Halloween

With Soccer complete its time to enjoy a night of trick or treating - well played all 3 of you.  Love the level of whit and creativity that seems on par with your personalities.

I can't take too much credit for these creative costumes - this comes straight from my cousin Caty in California - she even mailed them to us!!

One might ask, what are those skeletons doing!?  Or one may ask, what is that.  All questions directed to Les Carlson - a.k.a, gadget guy!

The projector did finish off the Halloween decor right along with the jello shots.

Soccer finale

Here it is, the Grand Finale - 

The boys all loved their teams and gave it their all each weekend.

While the red undershirt doesn't match the uniform it sure helps with my photo capturing 

Shane's team ended with a 4 game tournament in Windsor on Sunday.  The boys really came together at the end.  Chris and Pete enjoyed coaching this crazy crew.  Chris's last minute decision to be part of this tournament was greatly appreciated by all!

With a rainy Saturday morning, Drew's game was moved to under the HS lights on Monday night - what an honor and now the new way to end the MLS season in my opinion!!

Thanks to 2 great coaches who work pretty hard on keeping these boys headed in the right direction!!

Halloween prepping

I will break halloween up a bit as we seem to have a few different celebrations (and costumes!)  I love hearing the kiddos walk through the different ideas.  Love that this one stuck.

Shane debated the pirate with Luciano for a hot second, but had to find a hat, decide on pants and a shirt.  Oh the effort and decisions!  So when I spotted the slough costume and Walmart I knew it was for him!  Here he is at fright night with his buddies.

The slough I mean.

Moving onto the next level of creativity - Our imagine Dragons - I tried to encourage Nick to show off his 6 pack.  Maybe its better this way!!  Hahaha.  Love this 3 some of boys

I cannot chaperone a fright night event and not dress up - Cowgirl is my go to!

However the following morning Jane Fonda made an appearance at the 107 Body Pump Launch!

We asked our members to dress up too and I was thrilled when several did!

Quite the morning at the gym - right back to the 80s for most of us.

Drew got to wear his costume to school - cannot imagine the challenge it was to capture this photo.  Notice there is ANOTHER hotdog in the photo??  I mean how is that possible?  I love that Drew's was home made.

PTO paint nite fund raiser

A school can have LOTS of fund raisers - candy, wrapping paper, fun runs.  Right now THIS ONE takes the cake.  Paint Nite with these 2 was a HUGE success.  I LOVED it and while I didn't paint one, the enjoyment was watching these 2 do it.

Nick opted out last minute thinking it would be too 'little kid' but honestly when we walked in, there was a part of him that wished he gave it a shot.  

I love watching them take each step at a time and watch the picture come to life.  We enjoyed walking around and appreciating how different everyone's turned out too.

Next year winter scene!!

A few fall things

As I conduct the career search and steps to what is next, this quote came to me.

This never gets old

This face gets cuter every day.

With freezing temps I wasn't ready to say good bye to my flower pots yet.  Thankfully I have a strong husband.  I also love and appreciate how different our entry way looks each season.  Here is soccer season.

Just taking down the railing of the deck and opening it up has been HUGE - LOVE LOVE LOVE it.

I will absolutely admit to my husband being awesome - he has a great butt too - (and a rather able bodied side kick!)

One the way home from soccer we popped into the most diverse pumpkin patch ever - right in front of my child hood church.

Love when Nora gets tucked in with a stuffy and pillow

See the value

Lately I have had the blog books out in and effort to remember and relive Drew's first year of life and pull together a baby book.  I have LOVED watching Shane and Nick pour over them as ask me questions about life in Virginia and what it was like when we move here.

It made me really REALIZE the value in these books and this time it takes.

TODAY I got to go into Drew's classroom.  Instead of birthday cupcakes we bring a book, read a portion of it and donate it to the classroom.  I brought his birthday book that we just made (along with his favorite book - Bad Guys - imagine!)  folks poured over his life as a baby and he relished in the attention and question answering.

During that time I could see and appreciate the record keeping of the blog - so I continue

Thanks for the hike of Ski sundown boys - looks a lot different right now doesn't it.

Nature's classroom

On Tuesday we dropped this adorable guy off for Natures classroom.  4 days of exploring at Camp Jewel.  LOTS of outside time, PLENTY of kid food and experiences to last a life time.  He was so excited he could hardly stand it.

We played tetris a bit trying to find the right packing set up.  They actually recommended rolling bags - so this was not our idea...  Sleeping bag, pillow and all - Packed!

We sent him with an old digital camera - remember the kind?  Sadly the memory card was almost full (almost 100% prepared...) but the photos he took were great.  Here is the cabin they stayed in.  2 huge rooms housing the 60+ boys for his grade.  6 showers - if you can believe it, he took 3 showers while he was there.  I would have guessed ZERO!

Here is the inside.  Can you imagine the commotion every morning and night.  According the Nick they played poker until 11:30 and on the final round they all went all in and he won.  Looks like we may need to add some card games to his reptiore!

They ran the gamut of weather.  The first 2 days were 80 and humid - Yes - in October!!  The leaves were just staring to change and this was his capture along his hike.

Here is a pretty sweet tree house

Kinda surprised this is the only photo of a critter - I blame it on the memory card!

I picked him up Friday so excited to see him and hear all about his adventures - he chatted for a bit and than soaked up some alone time before his brothers came home.  I love that schools still do this and I pray he will remember stuff like this with his friends forever.

Celebrate Drew 7 on the 7th!

Sunday Drew turns 7 on the 7th!!  HUGE day for him and while we are SUPER excited to celebrate this life changing child - we were also taking advantage of a soccer free weekend.  Yes, we are about to have 7 kids playing in the back yard in exactly 30 minutes - almost done right??

Ready of not - here they come!

Yesterday we brought over carpet ball table which was a huge hit among the kiddos.

Buddies of many ages from his soccer teams and school - Drew loved that it was all for him.  With his own home made ice cream cake too - double dose on the gummy bears!

That night - my folks were over and we got to open his family gifts.  While completing a birthday book in his first year of life can be rewarding (although pretty much impossible)  it was well received on his 7th birthday.  

Its the little things he is after.  That and some skiing this winter!

Nora's Birthday gift to Drew.  I night of snuggling with him.

The lucky man had one more day to celebrate with my folks!  With Monday off for Columbus day we all were able to head to Feng for a late lunch early dinner.  Drew LOVES this place so its adorable to see his excitement with the fire volcano.  Very fitting my boy!  May you keep yourself on course as we know you know what you think you want!!

Love you bud - the quote is true for me about you - What doesn't challenge, doesn't change you.

Oktober Fest

Now its time to dust off the German gear (and the flip cup skills! and rock the Oktoberfest party with the Thebergs!

)

Look at this adorable almost german couple - mug and all!

Lots of folks had gear from Amazing - proud to say ours was straight from the Mecca - even if it was the 1970s as I cannot believe I get to wear these from my mom.  

Prost!

Well attended and even photo bombed!!

Favorite time of year!!

Pumpkin feast!!

The perfect day for EXACTLY this 

Wagons, pumpkins, boys

Who needs a corn maize when you can race wagons?  Love that 4 families joined all together and the weather was stellar.

I cannot believe they rocked the maize just like this - Benicio was the driver (and horse power) while Nick was the navigator

Not kidding - the WHOLE way!

These guys made it and even went back in for more (without really telling anyone - !)

#success!

They had some of the most amazing chickens and a pretty cool grass growing area - had to take this photo for a little DIY project for me

Here we all are in one way or another - 

Valentino is ready to take us HOME!

Seriously so much to love about this photo - the glasses, the water pump, the PVC racing - seriously farm stuff is cool!

The weekend went onto a treasure of spaghetti dinner with the May's and Webers as they are folks we don't get to see often enough - Chris and Tom were golfing the Wide Open Charity tournament (not a bad day for it!) 

This day felt SO good for so many reasons - 

Full hearts