Had the best time at our Halloween party this year.  Each of the boys got to invite 4 friends (so wished it could have been all!) and with siblings coming as well we ended up with 25+ kids!  Thank God the weather was decent and there was no rain.  As Trey likes to say “We have a lot of summer friends”, meaning we have a lot of BBQs and friends over in the summer.  The drawback to small house, big yard.
Some highlights of the evening, the Eyeball Relay, Whack-A-Skull, a Scavenger Hunt and the big candy hunt.  We put 7 grocery bags full of candy out in the field and the kids made short work of it, finding it all (but 5-6 pieces) in about 10 minutes.  Can’t wait for next year’s party…thinking we are going to add a pumpkin slingshot to the activities.

We were invited to a Halloween party with the Natali crew – LOVE THEM!  Bummed we can’t make it, but had to share the “rules” for the party.
Rules for the Rookies:

1. Wear a Costume. If you don’t – you’ll be ISSUED a costume. It will not be personality and/or gender apppropriate. I GUARANTEE IT!
2. We’ll have lots of basic food and drinks. If you require slow roasted chipotle flavored organic hand-shaped maze chips – bring them yourself.
3. Don’t be stupid and drink then drive. We have plenty of room.
4. Kids are welcome, but the party tends to go downhill FAST after the sun goes down.
5. No crying (BOBBY!), no jerks , no spitting, no fighting (DAN!).
6. The cool people can come early.
7. I WILL KICK YOU OUT if you’re obnoxious. Don’t test me. Richard Torres fears me.

Costume Notes:
1. Hooter Girls with mustaches has been DONE.
2. Our real teacher is already sexier than your naughty teacher.
3. Pregnant Nun – so old school.
4. Khadafi – too soon.
5. Casey Anthony – NOBODY likes her.
6. Sheen – Really?
7. Sheep and farmers do not go together.

This picture was taken at my cousin’s wedding – I LOVE it! So glad it got captured (as he had my camera and I couldn’t get the shot myself). He is truly into the art of photography and has a good sense of what makes up a photo.

Copyright (c) 2011 by Dana Pleasant Photography

I snapped a bunch of close ups of Levi while we were on the tractor ride – this is my boy! Happy, silly, a little shy and a good sport!

There was a sunbreak this afternoon so we dropped all we were doing, jumped in the car and headed to the pumpkin patch. Didn’t take long for each boy to find their perfect pumpkin, we beat the rain and even had a chance to take a ride on the tractor. Can’t wait to see what carving creations we end up with this year.

Since I was a little girl, I have always enjoyed tinkering with things. I remember my grandma’s ice maker on her fridge went out and my uncle had tried and tried to fix it, with no success. I played with it awhile (I was probably around 8) and got it to work. Quite the accomplishment for a little kid.
My new nemesis has been the handle on the sliding door of the van. The boys are less than gentle when they open it. You would think 1 pull would do it, but no, it’s more like 4-5 each time they open the door.
The door handle could only take so much and eventually the handle broke. I tried just getting along opening it from the inside until one of the boys got nasty one day and flipped the child lock so you can’t open it from the inside.
Onto the internet I went, found out that this was a common problem with my type van and ideas on how to fix it. Out came what Dee calls my “girlie tool box”, off came the door panel of the van and voila there were the inner workings of the door. I fixed the problem, put it all back together again and off we go.
That lasted for a couple of months until the OTHER side door handle broke completely off on one side. After a little shopping online, I found a new door handle and Trey helped me replace the old one – he was completely impressed with his mama’s skills. It doesn’t match, but oh well! I thought we were done with the whole van door saga but the one that had originally broken, popped off again. Easier to fix the 3rd time around when I really knew what I was doing.

The laundry is folded and I’m about to put it all away, the garden (with a LITTLE help from my little gnomes) is now weeded, the crimson clover cover crop is planted and it’s all ready for winter. All in all, a weekend well balanced with fun and work.

It was Dee’s bday yesterday and the celebrations started on Friday night with pizza dinner with friends. She wanted to spend her actual birthday shopping (gasp, I know) for fun Halloween stuff with the family. She got some cool new decorations, it’s her favorite holiday by far. We also did the costume shopping for the kids.
That part was painful, to say the least. They all go in with their idea of what they want to be, but the problem is that a lot of the time is that they either don’t have the costume they wanted, or it doesn’t fit. With minimal tears and drama we ended up with a vampire, a Navy seal, Capt Jack Sparrow and a butterfly.

Every year the K and 1st grade classes go on a field trip together to the pumpkin patch. It’s always one of my favorites to go on. The weather held just until the walk back to school, then the rains let loose.