Happy Halloween!!

Wow. what a night. Holidays in this family seem to stretch forever. for example, a birthday can last a week, by the time you take cupcakes to class, have a party with friends, a special dinner and cake with siblings, visit grandparents and celebrate (again) with them, a week has past and the birthday has been celebrated like 4 times. Halloween, unfortunately is no different. it started yesterday with M's class party in the a.mm and church party in the pm. Today we had Vans class party, then Ts, followed by Jo (and since i work as a teacher in Vans class, i was there for m's and vans, and since i am room mom w/ other 2 classes, i was there for jo's and John went to t's. so before it is even time to trick or treat, I am DONE with Halloween. anyway, I picked up the kids today with the promise that we would *finally* get a pumpkin to carve. I have been such a slacker this year. we got "booed" several weeks ago and never managed to find time to boo anyone else (much to the boys dismay) and then yesterday they announced we needed a pumpkin to carve, so off we went to a local farm and nursery to pick the perfect pumpkin. needless to say, but 4 pm Halloween afternoon, there was little left to pick from. (i would have been there earlier, but instead i accidentally caused one of my friends to rear end someone kinda hard, but that is a story for a different day...) anyways. we got there, and the ONLY pumpkin left (that wasn't rotting in the fields) was the one by the cash register inside the store. It was beautiful! the owner handed the pumpkin to us for no charge, and gave each of the boys a gourd to take as well and turned us out to play in the hay maze and see the animals. the weather was perfect! high 60's/low 70's. we had an amazing time! we brought our (free!) pumpkin home and carved away. it wasn't great, but we ended up (after 20 mins. of discussion) with a vampire pumpkin, complete with "blood drips". the boys all went as pokemon tonight. T as ash catchem, the pokemon trainer, and the younger three as his pokemon. they were very cute, but of course as soon as i sat them down to get group shots, my battery died and so they all ended up on my 35 mm camera. Oh well! great pumpkin patch pics!

Family reunion!

On Thursday, the boys and I headed to New York for a family reunion/ birthday party for my grandma who turns 80 in a couple of days. We had such a great time! My parents were gracious enough to give us a ride so I didn't have to take the trip by myself (John had class. my mom packed ear plugs. literally.) the 10 hr car trip went pretty well (translation: T, Jo and M played their DS's the ENTIRE car trip... 10 hrs isn't toooo long to play video games, right??). we were totally crammed into the car and the boys had tons of stuff to climb over every time we stopped, and we stopped A LOT.... overall though, it was a great trip. It did however rain almost the entire time and we camped, so that was pretty cold and messy, plus I am sure my parents car is pretty dirty... the boys were bummed we didn't make any fires, but it was just to wet. the party was pretty fun, but mostly it was wonderful to catch up with my cousins and other relatives. We hadn't been to new york since M was 10 months old, so this was LOOOONG overdue. we made it back Monday morning and i was so excited to pull straight into the boys school and drop off the oldest 3 so i could go home and get some laundry done. after a week of wet camping, there was TONS to do.


the boys in the back seat... it was a tight fit!
my dad and his siblings and my super cute grandma!
all my cousins who could make the trip. we are missing 7 of them
6 of the 9 great grand kids
the boys were so glad whenever we stopped and they could get out!

So... I have taken on an afternoon babysitting job for this school year. I have 2 extra boys, ages 2 1/2 and almost 4 every M, T, W, and F afternoon from 12-5:30. On Tuesday (our anniversary) M came running into the kitchen... "Mommy look what S.... did! Mom, come quick!!!" the little 2 1/2 yr. old had taken a bottle of Elmers glue and dumped it all over our couch and himself. This bottle of glue had been sitting on the floor for almost a week (I know, poor housekeeping) and none of our kids had EVER messed with it, let alone taken off the op to pour it everywhere. In this kids 3rd day here, he has destroyed more things then my kids in a year. (he also bashed the tip of a toy airplane into our dining room table, leaving dents all over the top the same day.. those dents are right next to the marks T left on the table the first time we ever gave him a butter knife for his food) It is going to be a very long year...

Saturday morning soccer games

T ready for the ball



in action

Van watching the game

Coach Tim, photographed by T

We haven't found Jo's "thing" yet. he didn't like ballet (ok, we got kicked out of ballet) he jokes around the whole time at t-ball, he doesn't really like swimming, he complains he's cold and likes to lay out most of the time in the sun (not that I blame him) and soccer is def. not "his thing". This morning as I was cheering him on (his team is the maroon hokies) and encouraging him to actually go after the ball, he stormed off the field and told me to "quit bossing me" He is so funny when he plays though, as the ball goes one way and Jo will causally jog around to catch back up to the team. He def. moves at his own speed.
T is doing great. He loves his soccer team (the grey cobras) and has been on a team with the same coaching staff for the past 3 years, which has really given him the opportunity to become solid in his ability.
We had a great time watching the hokies beat duke today! we love football season. John is heading into another full week of testing, with Wed. being the only day he doesn't have a test but is attending a research program at school. the good news is that there are only 4 more weeks of school for him before he gets almost a month off for t-giving break. the bad news is that 2 of those weeks are full of tests. 1 block almost down, 11 more to go...... he is almost 4% done with school! we are so looking forward to his break, and a week at the beach w/ 9 other families!! COUNTING gown the days!

halloween and other misc.

the biggest news: Jo's test results came back fine! we were really worried, as he is only 10 pounds heavier then our 2 year old, and the same height as our just turned 5 yr. old (he's 6 yrs, 7 months) We still have to go to a urologist next week and we are still waiting on a sonogram of his kidneys to be scheduled. We are def. breathing easier as a result of that news. We have been monitoring his fluid intake recently tho, and he is only drinking around 10 ounces total during the day, and that may be pushing it... I don't understand how he could be only taking that little fluid in.

The boys have finally settled on Halloween costumes. I found a picachu costume on ebay (love them!) and we re-thought the whole star wars thing. T will be ash catchum, Jo pickachu, M cubone and van will be treecko. my kids are obsessed with pokemon, and it will be fun (and something new) to scrapbook, so I am excited about this choice!

other then that, life goes on as boring as ever. I start an afternoon babysitting job tomorrow, a 2 1/2 and 3 1/2 from 12-6 every M,T,W,F. It will be long hours, but hopefully the boys (mine and hers) can get along and make this work. I am off to finish cleaning the house before van wakes up from nap. we have soccer practice this afternoon, then we will head to the tech soccer game for the elementary schools night w/ the hokies.

(they are giving away free hokie crocs to the first 100 people, and T is convinced he NEEDS a pair. why the school feels the need to announce this to kids is beyond me...) and with that...

It's FRIDAY!!

M'S BIRTHDAY CAKE!

Jo, Van, John, T, and M at birthday dinner


THE birthday boy!

M turned 5 yesterday! HE is so big now. It is amazing to watch him grow. We celebrated with a spider man 3 birthday party last Friday. We had 15 boys ages 7 and under. It went really well! We made slime and marble painted spider webs. We also played 2 different games. The kids were really well behaved and a good time was had by all! Yesterday we went to dinner at M's favorite restaurant and the staff came and sang a loud birthday song and brought him dessert. He loved it! We gave him a gameboy for his birthday, and he has already logged way to many hours on it. On top of all that, he took cupcakes to school yesterday. He was totally sugared out by the end of the day.

We had a photographer come to our house today to take some fall/Christmas/Hokie pics of the kids. Van slept through almost all of it, and the older boys didn't co-operate fully. She still managed to take some amazing pictures (Thanks Michele!! http://www.michelesudweeksphotography.com/) She will be coming back the next 2 weeks trying to finish due to my wild children.... but that takes care of school photos, Christmas photos, and fall pics. I am getting lazy in my OLD age.
One last thing then I must go to bed.... We are taking Jo to the hospital tomorrow for some testing. He has had a wetting problem for several years now. When John took him for a follow up appointment yesterday, Jo's urine raised some concern. We are heading tomorrow to get a urinalysis, plasma and urine osmolality, and a kidney and bladder ultrasound later this week or next. We will def. let everyone know how that went and any results found. Until then, have a great evening!

job titles

I work a lot right now. from 9-12 I work at a preschool. starting this week I will be keeping 2 extra boys from 12-6 several afternoons a week. I am PTO vice president. I have 2 orchestra groups I belong two. 2 classrooms for which I am room mom. 2 soccer teams to support. on top of that, i have a church calling that keeps me super busy (YW 2nd counselor.) Tongiht while I was at church, I was asked (as a youth group teacher) to take one of my girls to a fall out boys/ plain white tees concert next month. WOOHOO!!! Who knew that was a perk??!! totally makes it worth it! (just kidding, but I am super excited!)