OH, We're Off to See the Wizard

Pumpkin Night

Trick-or-Treatn' with the BFFs

 We went Trick-or-Treating at the mall again this year with the Whiteakers and the Trockels.  The kids get to run from store to store gathering tons of goodies without having to be all bundled up.  Here's group pic number one...and I decided to include one more once the BOOgers had been successfully removed. :)

 Greyson didn't quite have the courage for the Trickin' and a Treatin' this year.

 Pinocchio, Jiminy Cricket, and Elmo.  Rozannah was amazing yet again this year, with handmade costumes for Enzo and Solomon.  It might be a good thing we are moving so my kids don't find out how I have no sewing skills and they will most likely never be sporting costumes as cool as the Trockel boys.

The Subway sandwich even got in on the Halloween action.  Avery loved it.

A SpOOktakular Preschool Parade

This week was filled with fun activities for the kids...including a Halloween Party at Avery's Preschool.  The parents were invited to stay for the beginning of class to see their annual Halloween parade.  She loved seeing all her friends dressed up.  My personal fave, besides Dorothy of course, had to be the late King of Pop, Michael Jackson.

 Avery's Class...notice the young man on the bottom right dressed up as Minnie Mouse?!? Interesting...

                                                                            RIP MJ!

Her First Field Trip

Avery's Preschool took a field trip to Kelkenburg farm.  She had a great time with all her friends. The farm was really cute with tons of hands on activities for the kids to do.  It was a little hard to manage helping her do the activities, pushing Greyson through the mud in his stroller (it was pouring), taking pictures and holding an umbrella all at the same time...but it was worth it.

Avery and her friend Samantha checking out the horses.

We got to go on a hay ride.  The cutest old man pulled us in a covered wagon with his tractor down the road to the pumpkin patch.  Every few minutes he would turn around and serenade us with some old farmer tune.  The kids thought he was a little weird at first, but by the end of the ride everyone was singing along.  He was so fun!

Greyson's first hayride...he was lovin' it!

Little stations were set up all around the farm for the kids to get the ultimate experience.  They could ride a pony, milk a goat, brush a horse, mill some corn, and find their way through a maze.  As you could probably guess, Avery wouldn't do most of them.  ...but here she is brushing a pony. Yay!

Milling some corn, while Butters sat in the bucket.

It was a great day on the farm!!

We've Got a Preschooler!

This was Ave on her first day of preschool. She has been going three days a week for 2.5 hours a day and loves it. There are 12 three and four year olds in her class, 4 girls and 8 boys. She is making lots of new friends, she usually can't remember their names...but tells me how much fun they have going on pretend bear hunts and dino digs. On the first day of class, each kid was told to put something they love in this brown paper sack and write 3 clues to help their classmates guess what's inside. She brought her Snow White doll, since she is still obsessed with all things princess.  I was a little apprehensive about the first day.  Would she cry hysterically when I tried to leave?  Not this kid, Miss Kim opened the door, she said "Love you Mom" and ran right in with the other kids. Greyson and I ran a few errands, and I was so excited to pick her up to see what she thought of her first day.  She was all smiles. When we got in the car I asked her what they did and if she learned anything...her response.."I don't know Mom, I can't remember."  Day two, I asked her the same thing and she had a little more to say.  "Mom, today a boy tried to kiss me!"  Definitely not what I was expecting to hear. I asked her why a boy would try and kiss her, she said, "Mom, he thinks I am beautiful!"  She said she was glad Miss Patti rescued her and told the little boy, there is NO kissing allowed at preschool.   

 

Meet the Teacher Day

Avery was so excited for "Meet the Teacher Day" at her new preschool.  Her teachers, Miss Kim and Miss Patti, had a special activity planned to introduce the kids to their new classroom and fellow classmates.  She has her own cubby to hang her coat and backpack and her own mail box...with AVERY on it (her favorite part).  She got to play doll house with her new friends while I got to learn about what peanut-free snacks to bring, and the MANY fundraisers that the kids will participate in throughout the year. Super!

Greyson in Action

WARNING: This is a video of our baby doing normal baby-like things and could be extremely boring to viewers with their own babies at home. Intended for baby hungry family members living in other parts of the country. Proceed with caution.

Six Months

We took some quick pictures yesterday to celebrate Greyson's SIX month birthday.  I can't believe how fast our little Butters is growing up.  He is a professional roller, bouncer, and rice cereal eater...soon to be a master sitter!  More stats on Greyson later.

As you can see I am super far behind on blogging...again. More pics to come!

It's a Hard Knock Life

Today I sent Avery down to her playroom to clean up her daily destruction.  A few minutes later she comes upstairs with a look of despair on her face and says, "Mom, I am real tired of cleaning my playroom.  I want to go live with Daddy Warbucks!"

Looks like someone has been watching a little too much Annie.

We Got That BOOM BOOM POW

Ez and I celebrated our EIGHT year wedding anniversary on August 10th.  Yesterday he surprised me with tickets to The Black Eyed Peas concert! They were awesome and our seats were even more AWESOME!  We took most of these pics and the sweet, sweet video with our completely worthless, but oh so convenient camera phones.  Please excuse the phone/video quality :)  Some takeaways from the concert were...

1. The Peas put on an amazing live show. Cool stage, dancers, effects, etc.
2. They attract a diverse crowd - as in smokin' hot cougars (older women not cats) on the arms of less than attractive Bill Gates looking old men, as well as a 70 year old Grandpa and Grandma that sat a few rows over from us, kinda weird but cool.
3. Buffalo has no love for T Pain.  T Pain opened the show to an arena that was half empty.  He was good..."I'm on a Boat", "Buy UA Drank"....come on people, everyone needs a little gangsta rap in their life.
4. Paper Confetti falling from the sky is as cool as I imagined.  I don't know why, but I have always wanted to be somewhere like the Super Bowl or The Price is Right when you win both showcases...when they shoot confetti out of those huge gun things and it falls from the sky covering everyone.  The last song of the night was "I've Gotta Feeling", the crowd was jumping like on Oprah, and confetti was flying everywhere...it was awesome!!  Check the video...

Thanks for an unforgettable eight years, and a super fun night Ez!  And...a huge thank you to Grandma Bev for watching the kids again, so we could have a good time!