Friday, October 31, 2014

Under Protest...


The kids have been asking to carve pumpkins for weeks.


Mom brought us some from Minnesota.  


Davis WAS all smiles...until I overestimated his skill with a knife.  
He's got the bloody paper towels and bandaid to prove it, quite the seasonable motif.


 Jamison finally got into it and TOUCHED pumpkin innards.
He didn't seem to mind until I mentioned "pumpkin guts" and his expression got a little queasy and he mumbled, "Don't say that!"

I think his favorite part involved candles, matches, and fire.  
(which is actually the scariest part of the day)

Emily just loved being a part of it all.


Ta-da!


Their favorite part was the candy hunt.  


We had a black cat, farmer (that permanent marker "dirt" had better wash off before communion on Sunday or someone is in BIG trouble), a hunter, a spy, and a...ballerina (I think).


Dad and mom hide the loot, and kids in costumes get to search with flashlights in the dark to build their stash.


Emily has sole ownership of anything found on the floor, regardless who finds it.
She may have had a little help with where to look.


After eating too much candy, we gathered around the computer and watched MozART Group videos on youtube and laughed ourselves sick. 

Thursday, October 30, 2014

Soccer is Finally Over


I was beginning to feel like it wouldn't happen this year.


Jamison and Megan had a chance to play on a fall team.  Since homeschoolers don't usually play on the team, it was a special opportunity.  They had a wonderful time with great coaches and great kids.


Not being the world's greatest soccer mom, I failed to ever get a good picture of #10 and #8. Their nickname, the Bender Defenders, should give you a good idea of which position they both like to play.  
Their coaches really wanted each player to make a goal.  That meant that they each had to play offense a bit.  The coaches promised Megan that once she made her goal she could return to defense.  Once she saw the ball hit the net she RAN all the way back to "her" spot and never looked back.  


Their coach used a brilliant motivational technique...


If they were undefeated, they could dump water on his head.


It worked.  

Saturday, October 18, 2014

Davis' First Deer


 Davis shot his first deer tonight.
(Crop permit)


You'll be happy to know that this time when he shot, the gun did NOT knock him head over heels.


Donations of pants will be accepted at our address.


Monday, October 13, 2014

What's Up?

Kaitlyn lost her first tooth today.

She has been asking me WHEN she would lose a tooth.  I couldn't figure out if she was after the experience or the money. 


My parents are here.  I browbeat my dad into putting in a new front door which included moving it.  He has been a good sport...but I'm not very popular with him. 

The old door wasn't centered and let in tons of cold air.
Obviously, the front of our house needs some work.


The front part of the house was built in the 1880's.  (Looks like we haven't bothered with it since, eh?)   It doesn't have studding, just back to back boards.  It was a bummer to cut through.  Lots of the boards are 10 inches wide and they have hand made square head nails.   


Dad's ditching me tomorrow.  He's had all he can take of my kind of fun.  :P

In other news, we took Emily back to see Dr. Li in Milwaukee.  If you haven't already heard the news, she's a miracle!  She's only #3 of the calendar kids that they've successfully kept from vomiting this long (Fourteen months!).  Most of the time all they can do is push an episode off a week and then it lasts longer.  This would have meant instead of spending every 3rd week in the hospital, she would have spent every 4th week in the hospital.  


Our trip got bumped a day earlier because Dr. Li was flying to Japan.   We had to get the kids up at 2:30 a.m. to get there in time.  Miss Emily didn't sleep much...until her doctor's appointment.  She wasn't very excited to wake up for her check up and pose for a picture.  Someday though I know she'll understand how grateful we are for the way Dr. Li has been able to help her.   In a year she has grown 5" and gained 8 lbs.  Dr. Li told her she gets an A+.  We think Dr. Li should get it.  



In a twist of fate...Dr. Li is two hours from the World Dairy Expo.
This was our next four days.


All your senses are tingling, right?


You are wishing that YOU could have been the lucky one in stadium seating for four days, entertaining five excited children, while eating yet more sandwiches and apples.


Surrounded by people totally enthused by bovines.


Filling your spare time with countless trips to the restroom, trying to protect your priceless kindle from stampeding cattle ( formerly known as our progeny), and answering the same question 500 times, "WHEN are we going to leave?"

This man totally shared my enthusiasm.

How much longer?


At least the Brown Swiss liven things up with a bit of yodeling and some costumes.




BUT...

Jamison acquired his own JCB hat, a stack of JCB literature, a DVD about JCB, talked to the salesman...are you seeing a theme here?


We should have given him a different middle initial.


He wasn't the only kid enamored with equipment.




The kids came home with lots of vendor treasures: pens, candy, paper, mints, candy, chapstick, backpacks, toy cows, candy, pencils, rulers, candy, and did I mention candy? I'll be digging most of those treasures out of the cracks between the van seats for years.    We were also treated to grill cheese, ice cream, shakes, and hamburgers by vendors.

And since we're on the subject of tractors, our church had Bring-Your-Tractor-to-Church Sunday (awhile ago...)


We had no trouble making a contribution or two.


Our neighbors Jim and Ruth brought a couple of their red ones.


That's all the catching up I'm going to do tonight.  Maybe we'll just move forward from now on.