Happy Halloween!

This weekend we had some Halloween fun. We went to spend time with my brother, Jeff and his wife Kristin. We decided to have some fun of our own after the boys were in bed. We carved pumpkins by ourselves. Wow, sometimes you forget how to function when no one is telling you what to do and how to do it!!

Phil's parents came up and we also headed to Logan to the pumpkin walk, a family tradition from my family growing up, college days and now our little family is continuing the tradition. If you haven't been there, you ought to try it. Some people are so creative!!

Last, but not least, the boys ran in their 2nd Mantua Spooktacular Kids K race. It went....ok! We'll just say as soon as they use their energy to run the race instead of fighting and chasing each other around before the race starts, they'll be in great shape!!

We love primary!!

We had our primary program today. I'm lucky enough to be the music leader and they did such a great job. Our second song was "Tell Me the Stories of Jesus." I've never been affected by it before, but as they started singing, it just hit me what a sweet song that is, sung by sweet innocent little children. I started bawling and as Phil said, scared the kids!!! The looks on their faces were quite sweet as they wondered what was wrong with me!! I'm so glad that our kids learn from the get-go that they are children of God. What a blessing and good reminder for us as adults too!

Autumn Rocks!

What is it about large bodies of water that attracts children of all ages and rock throwing? I can remember a family vacation when I was in high school. We went back east to see my brother graduate from Dental School in Viriginia. We'd gone on a beautiful drive and found a peaceful lake. Pretty soon the whole family was at the water's edge, rocks in hand. As I remember, we spent quite a bit of time skipping rocks that afternoon. Each of us content to stay as long as we could.

We went to find some fall color this weekend and found ourselves down south at Payson and Maple lakes. To the fishermens' dismay, my little family found itself at the water's edge, rocks in hand. The boys didn't mess around with the little, skipping rocks though. They went straight for the biggest ones they could find, creating the biggest splashes. I think Phil won!! I love this time of year and am grateful for the beautiful world in which we live!

Boys vs Girls

My sister-in-law posted a video of her girls "Dancing with the Stars" on her blog. It is adorable. Sweet, graceful little girls enjoying each other's company, keeping time with the music. While I was watching, my boys were sword fighting and slashing each other in the family room.

Eventually I will come to accept the fact that boys are simply different than girls. Jacob informed me this morning that dad told him, "The reason mom doesn't allow violent games is because she doesn't know what it's like to be a boy." Well, frankly, that is exactly right!! There are things about being a boy that I just don't get. They like to fight and burp and wrestle with dad. This is all foreign to me. I don't understand how a piece of half-chewed up bread can become a gun. A lovely centerpiece, yes. A gun, no. (And I'm the mean mom who doesn't allow guns...how does my 2-year old know what to do with a bread gun?) So while I dream of boys who will grow up opening doors for people and asking for another serving of casserole please, I need to accept that boys are still boys. And I have some great ones!!! The following video may be as close as I ever get to "Dancing with the Star Wars," but we get what we get, and we don't throw a fit!

May the force be with you, my young Jedi Knights!


(The true star wars fans out there will recognize the amount of practice that was required for R2D2 to pass Luke his light saber at just the precise moment! Way to go boys!)

JacobD2

Why do we do it? Surely we aren't the only ones, but it's happenend again. It's got to be one of our built-in parental survival skills of some sort. Whether it's science projects, birthday cakes, pinewood derbys (I can't wait!), or, in our current case, Halloween costumes, we as parents seemed to get sucked up in the momentum of a project that somehow no longer means anything to the kid!!

Jacob has a Star Wars birthday party tonight. The kids are invited to dress up and they'll watch the old Star Wars movies and cut off each others hands etc. A seven year-old's dream come true! So Jacob happens to mention he'd like to be R2D2. With Halloween approaching, we decided we might as well figure out a costume for him that he can wear to both. 120 hours later, half of which have been spent actively creating this darn costume, the birthday party can go on because we are finally finished!! (OK, we didn't spend 60 hours on it, but it seemed like it!) Phil made a very sturdy frame and helmet at work, making various luxuries like arm holes, shoulder straps, and arms that really swing back and forth. He did a great job! I was in charge of decorating, taking special care to follow as closely as I could to R2D2's pattern. We finished last night as we watched the VP debate and felt great satisfaction in our hard work (or maybe that was relief that we were finally done.)

So here's the kicker. We know once he puts it on, Jacob is not going to like the thing. He will try it on and take it off after about 5 minutes, being altogether bored with the idea and wanting to be something else. This isn't the first time it's happened, and it won't be the last...but doesn't this costume look great!!!

You'd better believe one of us will be wearing this costume for Halloween. It might be Phil, but it WILL get used!