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 

Belle's new nest

We have one chicken who is so bold and gets out no matter what. 

No matter how high the fence

no matter if there is a dog in the yard

she just gets out. 

Today when I was grabbing something from the garden I finally realized why—it was heartwarming in a way to find her little nest in the garden

A place of her own.

Celebrate Shane

Birthday Season is upon us so HERE we go!  

First stop, Shane's party.

  It rained all Friday morning, however by the time school was out, the clouds had parted and off we went.  Oddly enough, the place was closed, but no 'real' signs so in we went.  With 6 boys in tow and a 40 minute drive we didn't mind getting muddy.

I persuaded my mom to come with - I loved her company and wanted her to soak in the Meadow View ambiance. - she didn't rock the 2.2 mile corn maize - that was ALL BOY!  

THIS was more her happy place

The boys rocked the corn maize and than it was time for us to head out - maybe even RUN out I mean, since its closed and all =)!

Headed home for a little soccer and cake with our buddies - I swear there are 3 shanes back there!  Somehow they got on the birthday burping - Not sure where that came from but we couldn't get it to stop.  Literally.  My mom was beyond eye rolling at this point.  #mylife

Shane looks forward to making his own cake and I must admit, this one came out rather delicious.  Layer one of vanilla, in-between - brownies, chocolate covered pretzels, gummy bears, with a top layer of chocolate covered with Oreos (that he smashed himself) and marshmallows.  If you can believe it, not a drop remained from each kiddo and getting a gummy bear was like finding gold!

Quick Happy Birthday to Nora - as Sept 29 is HER birthday and she is 6!!  See her eyes on that bone?!?!  

Lets fast forward to Shane's actual birthday - He loves waking up to stuff like this

For his birthday I took him for a special treat to ECAD.  Educated Canines assisting with Disabilities. 

An organization I heard about over the summer when one of my swimmers went to a camp there where he took care of the dogs and helps to train them.  I understood they had a few puppies and I thought it was be a great treat for Shane to see if and understand their mission.

 https://www.ecad1.org

I love how sweetly shane checked it out.  They first room had about 10 dogs all in cages.  We couldn't let them out as they had a strict schedule.  But shane could pet them through the cage and play with the babies.  

It was POURING rain and we opted to drive up to the new portion of the facility.  We were SO glad we did.  That is where we met the founder of the organization.  We also met the main stud dog and got to play with him and the baby among some of the tricks and tunnels in the facility.

Next Shane and I drove in the POURING rain to southington finding the only Mongolian BBQ restaurant in the area.  The rest of our crew met us there and enjoyed a delicious special shane meal.  Trying to stay dry we came home for gifts and one last piece of Shane famous ice cream cake.

Look at that sweet smile.

He felt the love all day - from being announced at school, sweet notes and gifts from our family and friends.  Last year in single digits for this adorable guy

The Birthday project

Drew had so much fun playing a game called 'Carpet ball' when he was at YMCA this summer.  When Chris and I were there our Engineering/consruction minds took over and we thought.  Hmmmmm......  Maybe we could build this.  Its just remembering that come birthday time.

I spent the morning in Home depot with a REALLY helpful gentlemen, got just about everything precut.  Combine that with a motivated husband one Tuesday night.

The next morning I stained it so the wood stays for a few extra years and we had to hide the evidence.  I loved Chris's faith in my strength as he said, "just pick it up and put it on my truck"  Can anyone else tell is pretty heavy?  We managed to heave it up there and very SLOWLY drove it over to Linas's house to hide it under a tarp until Birthday Time.

Can hardly see it right?!?!  The boys never did.

Until the Saturday between Shane's birthday and Drew's.  We surprised them with it.  Than they had to help us carry it back home.  With all the great measurements from our pinterest plan.  It doesn't fit through any door opening.  Thankfully its an outside game, but maybe a door opening or too would help?

Either way, the boys LOVE IT.  and quite honestly, so do we!

Soccer and babies

Like right?!?!  I mean, what kind of babies is she talking about?!?!

Lets start here - all must be right in the world if we are having donuts after a soccer game.  Thanks Goomba!  the treat truck is here!

With the recent loss of Gertie we thought it would be great to rescue these 2.  I found them on craigslist.  The gentleman bought several to hatch, but was happy to find new homes for a few and we were lucky.  Welcome Vivian and Meadow.  Love how Drew keeps asking me - what did I name her again??

What's Leadbetter life without a little project??  Thank you Chris for being willing to tackle and for teaching along the way - to me AND Nick!

Fun things

WE kept our eye out for Monarch eggs.  We had LOTS to learn about keeping them alive.  While our success ratio wasn't the highest, we did have 2 successful monarch crystalists! Now we wait 10-14 days - seriously, that is IT!  Nature is amazing

I found this plant on discount at home depot.  Thankfully she had one bloom on her to show how beautiful she is - Now she is happily planted and will hopefully bring more to come before the fall frost.

When running errands on a rainy day - who else do you want in the back seat.  Love how excited she gets when I ask her to join me

Look at this 2 successful Monarch butterflies - one literally hatched in front of our eyes!  AMAZING

absolutely worth it - thank you mom for helping with the milkweed and stacie for your tips.  Our success rate might not be huge, but maybe a bit better than mother nature lately!