Halloween '09

The three little kids were dressed for fun,

for Halloween had finally come!

The candy was bought

and the costumes were picked,

mommy grabbed her camera

and click-click-clicked!

Jenna chose to be a kitty in black,

with ears, nose and whiskers,

and a tail in the back.

A hula girl is what Kara chose,

so she dressed in flowers and leis

from her head to her toes.

Jack was a firefighter,

as cute as can be.

His favorite part?  The dalmation,

as you can see.

Trick-or-treat time!  The best part of the day.
Gathering candy at the neighbors',
running all the way!

Happy Halloween!

Fall Family Photos

I'm so excited I can hardly contain myself!

Today I picked up a CD filled with photos that my amazing friend Melanie took of our family a couple of weeks ago. The photos are awesome, and I can hardly wait to get started on our Christmas cards. (yes, Christmas cards ... this year, I'm going to try to be that annoying person that sends out their cards first. You know, the one that you get the day after Thanksgiving? Yep that's gonna be me, baby!)

So, for those of you on our Christmas card list:
close your eyes and don't look at the photos below so that you can be surprised on November 27th when this bad boy hits your mailbox!  But don't worry if you can't help but take a look, because these aren't the actual photos I chose for our cards.  Yep, these are the rejects ... and they're still that good!

And for anyone local to our area, let me know if you need a referral for a talented, affordable photographer!

Quotes of the Week

Mommy: (pointing to an airplane overhead, preparing to land at nearby airport) "Look, Jack! An airplane! It's coming in for a landing! Where do you think it's coming from?"

Jack: (pointing to the sky behind us) "It came from over there mama!"

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Jenna: Mommy, I saw something cool on tv. It's this thing that goes in your hair and makes it poof up a bit ... and it looks really pretty if you put it in your ponytail like this .... can we get it?

Mommy: Was it called a "Bump It"?

Jenna: (excitedly) Yes, that's it!

Mommy: Uh, then no. We can't.

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Mommy: Hey look guys! Here comes a police car with it's lights and sirens on!

Kara: Why does it have lights and sirens on?

Mommy: He's probably on his way to an emergency.

Kara: Oh. Maybe he has to go potty really bad. Like that kind of emergency.

Firestation Tour

Today we went to a firestation tour set up by our mom's group.  It was so cool to meet the firefighters, tour the fire station, and explore the fire trucks!

Thank you Bloomington Fire Department!  It was so nice of you to invite us to your house!

What do you get?

What do you get when you add the first hot day of the year, bathing suits, 3 kids, and some water guns?

Waterfight!!!!

What do you get when your silly dad realizes that the hose reaches up to the top of the slide?
Water slide!!!

What do you get when 3 kids are wet, cold and shivery, and there's only one towel out on the patio?

Total cuteness!!!

Summer is (unofficially) here!

Question:  Does summer officially begin on June 21st, or on the first day that you can throw a blanket on the lawn, kick off your shoes, and eat a picnic lunch?

My vote is for the latter.

Welcome summer!  Oh, how we've missed you!

Ropp Jersey Cheese Farm

Today was Kara's final field trip of the year.  Jack and I joined her and her class as they visited Ropp Jersey Cheese Farm.  As far as I know, it is the only farm in Central Illinois that raises its own cows and then produces, packages, and sells their own cheese.

We had a tour of the farm and met some Jersey calves and cows.
We watched the cows get milked (but chose not to participate in that ourselves).

We took a hayrack ride around the farm,

climbed on the hay bales,

picked some flowers,

and had story time in the barn.

We also posed patiently as mommy took our pictures.

The highlight of the trip however, was Tom.  Tom is a "big fat turkey" that lives on the farm.  He comes up and greets visitors, and then proceeds to follow the group around as they tour the farm.  Wherever we went, Tom followed along.  Much to the delight (or dismay) of the children.

It was our first time there, but it certainly won't be our last.  Especially after mommy bought lots and lots of homemade cheese to take home.  Yum!  While fresh cheese might have been easy to come by when we lived in Wisconsin, this is the best we have found around here so far!  Can't wait to come back in the fall for another visit, and to visit the neighbor's pumpkin farm : )

Frugal Family Tip #1

Frugal Family Tip #1:

Why pay someone to cut your hair ...

... when it can be so fun to cut your own at home?

Happy Valentine's Day, my sweet baboos!*

There's just something about holidays.
There's just something about being a mom.
There's just something about holidays when you're a mom that makes you want to go over-the-top.


There's just something about holidays when you're a mom that makes you want to go over-the-top and celebrate in style. There's just something about holidays when you're a mom, that makes you want to go over-the-top and celebrate in style, and give presents.

There's just something about being a mom.

*it's "Peanuts" people! Charlie Brown. Sally. Her sweet baboo Linus. Remember?

Knock-Knock!

Once Jack started talking, he quickly got the hang of it. Single word utterances turned into two word combinations practically overnight. Then he was off and running with 3-4 word sentences. All of this took place within a month's time, mind you. My child is a prodigy.

He has even tried his hand at singing, and believe you me, nothing in the world is more darling than my little boy singing "Frosty the Snowman". Even if the only words he knows are those included in the title. His latest work involves his own rendition of "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star". So far he has "twinkle", "star" and "up high" ... still working on stringing them all together.

At bedtime when we say our prayer ("Now I lay me down to sleep ...") you can pause and he will fill in the correct words. If that doesn't speak volumes about his holiness, maybe the fact that he shouted out a loud "Amen!" during mass on Sunday will convince you.

During play time, he can often be overheard talking on the phone. Of course it's a pretend phone call on a pretend phone, but if you didn't know otherwise, you'd be hard pressed to tell the difference. He has the one-sided telephone conversation down!

"Hello?"
"Oh, hi!"
"What doin'?"
"Nothing"
"How you?"
"Oh, good"
"Yeah"
"Okay"
"Bye"

Every day we're more and more amused with Jack's linguistic antics. To the point that, I'm ashamed to admit, we've resorted to calling a relative from time to time, just to let Jack talk to them on the phone. Yep, we're those parents. The ones who think their kid is so darned cute that other people want to talk to them on the phone. Look out ... next we'll be letting him record our telephone answering machine message. Okay, not really.

Finally, I leave you with Jack's latest vocal wonder: the knock-knock joke. Today he came up to me and said, "Knock-knock!" Amused, I retorted with, "who's there?"
"Orange"
"Orange who?"
"Orange toilet" (followed by a big smile and squeals of laughter)

It wasn't the first time that a joke went over my head, and I'm sure it won't be the last.

Bowling Beauties

Today we had a family outing to the local bowling alley. Since we were bowling with children, we requested that bumpers be put up in our lane. That benefitted my game greatly, as well as Mark's (although he'll deny it if you ask him). We had a lot of fun, and managed to squeeze in 2 full games during our allotted 2 hour time slot. That's quite an accomplishment, given that 50% of the balls rolled down the alley were moving slowly enough to make you wonder if they were ever going to make it to the pins without coming to a complete stop.
Ironically, even with the bumpers, I wasn't able to beat Kara in either game. Seriously. What 3 year-old can score a 117? The better question might be, what adult can't manage to break 100 with bumpers?! Even more ironic is the fact that I actually took bowling as a class in college. Hey, don't judge ... I needed the physical education hours. And the GPA boost. Thanks mom and dad!

The girls and I went bowling once last summer, but this was Jack's first experience with the whole scene. He tired himself (and mommy and daddy) by climbing up and down the steps, sticking his fingers in the ball return (just asking for a finger pinching), pushing buttons on the scoring system, begging for drinks from the drinking fountain, getting in every bowler's way (on our lane and the two adjacent to us) and attempting to pull bowling balls down from the shelves (just asking for a broken toe).

He was quiet for a moment, however, when he noticed the cool breeze he could get by putting his face up against the fan at the end of the ball return.

By the end of the two hours, my back hurt, my patience was lost, and I was wondering why it is that we even attempt to go on these "family outings". Then I remembered. To tire 'em out and get them good and ready for naptime!

Mission accomplished!

Our Pumpkins

A view of our front porch pumkins, courtesy of Grandma Muehleck and Buck. They came to visit with a small pumpkin for each grandchild, and a bag full of permanent paint to decorate with. Thanks Grandma and Buck!

Our family artist, Buck, hand drew the faces on each pumpkin, and the kids got to paint in the faces. Since Jack was napping, Buck painted one for Jack too.

Pumpkin Picking

On our third and final "fall outing", our family went to a nearby farm to pick our own pumpkins. To our surprise, the "pumpkin patch" was actually a small family farm across the street from a private residence that sets up a whole shebang in their front yard each fall. We played on haybales, rode in a train, and then took a wagon across the road to pick our own pumpkins.



Kara was our wagon driver, hauling our loot from the patch to our van across the street.

Jack enjoyed trapsing around the patch and picking up any pumpkin that was small enough for him to carry. This time, it was a white one.

Jenna was on a quest to choose the largest pumpkin that she could carry. Even if it was a struggle.

Jenna and Kara were also sure to pick a few blossoms and vines to bring to their teachers at school. Both thought they would be the perfect addition to their classroom science tables.

All three kids enjoyed taking a "train" ride. The owner rigged up several plastic barrels as train cars, attached them to his riding tractor, and drove the kids around the front yard for an extended amount of time. Aside from the gas fumes from the tractor, nobody seemed to mind the make-shift train. It was hard to tell who enjoyed the ride more: the kids, or the operator.