Dad's Club T-ball Parade

 The "blue" team. Tommy is the 3rd on in the back row, standing.

 This year we were able to participate in the Dad's Club Parade and it was great fun!  The parade route is about 2 miles and it was a sweltering 10,000 degrees out.  We lucked out though and were offered a ride on the Rocket Car!!

 It was still hot, but it made the parade that much sweeter!  We threw candy at the crowds and had a great time waving to fans....lol!

The boys loved it....and so did we!

Lucky Charms

 
Last year I had to scare the little green guy out of our house with a slotted spatula before he turned ALL of our food green.  Let's just say that the dramatics less then appealed to the boys, but boy did they remember that little green Leprechaun had visited.  So this year when Tommy's preschool class started having daily visits from "Lucky", TWO WEEKS before St. Patrick's Day mind you ( those ladies are saints, really), we just knew we had to prepare our house for an invasion.

First, we made a trap together as a family.  Charlie did a beautiful job coloring the rainbow while Tommy glued on the clouds and painted the pot black with Dad.  I covered the box with green paper and gathered our "gold".

Lucky did not disappoint this year, that is for sure!  He visited every night the week leading up to St. Patrick's Day and was a clever and mischievous little green man.

The first night he relieved himself in our toilet and didn't flush...how rude!

 and then I think we ticked him off a bit with our trap and so he left his own for us!

He left balloons in the shoe closet,

and footprints in the kitchen 

 and a rainbow in the doorway

and though we didn't catch Lucky, we caught his little top hat in our trap!

Lucky decided to play some tricks on us and made us into Leprechauns on our family photo wall.

 and when the week of Lucky's charms were over he left us some green treats to share with some of our friends.

 We drove to a few friends' houses that are new by and left them some of Lucky's treats in a St. Patrick's Day bag that says "You have been pinched", supposedly if you don't wear green on the day a Leprechaun will pinch you ;)

 

We also made Pots of Gold for Meals on Wheels

and I took in some festive cupcakes for craft day at Charlie's school.

One of my favorite parts was Tommy's parade at school, it was beyond cute!

Penny and her little friend Henry

He was so proud

and happy!

HaLLoWeeN of ThE pAsT

Besides Christmas, Halloween is one of my FAVORITE holidays. I have always loved it, but now with three little ones it is even SO much more fun.  We spend months, literally, agonizing, changing our minds and then creating most of our costumes.  This year, Daddy and I are even dressing up since the boys have only begged us for two years now to do so! I LOVE Fall and all the fun activities to do around this time of year, I LOVE the cool crisp weather and changing of leaves, I even love the rain and wind.  The colors are fabulous, the food is outstanding and there is just fun to be made at every corner!! I LOVE HALLOWEEN!

I started a tradition last year of pulling our pictures of Halloween past, the kids in their costumes, at the pumpkin patch etc, and decorating with them around the house. It is so fun to see how the kids have changed and what they were "into" that year, or what cutesie costume I got away with putting them in!

Bobafet and Yoda, 2005

Charlie the little Lion, 2006

Charlie, 2006

Charlie as Thomas the Train and Tommy the Great Pumpkin, 2007

Tommy the black kitty and Charlie the orange kitty, Charlie picked out the costumes and Nie Nie made them, 2008

Tyler as Percy, Charlie as the Space Train, Andrew as Thomas and Tommy as a Knight, 2009

Charlie came up with the idea of the Space Train and Mommy made it for him, 2009

Charlie as a Robot, awesome costume that Daddy made and Tommy as a Skeleton, I was induced to have Penny after we went trick or treating this year, 2010

Some of these pictures were taken years before I started keeping this journal, so I thought it would be fun to include them now.  Plus, who can resist a precious kitty cat or pumpkin with striped legs?!
So much fun!!!

Apple Picking

 The Children

Sillies!!

Pretty girl!

Yesterday we decided to make the short drive to one of our favorite orchards.  We picked apples, grapes and tried to get a few fun pictures of the kids.  It was a GLORIOUS day! Sunny, breezy, blue skies dotted with big white billowy clouds.  It was lovely and it reminded me of how much I love being outside in nature with my family!

Last year when we made our trip to the orchard, this little lady was still happily swimming in my belly.  I was so happy to have her actually here with us.  She soaked it all in and was happy.

These three guys have my heart!  Oh how I love them!!

And oh how this little lady loves her daddy!

This picture of Tommy makes me laugh.  He looks upset, but he was really just being very serious about his grape picking. 

We picked about 25lbs of apples and grapes.  I made some grape freezer jam and plan on making apple sauce and apple dumplings.  It was such a great day and we can't wait to go back!

Michigan Fun

We packed the van up again and headed North this time.  Aunt Patti and Uncle Sherman's house in Michigan was our final destination.  They live in a beautiful log house that they had built 18 some years ago.  It is a large, comfortable, warm home.  It just oozes their personalities and is generously sprinkled with ancient artifacts that Sherman has found metal detecting all over the world and beautiful crafts and quilts that Patti has bought or made herself.  The house is located back off the road, nestled in the woods with a lush garden on one side of the long circle drive.  It is surrounded by green on 3 sides and a beautiful easy flowing river on the other. 

 

We had a great time at a children's museum that Aunt Patti wanted to take us to.  It had a ton of fun exhibits for the kids, and adults, to explore.

Trent and Tom working on the canal exhibit

Go Aunt Patti!

Aunt Patti and Penny, who was missing her nap and not happy about it!

Bass Man

Uncle Sherman, Nana, Penny and Charlie building trucks

Charlie and his love of gears

We had such a nice visit, chatting, eating, playing in the rain, chatting, going to a children's museum, chatting, walking around their small town, getting hair cuts at the local barber shop, going for tractor rides, playing board games, eating ice cream at the ice cream parlor, spending time as a family, eating some more, taking boat rides on the river, laughing, having dinner with friends, watching movies and just having a really nice visit.  The only downer of the weekend was not being able to visit our dear friends in a near by town.  Now we have another reason to go back :)

Penny love

Uncle Sherm gives Charlie a ride

We can't wait to go back! Love you Aunt Patti and Uncle Sherman!! Thanks for a great weekend!