Halloween @ Work

I was a little worried that no one else at work would actually dress up for Halloween.  As a rule, the 7th grade students dress up more than the 8th graders, the 8th graders go for more "risque" costumes ("Skanky Hobo")  and the teachers are very hit or miss.  My newbie, Katie, wanted to get in on the festivities, so she recycled a costume from 2 years ago (see below:  the Hamburglar).  Bringing it back old school!  After spending a mint on costumes for my kids,  I needed something.....well, cheap.  So I "borrowed" Tim's yellow shirt and overalls, "borrowed" some goggles from the science dept, and bought a hat for $1.50 from Walmart, which I sewed with black yarn to make "hair".  I printed out eyes from the internet, and BAM!  A minion was born!

Fall Deco 101

 I finally got my butt in gear this weekend and started my fall decorating.  We have had these pumpkins on the front porch for 2 weeks since our visit to the pumpkin patch.  They were looking kinda sad.  I didn't feel like breaking out the carving kit at the end of a hectic weekend right before a hectic week, so I printed out the kids' initials in Edwardian Script on Microsoft Word, grabbed a Sharpie, and had decorated pumpkins in about 5 minutes!  I was even inspired to change over the flags around the yard from summer theme to fall theme.  The crabs in the front yard that welcomed our guests is now a ghost.  My neighbors are probably sighing in relief.  

Jay making a break for an open door and unguarded staircase.

Jason's Birthday Photo Shoot

 We headed over to Picture People today for Jason's first birthday/Halloween photo shoot.  We did the same thing with Emily two years and got a fantastic trilogy photo frame with pics of her first birthday.  I figured, why not the same for Jason?  We ended up getting the same style trilogy frame with 3 of his best pics, and we hung them up on either side of a window in the family room.  Here are some of his shots from the photo shoot....can you tell that they talked me into a multiple pose package?  :)

Keeping in casual against the little bench

We got another shot of him actually in the box for his trilogy frame--the same pose that we got for Emily 2 years ago!

Jason in his dragon costume!

Jason Turns One!

My baby Jaybird turned one today!  Exactly one year ago today, at 3:09 PM, we welcomed this giant-headed rascal into the world.  He has been such a low key, content baby right from the start.  I can't believe how quickly a year flies by!  Jay is becoming a big boy more and more every day.  He has quickly progressed from standing up by himself to taking lunges toward people and just recently (in the past week) is walking clear across the room!  He can walk by himself from one person to another and giggles the entire way!  Food has never been a problem for this boy, but he's become an even better eater.  He still loves his sippy cup and has moved on to cups without handles, which really irritates Emily because Jay likes to steal her cups.  Jay's newest trick is to pull out board books and flip through each page with a very serious look on his face, saying "oooohhhh" and "aaaahhhhh" as he checks out each picture.  It seems like we might have a bookworm on our hands!

His birthday present from us?   A big red corduroy bean bag chair.  He uses one at Margaret's house for lounging while watching Baby Einstein videos.  He seems to enjoy using it in the family room as a climbing tower/lounge spot for reading. Aunt Carrie sent a whole box of birthday presents just waiting to be unwrapped, but the birthday boy got cranky quickly after his cake smashing session, so those presents will have to wait for tomorrow.

Checking out my personal library!

What am I supposed to do with this thing??

Ummmmm.....yeah, I like sugar!

Wanna share?

Ironically, the picture in the frame behind Jason (on left) is Garrett diving in his birthday cake at his first birthday party!

Before the ruckus began....

Fall Festival 2013

 With the monsoon of rain we have been receiving all week, I wasn't sure how the Fall Festival was going to "wash out" (yes, pun intended).  While I do look forward to the festival every year, and the parade has grown bigger and bigger (with more candy-throwing entries, so the kids have a ball), I was not enthusiastic about the possibility of standing in a  rain shower with two small kids for over 2 hours.  Timmy checked the weather and it looked like we were going to get a break from 8 am - 3 pm.  So we threw caution to the wind and headed out.  I had bought the kids cool Halloween shirts, which would have looked very snazzy if the entire family wasn't dressed in parkas for the parade--the rain storms had brought low temps with them all week.

Want to take a guess on the weather?  Yup, rain for almost the whole time!

"When's this thing going to start?"

We met up with some friends, so at least Emily had a distraction from the weather.

Jay got a little flag from one of the floats and it was his most favorite thing all day!

I love the old red white and blue!

You can really clean up at this parade!  Halloween doesn't even seem like a challenge anymore.

Cute church float

Crazy clown float

local swim team with a bunch of my current and past students

If you check my blog's history, I take a pic of this giant tractor every year!

Tiny Emmy, giant wheel.

Super Scientist

Not a long post, mind you, but just a quick snapshot of my not-so-little boy in science class.  Garrett's teacher Mrs. S sent me a pic of Garrett looking very suave in science class.  These 8th graders love that they get to wear goggle, lab coats, and gloves.  Quite the step up from the labs we do in 7th grade where the kids just get excited to use different colored water!  The school year is off to a great start, and I can't tell if it's the combo of new administration, new teachers, or just a more pleasant attitude around the joint.  
I took my camera outside on my insect hunt with the kids and found out that digital cameras and water bottles don't do well with each other.  So my camera has spent a week in a bag of rice and it looks like it works!  So more pics soon!

Westmoreland Berry Farm....Pumpkin Style

 I'm not a sadist when it comes to the pumpkin patch at fall time.  I don't want to wait in a line for hours for the hayride.  I don't want to spend $20 a head to get in the front door.  And I don't want to be herded around like cattle from the petting zoo to the zip lines to the kettle corn.  So instead of joining 20K local people at Belvedere Plantation this year, we decided to give a more local spot a try--Westmoreland Berry Farm.  There was a crowd of 3 when we got there (good sign!) and we had the whole tractor to ourselves for the ride to the pumpkin fields.  Which turned out to be a good thing since we had Cammy and Lauren with us--it was quite the full house.  We picked out size-appropriate pumpkins (Garrett's was the biggest at 28 pounds while Jay's was small and round like his perfect little head).  Then we got food (hot fresh apple pie a la mode!) and fed the goats!

I'm in a car.....on a tractor....this feels odd.

We found a winner!

Jay showing off his mid-driff shirt.

It's heavy!

Goat feeding pulley system