Best Pumpkin Carving Night

So I thought since the kids were 10, 11, 12 and 13 they would not want to carve pumpkins. Apparently, when you are that age you still do want to carve pumpkins. Thankful that Super Target had about 10 left at 7:15 on the night before Halloween.

So happy.

Fisher does not like the insides.

Happy Harper -- she even skipped water polo to carver her pumpkin.

Yummy seeds.

Hard at work. 

Not sure about all the action and children having knives. 

Carving.

EB cut out her pumpkin in record time.

Tate making pumpkin carving into a party!

Pretending his seeds were puke.

EB helping Fisher. 

Apparently Tate has the flu. 

So happy.

Loving she she stayed home. 

EB's pumpkin

Tate wanted his pumpkin to be able to be a hat.  

Tate's pumpkin on the left (unicorn with a mustache), Harper's happy pumpkin and Fisher's detailed pumpkin

EB's pumpkin being attacked by a bunch of little ones (thankfully there was one bag left of small non moldy pumpkins at Target as this was part of her detailed plan!)

McTeacher Night

Park Jr. High is having a McTeachers' Night at McDonald's and I love that EB drew this poster.  I think it is great!!!!

Niceness counts

Tate and EB have been working all weekend on making some special gifts for Tate to bring to school.  When he finally had them made he told more about why he wanted to bring gifts to school.  His table in his class, 2 boys and 2 girls, all decided that they would each be assigned a day this week to bring a special gift each other.  Tate could not understand why no one else in the class wanted to do this.  He thought it was a great idea.  

Tate has Monday and cannot wait to see if his friends will like his gifts.  I think they will LOVE them. 

I give up!

The boys have fought me and won. I have not wanted them wearing sports clothing to school and today I caved or I was just worn down. They wore their Halloween costumes that are not really costumes but soccer jerseys and shorts. They were really happy and apparently in the 5th grade boy world the boys were very stylish. Tate said he is not a casual guy but a sports guy and with his new clothing he is a snazzy sports guy. Cannot imagine what #5 and #6 would be dressed like going to school if there was a #5 and #6. Gone are the days of Crew Cuts embroidered pants and shorts for the boys and here are the days of Ronaldo and Messi and lots of smiles.

How long will Tate's white shorts and jersey stay white?  Fisher's outfit is a  HOT PINK.

5th Grade pictures for Fisher and Tate

I kind of think these are two handsome boys.  

Harper's Shadow day at Fenwick

Harper is a smart and talented girl so why should we be surprised that she wanted to shadow at Fenwick.  They have the top water polo team in the state so that is a big attraction for her as water polo is her passion and she wants to play Division I in college.

She was so quiet on the way to Fenwick and said I should stop talking and I got the hint loud and clear when she put her earbuds in.   She confidently walked into Fenwick and never looked back at her mom standing at the door.  All day long I so wanted to call and see how she was doing, after all, Father that met us at the door was super nice, I am sure he would have chatted with me.  I did arrive promptly at 2 to get her.  I knew she loved it by the smile on her face.  She had taken notes and asked great questions.  She said she so did not want to like it because of the tuition cost but could not help it, she LOVED it.

So she is off to study for the entrance exam on 1/10 with the hopes that financial aide and a scholarship await her.  

EB's Halloween Games

EB's had some real struggles lately, and in those times, it can be harder to see the fun, creative and positive girl she really is.  Today, EB handed me a reminder of those things and I just had to share them.  She made these fantastic Halloween games: a maze and a word find, all decorated with Jack-O Lanterns.  Seeing these made me laugh with pure joy.  And they made all those times we both had to deep breathe through the stress seem insignificant.  I can't wait to try them!

Help Jack Find his Friends

Halloween Word Find

If you want to try EB's Halloween games, I've posted a PDF here.  Feel free to download and enjoy!

EB Fortnightly Dance

EB had her final dance at Fortnightly and Peter took her over and Harper got her ready. <3 dir="ltr" div="" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">

What a lovely sister moment.  

EB loves her daddy.

My sweet girl.

Always my baby!

So thinking no matter how big he gets, Tate will always be my baby.  

#21 -- Our Polo Girl

Harper had a great Sunday playing water polo. She loved that she got to play three games and I loved being in on the action. So sad I only got to see one game but glad that Peter could take over cheering her on while I went to cheer on the boys at soccer! Way to go Harper! You are such a strong, wonderful girl.

Future Fisher and Tate

The boys got up really early today and made the most of their time before 6:30 a.m.  So if you are almost 2 eleven year old boys who love soccer, have some xbox skills what do you do but great yourself in the future.  Meet Tate and Fisher, age 24, playing for Portugal!

Weekend fun in Wisconsin

So when you have a free weekend with no soccer games, water polo tournaments so what did we do? We headed to Madison for the weekend to pack as much fun in as we could in a little over 24 hours!

First Stop -- touring U of W Campus

We hit the lake first but too bad it was almost cold enough to snow!

Kids loved the boats!

Surfing Wisconsin Style

On the pier!

We headed downtown to see the Capital.  Such a neat building and on all sides there were weddings!

The Capital

Hitting a Bar -- outside only.  

Four little monkeys.  If only this was the case in our life.  

Statute of Liberty!

Tate on the rocks.

It was like a dairy farm at the German Bar.

Love that cow face.

EB posing with a Badger.

And can you get more fun than the Trolley Pub?

After dinner and State Street we headed to the Dairy School to see the milking.  It was Saturday night and the two students working it were rushing to get their night started.  

We were all captivated by the fistulated cow.  So much so that we want to go back for a "tour" of the dairy farm as rumor has it you can put your hand in the fistula.  

Check out the snot.  Tate thought that was the coolest part.  

Yes, that might be snot flying out of the cow on the right's nose.

Fistula.

After all that great fun at the dairy farm we moved right on to see the Michigan game.  Of course, the Daniels family was cheering for Michigan and our favorite player, #1, Adam Grinwis.  

There is Adam in yellow!

Pure Joy!

Love his excitement.  The others were not smiling this big!

Tate wanted lots of Adam so he could have them printed off.  If ever my boys go on to play in College I will need to invest in a longer lens.  My 200mm was not close enough for the Tate's liking. 

Bucky came around and I suggested the kids pose for a picture and they all refused and Tate said there was NO WAY he was taking a picture with that Rascal!  Cracked us up.  

After the first half we moved to the "student" section behind the goal.  So very disappointing how horrible the sportsmanship was from Wisconsin -- really no words for the unkind things said from the Wisconsin team.  Tate had to leave it was making him so sad.  

This picture is for Uncle Joe and Theo as Tate believes those are Seattle Sounders shoes.  Last game Adam's dad said one of his former teammates had sent him shoes and he plays with the Seattle Sounders.  

Waiting for signatures after the game and to see Adam.  Boys have moved on from wanting the entire team's signature to just Adams. 

So when you are a stalker, I mean fan of Adam's, you get to meet his wonderful parents.  It was so wonderfully kind that they gave Tate Adam's old backpack and lots of pictures.  Tate had Adam very busy signing everything.  Truly, not sure you could get a nicer role model for a 10 year old boy.  We are forever grateful for how kind Adam and his family are to Tate.    I can only hope that my boys would be this kind to others.  

Adam and his parents.

Picture of the night for Tate and Fisher.

Tate's PRIDE AND JOY!!!!

Read:  To Tate
Go Blue!
Signed by Adam

The next morning we were ready to take on more of Madison and headed to the Wisconsin Historical Society Museum.  On the website it said it was open but we found out it was closed so we snagged a few pictures before we headed out for some farm fun.

Peter's friend from high school, Nance, had us out to her farm.  It was like the city kids went to the farm.  They were over the moon feeding the cows and horse carrots from the garden and loved everything about the few hours we spent there.

Trying to be excited.  

Feeding Ray Ray

Nance and Cookie

Tate so wanted the animals to come to him.  

That is what was left after the horse had a few bites.  Tate thought it was so neat the horse ate from his hand.  

Harper got into the fenced in area to hang with the cows.  Love her boats? 

Look at that tongue!

EB always amazes me and finds a four leaf clover.  This one was huge and she said it would be her most prized four leaf clover.

Okay the tongues are cracking me up and the fact that Tate, is tolerating it.

And Tate ate a yellow wax bean and LOVED IT!

EB did not have the same luck with feeding the horse.  His tongue was freaking her out and she kept dropping the carrot.

EB heard you could hold a chicken and she must have spent 30 minutes trying to catch one.  She walked slowly and they were just a bit faster.

They have so much land and it was wonderful to take a walk and the kids LOVED climbing up to get a better view!

What is a fire without smores!

Check out that carrot!  Tate was so excited to wash it and then roast it AND eat it!

So apparently the cabin does not have children living there as the loft is all open.  Seriously, I about had a heart attack he was going to jump down from the loft.  

That grin means he is up to no good!

The carrots are still roasting.

Chicken holding time!

Harper and the chicken.  

Even Tate got in on the action. I  have no idea where Fisher was but he had no desire to hold a chicken.

A family picture from a great weekend.