Happy Haunting Everyone!

Tonight Kermit & I and the girls gathered around the kitchen counter to carve pumpkins. All were fascinated and excited as they watched. Kermit brought the three completed jack-o-lanterns upstairs to the girls rooms to light their bedrooms for the evening. Very cool indeed. Going to bed is fun again. =)

I also showed the girls their costumes for the first time tonight. Huge hit! A few months back I asked Annaliese what she wanted to be. She said she wanted to be a bumble bee again this year. I decided to have the twins be bugs too, one a butterfly and one a ladybug. Looks like they approved my choice. The costumes were immediately put on for a few hours of dancing fun before bed. Getting them to take these lovlies off for sleep was quite the challenge. I have a feeling these costumes are going to be worn every day until at least Thanksgiving.

Have a happy and safe Halloween!

Remember to watch out for Chocolate Coins- They've been recalled! Check out the link below.
http://www.snopes.com/food/warnings/coins.asp

The most wonderful time of the year

I do love fall. LOVE it, love it, love it! Fall has finally arrived. The air is cool and crisp. The tree lined streets are glowing with fall colors (or will be soon). Sweater weather, hot cocoa, pumpkin cookies, pumpkin soup, candy corns, honeycrisp apples, country drives, walks through fallen crunchy leaves....these are all things that I just love about fall and what make it my favorite season. It truly is the most wonderful time of the year to me and puts me in the best mood. (Okay it ties with Christmas. )

I have found yet another reason to love fall even more than I already do. Pumpkin Farms! Today we took the kids to Goebberts Farm in South Barrington. What a perfect day! The girls had so much fun rolling pumpkins all around, touching all the different types of gourds, climbing on hay bales, getting a CAMEL ride and a PONY ride, going to see all the different baby animals, running through the cornfield maze, etc. etc. etc. I could go on and on. Lets just say - great time. We'll be going back again next year for sure. We saw Annaliese's teacher there with her niece and nephew which was also fun. We forgot our camera but Miss Trieu had hers. Here are some pics that she took for us. (I'm hoping to figure out how to download pics from our cell phone too.)

Goal Setting

So we've had this piano for a few months now and we have been loving it. Kermit has been working on it's restoration little by little. His goal to rebuild all of the insides has been put on hold until after Christmas though. Why? Because I also have goals. I love Christmas music and I want to learn to play Christmas songs...and how would I be able to practice if the piano is out of commission while Kermit rebuilds it? So here we are in October and I'm practicing all kinds of Christmas music from the Hymn book so I can be ready the day after Thanksgiving. Kermit has been working on a few Christmas songs himself. He is working on some of the music from Charlie Brown Christmas. Yes, it is very Christmasy around here. My goal is to learn a new song every week.

Speaking of goals....kind of random but I made a goal to get a 72 hour emergency evacuation kit ready for our family. Done. (Oh yeah, I still need to make copies of all our important papers to throw in there.) The duffel bag it is packed in is bursting at the seams and weighs a ton. Among it's contents is the T-shirt that I am wearing in the picture below. It's the perfect T-shirt for such a kit don't you think? Our family received about a dozen of these fancy type shirts this summer. We have T-shirts with puppy dogs, cheetahs, more fairies, kittens, horses, wolves you name it - we have the shirt. So naturally I stashed some in the duffel for the kids too. If we ever have to actually use the kit, the kids will be excited to get to wear these fancy gems. Kermit says that if we are ever refugees anywhere, we will fit right in. =)

"Woohoo! We getta go with Mommy and Daddy on date night!"

Avrie & Kermit


Huge Telescope


Addie & Kermit waiting for a turn.


Annaliese's turn


Addie's turn again.




A couple of weekends ago Kermit took us to the Dearborn Observatory in Evanston. Our girls love to learn about the different planets (especially Annaliese). This trip was a big hit. The telescope there is about 100 years old and very cool. We got to see Jupiter, also very cool. (Did you know that Jupiter has moons? It's true, we saw them.) I have a hard time comprehending how it is possible to look at a planet magnified so perfectly & so crystal clear. I'm sure that 100 years ago when this was cutting edge technology it must have been even more mind boggling. Well, it still is to me.


That night a photographer & reporter were there from the Associated Press. They were doing a story on light pollution. They took a TON of pictures of our family looking through the telescope. They asked Kermit some interesting questions and recorded his responses. They told us to google our names to see if the story gets picked up anywhere. If it does, I'll be sure to add the link.

Meanwhile...I love my space nerds!

Stinky Problem Resolved

I'm constantly trying to keep the twins bedroom from getting stinky. It can be a challenge at times making sure the millions of diapers we go through get outside asap and making sure all those sippy cups get taken care of before turning sour under a bed somewhere. I'll admit despite my best efforts, their room still stinks on occasion and I guess they decided to take matters into their own hands.

HOW DID THEY KNOW? Emptying a container of Lavender Baby Powder throughout the entire room REALLY works! When I saw this mess I just smiled. It was beautiful. What a great idea. Why didn't I think of this? Good work girls! Seriously, thanks for helping me out.



P.S. Yes powder works, but another way you girls could help out with the stink problem is by cooperating when I potty train you next month.
(Gee, Maybe I'll wait until we have the potty thing mastered before I get drastic & have the carpets professionally cleaned.)