Halloween party at school...

Oh my. What a FUN morning I've had. The school district is closed today for parent conferences so CJ was DELIGHTED to go to BJ's school today, who happened to be having their Halloween party this morning. These teachers, who are INCREDIBLE, invited the children to dress up and they had a full-blown, completely organized party, in the dining area of the building. There were round tables set up with different activities.

You'll see in all the pictures how precious the children are in their costumes. Can you imagine the effort that these teachers will put into helping these children all day to tie and untie so they can go to the restroom?

Patience they have overflowing from their teacher veins. And look at the darling teachers!!! Cat in the Hat, an Orange Crayon, Dracula, and my favorite, Raggedy Ann (or a rag doll). Raggedy Ann just moved here this summer from Branson, Mo. for her husband to attend graduate school at the university. The orange crayon and Raggedy Ann are BJ's teachers this year. The Cat in the Hat and Dracula are BJ's teachers from last year.

They had a good old fashioned cake walk (see video). Candy bag decorating. Mask making. Play-dough station, which the classes had made earlier this week. Ghost-ghost-witch (similar to Duck-duck-goose) game on the stage. Snacks. Etc. Fun was had by all.

And to top it off, apparently every year this sweet preschool walks across the street to the Courthouse to go Trick-or-Treating at the offices within. I guess all the offices bring candy and treats JUST FOR THESE LITTLE PRESCHOOLERS! How precious is that?! Don't you imagine the adults at the courthouse just love seeing these little cuties in their costumes, breaking up the "work day"?!!!

Let me upload some pics and video now. I love the one of BJ dancing and eating at the same time...
Can you believe how tall and skinny he looks? You'll notice he opted for the old favorite "Spiderman" costume, even though he has a brand new Batman in the closet at home:)


BJ at the cakewalk. Just so happened he won this cakewalk while I was filming. Look how excited he is to go select his cupcake:)

Halloween

pumpkin song

pick a pumpkin from the vine,
pumpkin round, pumpkin fine,
pick a pumkin from the vine,
let's pick pumpkins!

pick a pumpkin from the vine,
you pick yours,
i'll pick mine,
pick a pumpkin from the vine,
let's pick pumpkins!!!

Leaves are falling all around us!!!

Fall is so beautiful in our little town. This past week alone it seems we've gone from greens to greens with yellows and reds and oranges. It is so colorful as we walk and drive around town.

Thank goodness the leaves in the picture with the boys are NOT in our yard!!! CJ has been busy at work keeping our leaves in check, thank goodness for that little worker bee!

This past weekend the boys and I went to the Homecoming Parade on Main Street. It was such fun and reminded me of the 4th of July Parade around 1977ish that we were in in Mansfield. I remember throwing the bubble gum from the back of the float/truck. Its been so long since I've been to a parade, I forgot to have the boys bring bags for their candy. We left with every pocket stuffed full of more candy than we can possibly eat before Halloween on Friday!!!

look what fell out of a book today...

CJ made this when he was 4 years old. Sure glad I was smart enough to tuck it away somewhere b/c that is a stage gone by for our little seven year old!

soccer season over

BJ's last soccer game of season last night. CJ's last game was on Monday (I was in class, sob, sob). Picture taken of team at our pregame party last night. Notice Benny has on a tshirt, a long sleeve soccer shirt that is warm and fuzzy, a fleece vest, and his soccer shirt on top to keep warm. It's getting a bit chilly here at 5:45 in the evening as the sun goes down. The coach brought cupcakes with a toy mascot on top of each, awards, and wetwipes to clean faces. We were SPOILED by this mom/dad coaching team. Hope to post some video soon.

alphabet

I know they are hard to see, but hopefull you can make out a few of these beautifully scripted letters. I did a little informal assessment of BJ's letter identification and writing this weekend, and look what a beautiful document I now have to enjoy forever:)

And by the way, apparently that is me, mommy, with the eyes and smile in the top left hand "0" letter. He thought that was so funny to draw my face inside the letter. Quite tickled with himself actually!

remember this cutie pie?

It's hard to imagine our big four year old used to be this size!

BJ's soccer last week (he's in gold)

One for the other team!

One for us! Notice BJ has two team members he can pass to, and his coach is on the sidelines telling him, "BJ, there are Tristan and Dante, pass it to one of your teammates," and BJ strategically kicks the ball IN TO HIMSELF for a breakaway!!! His motto, "whatever it takes!" Just kidding!

Beatrix Potter

As the boys are tucked under their many covers tonight, they are listening to this wonderful collection of Beatrix Potter books on tape that we checked out from the public library a couple of weeks ago. BJ just LOVES them so much, esp. the Tale of Peter Rabbit. I thought I might tell my family about this tonight, just b/c it these stories always take me back to childhood when we read these same stories. They are so good! BJ likes to be tucked in, covers up to his ears, snuggled next to his monkey, black puppy, and Pooh bear, and THEN he's ready for me to push "play". Sadly, we have to turn them back in tomorrow. We'll probably check them out again on Friday though. We've done that twice now. Ha ha.

Also, Aunt Bess, wanted to let you know that BJ has become the master of the memory game (candy style) that you gave CJ so many years ago. He beat me tonight, fair and square, by one pair. He wants to play every day, and man those candies look good:)

Halloween Puppets

12 mile run today!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm so delighted to share two new records with you. First of all, today I ran 12 miles, without stopping, for the first time in my life!!!!!!!!!!!!

I attribute this success to one of Rick's Charlene Blassingame Del Ray Woods cookies and a small bagel. I usually do not eat before I run, since I go so early in the morning. But with the temps below 32 again this morning, you better believe I waited until 9AM for rec center to open up. I had time to eat before running today, so I thought I'd do a little science experiment to see how the carbs before running might affect the run. It was fantastic!

With the quantitative research class I'm taking, I should be able to identify what the independent variable and the dependent variable are in this treatment program!!! But I can't tell you!!! I always get those two variables mixed up.

Man did I feel good leaving the gym!

And so, that brings my weekly run mileage to a new personal record as well: 42 miles

S- rest
M- 7 miles
T- 5.5 miles
W- 7 miles
Th- 4.25 (not bad considering I had a 7:30 meeting that morning!)
F- 6.25 miles
S- 12 miles

Now of course I'm sitting in the red chair with my legs propped up on the footstool and drinking some hot cinnamon tea in the Flavia mug that mimo gave me a while ago. I love this mug.

who is that big kid on the field?

I know it's a bit small, but CJ is wearing all black. He passes to his buddy Caleb, who in turn passes it back to CJ and into the goal. It was a great play!

The other video you'll notice all these sweet kids who love to play with Rick after the games. Tonight they played for about 15 minutes after the game was over. So funny.