Pumpkin Patch Time

It was time to visit Rock Creek Farm and pick out pumpkins!

That's only the start of the fun of course.  Rock Creek also puts out a free play area with hay bale maze, animals, and bounce houses.  We had to drag the kids away!

Halloween Preview

Our church held the annual Halloween party early this year.  After judging at Amanda's Speech Meet all day I raided her prop closet to build a spooky trunk display.  What good is having a drama teacher in the family if you can't mooch off her?  Sam insisted on helping.



Not long after that we all suited up and went to the party!  As Sam has been reciting all month, he was a dragon, Jack was an ewok, I was a vampire, and Ben was a ghoooooooooost.




I'm didn't know the kids looked so grumpy in this pictures.  I blame that on the sealed container of candy corn someone left in plain sight at the entrance.  Don't show kids candy if they can't have it!





It was a whirlwind party.  Quick pizza dinner, then a quick round of carnival games.









I wish I had more time to set up my trunk - I barely got it decent looking before kids arrived!  A lot of the the things I had planned didn't happen because I had no time.  But there were many ooo's and ahhh's and I had many kids try to come back for seconds and thirds or more.  (Seriously.  Ben packed me two 36 packs and one 18 pack of full-sized candy bars and I ran out well before the kids stopped coming.  I'm POSITIVE there were not 90 kids there).   I didn't have time to replace my fangs or put on black gloves and pince nez.  I did my best impression of Sam's preschool teacher with the thick Slavic accent, put spooky music on my old timey speaker, and tried to keep the cauldrons bubbling. I might have sounded like this at times, but people seemed to like the effect either way.



The party quickly wrapped up and the boys dived into their hauls.  It's only October 22.  I hope we have more fun to come.  (Sorry if I sound grumpy.  I have a splitting headache.  It was a fun but crazy day with a lot of emotional kids to handle for a variety of reasons.  I really really wish I could sleep in tomorrow.)

10pm in the Mason Maison

Reading Champ!

When Jack asked why all his friends have medals and he doesn't have any, Ben was happy to get him a medal celebrating Jack's best skills. Any ideas for a silver and gold goal?

Housing Update: Waiting for Reconstruction

The reconstruction team has come and made an official estimate, that our insurance company has accepted.  The floor guy came this morning to take measurements and inspect the existing materials.  I should be hearing from my guy early next week about a schedule for drywall, texture, painting, and plumbing.  We're looking at being done before Thanksgiving even if there are some minor hiccups.  

I had the mitigation company take out all the plastic tarps so we can enjoy the full room again.  Despite the powder room displacement to the living room, I'm happy to have the walls down and the sunlight streaming in.  The kids IMMEDIATELY starting running circles around the house again.  I didn't realize how much they loved and missed their first floor race track loop.

Leaf Piles

We are enjoying a lovely Colorado fall this week.  The leaves are getting thick and crispy on the ground.  The kids found motivation to help with the yard by making a leaf pile for playing. 

So industrious!

Somehow their little child brains decided that the logical solution to making a bigger pile was to knock more leaves off the tree.  Never mind that there were thousands of leaves already on the ground elsewhere :-)

An unquiet quiet time....

When I checked on him, "I'm a ninja.  It's Halloween night and I look for the jack-o-lantern."

October fun

Sam is feeling better after six days of fevers. He was able to go to school this week! The water damage mitigation is all done and I have an appointment to meet with the reconstruction team tomorrow.

We decorated Halloween cookies Ben and I went to see Shaun of the Dead at the Alamo last night. Today I woke with a cold but was able to teach my primary class still. Ben let me take a nice long nap. Now we are watching a classic together. The boys think Snoopy is hilarious. Things are pretty good.

Brian's Quilt

The Omuras popped by yesterday to drop off a new heirloom:



Linda quilted this blanket out of Brian's shirts.  The front framing and the back fabric are new, but all the square piecework is authentic Brian shirt.  She had enough to make a quilt for Travis, for me, and for herself.

Brian had some real snazzy shirts :-)  I'm sure friends will remember several of these prints. 

Linda made a beautiful quilt and I'm so honored to have one!