CUTE IDEA!

Anna's preschool teacher had a cute idea. She took a Halloween napkin and cut paper to go in between and stapled it like a little book. Now Anna is supposed to write and illustrate a book. The book isn't durable forever, obviously, but it is a cute way to use up napkins that kids get at parties, etc. I never would have thought of that.

Anna's party was yesterday at school and the class had made a pinata and they got to wack at it. Each child also made a pinata, so we will be stuffing Anna's this weekend with leftover Halloween candy. Anna went to school as a Dalmation...or is it a cat? We aren't really sure. The outfit came from our niece Faith. We tried giving her a black nose and she had that stuff everywhere!

Pumpkin Carving

It was pumpkin carving night. In the past, this involved carving a single pumpkin for HOURS. Seriously. Barry used to do this. One day, though, he decided to do it much more quickly. One year the Jacksonville Jaguar took either 2.5 or 3.5 hours.
YIKES. The night started ok, but Brandon had a complete meltdown during the carving, so our night didn't end to well. Sometimes you just never know what might set him off. This is happening a lot lately.

Barry did the Frankenstein pumpkin and Logan did the smiley face.

Have you been Boo'd?

Last night we made up our BOO BAGS and secretly delivered them to unsuspecting neighbors. This is the first year that we had not been boo'd first, so we were happy to beat them all to it.

We copied a ghost picture off the internet and the BOO poem below and stuffed a few goodies in little bags. We did get caught by the Kovacs, though.

So What’s a Boo you ask? It’s when neighbors secretly leave one another anonymous goody bags on their doorsteps in celebration of the holiday. Once you have been Boo'd there is a poem with instructions and then you are expected to go out & secretly Boo other neighbors, but not the houses with a boo sign or ghost on the door— as they have already been hit. The idea is to spread the cheer throughout the neighborhood. My kids were totally drawn into the mystery of it. Brandon and Anna had a blast. Logan even delivered a couple, too. What kid doesn't like DING DONG DITCHING?

This is the poem we chose to use. There are a ton out there on the internet to choose from. If my scrapbook area wasn't currently in boxes, due to remodeling, I would have made really cute little things to leave, but....

This phantom haunts you happily
From now through Halloween,
And was delivered by a friend
Who (we hope) was not seen.

The spirit of the neighborhood
Has come to wish you well.
Somewhere, someone selected you
To find this happy spell.

You must display the phantom
On your door so all can spy
That you’ve already been boo’ed by
This happy little guy.

Then fix a snack or some goodies
Like this one brought to you,
Ring someone’s bell and leave a bag
And make them happy too!

Pumpkin Patch

Anna's Preschool went to the Pumpkin Patch and had a great time.

Cute!

I love it when kids do drawings. Anna had to fill this out for preschool last week and then we had to send in pictures of her, her house, her family, etc. I love the last one. She came up with that one on her own. Love the fingers and hands!

Boo at the Zoo!

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Saturday we had Justin over to play for a few hours and today we took him to Boo at the Zoo! It was a fun evening. Justin was a monkey, Brandon was Indiana Jones and Anna wore a Bee Costume. It was too chilly for her kitty cat costume! Brrrr.....

Anna and her bee sting

 

 

Anna got stung by a bee for the first time ever at the soccer game Saturday. She completely freaked out. We had been worried for the last 3.5 years of that moment. Her mosquito bites get so big and swollen, but this year, she had improved. She was covered head to toe in clothing and a blanket and she peeked out just for a minute to see Brandon play and got bit the minute the game started! Darn! I immediately got Benedryl in her and she was breathing, so all was good. By suppertime, the meds were wearing off and she resembled a creature from Star Trek! We all commented on how she didn't look like our little Anna anymore and certainly did not resemble our wide eyed Guangxi girl! She hardly had eyes. And they were very red all around them.

These pics were taken today and she was much better. The bite was just above her left eye, but she had NO nose bridge last night and her glasses were VERy tight and left marks all day and early today from all the extra fluid in there. I forgot to take pics last night. We will definately be talking to the dr. soon about this allergy.

Sunday Fun

Happy Birthday, Little Buddy!

Anna's buddy, Justin turns 5 today. Happy Birthday, Justin!

Fall Fun

Just some Fall fun pics. Anna likes to rake leaves. We were enjoying a quiet day at home today after I went to Brandon's school for a while. They were studying China in their Reading class, so I went for about one hour and 15 min and talked about China and our trip. The 4th graders enjoyed taking a break from their regular studies for a while.

No braces and Almost a broken leg!

Logan had his orthrodontic consultation today. He has been bugging me for over a year about going and we finally went. He just wants perfect teeth and he didn't really like the orthodontist's answer. His teeth aren't ready yet and we will go back in 15 months to see if he might need treatment. He is congenitally missing a tooth on the bottom, so something will probably need to be done about that.

My leg....well, I took the kids to the park last Friday with another mom and DOWN I went. We were at a Skate park and I was getting the scooters, etc. out of the van. Anna had gotten hurt already and her lip was gushing, so after she was fine I turned around to get stuff out of the van and BOOM...another child's skateboard ended up under my feet. I had x-rays because it hurt so bad that night and luckily it wasn't a break. I was worried since I knew that the cast would be up to the waist...not good with a tri-level home! It turns out to be a high hamstring injury and could take a month to fully heal. I am a little slow and feel pretty icky, but life goes on with three kids and a house that is in a transition with remodeling, new carpet, etc.

What next??? I am just going nuts and cannot wait to be on a beach in Marco in less than a month!

Fire Department Trip

Anna's preschool visited the fire station today. What a cool trip. I had NO idea that fire stations do so much! Our smaller hometown station is nice, but this trip was a lot more educational for the kids and really reinforced Fire Safety week. The firemen went all out! There was a magic show and 2 puppet show skits. The kids got to meet Sparky the dog and get a group picture. They also got to shoot the water at the bucket. FUN! They also slid down a pole, see the uniforms and talk a lot about safety, fire escape plans, etc. One firefighter was even a ventriloquist in the puppet show. Very cool. The magic show even revealed a REAL rabbit at the end. The men were very kind to the girls (we have an all girl class) and really like this part of the job. Fun trip. Anna was STOP, DROPPING AND ROLLING all night after supper! We even knew a couple of the firemen, so Anna thought that was really neat.

Brandon, the runner!

Brandon loves to run. He has been running in PE a lot lately and he has always enjoyed running in soccer, too. He started running on Fridays after school, too, for FUN. I think it is great. Logan keeps wondering WHY someone would WANT to run for FUN! Totally different kids! Friday in school he ran the mile proudly in 7 min 43 sec and said he could have done it in 7 min! Pretty darn good and then after school he ran another 1.5 miles. He got 5th place out of all students in the nine 4th grade classes. Yesterday he ran around the block and already asked before school if he could go on a little 4 mile run after school. Oh my....I think he has found his "thing"! Way to go B-Ray! I see Cross Country in our future.

New Picasa

If you go to Picasa.com you can download the newest version of Picasa. They have a new collge maker and also a video thing.

Echo arrives from Hong Kong

Echo Poon was our Guide in China and is located in Hong Kong with ISS. She was being honored in Chicago this week at a Gala for Lifelink Adoption. There was a reception in Springfield last night to meet up with her. The agency originally thought that there would be about 30 people who would show up. There was 240 people there! It was so neat to see the families there and all of the lives that this woman has touched. I was hoping that my niece would be there, too, but they didn't make it. ISS has many wonderful guides and we also had Ginny who is no longer with ISS, but Echo is an amazing woman. The ISS staff do everything for you in China and are there if you need them at any time of day or night! What was so neat was seeing the older girls 8-15 there. I was just imagining Carly, Karli, Kailee and Anna still getting together and being buddies.

Robin, Michelle and Heidi came and it was fun meeting up with them for dinner, too. The only bad part of the day was that Logan was up a few times vomiting in the night! He has not done that since he was a very young boy! OMG....YUK. He is fine today....SO FAR, but I am still wondering what is next around here!

Fun Day!

We headed to Springfield after Barry got off work Saturday. Barry had been wanting to take the kids to the Lincoln Museum. NEAT place! I am sure that Barry would enjoy a day there when he can read more without the younger ones there.

Field Trip

Anna had a neat Field Trip to the park. They had a treasure hunt and had certain things that they were to find. They learned about different types of leaves and things in the hunt like the little prickly balls from the sweet gum tree. They also had play time, snack and fed the ducks. It was definately one of the neatest field trips that any of my kids have ever gone on. I will say, though, that I loved the year that Logan's class got to go to the hospital to the baby dept. That was cool. I think that the next trip is to the pumpkin patch or the firestation. Before we went on the field trip, we were in the classroom for roll call, songs and calendar. Anna got to lead the Pledge of Allegiance. She was very proud of being able to hold the flag during the pledge.