Halloween 09 ~ Oct 31

On our way to my Mom and Dad's church for their Halloween festivities today, we stopped by to visit Gma and Gpa D. The boys showed off their costumes and engaged in one of Grandpa's favorites--laughing cow cheese lite. You can't go to Grandpa and Grandma's without having a treat of some sort! :) ha-ha! Anyway, they got some goodies from them (in the cute little orange pumpkins) and we then set off for our 2nd stop of the day...

On the way over, I looked back at Ben and his eyes looked so blue. I had to snap a pic of him. I hope this is the last time I ever see him in eyeliner again though! :)

At Mom and Dad's church, the kids had so much fun playing all the games and enjoying all that they had to offer. We stayed for about 2 hours there...

to be continued... must go to bed for tonight...

Break Open the Bank!!! Oct. 30

Friday Ben had his second day off school for a teacher's work day. Since it was a free day for us, I gave Ben several options of what he wanted to do. It was very cold and windy out, so it wasn't a very good day to do much outside. We had talked for a very long time about opening up a savings account for him and putting all the money from his crayon bank and all the other money he had saved into it. We started this bank for him when he was very young--probably less than 2 years old. We've always put loose change in it and he has added money from Birthdays and other holidays to it also. He has spent quite a bit along the way (at garage sales and an occasional toy here and there--even bought a couple things from the book fair at school this year with some of it) but overall, he

has been very good about saving it. ...We dumped all the money out of his banks and stashes and started separating it to get all the "special coins" out so he could save them (gold dollars, coins from other countries, car wash tokens--lol!, $2 bills, etc.)

Once we were sure we got all the special coins out, we began bagging it up so that we would be able to carry it into the bank a little at a time b/c it was HEAVY!!!

When we got there, we found that they have a machine that you just dump all the money onto the tray, and it takes it in and counts it for you within a matter of seconds! WOW--technology these days!!! (I was afraid we were going to have to roll all that money and I am SOOO thankful we didn't b/c the bank clerk said we would have had to unroll it all. Eeeegads!!!

After he deposited the money, we found out that he had $271.25!!!!! We were both absolutely FLOORED!!!! He was SUPER excited!!!

Sugar Cookies...cont...

Little goober

I WANT IT Mommy!!!

These are all the ones Ben made minus a couple he ate.

These are the ones Braden made...minus the 3 he ate.

Halloween Sugar Cookies ~ Oct 29

We usually have a weekly playdate with my friend Kandice and her boys. This week we moved our playdate to Thursday since I was feverishly trying to get my painting project done and didn't want to slow down to play until I was very near the end of it for fear of loosing momentum. So, we decided to do something fun with the boys since they were off school for parent/teacher conferences all day Thursday and Friday. So we made Halloween sugar cookies. And like most days--they (all but Luke) HAVE to do everything shirtless, thus the vast amount of skin showing! ha-ha!

ChEEEEEEEEEze!!! Wow, he really looks like his big bro in this pic doesn't he! :)

My little creative one...

Make 'em pretty! :)

Halloween Fun

So we were supposed to go to Awanas tonight and have "Orange You Glad" night....pizza party....the whole nine yards. Well, I bought some orange hair spray for Ben...then Zach and Becca decided to get in on the fun. I sprayed theirs and Braden wanted NO part of the orange spray! (yay!) We get all decked out in our orange (I even had a little sprayed on the ends of my pig tailed hair) and just as we are walking out the door to head to church the phone rings....no church tonight b/c of no water at the church. Apparently they had been working on the sewer system on the road our church is on and had the water turned off for that. No restrooms or running water=no church services.

Well, since the kids and i were all geared up for pizza, I called Andy and asked him if we could take the kids out for pizza instead. He was all for it, so we went to eat at Pizza Hut and had a blast! .....Ben and his mohawk (which I was very surprised he let me do since he has always been anti-hair- standing- up-in-any-way-shape or form! :)

We have been taking Zach and Becca to church for a few weeks now. They have been through the ringer the past couple years in their family, so we kind of treat them like their ours on occasion too. They eat with us, sleep over a lot, play a lot at our house and anytime they don't feel safe home alone, they come over and hang out with us. We are really hoping that we can plant a seed in their lives so that one day they will get saved.

I just love this pumpkin shirt on Braden. He's my little pumpkin! ;)

Pizza Hut--Orange and Out on the Town! :) Oct 28

So we head to Pizza Hut and the kids have a hoot while Andy and I actually get some conversation. What a concept! Who knew that taking MORE kids to a restaurant (ones who don't always have to be together) would turn into a more enjoyable experience! :) ah ha! :)

Acting silly as usual! Kisses for Daddy! :)

The kids love to get into the costume bin and become "mixed up characters." It's one of their all-time fun things to do. It's really cute to see what they come up with! Although, Braden my seemingly OCD child, has to match. No mixing up for him! (Mr. I ALWAYS want my shirt buttoned to the top and my zipper zipped immediately on my coat when it's put on!)

Ben's Class Halloween Party ~ Oct. 16, 2009

The week of Ben's class Halloween party started off very rocky. On Monday, Ben had 8 kids absent from his class and one went home sick that day. On Tuesday we got an e-mail from his teacher that said, "Well, this is a first for me. We are down to 6 kids today in class." The flu and HINI (Swine Flu) have hit very hard this year--very early in the season and EVERYTHING else is going around too...strep, stomach viruses, other 1-2 day viruses....etc. etc. So, on Tuesday, only 6 out of 19 kids were well. Ben came down with a very minor bug on Monday night--very lethargic and had chills so I kept him home Tuesday and Wednesday. He only ran a very slight fever (not even enough to keep him home from school, but with everything else going around and his teacher not doing much new at school with everyone else gone, why send him?) Wednesday attendance went back up to 10, but when the week was all said and done, there were only 3 kids in the class who didn't catch something and miss at least one day of school. CRAZY!!! Anyway, by the party on Friday, all but 2 of the kids were back in class for the Halloween party. I went as a helper for the party but it sure felt like walking into a pietre dish of germs!!! I just took my vitamins and used lots of germ X!!! :) Ben's teacher was not able to be there for the party. Her little boy had been sick since the weekend and it finally caught up with her. She got progressively worse and had to stay home on Thursday and Friday. So Ben had a substitute for the party. She was very nice!

This was one of the games they played.

Craft time--decorating pumpkins I love this shirt we found for Ben last year. It says, "Out of Candy--Need REfill!" He was eating "dirt" for a snack (oreo cookies, vanilla and chocolate pudding with gummy worms in it) YUM!

Ben's classmates who survived the illnesses of the week and made it to the party! ;)