Get your tea, take a seat (maybe get some ear plugs)

This week started with Jim and Jeffrey returning from the camp at 10:45 on Sunday night. They had been working on the roof and mother nature didn't completely cooperate so they didn't accomplish as much as needed to be done. With rain expected on Tuesday, Jim returned Monday morning to finish the part of the roof that has been leaking. He has blisters on blisters and is beat. This weekend we will have to return to dispose of more shingles before the snow begins.

On Sunday I made Jacob's costume. I really enjoy making his costumes and think this will be the last year he lets me. He is at that point where he wants to start getting scary costumes. I did convince him to be the scarecrow and he will be the cutest scarecrow ever. Not to make my hair head any bigger, but I am proud of how it came out. I had to be creative to get the hay to come out from his arms and legs without bugging his eczema.

Here is the calm before the storm. Jacob was chilling out before his party.

His was first. It went well. Lots of kids, inside, running around playing with balloons. I was prepared and had the whole time planned. It was the only way I could have handled that many kids in a small space. We made some 'wacky pumpkins' and voted on the wackiest, ate some yummy spider web cookies (which I forgot to take a picture of) and fruit, danced around with balloons and popped them one by one. Unfortuneatly, this was the only picture I got from Jacob's party. I really had to keep them busy and didn't have a minute to snap a picture. Especially since I dropped my camera and the view screen doesn't work. I have almost forgotten how to take a picture by looking through the little hole.

Joshua's party was yesterday. Again it went well. Auntie and Karin were there for support. I think they helped too. I think Karin poured juice or something. :) I was worried about the bigger kids but they were all good. Really, Joshua was the 'worst' one. I know he was excited, but still. He has it in his mind that 'it's a party' and he was trying to be funny, but he was a bit rude. I was looking for a volunteer to take him for a while.

The wrapped each other as toilet paper mummies. What's a little mess if they all pitch in to clean up. We had torn toilet paper and popped balloons everywhere but it was all good. Once a year thing. Again we had fruit with green slime (colored white chocolate) and spider web cookies. Oh and Karin's glueten free, peanut free brownies. The kids sucked them up like vaccuum cleaners. Except of course for the little kid at the end of the table who pretty much made a table cloth out of the crumbs. I'm trying to convince Karin to contact WMUR to do one of those Cook's Corner segments on the noon news. There are so many people who have these food allergies and she has some yummy recipes. I am a fan of her chocolate chip banana bread. I don't know how many times I have to hint toward that. ;)

I think all of the kids had a great time. I'm sure they appreciated the opportunity to be loud, run around and pop balloons. Here is a video of their fun.

Someone at the Halloween store told me that this can be addicting. We'll see about that next year. I did enjoy it, but I am feeling the stress today. The boys were absolutely driving me crazy. Don't they just understand that sometimes I just need to see Dr. 90210 without screaming and balloons flying in my face. I mean come on Dr. Ray was on.

100th Post

Here is a sneak peek of the Pumpkin Festival that Auntie Chris brought the boys to in Keene this weekend. I have always wanted to go there. I was away helping dispose of the shingles while Jim worked on the camp roof with Jeffrey's help. I am one hurting puppy. That's all I can say. These are just a few. I heard Joshua was the photographer. Click on the friends and family link and I will post more.

A weekend like no other. I don't think this has ever happened to me. Jim was supposed to do 'man riding' this weekend but it didn't work out. Then he was going to take 1 of the little boys, but I convinced him into taking both. I wish I could say that I was as smooth as my grandfather, we used to say he could sell someone his false teeth, but really I just got lucky. Two days in jammies until 2pm. I loved it.

I did have errands to run for the party and I didn't realize how hard it was going to be find overalls for Jacob's scarecrow costume. Apparently they are not as cute after you grow past size 5T. So that kept me busy, but not too busy to get out of jammies before 2. Of course at phone call at 12:30 am from Jim was a little alarming. Jacob had a belly ache and was thrashing side to side. There is just no replacement for Mommy, especially when you are three hours away :)

On Sunday I was all domesticated. I went grocery shopping, made a lasagna and cranberry apple bread from scratch, sifted flour and all. They all returned on Sunday, played wildly with Daddy right before bed (I thought they were supposed to do that while they were away), and I am refreshed :)

Friday Already?

These short weeks just fly by, especially when you are busy at work. Monday was a holiday and tomorrow is Friday already. I just can't believe it. It went by so fast I don't even remember what happened this week to talk about.

Let's see, I put an ad in the newspaper to try to get some tennis balls. I need them for noise reducers for a student who has hearing aides. Apparently background noise is more pronounced when you have hearing loss. I asked for about 130 and have since realized that I need more like 600. So far I have had three emails about them.

The Red Sox are on and Jim is swearing. He just hates when his teams do bad. And have the Red Sox been sucking bad!! I don't follow it at all but I did hear on the radio that usually Tampa Bay is an easy win but this year they are for real. I used to cry when my team lost (The Canadiens), Jim gets angry.

I got an email and a message from a friend I haven't heard from in a while. She is has a very full plate with her baby and taking care of her father. We used to get to talk each day at work and I miss those day to day conversations. I look forward to getting to catch up with her.

The boys got their school pictures back. I am trying to be good and not send them back for retakes. I am way picky...heck we pay good money for them-$50 for both packages. They are not bad, but again, that is why I like digital. You are sure of what you are getting for your money. You get to see the pictures. I'll have to scan them in for the next post. The pictures can't be that bad when I have such great looking kids!

Blah, blah, blah...hope it was worth the visit :)

Fall Fun

On Saturday we took a trip to the local farm to get our pumpkins. The boys were hoping to have a tractor ride like we had done in the past and pick a pumpkin in the field. The best pumpkins are not left in the field however...they are in big piles conveniently located by the cashier :) We got some big ones. 48 lbs worth. I'm glad it was pounds, I thought it was the price...yikes.

We also picked some apples while we were there. We have never done it before. The boys loved getting to climb the trees. You literally had to to get the apples that were left. You wouldn't believe the waste though. There are soooooo many apples on the ground. It's like you pick one off and a couple fall at the same time. And did I mention $10 for a peck. One dollar a pound during the week, but not on the weekend. I made sure that sucker was chocked full plus one in each hand on the way out! I also bought some zucchini and made some yummy bread. I haven't had it in so long. I asked Jim what he thought and he said, "Well it's ok, but why zucchini?" He just can't get passed vegetables. Does anyone have a recipe for meat bread?

The boys each picked their own faces for the pumpkins. I showed Jacob a bunch of pictures online from a pumpkin fest and he picked the features that he wanted. Joshua drew his on a piece of paper. I think they did a great job. Here is a cute video of the evening. Look carefully at Jacob's face. He wasn't really having it. He didn't like the slime and then his eczema really started to burn :(

Oh, and in the midst of pumpkin decorating I dropped my camera and now the display doesn't work. That is the whole point of digital for me, seeing the picture right away to see if you got the shot. So needless to say, the pictures at the end are a bit sketchy and I need a new camera.

On Sunday we went to the grass drags. I'll post that tomorrow.

4th file, 4th picture and further evidence that I have boys

Michelle tagged me with a post your fourth picture from your fourth file. Her's was of she and Chloe getting reading on the 4th of July. Mine is of Jacob getting his pumpkins ready when he was 4. Cowinkeedink???

So much to get to in this post. Let's start by showing you how Jacob looks this morning.

That's what happens when you get into it with your bigger brother.

J/K, I wish that was the case. Unfortuneatly I have a feeling I am in for a lot of this with him as he has this internal drive for bigger and better stunts. This time he fell off his bike and landed on Daddy's plow...OW! Thank god it had a rubber cover on it. I can only imagine if it didn't. I just want to know if my sister has any pictures of her girls like this. Boys, boys, boys.

I never did get to posting about last weekend. On Saturday, Chris and I went all over.

We were in search of a pharmacy as we both forgot some medication. It sucks to get old. We ran into Santa's reindeer on our way to Norway.

They look a bit boney right now but they are fattening up. Let all the kiddos know that they will be ready by December. We put in a few special requests for them to give to the big guy in the North Pole. I'll let you know if they pan out.

The colors didn't look that vivid. I think the wacky summer weather took a toll on it with all of the rain. But the big picture looks pretty good.

The next day we were off to the fair. We spent quite a bit of time in the 'boy' section.And then we went to the horse pulls. That was one of my Dad's favorite parts. We didn't get to stay too long due to some short attention spans. I know the horses live to do it, being work horses and all, but I felt bad seeing them have to pull that much weight. Each block is 5oo lbs. At the end they were pulling twice as many blocks @10,750 pounds. Christopher, Daddy's Irish Lad friend, stayed to watch the whole event.
Here are a few more from the day. We had a good time but then still had to drive 4 hours with the traffic. We ate lots of junky food. Between all of us we ate a hamburger, a couple of sausages with onions and peppers, pizza, a blooming onion, caramel apple, hot dog, french fries, a few apple crisps with ice cream, maple cotton candy, roast beef off the spit, chili in a bread bowl and some pork thing on a stick. I think we covered it all.an old fashioned out house (not in working order)
teenage boys' idea of a souvenir from the fair

No Turning Back Now

Tonight I made invitations for the boy's Halloween parties. Yes, parties. Now I have to go through with it. We have never had a Halloween party. Neither boys had birthday parties this year so I figured I would bite the bullet. Especially since we didn't get to do too much last year working on Dad's house. During open house I read Joshua's journal. He wrote about how Grandpa died and we had to fix his house and how it took a lot of playtime. Jacob has never had a friend birthday party and is so excited about school and friends so I want him to have his own party. I can't say I'm totally psyched about it, especially when Joshua says, "Mom, I want to invite so and so but he gets strong and wild". I will be enlisting Auntie Chris and friend Karin's help :) Girls, mark your calendars.

We haven't picked Halloween costumes yet. I really have enjoyed making Jacob's costumes the past couple of years but now of course he has an opinion. Man, how dare kids develop taste and opinions. I really wanted him to be a scarecrow last year and was hoping for it again this year. At first he said yes, but now he has Evil Kineval on the brain. He and Kellie did some research on the computer today and watched videos of his jumps and 'falls on to the hard pavement'. He thinks he should be him because he does big jumps on his bike and scooter. I told him it wasn't safe to ride his scooter on Halloween, especially being a crazy driver and all. He doesn't want to be him without the scooter so we will see.