HaPpY HaLlOwEeN!

Happy Halloween from the scariest bunch on the block!


Poor Emma, her pumpkin didn't show in the above picture - he is FrankenPumpkin on the left - so I had to alter the picture to this crazy over-exposed state so you could see her work of art as well!

It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown

Today we gutted and carved pumpkins and roasted the seeds, yummy! Ryan was a bit hesitant to rip out the guts at first, but then the 4 yr old boy in him took over and he dug right in. Emma was happy to observe and whine at just the right interval - just another day in the life of a 2 yr old girl! We had lots of fun and everyone decorated their pumpkin and we all enjoyed pumpkin seeds while watching Spiderman 3. Charlie Brown didn't stand a chance in our house tonight!

Trick or Treat

Last week our pediatrician's office building held their annual Safe Trick or Treat night, where all the offices in the building decorate and hand out candy to the kids. It's great because it's indoors, which means well lit and my favorite, climate controlled! We went with Aunt Michelle, Ally, Jack, Grandmom and Aunt Janet... we had quite the entourage this year! The kids had a great time and some of the offices even go all out and turn their spaces into scary haunted houses - my kids loved it! Ryan loved it so much in fact, that we had to go back first thing the next morning to see them again, only this time we left our costumes at home and instead brought a nasty respiratory infection! We are now the proud owners of a nebulizer. But I digress...

The night was fun and the kids did great so we all went to Wendy's after for a late night grease fix, I mean dinner, mmmmm!


Tinkerbell, Spiderman, Ariel and Darth... don't they look thrilled!

Dancing Queen

Last week at dance class was Parent Observation Day AND Costume Day. Needless to say, there was alot going on! Sadly, our Prima Ballerina was not the happiest dancer on the floor but I did get some good shots. I posted one video but Blogger decided one was enough and won't let me post more... maybe another day when it's not feeling so mischievous. Check out the last picture... I was able to capture Emma and the girl next to her in the air as they were jumping - pure luck!

Emma Dances, Video 3

Tyler's Christening

A few weeks ago we celebrated Tyler's Christening day. He looked adorable in his little suit and was so good throughout the entire ceremony and the party afterwards. He even made a friend in Church - I think they were plotting something devilish for the actual Baptism part but somehow their plans got foiled because they were both very good!

Don't they just look like they are up to something?

Tyler and Byron... the Godfather :)!

Jay, Jen, Bryanna and Tyler, with Godparents Byron and Jackie.

Big Sis and Little Bro!

All I want for Christmas...

Yea, yea I get it. It's October. It's 80-some degrees. We haven't even had Halloween yet. But in my house, Christmas talk starts shortly after back-to-school and lasts the full 3 months! Most of you are aware of my shopping habit/addiction/problem and know I start my shopping early anyway. So with Ryan's birthday next month, we've been playing the 'what do you want' game, and added Santa Claus into the mix lest Emma be left out (aka, pitch a fit). So here goes...

RYAN... a digger, dinosaur books, other books because 'they help you learn' (I love this kid), that Cars thing we saw in the Disney Store, Transformers, and my favorite answer 'whatever is cool and whatever you want to pick out, Mom.'

Easy, right? And pretty in-expensive for the most part. Now let's see what the Princess wants.

EMMA... a horsey. A real horsey. A sheep. A baby sheep. And a barn. A real barn.

Seems all she forgot is a new house on 10 acres of land. Oh, and a stable for the horsey. Thankfully 2 yr olds can still be persuaded and I know a few princesses that will do the job quite well.

Introducing Shelly

Compliments of Mom-Mom's friend Lynn, we have welcomed Shelly into our home. Shelly came complete with a cool crab cage & all the hermie necessities - thank you Lynn!!! Emma was thrilled to adopt Shelly and often calls her the baby of the bunch. She is tiny and what I remember hermit crabs as being. Ryan is now adamant that they now share the clan so we have Crabby Daddy, Crabby Boy and Baby Shelly. We have introduced them all into the same home and aside from climbing over each other, they are doing well. We still have the wire cages for time outs and when they desperately need to climb. I just pray that Crabby Daddy does not need a new home in the near future because we have no shell large enough to house him and if I see that thing without a shell, I may pass out.

Here's a few pictures of the kids, hermie and human.

Candid Crabby

Emma and Shelly...

Mom-Mom takes a Hay Ride

We went to visit with MomMom & PopPop last weekend and we did our usual traipsing around... lunch, visit to the toy store, some errands, etc. We also went to a local farm for some fall fun and the kids had a great time. They fed the animals (usually I steer clear of this but there were big shoots that the feed goes down, thus eliminating most of the germs, right?), went on a hay ride, ran through the cornstalk maze and pumpkin patch, saw Clifford and in the end, picked out a punkin'. Ryan even got in his special Pop-Pop time while Emma slept and they ate their favorite, Chinese food and ribs. Emma leaves a shiny bone after her jaws are done... the poor rib doesn't stand a chance!

Here she is after feeding the animals. While her hands didn't directly touch them (see white feed tube in background), they did touch the feed itself and probably the wire fence. This time I wasn't fast enough with the sanitizer... gross.
Mom-Mom said that the last time she was on a hay ride, she was probably Ryan's age. I think she had just as much fun as he did and will be picking hay from her jacket, shoes and purse for months to come. It's kind of like those pesky Christmas tree needles that keep showing up.... in July.

Emma running into the cornstalk maze, trying to keep up with Ryan.

Kids in the Pumpkin Patch - there's the love!

The Boy Ain't Right

So I'm getting the gang ready on Sunday morning for a day out in Horsham, when I look out the window and see this in the back yard. While I appreciate the effort, I also can't help but wonder how this kids internal thermometer works. I mean, just days ago it was 86 degrees and tho the temps have fallen quite a bit, I'm not sure there was a need for gloves, scarf and wool hat (thanks Aunt Loretta!). Yet no jacket. This is also the kid that sweats so much in his sleep that his hair curls up. I guess I shouldn't be surprised.

Playdate Update, Take II

Happy Happy Joy Joy! A big shout out to the folks at Blogger for whatever it is they did (and hopefully keep doing). Here's some actual pictures, no boxes or X's or error messages, from our play date as described in the previous post.

Here's Gage right before his Eagles tryout...

Construction Worker Emma whistles and says 'football players are HOT!'

Natalie and Nicholas... she's smiling like that because Kim is jumping up and down with a squeaky toy and Natalie thinks she is funny. Kim needs to find a PT job in the photo biz!

Playdate Update

Last week we hosted a play date and had alot of fun! Pam and Natalie, Kim and Gage and Jeannine and Nicholas all came to visit (Shannon, Riley and Shane were in school). Emma and Gage played nicely and the babes, Natalie and Nicholas, were equally well behaved. Since the older kids were in school, Ry was a bit bored with the youngins but quickly found his friends outside and I didn't see him the rest of the day! As usual, we sat around a table filled with food and ate and ate and ate. I guess it was more of a 'Mommy Date' and the kids were just there. Hey, Mommies need their playtime too! And what is a friendly gathering without the traditional hot doggies (not their original name but hey, this is a family blog!), tater tots and candy corn! Here's a few pictures...

What's that? You don't see any pictures? Of course you don't b/c this blog is EVIL! Possessed I tell you! One moment I can't post pictures and I get a cryptic error message. Then my pictures post - supposedly - only they turn out as a box with an X. Then the next day, the X box has magically transformed into my picture. So I post again and now the error message is back! Why, oh Gods of Blogging, won't you let me post and be done with it all! I just want to cross 'update blog with a quadrillion new pictures' off my list!

Brown Bear, Brown Bear what do you see?

Another update... soon this blog will look like a rainbow. Great News! When I uttered profanities at the computer and went to bed last night, there was still a box with an X. When I checked in this morning, I see Natalie's beautiful smiling face - hooray! Looks like we are back to the blog - stay tuned for further updates.

I am hoping it's a picture of sweet baby Natalie and not the black box with the red X I am currently glaring at....

All Jammed Up

Update... like my pretty fall color? Blogger doesn't like me. It still won't let me post pictures. The error message says they are aware of the problem and working on a fix. Then it tells me to report the code of hieroglyphics at the bottom of the page. I'm not sure some of those symbols even exist on my keyboard. I continue to wait.....

It seems blogger is having technical difficulties. Or maybe it's user error. No, I think it's Blogger. All I know is that I want to blog yet I can't! Sure I can type till my fingers blister, but if I can't post pictures of my wonderfully talented and outrageously good-looking offspring, then what good is it? You just won't get the whole picture if I merely verbalize our day at the farm and surely you need the video of Emma with her new crab Shelly to get the full effect. And words alone can't do justice to what Ryan wore to rake the leaves this weekend. Defeated, I am going to bed. Tomorrow is another day.