Barn Daze

One of our local parks has a fun filled fall festival each year. There are the inflatable jumping things, hay rides, chili eating contests, hay mazes and face painting and tons of other things to do. We spend a couple hours there and the kids had a nice time playing. The weather couldn't be nicer for the end of September. High 70's and not a cloud in the sky. Here are some pictures.

Mass in the Grass

Every year our church (Christ the Redeemer) has an annual picnic. But before the picnic they have the late mass outside at the front of the church in the grass. Everyone brings their blankets and lawn chairs and we have mass outside. We always hope for nice weather and this year it was very nice. A little on the muggy side, but better than rain! Sam bounced from his stroller to his chair (it's nice because none of the little ones are sitting still like they normally would have to inside). Afterwards they have a huge picnic, where everyone from the parish brings a dish to pass (we have the dessert section of the alphabet, so I made brownies). They have a tons of things for the kids to do; ponies to ride, a huge bouncy thing, a choo choo train to ride, clowns with balloons and mini golf. The local fire department brings a fire truck over for the kids to play on (which Sam thought was pretty cool) and the local police have a police officer there with his car. The officer let Sam play with the lights and siren on the car and he loved that! He was talking about that for days. It was a nice time and Sam had a lot of fun. A couple more pictures are here.

What a Week! Room Re-Decorating

I had all this week off to redecorate the kid's rooms. Seems like I would never get everything done. And really I have not, there are still some touch ups too do (okay a lot of touch ups) and some small projects to be done. But the major painting and redecorating is finished! Of course I squeezed some extra cleaning into the week too, like cleaning all the carpets in the house and doing some new things to the master bath (hey, I didn't really need a vacation did I?).

Jacob's room is now Jacob and Sam's room. The spiderman theme came down and a bright blue and green room went up. Jacob's old bunk beds were brought upstairs and put back into use. Jacob is sleeping on top and Sam on the bottom. Sam really wanted to sleep on top and he did for two nights, until we had a scare, now he is sleeping on the bottom. They have a new dresser and I added lots of shelving in the closet to make room for two sets of clothing and lots more toys. The TV was mounted up on the wall so that there is more space on the floor (and so that Sam is not pulling on the TV). Sam really seems to like playing in the new room and is sleeping great in his new bed. Jacob likes that all his stuff is now out of reach from Sam and is enjoying the new room too.

Sam's old room is now the baby's new nursery. The old theme was taken down and a new baby jungle theme was put up. All that really had to be done was the trim re-painted and new wall paper border put up. And I washed all the walls down. Then all the baby stuff was brought back up from downstairs (you forget how much stuff a tiny baby needs!). So, except for some things to be washed, the room is all set for our new addition that should be here in about two months. Sam appears to think that this new room is for his baby doll though. His baby doll has slept in the crib and spent countless hours rocking in the swing!

I will be taking pictures as soon as everything is fully finished.

Baby's Room Pictures
Jacob and Sam's Room Pictures