Trick or Treat

The highlight of our evening was going to see Nonnie. You can trick or treat at the nursing home--if you are looking to score a lot of candy in one place, this is the place to do it. It was neat to see so many kids there. We had fun going around town to lots of places that I went to as a kid; Robby and I even got some candy of our own. It sure is nice that the kids can get in and out of the car by themselves.

Carving Pumpkins

Carving our Jack O'Lanterns is a big deal at our house. Probably because it was an event when I was a kid. Nonnie always made sure we had nice pumpkins to carve, even when we were in high school. When Sadie was a baby we got into the tradition of waiting until Halloween to carve--mainly because of pumpkin thieves. Now that we live in the country, that is not a problem, but Sadie thinks we need to do it on Halloween. C.W. joined us this year. The pumpkins all came out of our garden.

As always, T.S. wasn't interested in having his picture made. He even tried to cover up his pumpkin so it couldn't be photographed. Sadie, on the other hand, has become quite the camera hound. She pretended that her pumpkin had eaten her hand.

Come Play with Me!

Want to play Tag? Go to my other blog, Laura's Thoughts, and check it out!

C.W. Turned Two

Sunday we celebrated C.W.'s second birthday. The kids had fun playing with their cousins, painting pumpkins, blowing bubbles and riding bikes. Happy Birthday, C.W.!

T.S. Says

Robby and Sadie had lamb validation after school today. That left T.S. and me to have an adventure or two and help GeGe. Here are the highlights:

• T.S. took a croquet mallet to the garden. He enjoyed smashing old squash and tomatoes. "Look mom, I squtted (sounds like cutted) it." "You squashed it?" "Yeah, I squtted it and it went splat!"


• He lined up the empty jugs of antifreeze mom was using to winterize the sprayer. "Mom, it counts seven both ways."


• We let the young chickens out--he waited until all ten were in an area together and then barrelled through on his trike.


• When Robby got home, "Look dad, I'm having crambled eggs for supper." (That would be scrambled.)

By the way, he announced that his maize is growing and his wheat is coming up nicely because of the rain.

What a fun afternoon!

Halloween Carnival

Tonight was the Halloween Carnival. Halloween has never been T.S.'s favorite thing. We've always had to convince him to choose a costume. This year, T.S. was supposed to dress up as a ghost. We spent most of the afternoon trying to talk him into painting his face white. When Sadie was getting dressed, T.S. announced, "You know, I don't have to dress up." I didn't argue--every year I am usually at home by myself getting the kids ready since Robby has to be at the carnival early to get his class situated with their booth.

When we arrived at the carnival, we were fortunate to have a werewolf right in front of us. This led to tears from T.S. I wasn't sure if he would go in. The first few games he was very shaky and he made sure to have one eye on the werewolf the whole time. He finally relaxed and enjoyed some games. When he had three tickets left he announced he was finished and ready to go home--again, I didn't argue. Sadie is old enough to stay and come home with her dad.

On the way to the car, he said, "Thanks mom for letting me do all that." I said, "No problem, did you have fun?" "Not really. I didn't like the werewolf. He needs a new costume."

Christmas Card Attempt

Last night, both the kids were in their black and gold and actually had clean faces and decent hair. I thought I'd try for our Christmas card picture. This usually is a huge ordeal because T.S. is so against having his picture made. Here are the highlights:

Go Cowboys!

Last spring, Sadie participated in a mini-cheer camp with our high school cheerleaders. All of the girls who took part in the camp got to cheer during tonight's football game.

Virtual Pumpkin Carving

You can click here to go to a site to practice your pumpkin carving skills. All of the fun, none of the mess. You could even try out different ideas before you carve your real pumpkin.
Happy carving!

Sadie's Song

Sadie wrote the following song. I think it is really cool.

Every Day

Every day I'm going to see the sun rise

and I'm going to see the clouds appear from nowhere!

Every night I'm going to see the sun go down

and the stars and the moon are going to appear!

Every Day!

Jumping into Fall

Yesterday we heard and saw lots of geese headed south. Today we had a list of things to do to prepare for the cold front that is headed our way.

• clean out the rat and gerbil cages


• new bedding for chickens


• jump on trampoline


• walk lambs, feed lambs, put coats on lambs


• check the pigs and put new hay in the pig house

The kids had a ball on the trampoline. They love to jump really high and do cheers (yes, T.S. joins in, too.) I know T.S.'s head is missing and that it is technically not a good picture, but I thought it was funny--it looks like he's jumping so high he jumped right out of the picture. Also, please notice how beautiful our sky is today.

Rhyme Time

Today at lunch I attempted to do some rhyming words with T.S. He seemed to sort of catch on, but not really get it. When Sadie got home he showed off a little, since then he has been rhyming all afternoon. He just came up to me and said, "What's your favorite word?" I told him a word. He said, "No, not like that you know a favorite word like dower power." Another set he came up with all by himself is Hamp-Lamp.

There may be hope for learning something before Kindergarten.

Honors

This year, Sadie's school is recognizing student achievement each six weeks by presenting them ribbons. Sadie was very proud of the 4 she received for the first six weeks: Perfect Attendance, A-B Honor Roll and one for math and reading. We are very proud of her, too. She has really been working hard in school.

T.S. Says

I walked into the living room where the boys were enthralled with a cartoon. I asked what the people on the show were doing. T.S. said, "They are going on a Ferrari." (safari)

Farm Work

Yesterday morning T.S. went with me to look at our road, which he proclaimed to be "horrible." Then, T.S. was ready to get in his field. After a few minutes we realized he needed his irrigating boots. First, he had to dump the water from his trucks--according to him, 20 gallons. The trucks kept getting stuck, but he managed to pull them out. I thought it was too chilly to be in shorts, but he insisted it was okay. He is really proud of his field.

Ode to a Muddy Road

T.S. and I ventured to the end of the driveway (or lane) today. Here is our road looking south. Three things to note: 1. The sun is shining!!! 2. If you look in the ruts, water is still standing. 3. I realize T.S. is dressed inappropriately (it is a little chilly for shorts), but he did it himself and "I got the pocket in the front!" He was very proud of that accomplishment.

A Brand New Day

Today, the sun is trying to poke out from behind the clouds, it is brighter outside than it has been in a few days. It is amazing what a little sunlight will do for you. I think the rain is finished for now. We are very grateful and blessed to have gotten a total of 1.8" yesterday. That makes our total since Saturday about 2.5". The rain fell nice and slow most of the day yesterday so it should soak in and help the wheat tremendously--our road is another story. But, that is part of the adventure of farm life.

Rain Update

At noon, I poured .70" from the rain gauge. Since Saturday we have had 1.5"--it is still raining!

Also, many of you may not realize I have a second blog. Laura's Thoughts is my indulgence, a place where I can jot down my thoughts. Check it out, I'd love some feedback on yesterday's post.

BEAUTIFUL Day

It is rainy and cold today. We've had our first big cold front. The dampness is adding to the cold. We've got soup cooking on the stove and the boys are enjoying another day inside. Here are pictures out our front door. T.S. commented this morning that he thought the rain would help his wheat. That is his "field" with the trucks and tractor in it (under the stump). I'm wishing we would have planted some real wheat in his field; who knew we'd get this much moisture. He is a true farm boy, he also talked about how much this would help GeGe's wheat and milo.

We are very thankful for the rain. I'm expecting Noah to arrive any minute--we may need a boat when it is time to go to town and pick Sadie up from school.

Haircut Time

So, today has been a busy day. Robby finally got T.S. to sit still for a haircut. You can probably tell from the pictures that this is not T.S.'s favorite thing to do.

As you know, T.S. doesn't like having his picture made either. I was chasing him around the house to take the "after" picture (for a before one, see today's earlier post--he wouldn't pose for that either) and what followed was probably similar to celebrities being chased by the paparazzi. He shoved the camera away (thus the hand picture) and ended up falling and hitting his head on the coffee table (thus the tears in the final picture). He decided he was okay and up for a game of "tickle time." That's when I got the last picture.

Why my kids beg to be tickled is beyond me. I view being tickled as a form of torture. But that is a game Robby and the kids have always played together. Surprisingly, it even has some rules.

Rainy Day Crafts

It is rainy and chilly today. A perfect day to try a craft. We are trying papier-mache pumpkins. You can go to this website and see what we are attempting to do. We've put the first layer on and are waiting for it to dry so we can put the second one on.

T.S. lost interest after gluing on his first strip of crepe paper. He chose to blow up a balloon and kick it around instead.

Rainy Day

It is raining today. We are very thankful for the rain, although it does have a few draw backs. Minding the zoo in the rain isn't necessarily fun (unless you are T.S.--those puddles seem to always get in his way). Our road is muddy. Let's just say our maintainer guy probably didn't go to road grader school. Needless to say, our road is a mess. Keep in mind, we, thankfully, only have to drive about 1/2 mile on dirt. Also, you need to know that last Sunday it rained all during church--praise the Lord!--and we were in the Explorer, not the pickup. I only had to back up once. We were almost to the turn in and T.S. says, "You know mom, we can always go get a chain."

The ride home from seeing Nonnie today went something like this.
Sadie: Do you have it in 4-wheel drive?
Me: Yes.
T.S. tries to make a comment as we are fish-tailing down the road.
Sadie: Shhh.
Nearly at our turn in--T.S. is whispering "almost, almost."
We turn in to the paved driveway--Sadie sighs and breathes out--I guess she had been holding her breath. T.S. cheers, "Yes, we made it."
I was confident the whole time. (praying: Lord, let us make it to the turn-in seems to help.)

It is funny when you are a kid, you think being quiet will keep you from being stuck. We used to do the same thing to our parents. Here's to lots more muddy adventures!

Happy Bonza Bottler Day

Go to the official Bonza Bottler Day website--click on party pictures and see if you see anyone that looks familiar.

Have a great Bonza Bottler Day!!

Pickin' Pumpkins

We picked some of our pumpkins today. We are waiting for the rest to ripen. When we put them on the front porch, the kids were excited that Petunia wanted to be in the picture. Sadie says this picture can be our Halloween card. (like I am that organized)

The rest of the pictures are of the kids picking them. (I know those should have been first with the final picture last) Apparently T.S.'s was very heavy. Sadie seems to be a descendant of people who carry things on their head. If you can't tell, it was/is very windy today.

You'll also notice the kids' boots. We call them irrigating boots. Wal Mart calls them chore boots. The kids and I each have our own pair to wear in the pens when working with the animals.

Speaking of which: the new pig is officially named Harry. He is feeling better and not limping nearly as much.

T.S. Says:

T.S. and I have been spending a leisurely morning together. We've fed the chickens, checked on our pumpkins and thrown tomatoes--just the bad ones. The cows and donkey got a special treat--a bucket of leftover wheat seed--because the chickens were too picky and wouldn't eat it.
When you get T.S. by himself he can come up with some interesting ideas.

For some reason his piggy bank is in the kitchen. I asked him to please take it back to his room and this is what transpired:
"I'm going to leave it in here."
"Why? It really needs to go back to your room."
"I'm leaving it in here so people will put money in it when they walk by."

At lunch:
"Do elephants really like peanuts?"
"I think so, but I don't know for sure."
"They said they do on Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. We need to put some peanuts out."
"If we put peanuts out, do you think elephants will come?"
"Uh-huh."
"Are you sure you want elephants to come to our house?"
"Yes, I'm going to ride them. Do you like spaghetti?"

Don't you wish you had that thought process and had that innocence to trust such simple things? I think we need to get some peanuts--I'd like to ride an elephant, too.

New Pig

Sadie does have a new pig. She and Robby picked him out Friday and Robby finally negotiated a price Sunday. He (the pig) wasn't feeling too well today and it is muddy, so a name and pictures to come at a later date.

Kittens

The kittens are doing quite well. They are mobile and enjoy time out of the box. Right now we are trying to teach them to drink from a bowl and to eat moistened kitten food. Neither is going too well. They put their whole face in the bowl of water and come up sneezing trying to get the water out of their nose. A few will eat the food off of our finger, but only walk through the saucer when we put the food out for them to try. Hopefully they will catch on soon.

Also, we've had a name change--Sally is now Uncle Sally. Tiger is a girl, but we're still calling her Tiger. Tally is a boy, but he is still Tally. (It is really hard to tell if kittens are boys or girls until they are 3-4 weeks old.)

Gentlemen, Start Your Engines

The boys had a fun time outside this morning. First they "helped" GeGe with the drills (when I got out there they were pretending the drills were a roller coaster). Then they played racing on the OLD go-cart which was followed by tricks on the trampoline and finally farming in the yard.

It was really neat to watch them pretend on the old go-cart. First, because they had great imagination and teamwork. They had wrecks, had to fix it and even won trophies (sticks and rocks). Second, originally that was my mom's go-cart. I vaguely remember it running and getting to ride it as a kid. We played on it a lot though. My brother took it to school for modifications in Ag class--a lot was added to it, but it still didn't run. My cousins spent hours loosening bolts and taking the engine apart. And now, a third generation is playing on it and having a blast. I'm just glad I was told to move off of the track this morning before I could be run over.