Halloween

When given the option of what they wanted to be this year for Halloween, the boys chose to adopt a Star Wars theme again. The weapons and costumes were plentiful from some of the bargain shopping done last year after Halloween, knowing that Star Wars costumes are usually a pretty safe bet in our family. Bryce selected Jango Fett. Garrett and Griffin chose to be Clone Troopers. You mean I can bring my gun to church" was the famous line of the night as we packed up to go to the Harvest Festival at our church where the kids get to play games for candy and see their friends dressed up in costume too. While the helmets and guns are really cool props to have at times, they become burdensome and unrealistic when you are trying to compete in games and collect/eat candy. So Brett's primary job during the festival was to hold three helmets and four guns while Joy tried to corral the troops to stay together. Afterward, we joined our friends Carrie and Steve for some snacks and laughs in their garage party.



Look out I'm Jango Fett and I've got two guns a'blazin'. Can I get a jet pack with this next time?

Yes, I said I wanted to be a clone trooper like my big brother.

There is my big brother as a clone trooper right now!

Takin' a shot at the big basketball hoop.

Puttin' for a kit-kat.

How close do you think they will let me get to hit my target...there are some advantages to being young...

Alright, so I want to understand the rules here, I throw that beanbag in that container, I make it and I get two pieces of candy, right?

There was no Jedi mind trick to make us chose our costumes. You gotta love our unity though.

Carving Pumpkins

For the first time that we can both remember, we carved our pumpkins before Halloween. Usually we have bought pumpkins which have sat on our front porch for most of the winter months and into the spring months until they declare themselves ready to be thrown away. Well this year, we were determined to get our act together and actually carve our pumpkins. The boys were quite excited to be involved in the task of designing the face on the pumpkins and then getting to clean them out. There might have been a few "yuck" comments, but for the most part they did the job and didn't complain. We actually got it all done the Saturday before Halloween.

I'm cleaning out the first pumpkin, we're going to save the seeds so we can bake them and eat them.

Now Mommy is working on getting mine open, I'm ready to work on it just like Garrett.

Thanks Daddy, you helped save mine from getting thrown away, there was some mold already on the inside, but Daddy rescued it and cut a nice big mouth where the mold was the worst.

Mommy did a great job carving everything just how I designed it. Check out her handiwork!

Daddy and Mommy put their carving skills together to finish mine up, don't you love all the jagged edges I chose?

Three unique pumpkins for three unique boys.

Cat Rescue

We found it very odd when Theo wasn't around for breakfast one morning, then he didn't come by for dinner. The next morning a stray male cat was in our backyard thinking he had found new undiscoverd territory. Joy and the boys began to miss Theo and his involvement in the classroom outside. Where could he have gone? Was he injured or worse, killed? He had already suffered a small abscess on his ear and then a scratch across his eye, but had healed from both of these. The third morning, Joy heard a meow when she went out front to feed Max and it wasn't the usual Max meow. She looked up in the big tree over our driveway and there was nothing up there. She went back inside and asked Brett to look. Brett shook the food and followed the sound of the meow across the street to a very tall juniper tree. There was Theo stuck up in the three, fortunately at the height that a large ladder could reach him. Brett invited Theo to come down, but he clung to the branches, so Brett had to lift him out by the scruff, with his claws firmly wrapped around the branches. After clearing the branches and assuring his balance was intact, Brett descended the ladder with Theo rescued. After a brief time of cleaning up his claws and getting all the juniper parts off of them, Theo was back to enjoying the benefits of being a backyard cat.



Daddy reached in and grabbed Theo out of the tree.

We were happy to bring Theo back and feed him, he sure wanted to make up for the six lost meals...

Content again in the backyard.

October School

Garrett's CC class with his teacher, Mrs. Harkey.

I'm not immune to reading a book any time, anywhere.

I finished my landscape design for our Native American night.

Another Fun Venn Diagram, this time with Daddy's clone troopers.

Math for baseball cards...I'm working on my writing of numbers, addition, and pattern recognition.

Our musical free-for-all to Cars music.

Spelling on the lawn with Theo...can you actually get a tan while you teach? Yes you can.

Griffin puts on Daddy's white coat, sweats, and shoes...then he tried to walk through an obstacle course which was to illustrate the Biblical principle of throwing off the excess baggage that hinders us in our ability to follow God's plan for our lives.

Deemed the un-Venn diagram by Daddy, there are no overlapping piles when you separate the laundry, but there are math lessons in it nonetheless.

We traveled to the Moaning Caverns in Murphys where we met Grammy and Poppy and took a tour to the bottom of the old staircase made out of a World War I battleship. Now we can remember stalagmite and stalactite.

Native American Night

We invited Josh and Sam and their 3 kids Noah, Brianna, and Lydia over for a celebration of Native American culture. The boys have been studying the different tribes who lived in North America during the early colonial period and so we had a night of dressing up and eating food that would have been prepared back then including corn, squash, bread, wild rice, and meat. We also played games that involved darts, spears, hoops, and feathers.

Garrett's invitation both cover and inside message.

Our family and our attire for the evening which included Brett as Chief.

We all used the war paint to color ourselves for the festivities.

I think I could be pretty intimidating like this.

Some crafts before the food arrived, after we had crafted on ourselves.

Time to get some grub. It was all delicious.

Sitting down to eat as one big happy tribe.

Throwing the dart through the hoop, we got pretty focused.

Noah, while you eat your corn, I'm gonna toss some more darts.

I love my teepee project, I think I'll use it with my Star Wars guys tomorrow.

Can I paint my face everyday?

A real life-size teepee...if we wait here long enough, can we sleep in it?

Griffin 2y 6mo

Griffin is 2 and a half, officially now. Of course, in his mind, he is still much older than that. We have successfully still encouraged him to nap at least every other day, if not every day. I think this is our longest running success of all of our boys. He is still sleeping in the crib, which is another record for our boys. We are still surprised that he has not attempted to climb out of it on his own yet. He has had a fascination with teeth this month and some trouble with biting. He often says "look and my big teeth" and then will ask you to show him yours. He loves his trains and the times when he can retreat into his room and enjoy the free reign. But he loves to ask "Do you want to play trains with me?" The end of the question with a cute raise in the pitch of his voice for emphasis.



My nose is barely big enough to hold these tooth glasses on. Thanks Grandma!





I'm thankful I have a nice brother who builds and plays trains with me.

I enjoyed eating the carmel apple, but then I got this sticky stuff in my mouth that hung all the way down to the table...

We seemed to have a little train accident, but it has nothing to do with my missing shirt.

See Mommy, I can play with all the big boys, don't worry.

I think this one is the right size for me, I just can't really lift it.

I surrender.

I'll be the keyboard and other percussion instrument player.