Last Saturday

We started to get pretty nervous about the hurricane superstorm late last week.  All kinds of predictions of flooding and wind damage were made for our town and we went into preparation mode.  Jim picked up more cases of water Friday night and we made sure we had plenty of non-perishable food, batteries, and necessities.

Saturday morning Jim and I cleaned out the gutters and cleaned all the leaves in our yard.  We ate pop tarts on the porch and started working first thing Saturday AM.  This is why the children are still in their pajamas.

I took an after picture but I cannot find it anywhere.  Just imagine the above picture but with no leaves on the ground.  Now imagine the above picture with leaves everywhere and that is what the yard looks like today.  The storm brought down most of those leaves on the tree yesterday but there are still more to come down.

We raked, cleaned, and planned all Saturday.  Then I made 10 boxes of corn bread, popped 10 bags of popcorn, and finished my costume for the trunk or treat party at our church.

Since I had to be there early to set up and stay late to clean up I was at the church for about 3.5 hours, more exhaustion!

I seem to be quite incapable of setting limits to holiday celebrations.  Although I did skip the mall trick or treating and the school festival.  Well the school festival was cancelled, but I had planned to skip it BEFORE they cancelled. So it counts as an activity I told no.

Oh I forgot my mom came for the day and helped me a lot.  I didn't get any pictures with her but we loved having her. We need to take more pictures!

Last Thursday

Here is what happened last Thursday in iPhone pictures.

Jack was sick with a fever, runny nose, crankiness, and he told me that his ears hurt.  This child has had ear infections with zero symptoms.  One time he had an ear infection he didn't have a runny nose, fever, the only clue was the he would wake up in the night.  Suffice it to say I never know when I should take him to the doctor.

Anyway, we went to the doctor because he was miserable.  He insisted on going in his race track pajamas with his light up Cars shoes and his fedora hat.

Longer story shorter, he did not have an ear infection.

Sad baby, but here is a picture of us together at the doctor's office.  You know so I can be in more pictures with my kids no matter how unflattering the photo.

After school Lilly was invited to attend a Halloween Dance class with her friend Alysson.  They came in costumes, danced, and ate lots of treats.

Jack and his friend Carson watched the iPad while the girls danced, but Carson couldn't handle the Halloween festivity.  Halloween is exhausting for modern kids, there are SOOO many parties.

After the dance class I figured Jack would be too sick to attend the local parade, but he was a maniac so we decided to go to the parade.  It was a warm evening and he loved it! The Danville Halloween parade is one of the biggest events of the year.  They throw out lots of candy and treats to the kids, we didn't stay the whole time, but it was still really fun.

I didn't bring my real camera, only my iPhone, so no good pictures from the parade.  Jack did have a fun time with his friends who also came dressed as super heroes.

That was our Thursday.  That wasn't even my entire Thursday.  On Friday I spent the day cleaning and organizing which came in handy for our storm preparation.

Scooter and last Tuesday update...

Jack really likes his new claimed scooter.  He is pretty good with the scooter. I took a lot of pictures and video of him on the scooter.

This was one of the last few warm days we had.

See, I sit on the front porch cheering Jack on and taking pictures.  Which is why he has on a different outfit at the almost identical spot on the sidewalk.

Last Tuesday was picture day at Jack's school and crazy hair day at Lilly's school.  I am really glad I did not get those two days mixed up.  To make matters even more confusing, Lilly came home with her school pictures that she had taken a few weeks prior to crazy hair day.  It seemed to all work out for the best and I sent each child appropriately dressed to the correct school. Win!

Breakfast on picture day and crazy hair day.

Jack was afraid of Lilly with her pink hair.  He kept running from her screaming "get you! get you!"  Which means he thinks something is going to get him.

Lilly was very unhappy about this and was trying to hug him in the picture below, but Jack would have nothing to do with her.

Below is a picture of Lilly's carpool friends on crazy hair day.  I probably didn't need to tell you it was crazy hair day in that picture.

Alyssa, Lilly, Alysson, Addi.

Alyssa and Addi are sisters and their mom put plastic cups in their hair and used lots of hairspray. 

It was amazing.

Then Lilly came from school and showed me her school pictures, again I was very confused for a moment and had a bit of panic thinking I had sent her to school on picture day with crazy hair.

I told Lilly I thought her school pictures were beautiful.  She said "I know, when I saw them I almost cried because they were so beautiful."

I love my children!

Blogging Slacker

My blogging has been really slow, it could be because I have a new iPhone that occupies my digital life or could be that life has been really busy.

Either way I am behind, and I love my blogging. I love keeping a family record of our happenings.  So this is just a small post for myself to remind myself to not be a blogging failure!  I have kept this blog up for almost 5 years, I can't stop now!

Last week I found some energy and cleaned out all my closets and laundry room (this might have been because I was expecting a visit from my mother, but I like to think it was just my own personal motivation!). After that I had a big church trunk or treat I helped to plan and a big church program and Jack's birthday and then had to prepare for the supposed biggest storm of the century.  It was a big storm, it just thankfully didn't affect us.  We dragged all of our furniture upstairs and planned for the worst.  It took a lot of planning to be prepared.

In short, I am exhausted and have many pictures to post.  So more posts and pictures coming soon.  We are happy and grateful to avoid a natural disaster and to have everyone safe.

It's a Knoebels Halloween

We took the kids to Knoebels for their annual Hallowfun celebration.  This is the first year we have made it, and I don't know why.  It was so much fun! In the daylight anyway, I can see it being quite terrifying at night.

We met up with our friends Darth Maul and Hermione from Harry Potter. (Today's post is sponsored by my phone pictures.)

Our first ride of the day was the train.  Only it was a super haunted train ride with all sorts of spooky things all about the woods.  It was a little scary for Jack and I imagine it would have been horrifying at night.  Glad to be there in the daylight with small children.

Super creepy grim reaper hanging from a tree...I was able to distract Jack to the other side of the train which was not quite as creepy.

Poor Jack, we didn't think it would be that scary.  Jim took the 2 pictures above and all the train pictures.  He is fast with the phone camera.

Skeletons visiting Kno-Bones Amusement park.

The train ride goes right under the wooden roller coaster.

The train ride was the scariest part of the day, I promise.

The kids thought sitting in this roller coaster car was as fun as a real ride.

Jack was almost kicked out of the corn pit for throwing corn, almost.  

We all tried to ride the coal mine ride, but poor Jack missed the cut off by a few inches.  So he and I went to find kiddie land and took some photo-ops along the way.

Jack and I ran into Kozmo, the Knoebels mascot, and asked him for a picture.

He knelt on the ground so that Jack could stand next to him, but then Jack knelt down too, with a safe distance between him and Kozmo.  It made me laugh.

We had a great time and can hopefully go again next year.

I am still behind on my blog and have pictures from last weekend to post as well. Jack's birthday is next Sunday so I just don't know when that will happen, best to look forward.

Door

I have a closet door off its track in my bedroom.  We were all hanging out in my room and the stars aligned just so and Jack got in the closet and pushed the door with all his might so that it crashed down directly on Lilly's head.  I was in bed and watched the door come down directly onto Lilly's head and knock her to the ground.  To say the least, it was very unsettling. Some people might have been hysterical.  Luckily she was unharmed, didn't even have a bump on her head.  Jim and I spent two hours quizzing her and checking for a concussion, but she was fine. No bumps or bruises at all.  It was extremely traumatic for her parents.  Extremely.

Phone Update

I have an iPhone now (thanks to my mom) which enables me to usher in the 21st century and takes lots of pictures when I don't have my camera readily accessible.  I have had the phone for a few weeks and already have over 200 pictures.

Left to right, top to bottom.

1.  Jack gets a new umbrella. I asked him to pose with the umbrella and he put it down next to him.
2.  Lilly loves scarves and likes to wear them in many elaborate folded ways. Incredible fashion forward thinking from that girl.
3.  Breakfast.
4.  Lilly and I taught Jack how to jump into piles of leaves.
5.  Jim and I went to see a play, Moon Over Buffalo, in Bloomsburg, It was a great play and we had a great night out.
6.  Jack likes to wear his hat even in his pajamas.
7.  Jack dancing with his hat and no pants.
8.  We (Jim) raked up the leaves and stuffed them into trash bags to be picked up the next day but Jim and the kids turned them into leaf beds.
9.  The children begged to bring the leaf beds inside but I declined.

The Pumpkin Patch

The story of our pumpkin patch visit must begin 24 hours earlier at the mall.

I was shopping with Jack at the mall when he found the most darling fedora hat.  I have ALWAYS wanted Jack to wear a fedora, so when he grabbed it off the shelf, tried it on, and declared it was HIS hat, I bought it for him! Hurray!

He wore the hat all the way home from the mall (40 minute drive) and then left it in the car before he got out.

The next morning our family went to the pumpkin patch.  I had dressed Jack in cute jeans and a warm shirt since he refuses to wear a sweatshirt or a coat.  Just as I was about to close the doors of the mini van he screamed "Hat!" and he jumped back in the car and grabbed the fedora hat.

It was at that instant that I realized my 2 year old was dressed as Freddy Kreuger.  Minus the claws and creepy face.

I texted my sister the picture of Jack dressed as a monster and she texted back the following picture:

From that point on all the pumpkin patch pictures were slightly tainted by my two year old dressed as a classic 80's slasher icon.  Luckily he is really adorable, so it was still okay.

More upstate New York

Jim and my dad ran the Mighty Niagara race along the Niagara river.  While I was waiting for them at the finish line the kids and I checked out the shore of Lake Ontario.  I have no recollection of seeing a great lake before and it was quite impressive.  Since I lived in Buffalo, NY as a child I am sure I have seen a great lake before but this was the first time in recent memory.

Lilly didn't believe me that it was a lake, since we couldn't see the other side of it she was convinced it was an ocean.  She had a good point, it did look like an ocean. It was very impressive.

Jack really enjoys throwing rocks, whether it be into water or not.

Here I am with my children.

Jim and my dad ran a great race, it was a pretty exciting day.  Thanks for the great trip Dad!

Winners!