Monday, October 31, 2011

Happy Halloween!

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The Zombies

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We had a good time tonight. Tony and Landon scared the crap out of a few people, which makes them terribly happy, and Harper made it to 5 houses before he gave up on the whole deal. Landon did go trick-or-treating for about 5 minutes, but decided he’d much rather scare people. Candy just doesn’t do it for him! Unfortunately, Zoe had to work and for me it just wasn’t the same without her being here…but, I suppose that’s probably another thing I’m just going to have to get used to.

Happy Halloween!

Sunday, October 30, 2011

Carved

Yesterday, while we were having rain/sleet/snow outside, we all stayed inside and carved our pumpkins.

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I even roasted a big bunch of seeds from the pumpkins this year, something new for all of us. I know people do it all the time, it’s just not something we’ve ever done, but we were pleasantly surprised with how tasty there were! I’ll have to do that again next year.

Here are the finished jack-o-lanterns:

L-R: Landon and Tony’s

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Mine, and Zoe’s

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Halloween Parade

Friday was Landon’s Halloween parade. All the kids get to dress up in their costumes and march in a big parade around the track outside the school. I love this event because I love seeing all the unique costumes the kids come up with. It seemed that this year there weren’t very many repeats either. Out of 600+ kids I expect to see lots of repeat costumes, but this year there were just so many different and unique costumes there wasn’t a lot of that.

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Landon plans to be a zombie for Halloween, and he’s just got some make-up for that, so we bought a special costume just for the parade.

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It’s much like the costume he’s worn in the past, but this one is cooler because the face has blood running down it. It’s controlled by a heart pump he holds in his had and whenever he wants to gross someone out, he just pumps the heart for a big gush of blood. Cute, right?

Keep on Swimmin’ {Layout}

22) Keep on Swimmin'

I’m back into scrapbooking mode again after a few weeks hiatus. The pictures on this page were taken at the aquarium in Baltimore,  I loved how everyone looked in front of this backlit fish poster they had on the wall. Why, I couldn’t tell you, I just did. I’ve had these pictures printed and sitting on my desk for over a month and finally decided to get them scrapped. I couldn’t decided what to do, but once I made the fish, the page went together really quickly. I got a few other pages made this weekend too, but since I’m always trying to think of things to blog about, I’ll share them one by one! :)

Friday, October 28, 2011

Five on Friday

  • Last night were soccer playoffs for Zoe’s school team. They lost 1-0, and her season is now officially over. She’s played soccer since she was 4 years old and it became something she loved to do. I hope she’ll be able to find a team to play on recreationally since she doesn’t want to play in college. I’ll miss watching her play. Even in the freezing rain and million mile per hour winds.
  • Both the kids’ schools sent home requests for baby pictures for their yearbooks. Zoe’s because she graduating high school, Landon because he’s graduating elementary school. While looking for the picture of Landon, I came across the photo below, and couldn’t believe how adorable those two were.

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  • I put in my order for Zoe’s cap/gown/tassel as well as her graduation announcements. I decided beforehand that I wasn’t going to go crazy with it, and for once I was able to keep my order very minimal. I can’t imagine what she’ll look like in a cap and gown…I don’t want to.
  • Today, Landon participated in his last Halloween parade. I’ve really enjoyed watching him and his classmates walk around the path outside showing off their costumes. It’s just another thing I’m really going to miss about these elementary school years. Every single thing either of my kids do concerning school this year is bittersweet and I’ve probably shed more tears in the past couple months than I normally would in an entire year. And it’s only October.
  • Harper continues to have sleep issues at night. Last night Tony and I took turns being up with him and we’re both dead tired today. He’s finally cut one of his bottom molars, but I can still see where at least 3 more are trying to make their way through. I sure wish they’d hurry already. Yawn.

Thursday, October 27, 2011

Pumpkin Picking

Choosing a pumpkin each year is serious business. It took the four of us nearly 45 minutes to choose our pumpkins, and I’m pretty sure we all chose bigger one’s than years past. It’s too bad we all wanted huge pumpkins too because the local farm lost 80% of their pumpkin crop due to the excessive rains and they had to get pumpkins from other states. For that reason they were really expensive…but, I think we got the best ones on the lot!IMG_9312IMG_9313

Harper didn’t care so much about the pumpkins, he was more interested in pulling the cart.

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Our rule is that you can only choose a pumpkin that you are able to carry by yourself. Landon, of course, had to get one that was almost impossible to carry.

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He did manage to finally get in in the cart, only to be told to get it back out so that I could get a family photo! What fun are kids if you can’t pick on them every once in awhile?!

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Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Coolest Seat in the House

For some reason, every time we open the refrigerator door, Harper runs over to sit in it.

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I don’t know if it’s because he likes a chilly bottom, or if it’s because it’s just his size, but nearly every time one of us opens that door, there he is.

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I usually give in to him and let him enjoy a minute or two sitting in the fridge, but once he starts pulling stuff off of the shelves or door, it’s time to get out. He never gets upset about having to get out of the fridge because he just walks right over and starts opening the kitchen drawers…

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He pulls every single thing he can out of the drawer. I don’t mind though because it keeps him in the kitchen while I’m getting things done and he absolutely loves playing with all the different equipment. 

Monday, October 24, 2011

I Am From

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Landon came home with this paper last week and it was just too cute. I love when he has papers like this that say a little about him, I love the small glimpse into his thoughts…and I especially love the third sentence about the lessons he’s learned in life. Makes me a proud momma to know that when I say something like “say something nice or don’t say anything” he’s listening and learning.

It’s impossible to read here, no matter what I do to the image, so here’s what it says:

I am from, lots of frinds, walking to the pool, and seeing and going to lot of yard sales.

I am from, Thanksgivings juicey turkey, fruit all the time, and also cookies are made some of the time.

I am from, be nice or go away, say something nice or don’t say anything and last be happy with what you have.

I am from, my mom and dad who care a lot about me, my friends who make me laugh a lot, and also my grandma who makes really good awesome food.

I’m not sure why it’s written in this format, or why every sentence begins with I am from, but I love his choice of words and the things he thought to write about. And, if you’re wondering, I know words are misspelled…I wanted to copy it exactly as it was written.

Saturday, October 22, 2011

The Chicken Whisperer

I never would have believed it myself if I hadn’t witnessed it with my own two eyes, but Landon is a chicken whisperer. It all happened the other day while we were visiting the farm. He remembered from years past that they would let us in the pens with the chickens and that if you could catch one, you could hold it…and he was on a mission to catch him one. This first one was given to him by the lady working in the chicken pen and as much as he liked holding her it just wasn’t the same as catching one himself.

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So, he put her down and started following another one around, but before he could catch her the overzealous chicken lady grabbed up another one and handed it to him. She thought he needed/wanted her help, but really he was a little discouraged by not being able to catch it on his own. This one’s name is Darth Vader.

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Once he got tired of holding Vader, he chased Susie around…but couldn’t catch her.

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But, then that really helpful chicken lady noticed his attempts and she came to his rescue! Susie was a nice little chicken, even Harper liked petting her.

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Once Susie got away Landon made sure the chicken lady was busy before he started following around another chicken. This time his sights were set on a little fluffy white one, and this time he got to catch her himself.

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After catching the little white one, he couldn’t be stopped! He was just swooping down picking up chicken after chicken. I never knew he loved catching chickens as much as he does and I don’t think he even knew of this hidden love of chicken catching! He was pretty upset when I told him it was time to move on to the next thing. He kept asking if we could go back just so he could catch a few more and hold them…unfortunately for him, we were out of time, but we’ll be sure to go back next year and see if he still loves it!

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Friday, October 21, 2011

Five on Friday

We visited a local farm today, so today’s 5 will be all about the animals.

1) The first stop on our farm visit was to pet the cows. The kids had the opportunity to milk one of them, but both Landon and Zoe declined. They’ve both done it in the past so I didn’t ask them to again today. Harper loved petting the cows though and wasn’t afraid of them one bit. As cute as the baby calf is in the picture below, I watched him butt a little kid right onto his butt only moments before. The kid kinda deserved it because he was being bratty, loud and kicking at the calves. (The kid wasn’t hurt at all, but his momma was not happy and quickly pulled him out of the pen.)

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2) This is Rocky. He’s a big ass steer and he’s 14 years old. He’s always been at the farm and even though we see him almost every year, we are still amazed at how big he is. The guy who worked with Rocky was using a small plastic rake to scratch Rocky’s belly and neck…it was interesting.

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3) We found a spot where there were some baby animals for the kids to pet and hold and Zoe got to hold one of the bunny’s. They were only a few weeks old, and very sweet.

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4) Landon was given a guinea pig to hold and I’m pretty sure he fell in love with it. I might have even loved it for a minute or two.

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5) Harpers absolute favorite part of the day was feeding the goats. He just loved letting them nibble the feed right out of his hand and he had the biggest smile on his face. At one point he giggled and then turned to me and made the sign for more…and we quickly got him more food for the goats. He could have fed them all day long I think!

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Thursday, October 20, 2011

Airplane Park {Layout}

These pictures are from our visit to Airplane Park a few weeks ago.

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I used a divided page protector for the first page, and then did a regular 12x12 for the second. Using the dividers feels like cheating to me probably because it’s just too easy to stick a picture in the slot and be done…but, it’s nice to be able to do something quickly every once in awhile!

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Corn Maze (Layout)

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Pictures from our trip to the maze a few weeks back. I just picked up the patterned papers and punch last week so I was dying to use them. I love the papers, but wish I had used them differently so that I could see more of them. This isn’t the way I normally scrap either, so it was kind of a good thing do a page unlike almost every other one I make. I hated it at first, but it’s slowly growing on me!

April Fools Pranks

The two little kids made me laugh yesterday morning.  I was upstairs getting things ready for school when I heard them talking about how ...