All Saints Day

The Parade of Saints!

Thanks to my mom who made an amazing cloak for St. Patrick! I can only take credit for the hat. And being the mom to the cutie IN the hat. :)

Visit from the Godfather

Joe and I have the same Godfather who lives in Texas. We were fortunate to have a visit from him at the end of October. It was so nice to have him meet our kids and spend some time with us.
Compare Tony makes a drive up for his college reunion every 4 years.

He is particularly excited about our newest baby, James ANTHONY. :)

He was accompanied by his friend Genevieve and it was lovely to meet her.

A first for me

William + nerds = a need for something like this.

As I was putting him in his seat in the car, I noticed something white and round in his ear. I started to panic thinking he had some kind of tumor in his ear.

Me: William! What is in your ear!?!?
William: A nerd.
Me: WHY did you put a nerd in your ear!?!
William: Because it fit.

Naturally. So, time to get it out. Thankfully, I could see it, so I tried with tweezers first of all. He didn't like that much. So, off to the pharmacy, in hopes that I won't have to go see the doctor. I get to Walgreens and ask the man where "the little things you put in your ear to get the wax out" are. He says, "You mean Q-tips?" "Nope. Something similar, but not that." He gave me a perplexed "what-planet-are-you-from" look and proceeded to show me where the ear care aisle was. Thankfully, they had these really cool plastic things. And the scoopy end was just perfect! I am glad it came in a pack of 10. Here's hoping we don't have another adventure like that again. As I said, it's a first!

Happy Halloween!

From our Wii-loving family to yours!

Luigi, Yoshi, Princess Peach, and Mario. I made those mustaches myself! William didn't keep his on very long but we did draw one on his lip before they went out.

First Halloween!

Daddy went with the kids with his wii-mote. :)

The neighbor had some very popular blow-ups in front of his house.
To make the night even better, we had Papa, Mani and Wilson over to join us! What a fun night!

Patrick was finally ready to smile after the sticky mustache came off, and a box of nerds.

Pumpkin Time!

It's our little James' first halloween! Our pumpkin was the cutest thing on the table.

Tommy wanted to be sure the kids got the full experience.

Yeah, he was thrilled.

Emma put up a big enough fight that she got to use her favorite thing to decorate her pumpkin: Sharpies!

She had a hand-inside-the-pumpkin at school this year already.

Now to the real torture!

The amount of glee on Tommy's face is just not right.

Sweet boy!

Patrick and Mommy worked hard on a pumpkin.

Here is Daddy's handiwork. William calls it "his" pumpkin.

Mommy and Patrick's work.

School Days 2011-2012

The 3rd grader.

My big 1st grader. It's amazing how they have changed since last year.

So much love!

Jersey Day

Our Weekend visitor

Emma came home on Friday with the class pet. Humphrey the hamster came to our home to spend the weekend with us.

Thankfully, he is of the stuffed variety so required not too much looking after (except to be sure we didn't lose him). Emma was so excited to bring him home that she started writing down adventures BEFORE they happened. LOL

Scout popcorn sales came first! Humphrey agrees with Emma that Unbelievable Butter is the best. (I think the Caramel with the nuts is out.of.this.world. If any of you would like to support my Patrick in his "go to camp" efforts, please visit the Trails End Website.)

The cub scouts had a private history lesson from a civil war reenactor and Humphrey enjoyed learning how to march and see a musket shot.

Part of Humphrey's adventures included the Oktoberfest at the Knight's of Columbus. I love that it's a family event, and to see William do the Chicken dance was just priceless! Humphrey was our DD, so there weren't any worries there.

The "blowing" part only lasted a little while and they just turned into the noisemakers by themselves. Humphrey was very subdued during the celebrating, but did enjoy the delicious food.

We enjoyed our time with Humphrey and hope he will go back without telling too many tales about my messy house, naughty kids, and grumpy mommy. Thankfully, Emma is the only one who gets to tell tales in the journal. The good news is that there are more class pets to be visiting our home this year! We can't wait.

And how are you today?