Busy Day with the Great Pumpkins!

Happy - tired are we after a day roving around the countryside for the fall farm tour with Nana and Aunt Marilyn. The best stop was the hillside pumpkin patch at Wegmeyer Farms. We had a great hayride along the water and picked up that beautiful white pumpkin with the gray spots and a sparkling rind as well as a big green one that will get a Frankenstein face carved into it any day now.

The Boys of October

Today was the last game of Connor's first baseball season. What a great experience we all had. Nana and Aunt Marilyn were here to see it and it was a true October game--bright shining sun, golden and crimson leaves, and CHILLY! The spectators were bundled up. The boys had a great time. We'll need to really make a concerted effort to stay in touch with a few of them. Bob really enjoyed it, too. The families all pitched in and got him a really nice gift card and we had a fine end of season party at the Buffalo Wing Factory. The boys each got a trophy from the league and I made them each a little certificate that I mounted on cardstock. They loved it--and so did we.

Carson, Ryan and Connor enjoying their favorite inter-inning pastime...fence climbing.

Connor and Ryan being silly.

End of season group therapy hug.

GO STORM!!

Homework and A Test

At the beginning of the school year we cleared off the kitchen desk and made it "Homework Central". Connor loves that it is his space for learning and never fusses about pulling up his chair and getting down to it. He's been spending about 60-90 minutes a night either doing his assigned homework or his own connect-the-dots or art projects. Wow. It is shocking to me. I had so many dreadful thoughts about this whole thing--and none of them have come true. He just is a kid who needs space to control, structure, and accountability. So, the problem was his parents all along!!

Today he has his first test. Its a math test which at this point is shape matching and "alike" equation things. He doesn't even really sense that it is a test and I'm not blowing it out of proportion. He' ll breeze through it. He is all over it.

It might be the only math test that the child ever takes that I understand. Seriously, I am dreading upper elementary school math. I barely survived it the first time and I have to admit that there may have been some cheating off Rhonda Bassat's tests in multiplication tables during Ms. Tamalo's 3rd grade math quizzes. If there was said cheating, I have to say that he perpetrator would still be getting sweaty and having guilty chest blotching when she thinks of it 38 years later. In her third grade mind, she was really letting down Jesus and the Girl Scouts of America.

Apple Valley

Connor and I took a day trip out to Winchester and visited the Marker-Miller Orchards for their Apple Harvest Festival. Bob succumbed to some viral/fluish thing so he stayed home and rested. Its a great place with a fun playground, outdoor pavilion with live music, tractor rides, a cow train ride, huge orchards, and best of all: apple cider donuts and apple butter made by the local volunteer fire department. I didn't get too many pictures because I was a single mom, but it was a great day and Connor was decked out in his farm-cowboy best. We brought home two huge bags of apples, donuts, apple butter, elderberry jelly, and fresh Winchester valley clover honey. On the way home we stopped at Sonic for dinner--the first time for both of us. Connor had a great time climbing into the front seat to eat dinner with his mama. Oh! And we got some awesome dried corn stalks for the front door fall decorations. We're both tired tonite. It was hot out there and we ran around alot.

This week promises to be crazy. T-ball, football/cheerleading game, field trip to a pumpkin patch, and Nana and Aunt M arriving on Thursday. I'd better go to bed right now!

Baseball And A Geyser

Hard to believe-next Saturday is our last T-ball game. The season has flown by and that's probably because it has been so much fun. All of the families involved are fantastic and fun and the kids are all really nice boys and they want to do well. Spring league is longer and I think a bit more serious. We're looking forward to it! After the game yesterday we did a Diet Coke/Mentos geyser in the driveway. Fun. You can see a video of the geyser and one of Connor's hits yesterday right here.

More Funny On The Tiger

So, that face painting took place at "The Original Steakhouse" for Kids Eat Free night on Wednesday. C went with Daddy and his friend, Rick. I got home from a friend's house and he came roaring out at me all Tiger-ish from around the corner. I was stunned by how incredible it looked and I immediately asked where he had gotten it done (not, of course, thinking that there was face painting at a restaurant). His answer: "The Meat House". Hysterical. So, forever, "The Original Steakhouse" will be called "The Meat House" around here.

We watched "Iron Man" tonite. It was pretty good. Too scary for the boy, though. He had to be banished to the office to play computer games. I love Robert Downey, Jr. -- what a great actor he is. I haven't seen "Tropic Thunder" but I understand he was amazing in that. And his performance in "Less Than Zero" is so memorable to me--and sad. I guess its sad because it turned out to be so real for him. I'm glad his career is doing well---but knowing what I know about the kind of deep addiction he had, I still expect to hear he's back in jail or rehab anytime. Not very hopeful, I know.

Crazy Like a Tiger

Haven't posted much lately due to a major project at work, but I had to get this pic out there..

Is this the best face-painting ever, or what?