Pumpkin Carving

Jacob, Sam and Andy carved their pumpkins today! First they drew their faces on the each pumpkin and then Andy cut the tops out. Sam just kept saying "what you doing?" This was all new to him and watched every step that Andy and Jacob did and tried to help. Jacob couldn't wait for me to make pumpkin seeds so he starting getting the seeds out right away! Andy scoped all the gunk out of all three of the pumpkins and then they carved them. Jacob make a really cool face on his and even carved it himself! He did a great job! All the pumpkins look really cool! Great job boys! More pictures here.

Cider Mill Fun!

We went to two cider mill's today, Yate's Cider Mill and Blake's Farm and Cider Mill. We always go to Yate's every year and we love this cider mill. There is a beautiful long pathway that we love to walk down with trees covering it, along the river. It's a beautiful place to take pictures and the kids love jumping over the trees and winding paths. We have never been to Blake's before and we really should have had more time to be there, because there was a ton to do and the kids loved it! Andy tried to get Jacob to go inside the haunted house, but he would have no part of it. There was a HUGE hay-stack that Jacob and Sam loved climbing up and down. There was also a hay maze for them to play in and so much more to do. We really did not have nearly enough time to do everything, guess this is one place we will make more time for next year. It was a great day and I had my dad's camera, so I took waaaay too many pictures, but here they all are!

Yate's Cider Mill and (Kodak Gallery)
Blake's Cider Mill and (Kodak Gallery)

Trying to get a pictures of us all looking at the
camera was just not going to happen!

2007 Fall Pictures

My annual picture taking of the boys in the park. This is my favorite time of the year and I just love taking pictures of the kids outside. Here are all the pictures here and here(Kodak).

2006 Fall Pictures
2005 Fall Pictures
It's amazing to see the changes year after year.

Pumpkins, Cider & Apples

Today Sam and I went to Miller's Big Red for some family fun. We went along with my Dad and Mom and two sisters and we had a great time. We checked out the animals at the petting farm, then boarded a hay ride to take us to the pumpkin patch. Sam had a great time picking out the perfect pumpkin. It had to be one that matched the ticket he got for the hayride and it couldn't be dirty (looks like he has just a little bit too much mommy in him). Jeanette had to clean one off real quick and pretend like he found a clean one. Then we got some cider and donuts and rested for a little bit. It was a lot warmer this year than it was last year. I can't believe it was almost 90 at the beginning of October! Check out all the pictures here (Kodak Gallery) and here (the normal place).

2006 Apple Picking, Hayrides, Cider and Some Mud

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

Happy (SURPRISE) Birthday, Becky!

We celebrated Becky's 30th Birthday today! We planned a surprise party at Mr. B's in downtown Royal Oak. Becky was very surprised and had no idea of the party we had planned for her! I hope you had a great 30th birthday Becky! See some pictures here!

Wisconsin Dells Vacation!

Andy and I have been wanting to take a small vacation with the boys this summer, but couldn't figure out where to take a both boys and enjoy ourselves as well. I found this place called Wisconsin Dells, which is called the water park capital of the world. Jacob has always loved swimming and playing in the water and since we started taking Sam to the beach this summer it looks as though he is going to follow his brother with his love of the water. The only drawback was the drive---8 hours! But, we decided to go for it. We left at about 2:00 Thursday afternoon and had a pretty smooth drive. Sam did much better than we expected and we made it to our resort at about 11:00. We stayed at Chula Vista Resort, which was a beautiful place. It had it's own indoor and outdoor water park, plenty of restaurants, golf course (which we didn't use, but looked nice), and our room was perfect for us. The resort was a few miles away from downtown area, but we wanted to get the nature part of the Wisconsin Dells in too.

Friday
We had a nice big breakfast at the buffet in the resort and then got ready for the largest water park in the United States, Noah's Ark Water Park. We had a perfect day of high 80's and lots of sun. Sam and I played a lot at the kiddie areas while Jacob and Andy went down the larger water slides. Jacob's favorite was the Black Anaconda. Sam really like the swing in the water at the kiddie area. We even all got to go on a bigger water slide together, the Congo Bongo. Jacob and Andy really liked the huge wave pool, Sam wasn't so sure of it, so we sat at the front and lets the waves splash us. Jacob and Sam both loved going down the Slidewinders slides. Sam went on Andy's lap and just loved it, he was running back up the steps to go again before Andy could catch up with him! We also all went on Flash Flood, which was very quick and Jacob wasn't so sure of it, but it cooled us all off! After about eight hours of swimming and playing we went back to the resort for some dinner. And you would think that we have had enough water, but nope we headed over to the indoor water park at the resort. Jacob and Sam played in the kiddie area. Sam loved spraying Jacob with the fun sprayers they had. Then Jacob got Sam to go down one of the kiddie slides and it only took a couple times before Sam was racing Jacob to go back up again! Then we all went on the lazy river together before they closed. We all were exhausted from such a fun filled day and the boys were asleep within minutes of getting back to the room.

Saturday
We got up and ready for another fun day. They had a Starbucks at the resort, so we just had a quick breakfast with some coffee and the boy's got some hot chocolate. The weather didn't look so great this day, but we still headed off to another large water park which included an amusement park, Mt. Olympus Theme Park. Andy and Jacob went on some go karts, which they enjoyed. There really wasn't as much for Sam to do and since we thought it was going to rain, we didn't go towards the water park area. Unfortunately it really started raining, so we called it quits and headed to the car. I wish that we could have gotten to the water park area, but hopefully there is always next time. We thought we would check out the downtown area in between the rain. There were lots of your usual t-shirt and souvenir shops. Andy wanted to try out Culvers, which he saw on the Food Network, so we had some lunch there. The boy's got an airbrushed t-shirt and we went into this huge candy store. Then we headed back to the resort and went back to the indoor water park. Sam loved the kiddie water slides and was up and down them more times than I could count. Jacob relaxed in the hot tube for awhile and Andy went down the larger water slides. We all rode the lazy river again and after a few hours we could tell that the boy's were getting tired. We got cleaned up for some pizza for dinner and called it a night.

Sunday
We relaxed in the morning and then got ready to leave. We left the resort at about 11:30, drove for a little while and stopped for a big lunch at Cracker Barrel (Andy's favorite vacation restaurant). Sam did great on the ride home and Jacob read some books and played his handheld Nintendo.

We really had a great time. It wasn't a relaxing vacation, but then we didn't plan it to be. It was great to spend some time all together as a family and just have some fun!

Here are all the pictures. (I really didn't take as many as I thought I would.)

And some videos...
Sam Swinging in the Pool
Jacob, Sam and Andy Water Slide
Sam and Andy Water Slide

Fun with Kelsey & Lucy

Kelsey and Lucy were visiting with Lynda and Ed for a few days this week and so Jacob and Sam got to spend a lot of time with their cousins. Jacob loved having them to play with and Sam just kept them going and going. Here are a couple pictures that Lynda took one day.