Kevin says he doesn't think so since we had a surge protector on the computer stuff. 

I'm typing this on Kevin's laptop.  Not sure what this week's posts will look like.  In the meantime, if you are on FB, you can look on my profile and see our pumpkin for 2010.

Edited to add:  In case you didn't see the comment, my super awesome talented husband was able to get us back up and running with a quick trip to Best Buy to diagnose the problem and get a replacement part (power supply, I think).  I had no idea when I married him that he had so many cool skills.