Happy Halloween 2010

Happy Halloween everybody! Here are the pumpkins that decorated our front yard tonight. Andy and the boys carved the pumpkins on Thursday while I was at work. Actually, the boys told Andy what they wanted their pumpkins to look like. They didn't even want to help clean out the pumpkins-I guess they don't like how the insides feel.



Andy took the boys treat-or-treating this year and I stayed home to hand out candy. They started at the trunk-or-treat at the church at the front of our subdivision and worked their way back to our house. Ewan got dropped off first, and helped to hand out candy to other kids. Trick or treating here was from 6-9. Our boys were done by around 730. Then they handed out candy to other kids. We gave out all the candy we had and got the boys to bed a little after 8. You may have noticed some costume changes for this evening. Cale did not like having his whole face green-or maybe he didn't like having to wash all the green makeup off his face-so he decided to be Obi-Wan for this evening. Ewan thought being Yoda would be cool and really wanted to wear the brown robe Cale has on. Well, he was devastated to find out that it would not fit him-it was sized for Cale-and that he would have to wear a black robe. Many, many tears later, we got him calmed down and out the door with the rest of the boys. For a moment, I thought Andy would just be taking Marcus and Liam-they were the only ones not crying. Luckily, everyone calmed down and enjoyed themselves. Now we have a bunch of new candy to eat-I'm sure the boys won't notice if I have some :-).

The force is strong in this family

Saturday night we had our "dress rehearsal" for Halloween. The library had a little Halloween party and puppet show that we took the kids to. This year, I wanted to have all the boys' costumes go together in some kind of theme. They all seem to like Star Wars and, we have plenty of light sabers. Last year after Halloween, I found a Darth Vadar costume for Liam on clearance for $2! Ewan's black robe was one that we already had. I had to make Marcus and Cale's robes. I thought it would be easy. But, after borrowing a sewing machine, trying to work it, having my babysitter look at it, borrowing her sewing machine and having more technically difficulties that I'm sure are from user error, I turned to some stitch witchery and my iron. So far, the robes have held together. And, they don't look too bad. Andy did the boys face make-up. Turns out, he took some kind of costume class in middle school. Who knew. The boys are excited for trick and treating and the candy!

Meet Yoda-Cale

Marcus as a Jedi (playing the Wii)

Ewan as Darth Maul

Ewan is a dragonfly!

Wednesday was Miss Spider's Tea Party at Ewan's preschool. The kids get to dress up like different insects. For the past many years, we have made our own costumes-spiders, bumblebees, grasshoppers, and even the Tick. Pretty much, my creativity was limited by the color of sweats that Walmart was selling that season. This year, the tea party snuck up on me and 2 days before, I realized I needed to figure out what Ewan would be. Well, what a relief when Andy told me Ewan's teacher had an extra outfit Ewan could wear. It was a dragonfly outfit and Ewan was in love with it. He wore it home from preschool that day. He wore it outside that afternoon to show off to the neighbor kids. He gladly posed for these pictures. And, thankfully, he understood that it was not his costume, and willingly gave it back after the tea party. :-)

Butler Homecoming 2010

It's time for Butler Homecoming! We like to bring the boys to Butler every year for a football game. This year, we had much better weather than last year when we had to wear our winter coats. It was a little overcast, but we only had a couple sprinkles. Everyone had fun, had some snacks, and watched a good football game (Butler lost).



Snacktime!

Cale and Ewan were excited to meet the Butler Bulldog.

Marcus and Cale checked out this stained glass display.

I tried to get a picture of the boys with this bulldog-no luck.

But, they did a nice job posing for this photo in front of the pond on Butler's campus.

school pictures

Here are Marcus and Cale's fall school pictures. Maybe I should be more selective in what they wear on school picture day. I did manage to talk Cale out of the other tshirt he was going to wear (which was probably an older, more worn shirt). I love having this moment captured with Marcus and his missing teeth and their freckles and sweet smiles. They both love school right now and I feel like they are both learning and are both pretty good students. Marcus is working right now on a school challenge of reading 100 books in the school year. He has reached the first marker of 25 books and has earned himself and extra recess next Friday. Cale has met his goal of reading (or being read to) 10 books and got his Book-It certficate from Pizza Hut. I remember doing that when I was in school. Both the boys had their basketball evaluations this week. They were so excited to go and do the drills. It looks like they will each have 1 night of practice a week and then games on Saturdays. Practices actually don't start until the first of November. Right, now Marcus and Cale are on fall break. They have off today (Friday) and Monday. We didn't make any plans for it, since Andy is working tonight and I am too. And, Ewan has preschool on Monday. We are hoping to go to Butler's homecoming football game tomorrow. We try and go every year. The boys have a good time and the venue is family friendly. Enjoy the photos!

painting update

We've been painting our front sitting area. The old color was a light yellow that was probably the color put on when the house was built. We are painting it a dark brown called pumpernickel. It looks really nice (in our opinion) and makes the white trim "pop". There's just a little bit left to do before we can move a few pieces of furniture back in. It was a harder area to paint just because the wall spaces are smaller and there are several doors to paint around. We also had to kind of maneuver the furniture to make room to paint. Thank goodness Andy is strong enough to move my old piano and my old desk pretty much by himself! A few more days and we should be finished!

park pictures

We took Ewan and Liam to the park the other day. It's different taking just 2 of the boys. Andy and I can dedicate ourselves to each following one kiddo instead of doing a periodic sweep to make sure everyone is there. It was a great day at the park-sunny, not too cool and not crowded. In fact, the only other family that was there was a dad with triplet little girls who were about Ewan's age. He had fun playing with them. I took some photos with my phone (my camera is MIA). You may also notice that Liam's hair looks a little different. I got his hair cut this past week. It's shorter than I wanted, but it still looks cute.

season completed

Marcus's final football game was last night! The Steelers gave it their best effort, but could not beat the running game of the Bengals. Am I glad football is over? Extremely. Did Marcus play much of this last game? No. Am I a little bent out of shape because of that? Yes, especially because I know Marcus was doing his best to let the coaches know that he wanted to play. Will I be sending off an email to let the president of the league know that I am unhappy? Unsure-I know that what's done is done and it really won't fix anything except me venting. Marcus doesn't seem to phased by it. Andy and I have both emphasized doing you best and learning about the game. I asked Marcus it he had learned anything from football, he said yes-not to have head to head contact. Well, okay, that's pretty important to know. Here's the few pictures I took...

Marcus coming out of the "tunnel" of raised hands the parents did for the last game. I let Cale participate in my place-he thought it was very cool.


Game over- awards ceremony for the 2 teams that will not be playing in the final. We were supposed to turn in the pads and helmet, too, but I was so-o-o ready to go home that they are still in my car and will make it back later this week.

Marcus with his medal. It was getting dark and I had to wait till we got home to get this picture.

We have a little time off until the start of basketball-crazy, I know. The boys are excited about playing another sport and really do like being around kids their age. Will they always like these things? Who knows. But, it's nice that they're getting the chance right now.

just some photos that make me smile

Cale and Ewan decided to get dressed up in their black capes tonight...

...and ninja-fight Marcus...

....and walk around the yard...

...and watch video on my cell phone. How fun! They crack me up!

a couple pics of Marcus playing football

Here's some pictures from Marcus playing his final "regular" season game on Saturday. They won against the Jaguars and are seeded 3rd (of 4 teams) for the "playoff" on Tuesday night. Since our last talk about not always volunteering to sit out and doing our best, Marcus has been participating more and usually gets in on most defensive plays. Andy said he made a couple tackles during this game. I got some pictures, and, while I can pick out Marcus because I know where he was, I don't know how anyone else is going to do. I can tell you he is wearing the #3 yellow jersey, white pants, black shoes. Let's see if I can help point him out...

In this shot, Marcus is on the line, looks like he's the 3rd one over, already in a stance


in the number 3 jersey running towards the action


see the number three again?

that's him almost front and center in this photo. Really, it's mostly chaos on the field with all the kids eventually running toward where the ball is. Marcus has fun, though, and is learning at least a little about the game, so that counts for something. They play on Tuesday night-let's go Steelers!

Cale's last flag football game of the season

Saturday was Cale's last football game! It was a fabulous day to be out watching it, and I was able to watch some of Cale's game and some of Marcus's game thanks to the mostly agreeable moods of Ewan and Liam. Even our little neighbor friends and their dad came out to watch some of the action.

Cale is on the line, second one over-see his pale white legs? :-) Cale got several tackles during the game and actually broke through the line once and sacked the quarterback-oops. That's apparently against the flag football rules.


Liam-happy with his apple.



Andy happy to be watching his kids play football

The teams all got trophies in an awards ceremony right after the game. Here's most of Cale's team-I cut off one boy on the end -oops! They are kindergarten through 2nd grade.

Cale with his trophy. It will join the collection of trophies the boys are starting to amass. I have to say that even though Cale was excited to play football and get a trophy, he was probably most excited that I brought snacks for the team. He had been jealous that Marcus was getting snacks after the games and he was not getting anything. All the little boys were excited and I had enough left over to feed Cale's cheering section.

football is winding down

This week is the last week of football. Cale's last game is on Saturday and Marcus has a game Saturday and then his "playoffs" next week. I can't say that I'm sad to see it end, rather relieved. It's been busy taking Marcus and Cale to practice and games every week and I have learned to love the days when we don't have an hour between their return from school and climbing into the car to go to practice. I think that they have each had fun an at least learned a little something, if not about football, then at least about playing together as a team. Neither of the boys actually ever complained about going to practice-and Marcus even walks with a little athelete swagger now. The following couple pictures are from the games they had on Wednesday night-"Hamilton Heights Under the Lights". One of the things I like about this program and this school distict is that before the start of the games, the announcer leads everyone there in an actual prayer, actually using the words "God" and "Jesus", and then we have the Star-Spangled Banner. Small town America still exhists here. Anyway, no pictures of Marcus playing, not because he did not play, but because we were facing the setting sun and there was no way to take a good picture. I'll try to get some on Saturday.

Marcus and Ewan watching Cale play. Notice Ewan in his usual accessories-sunglasses and gloves (I think they give him super powers)


Cale's in the blue shorts. He's looking to see which way the ball is going to be run.


Liam wanted to wear Marcus's pads. I thought is was cute, so did the other parents. Not so cute when he decided to try to run onto the field. He just wanted to play too!


Ewan tried on the pads and helmet, too. I think he's looking forward to the time when he is "big" enough to participate.