Halloween 2009

This years Halloween celebration started off last Sunday with a trip to the Buckalew Farms Pumpkin Festival. We got to look at booths, climb on straw, visit a petting zoo and catapult pumpkins before taking a wagon to the field to find our own treasures!

Terry, Liam and Collin

Collin petting a chick.

It was a good one, but it took some work!



Collin picked one out for Liam, but Liam was hungry so he didn't care.

Then on Halloween morning Collin and Mommy spent some time creating masterpiece jack-o-lanterns. Collin picked out the pattern for him and one for Liam. He then helped me clean them out (which he wasn't entirely fond of) and got the patterns transferred onto the pumpkins. Then I did the carving with a knife. We think they turned out really well!

This is where Liam watched from.

This was Collin's invention. It's a pump to get all the pumpkin juice. This is what he did while I did the carving. Then he was surprised and mad that I wouldn't let him leave it in my kitchen!




Collin's scary face!




A puppy for Liam, so he didn't get scared!




My bats.



Grammy's "Boo"

For trick or treating and dinner we went over to Grammy and Poppa's house. We had some fun walking around the neighborhood then we went home to eat some yummy potato soup and home made bread. After that we broke into the candy! Liam didn't really think the trick or treating was that exciting and decided to sleep through it and Collin couldn't keep his costume on so he just took it off. But other than that we all had a great time! Hope everyone else had a safe and fun Halloween!

Our family with our lobster and our little ghetto ghost. Collin made his costume with some help from Grammy. Too funny!

Collin and Grammy.




After he got sick of it, but before he took it all the way off.




Mommy carrying the sleeping lobster.


Finally back home!

Liam

Liam is getting so big! He is 16 lbs now and is pushing 3 months! He is sleeping ALL night the last week, and I mean ALL night...as in 10 or 11 hours! I'm thinking it won't last but I'm enjoying it while I can!! He is starting to like his excersaucer and anything else that keeps him upright.

This octopus is his favorite toy on the excersaucer. He thinks that if he yells at it enough that it will start to sing it's songs. I've tried to show him how to make it spin and get it to sing, but he hasn't quite figured it out yet!

Daddy let Liam take a bath with Collin! He liked it for a few minutes but quickly got cranky. He just doesn't have the same love of water that his brother always has.

Taking a nap when Collin was home sick with the flu.

Collin likes to play with Liam too! Liam mostly seemed confused by this!!

Kindergarten update!

Every Thursday Collin brings home his "homework". He has to finish it and turn it back in by Wednesday. He is already not too excited about it. When Terry and I talked to his teacher she said it wasn't that important (though we still make him do it) and that probably it is too easy for him. Here are some examples of what he works on:



And here he is working on some!




Collin also has chosen to participate in after school activities. He does sports on Tuesdays with the P.E. teacher Mr. B. They spend an hour working on learning different sports and games.

On Wednesday Collin rides the bus to a local bowling alley. He gets a snack and a drink then they learn to bowl. He stays all afternoon and is having a great time!

On Thursday Collin learns how to play chess with Mr. T. He also has chess once a week as part of his classes. All the grades in the school spend an hour a week learning how to play. He is doing great and loves to play. It is really amazing to me as chess has always seemed rather confusing! Here are some pictures of Collin and Terry playing chess right now while I type this blog!

It's been a while.....

And I know what a slacker I am. But I will post some pics to catch us up a little. We are doing well and Liam is getting huge! Collin is learning so much in Kindergarten, he is reading now and got 100% on his spelling test for the PTA fundraiser.

The first set of pictures are from the family picnic we went on to Mt. Lemmon in early October. We were celebrating Chris, Terry, Marlene (mom) and Lawson's birthdays. We all had a great time hiking, eating, playing football and generally giving each other a hard time! Some how I managed to not get any pictures of Caleb!

Lawson

Dan and Dawn playing football with Ethan.

Aunt Brie holding Liam

Liam and Mommy...He didn't think he needed a nap, but he did!

Grammy

Poppa

Aunt Kimi

Uncle Jason

Nonnie

Uncle Chris

Aunt Brie

Collin with a cupcake

Ethan after he had a cupcake.

Poppa giving Liam frosting, he looks upset but once he got a taste of it he changed his mind!

Kim and I have been walking this month at a park here in Tucson. It has a great walking path and there are always tons of people around. It is about 4 miles around. We usually go at night after Collin is in bed but this day we went earlier so Terry and Collin could come too.

This is just a shot of the path. It goes around 2 of the cities 18 hole golf courses.

This is me posing for Kim.

Collin getting ready to go. He rode his bike so he didn't have to wait for us slow people walking.

Here is Terry sporting his roller blades so he could keep up with Collin.

Aunt Kimi pushing Liam.

What Liam normally does on our walks.

The next pictures are from a BBQ we had at Dan and Dawn's. We were playing this crazy game called Quelf. I got some awesome videos but cannot figure out how to get them off my camera. The program I used to use got deleted when we wiped the hard drive this summer. But here are the pictures of us playing.

Brie, Chris and me.

Terry

Kim

Dawn

Dan holding Liam.

This picture leads us into the next group. This is Collin sleeping at the BBQ. That morning we were having a yardsale at grammy and poppas house. Collin had to get up really early so he was tired. The next day was also when he got the flu, so he was also tired from being sick. Poor kid!

Grammy holding Liam at the yardsale.

What Liam did for most of the yardsale.

When I went to round up more stuff Grammy, Poppa and Aunt Kimi tried to sell Liam!
(and for half price too!)

Collin eating some donuts!

Well it doesn't catch me completely up but it is better than nothing! I'm going to get some other posts up if I can but I'd prefer them to be separate!