one crazy day

THE PUMPKIN PATCH

So just after I wrote all about how we were being phased out of Will's preschool class, I got to go with them on a pilgrimage to the local pumpkin patch (which really was only a couple of houses away). I love seeing this class of boys!

And there is Ms. Jeri, right there in the middle of all of them.

After a walk through the yard, each boy got to pick his own pumpkin to take home. Will sat on the curb and kept letting his pumpkin roll down the small hill while yelling, "It's the Runaway Pumpkin!!" (That is one of his favorite Halloween books)

Once we got back to the classroom, Ms. Jeri wrote each boys name on their own pumpkin...then it was snacktime...and then time for me to go. What fun times with these guys!

OSCAR

I had to include a picture of the mostly friendly neighborhood cat which our boys have somewhat adopted. I am soooo allergic to cats, dogs, horses, etc., that we will never have any of them for a pet, but if they can get their fill from the neighbor's pets that's fine by me. Oscar, who Daren named, showed up in our neighborhood a few weeks ago, but has been hanging around our house a lot since she gets so much attention from the boys. I took this picture just before she caught a mouse in our garage and hauled it off in her mouth. GROSS!

ONE CRAZY DAY-- starting with LACROSSE

The final days of fall lacrosse were finally upon us. It has been so fun for Ben to play, and he has already talked about playing in the spring.

These three pictures are from Ben's game a couple of weeks ago. This was the Saturday before the snow storm on Sunday, so he was bundled up and had prepared for the worst. Luckily the wet weather held off until halfway through the second game, so it wasn't too bad.

And then on to the final game with brighter skies, though not that much warmer at 9am!

Ben came a long way during this season. He even got the ball in a few games, which for him was a very big deal.

Ben and his buddies!

After the game the boys got trophies for playing, which I have to say are what I think are just about the coolest trophies I have ever seen--a bobble-head lacrosse player. How cool is that?!!

And so the season ended...until spring!

DO YOU DARE...??!
After the lacrosse game it was time to get ready for our very scary Halloween party. Last year was our first one with all the kids from Ben's first grade class. This year we decided to do a neighborhood party with all the boy's friends. Now I don't know if we will ever not do a Halloween party because they are so much fun!

Ben made up the invitations all by himself, complete with a graveyard, a bat, a ghost and a spooky tree. So cute! Then the day before the party as we were getting ready for it, Ben invited Preston, one of the older boys in the neighborhood, to help him draw the "creepy cupcake creatures" sign, and amazingly enough, Preson agreed to help. It turned out way cute. Ok, maybe cute isn't a good word. Hmmm, maybe creepy?!

So by Saturday at 1pm we were ready!! The first thing kids did when they entered the house was to write down a guess of how many tootsie rolls were in the pumpkin. Matthew won with a guess of 200 (there were 188). This is Dr. Henry Jones, Sr. (aka: Jake as "Indy's father"), Batman (Nathan), and a witch (Jaycie).

There were so many great costumes!! How cute are all these kids?! We tried to tell a ghost story downstairs where it was quite dark--you know, the kind where you start off with, "Once upon a time there was a very old, dark, spooky house at the corner at the end of the street..." and then the next person in line adds to the story. Ya, some of the kids were too young to get it, so it pretty much failed. Oh well.

Next we did a mummy wrap contest, which Danielle and Sydney won!! I couldn't resist a picture of Will with Ronnie trying to wrap him.

Yum--the donut eating contest!

There was plenty of time for playing in the yard--thank goodness it was such a beautiful day!!

The final part was making the "Creepy Cupcake Creatures." Thomas, Jaycie, Zane, and Gregory made some masterpieces!! Thomas just told me his cupcake is an alien!

And the fun didn't stop there. The Halloween party went from 1-3pm, and then we went to Salt Lake for an end-of-the-season lacrosse party at 4pm at The Skybox (in Gateway). THEN on our way home we couldn't resist going to see "The Nightmare Before Christmas" at Jordan Commons movie theater. Daren had never seen it before, so that was fun. Also, I never realized how many quotes are in that movie that Will quotes all the time:

- "This is Halloween, this is Halloween; trick-or-treat."

- "What's this, what's this, I can't believe my eyes?!"

- "BUNNY!!"

- "I, JACK, the Pumpkin King"

- "You"re jokin', your're jokin', I can't believe my eyes!"

Those are the ones I can remember off the top of my head. What a funny kid!!

And so at the end of the day on our way home, imagine that--all 3 boys fell asleep! I feel like I'm still catching up as well. So, that's it for this week.