Boo at the Zoo

Gabriel and Bennett's school has a class outing to the Zoo for Halloween.  This was our first year to go and we had so much fun.  The boys were able to play, out of school, with their friends and Scott and I were able to see the parents for more than just a quick pick up and drop offs.  The weather was perfect and the Zoo did not disappoint.

Trying to get a class picture with the Zoo lights.

Bennett was listening to story time about spiders.  It was great how the Zoo talked about animals for the kids to learn and incorporate Halloween.

Thomas did great checking everything out.

Casting a spell into the witch's cauldron.

Harry and Bennett always together.  These two have so much fun!

Pumpkin Patch 2017

We had such a fun time at the pumpkin patch this year.  It was painfully hot for Thomas' first trip.  The big boys tried the zip line for the first time and were hooked.  Gabriel went on it over and over.  Bennett liked it, but took a while to embrace it.   

We finally took the hayride/tractor ride around the farm.  Every year the line is just too long.  This year, we sucked it up and smushed on to the back for the wagon to see all the vegetables.

Clearly, the sweat was getting to Thomas, he grew a pencil thin mustache(sang a little Jimmy Buffet there).

Once our playing was over it was time to pick our pumpkins.  Scott came up with the rule, if you can't carry it, it stays behind.  Theiss Farm has some HUGE pumpkins to pick from.  And that rule came in handy a few times with Gabriel's picking.

But Muscles, AKA Gabriel, was a champ bringing Thomas' pumpkin to the wagon.  The boys had so much fun.

Ode to dads

Dad’s get a bad reputation as being the carefree, sometime clueless parent.  They are the ones you wrestle with, let you eat ice cream for dinner and allow you to stay up way past bedtime.  At least that is how Hollywood tends to portray them.  They are never looked at to be able to hold their own with their own children.

Last week I had to head down to Texas suddenly, Scott took a week off work to hang with the boys to keep routines going.  I’m going to have to toot his horn because he was super Dad. He planned meals and stuck to them. He did major home improvement projects, painting a room and removing cabinets and hanging shelving.  He took the boys places, besides school.  He did all of that plus, got Thomas to eat more foods, start taking bottles, and the biggest of all, sleeping through the night.

I came home after a stressful week to a house that was clean, organized, full of groceries, and improved.  What more could a mom want?

Home Improvements

Scott has been very busy with projects that we have planned out for the house.  The big ones include painting, removing cabinetry and installing shelving.  Scott painted the family room and kitchen in one Saturday while I kept the boys entertained.  I still love how it turned out.

Then while I was in Texas he painted the toy room.  The hideous peach walls really bothered me once the brown was out of the family room.  Also, while I was in Texas he removed kitchen cabinet and installed floating shelves.  Just the painting made the house brighter, but with a dark cabinet removed the kitchen just feel more open.

Next on the big to do list was hang pictures on the walls.  I hadn't hung anything because I wanted to wait till we painted. With that done we were able to move forward with all of our pictures.  Since we had pictures to hang I needed some frames.  It's a good thing I had an IKEA gift card, from last Christmas, to use.  Thomas and I made a few trips to IKEA while the big boys were in school.  That kid is a rock star for being dragged everywhere.

We spent a Saturday hanging pictures in the toy room and then later the hallway.

Scott spent last Sunday quickly making me picture ledges to add more pictures to the wall in the TV room.  Those are in the process of being painted before we hang them.  It's amazing how much more this house feel like our home.  We can't wait to see what the Christmas decorations look like.

Halloween crafting

Besides the usual pumpkin carving, I decided that the boys should also paint some pumpkins for decoration. My hopes were that they wouldn't play with my holiday decor.  And it actually worked.  We did have fun as well. A few rocks that had been collected were painted as well.  The boys had hunted long and hard for the perfect rocks to paint.

11 Months of Mr. T

it has almost been a year.  So much has happened in this last year and I could not be happier that Thomas has been a part of our family.

Thomas is so close to walking these days.  It’s hard to slow him down.  He loves to watch his brothers, they are a good source of entertainment for him.

Bates impromtu visit

The Bates came down last weekend and the boys could not have been happier to see their cousins.  They got some quality time and showed the Bates some of our favorite places.

On Friday, Nana and Grandpa Rob came over to make cookies and have pizza and movie night.  

On Saturday it was off to the zoo to explore.  They even had their first cousin sleep over.

On Sunday it was brunch at Aunt Michelle's restaurant and then some good byes.  The boys had a great weekend and are slowly catching up on sleep.