The Saturday before Halloween

Today was so busy but lots of fun! It started with one of our favorite Longmont events - the Halloween costume parade. Kids of all ages line up to walk down Main Street and show off their costumes and then walk back up Main Street trick-or-treating at all the stores. It was absolutely perfect weather for it and the crowd was the largest we've seen in our five years of attending this event!
Our litte spider, Daddy in his crazy Halloween hat he wears every year (at least it's easy to pick him out of the crowd!) and Spiderman

Getting ready to line up for the parade!


This is the first year Logan is starting to "get" Halloween. People give you candy! And you get to keep it! The first time someone put candy in his pumpkin bucket he took it out, looked at it for a second and then tried to give it back! He was surprised but delighted to find out he got to keep it and later eat it!
On the way to the parade we tried yet again to teach Logan to say "Trick or Treat" clearly. He's at the point now where he imitates really well so if you break down the phrase he can usually get it after a few tries but this one, well, here you go...

Daddy: Logan, say Trick or Treat.

Logan: Treat!

Connor: No, TRICK OR Treat.

Logan: Treat.

Mommy, Daddy, and Connor: Say TRICK...

Logan: TREAT..

:)
Luckily the parade and trick-or-treating were over just in time for Connor's soccer game! There's only one more game left this season and Connor is already asking what he gets to try next.


Tonight Connor and I went to a Fall Festival at our local high school. Connor played lots of games and got lots of candy and even a cupcake!
We went to the same event last year and only got about 5 feet into the "haunted hallway" before I made us turn around because I thought it might scare him too much. He remembers that very clearly and asked over and over again if he could go all the way through this year. I wasn't sure if he could handle it but was a bit more open to the idea since I think he understands the difference between real and pretend better this year. One of our neighbors, a high school girl, was handing out candy at one of the booths so we went to ask her how scary it was. She didn't think it was too scary and offered to take Connor through. The poor girl got stuck taking him through not once but FIVE times! He LOVED it and didn't want to stop! I went through with them the first time too and it really wasn't that scary - just a bunch of sheets hanging from the ceiling, strobe lights, spooky sounds, and an occasional high school boy dressed like a mummy jumping out at you or trying to grab your feet. :) They were really good about revealing themselves, though, so Connor could see that they looked scary but underneath all the layers they were really just big kids, nothing to be scared of!

We got free tickets to Anderson Farms so we're hoping to head there tomorrow! Just what you wanted, right, more pics of the boys with pumpkins? :)

2008 Election

I know, with a post title like that you really don't want to keep reading, right? You're tired of political discussions and jokes and ads. I don't blame you! Well, don't worry, this isn't about who I think you should vote for for President or how to vote on a certain amendment! :)

On Friday night I went to a 4 hour training class to be an Election Judge. I'm not sure what I was thinking - something noble like getting involved in the political process - but I'll be at some yet to be determined polling place at 5:30 in the morning (do they actually still make that time? I haven't seen it for a while) and will be there until well after the polls close at 7 pm. I'll be ensuring there's no electioneering, making sure no one's using any electronic devices, checking people's IDs, verifying their address, and encouraging them to vote on a paper ballot instead of opting for the ONE electronic voting machine. Oh yeah, and I learned how to set up said electronic voting machine. And what to do if someone "flees with their ballot." :) And all about provisional ballots and ballot box seals and signs that have to be posted and the crazy number of paper forms to be filled out.

So now I have about 15 days to read the Election Judge manual over and over again until I could recite in my sleep (which is what my brain prefers to do at 5:30 am). Fun! No really :) I am looking forward to it!

The training itself was actually really interesting. It was fun to set up the electronic voting machine and to play with it a bit. I've never used one because I either vote by mail or vote with a paper ballot since there's usually a long line for the machine. I learned a lot. For example, in 2004 I didn't vote until later in the day and in the early afternoon I got a call from a representative of my chosen political party asking if I was planning to vote and if I needed a ride to the polling place. I always wondered how they knew I hadn't voted yet and now I know all about "poll watchers" and what they're allowed to see and do at each polling place and what they're not. So cool...

So, since you now know I'll be an election judge and I now know what the process is like, if you live in my county I highly recommend that you vote early (which you can do sometime between tomorrow and Halloween)! Or, if you'll be voting at whatever polling place I'm assigned to, make sure you have a valid ID, aren't wearing or talking about anything promoting a particular candidate or issue, and bring me something caffeinated! :)

Another busy fall weekend!

This is my favorite time of year!

On Friday we went to Miller Farms...
Connor the ghost


Pretending to drive a tractor


Children of the corn


Sledding down a dirt hill


Riding a tractor bike


On Saturday Connor had a soccer game and then after a quick nap we headed to the first of two pumpkin carving parties this weekend!

The boys hid under our table so I raised the table cloth and yelled BOO while taking a picture. This was their reaction! Like Connor's hair?


Connor watching the pumpkin master at work


Today was pumpkin carving party number two!

Logan devouring a cupcake in his spider costume


Connor helping in the mummy wrapping game. His team won!


Later they bobbed for apples and then bobbed for marshmallows in a bowl of flour.


The results were very funny!


On the way home we came across some fun looking leaves and you know how I can't resist tossing our children in a pile of leaves :)



Connor somersaulted down the hill



And here are the results of our two parties this weekend! We did the spider today (notice it even has 8 black pipe cleaner legs!). The other two we did yesterday - the middle one is a lite-brite pumpkin that Connor did almost all by himself and the witch is the one Jeremy was working so hard on in the picture above (she has some crazy hair apparently coming out of the top of her hat!).

Leaves

I love fall leaf pictures. Ok, maybe love isn't the right word. Obsessed? I've been driving past my favorite trees for weeks now inspecting them for color change and amount of leaves still on the tree and whether the grass underneath has been mowed lately. It's a sickness :)

Yesterday was really windy and there were leaves blowing everywhere so we rushed right out when Jeremy got home to find some piles of leaves. Notice that these leaves have been off the tree for such a short amount of time that they're not even crunchy yet! And a lot of them are still green...






We stopped to feed some geese too, though Logan insisted they were ducks!

Oops...

Look! Two posts in one day! :)

As you know, I just had a birthday. It wasn't a big milestone birthday but I'm definitely feeling the effects of getting older. For example, I just scheduled an eye exam because things are getting a little fuzzier than they used to be. And then there's my apparent hearing problem as evidenced by this misunderstanding last week....

As a little background, Jeremy works with a woman named Faelynn which is pronounced Fay-lynn. Faelynn has two children, a boy and a girl, and the boy is really into hockey. He plays a lot and I'm not sure what levels there are in hockey but he's really good and has been to training camps in Canada and such. We've talked about this several times in the past.

Jeremy: Did you hear that Faelynn got to drop the puck at the hockey game the other night?

Me: No, which game?

Jeremy: I think the Philadelphia Flyers.

Me: Really? Why did she get picked to do it?

Jeremy: I guess because she's a hockey mom.

Me: Wow, that's cool.

Jeremy: Yeah but the crowd boo'd her so loud that they had to turn up the music really loud so that the tv audience wouldn't hear it as much. I guess it was really loud.

Me: I wonder why they boo'd her.

At this point Connor interrupted us and the conversation ended...

So through this I'm thinking "That's cool - Faelynn got to drop the puck at a game between the Avs and the Flyers. I wonder how she got picked out of the hundreds, maybe thousands, of hockey moms in Colorado. And I wonder why she was boo'd. Just because of Sarah Palin and now everyone hates all hockey moms? Would people just assume that because Faelynn is a hockey mom that she would vote for Sarah Palin?"

But then I forgot about the whole thing.

Hours later, I was watching the news. The sports segment came on. Do you see where this is going? The sports guy read the story about how SARAH PALIN had dropped the puck at a Flyers game (nothing to do with the Avs...or poor Faelynn) and that the crowd had boo'd her so loudly that they turned up the music to drown it out for the tv audience.

It suddenly clicked. Jeremy had actually said "Did you hear that PALIN got to drop the puck at the hockey game the other night?" Not Faelynn!

I laughed so hard I cried. Jeremy couldn't figure out why I was so hysterical and it took me a good ten minutes to stop long enough to try to explain. :)

Hilarious!

My birthday

I had a great birthday last Saturday! It was rainy and cold all day but that's October in Colorado - the weather is unpredictable! Connor had a soccer game in the morning and because of the weather just he and I went. He scored a goal for me! :)

In the early afternoon Connor had a birthday party to attend for his friend Logan from the summer camp they attended over the summer. Logan was turning 4 and had a dinosaur themed party at the Erie Community Center. We'd never been there before but it's really cool - a nice indoor playground, big party rooms and a lazy river in the pool! Connor was sad that the party was not a swimming party but still had fun pretending to be dinosaurs, decorating picture frames, eating cake and "helping" to open presents.

Gone are the days of polaroids - this Dad brought along his laptop and picture printer to instantly print out digital pictures to put in those newly decorated dinosaur picture frames!

You might think it's confusing in our house to talk about Logan, Connor's brother, versus Logan, Connor's friend. However Logan, Connor's friend, goes by "Logie" which rhymes with hoagie or bogey or yogi or...you get the picture! I called our Logan Logie today (for the first time ever - I don't know why - it just slipped out) and Connor quickly corrected me that Logie is his friend, NOT his brother. No problems here...Logie just doesn't sound right for our Logan :)

That night we went to dinner with my Dad and Sue and then came back home for cake. Guess what kind of cake the boys ordered for me? Perhaps some flowers and a nice "Happy Birthday Mommy"? That's too boring! I got not one, not two, but three tiny plastic Disney princesses on my cake. One of them (Cinderella) even lit up. Oh and it said Happy Birthday Mommy on it too. The cake decorator must have wondered what kind of mommy was getting a Disney princess cake :)

Anyway, it was a fun birthday! And in case you're wondering from an earlier post, I didn't get a nightlight but did get a pink wireless mouse! :)

I didn't take many pictures over the weekend but here's a fun shot of Connor after Logie's birthday party!

The zoo and soccer practice

Tuesday was a free day at the Denver Zoo so Jeremy took the day off and he and Logan went to see the animals while Connor was in school and I was at work. Logan especially loved the elephants, ducks and train!



At Connor's soccer practice today the team lined up for a team picture. Coach Cindy is in the back and then from left to right are Micah, Keely, Connor, Sean, Amelia, Hannah and Grace!


Since I bought the camera to soccer practice Logan wanted in on the photo ops too!

Pumpkins!

To give you an idea how busy I feel lately, these pictures were all taken on Saturday and I'm just now getting around to posting them. :) Better late than never, right?

On Saturday morning Jeremy took Connor to a free kids clinic at Home Depot and they put together a Fire Truck with a whistle. The lightbar on top detaches and is a wooden whistle - it's pretty neat! Jeremy started the nails and read the directions but Connor did most of the work and had a great time! He was very proud of himself.


After the boys' nap we went to Rocky Mountain Pumpkin Ranch, our favorite nearby pumpkin patch. I love pumpkins so I could have stayed there all day :)

You have to love the tongue action Logan has going on in this one - obviously putting a lot of effort into lifting that pumpkin! :)


Posing with the pumpkins they picked out


"Mom! Apple!" Uh, yeah, Logan calls pumpkins apples. I can't really explain it! Also, notice he has Connor's soccer jersey on. Connor didn't have a game that day but Logan pulled out the jersey out of the dryer while Connor was at Home Depot and insisted on wearing it for the rest of the day. Besides being a bit long it fits pretty well!


How far can he carry that thing?


The best mode of transportation at a pumpkin patch


The "How Tall This Fall" sign. Compare this picture to previous years here.


Logan loves goats so he stared at them through the petting zoo fence for quite a while! He didn't actually care to go in but wanted to watch them.


Yes, Logan is about to try to eat that piece of cornstalk in his hand. For the record, no, he didn't like it. At all. There were tears. :)


Yep, I'm the weird mom always putting my kids IN the huge boxes of squash. You should try it sometime...it's fun :)


My three big winter squashes :)


Connor with the gourds


When we got back to the car Logan wanted to drive home. Look out!

In case you want to look back fondly at our pumpkin patch adventures of the last two years, check out the links below. I joke that we have more pictures of our kids at pumpkin patches or in the leaves than any other location including our home but it might actually be true :)

2006 #1
2007 #1
2007 #2
2007 #3