Getting Ready For Halloween

We've got a ton going on this weekend as we get ready for Halloween. Lily is all ready for her school parade in this picture, but there's so much going on this weekend that I'm a little scared.
I hope that everyone has a great Halloween and a wonderful weekend!

Going Private

I've got too many crazy people looking at my blog. I'm going private in a week. Anyone who wants an invite so they can keep looking is welcome, but I want to limit the number of unknown people looking at pics of my family. Thanks for understanding!

The Pumpkin Patch

We went to Tweites again this year and the only thing we didn't do was get a pumpkin. We played in Harvest Town, did the Bunny Slides, took a wagon ride, found gnomes and fairies in the Enchanted Forest, watched Lily get eaten by a dragon , got lost in the corn maze (where Shawn purloined corn for the hungry goats), fed the goats, and cheered on the girl's ducks in the duckie races.

It was a ton of fun!

I eat worms again today!

One of the things i love best about my job is all the fun things I get to do at school. Now i know we all want to believe that we have the best jobs ever, but really, I do. I doubt that anyone reading this has recently enjoyed eating dirt and worms or even been served marshmallows and hot dogs at work recently. But, as a preschool teacher i not only get to eat them- I got to choose them.

Last week C was for camping and we did a pretend camp out complete with campfire songs, a tent, sleeping bags, "roasted" marshmallows and even hot dogs. This week D is for digging and we got to dig in the dirt for worms -and then eat them. Okay so the dirt was chocolate pudding and cookies and the worms were the gummy variety, but it was a TON of fun. I'd love to show you all of the great pictures I took, but I only have asked 3 families (who were already great friends) if they minded if I posted their kids pics. So, you'll start seeing the same 3 kids over and over- but i promise there are a ton more. I've eaten dirt with 30 kids so far this week and have 16 more to do it with again tomorrow.

I hope you love your job as much as I love mine- but if you don't get to eat worms you're missing out!

Fall Fun

We are having a fabulous fall full of lots of fun family time. This weekend was unseasonably warm. At almost 90 degrees, football was played in T-shirts and shorts- no small miracle for October in Minnesota. It also meant that the party we attended Saturday night was not too cold. Lots

of music, great food, bridges over the canals, a bon fire and sparklers meant that everyone in our family had something fun to do. We finnished up today with decorating for Halloween. We'd received some spider webbing and other treats from mystery friends and got busy hanging the web and adding other decorations including some fabulous pumpkins from our great friend Jill. What a great way to spend the weekend.

Flooding

Minnesota is called the Land of 10,000 Lakes for a reason. We have a high water table and a lot of lakes. so, when 7 inches of water fall in less than 24 hours, we flood. Many towns are much worse than ours this time around, and the flooding here in Austin is nowhere near as bad as our 2004 flood. But, it is some major flooding all the same. To make it easier to understand what you are seeing, I've posted pictures of our town from other occasions as well as their current status today. You'll see the park where we had Charlie's birthday is flooded- as are both pavillions and the playground equipment. (The picture of Shawn grilling chicken the yellow park and pavillions) The park we had our picnic at by the bandshell is also flooded- (Emily on play equipment 4th of July pic, and from the top of Skinners hill, you can just barely make out the play equipment in the top left of the picture) as is the bandshell where we go for 4th of July fireworks. The Hill we always sled on is covered in geese, and the park by our library is also underwater. Though again, much less so than the 2004 flood. The library was even still opened today.

Spaghetti Tacos

It started innocuously enough. Lily simply asked if I'd buy hard taco shells for the tacos we were having for dinner on Friday. Of course I said yes- we hadn't had hard tacos in years. The tacos were great and of course there were leftovers. Then the real quest began in earnest. couldn't we have our weekly pasta in those shells? Could we have Spaghetti tacos like Freddie does? Of course I said no right away. What parent in their right mind says yes to spaghetti tacos. Over several days however, her logic wore me down. She would eat the spaghetti taco and LOVE it. We already had the shells. She convinced her sisters to agree to trying them, and then she turned those big blue eyes on her dad- who shrugged and said why not.

So last night my family has spaghetti tacos for dinner- complete with Mexican cheese on top. I had "regular" pasta and was convinced to try 1 bite of Shawn's. It wasn't horrible, but I can't imagine actually asking for it. In the end we all survived and Shawn and I realized that we truly need to live in fear of all of our daughters ' powers or persuasion.

being 14

Being 14 means going to dances. We don't allow our children under 14 to attend dances or under 16 to date. This weekend was Charlie's 1st dance. She went to Rochester with some of the prettiest and nicest girls we know and had a fabulous time. She can't wait until the next one.

We'll all sleep great tonight

Well it's Saturday and it's in September, so we must be playing Football. Today's game had a little twist - pint size centers. Lily and her friend Gage played centers. They did a great job hiking the balls, and they even got some touch downs. They also ran the whole length of the field over and over and over. Shawn had a lot of great plays today as well. He got 6 touch downs, several interceptions, and a whole lot of flag pulling. I did my part as well, catching the ball, a lot of defensive blocking and a lot of running. Emily was our ever inportant gold team cheerleader and Charlie, as always, was more interested in the babies and animals than the football. She spent most of her time playing in the barn with the chickens, the horses, and the dogs. We all had a great day and can't wait until next week.

Charlie is 14

It seems impossible that I've been a mom for 14 years. During those early months I thought I'd never sleep again, and that the warm drowsy afternoons spent snuggled up with my baby would last forever. Now I know, the next few years are just going to fly by. Charlie brings such joy into our home and family. She

sings like an angel, is (often) willing to help and is the kind of young lady who lives her values without embarrassment. I am so grateful to call her my daughter.