Where does time go?

I can't believe it's really been 17 days since I posted. Man, life just keeps trucking by. I'll think of stuff I think I should post here, and then time goes on, and I forget whether I've posted it or not. So I guess I'll try to catch up a little...beware, it's likely to be random!!

First, here's a conversation E and I had a little over a week ago:

E: Mommy, is there any Big Ten football on today?

Me: No, honey, not today. (it was Sunday)

E: Only ONE day a week?

Me: I know, isn't it a bummer???

So, the brainwashing is coming along quite nicely. :) heehee

We've been trying to get lots of fall fun in the last couple weeks. Fall is my favorite!!! About 10 days ago T got off work a little early and we drove up to Ledges State Park. We went for a nice little hike and enjoyed God's creation. The leaves weren't quite as pretty as we'd hoped, but it was really nice. Then of course we drove down through the 'canyon' road and over the stream, gunning it as we drove over it so it splashed up high, much to the squealing delight of the boys. Here's a couple shots from that trip:

My attempt at nature photography:

Then that weekend we did quite a bit of work with the leaves in our yard. We have A LOT of them. We love that our lot has several big trees, but man....lots of leaves!!!

There might have been a little bit of a leaf fight! :)

Those leaves didn't exactly STAY in the same place we raked them. :) We did eventually get them into bags...most of them anyway.

This past weekend we had a nice get-away to Omaha. We took the boys to the "Momoha Zoo" (as G calls it). It was chilly, and soggy much of the time, but we still had a great time.

Mommy with the boys in the jungle:

The zoo has a really cool butterfly exhibit now. Very cool.

The goats were G's favorites. :)

After the zoo, we went to the hotel, where we had a nice swim. Then in the evening, T kept the boys in the hotel while I went to the Steven Curtis Chapman/Michael W. Smith United tour concert with some friends. It was amazing. Our tickets were 6 rows from the stage, and mine was RIGHT in front of SCC. Unbelievable. I'm a HUGE SCC fan, and just think he's an amazingly gifted artist and an inspiring, humbling witness of God. It was such an awesome night. Anyway, we went swimming again in the morning, then got on the road, as we needed to be back for E's last soccer game of the season. He did great. It was a fun season for him. He seems to really love soccer and he 'gets it' now and is a decent little player...well, ya know...for a 6 year old. :)Getting the medal from the coach:

One last "GO TIGERS!!!" :)

Okay, that's it. I need to get a move on this morning. Need to get some school done, then we're going on a co-op field trip to some horse stables. G's going to FLIP!!! It's going to be a cold one, I think, but hopefully we'll still have lots of fun. Look for pics in upcoming days!! :)

Right from the horses mouth...

G is obsessed with horses these days. Really truly obsessed. We pretty much ONLY check out horse books when we go to the library, when we're driving outside the city, we must all be on the lookout for horses, etc. I don't really know when and how this happened. It used to be dogs....a little while back it was cows...now?? horses....it cracks me up when he talks about appaloosas.

So, last night, we were riding in the car after a trip to Target. G had helped buy himself a little horse figure toy. As we were riding, G was making some annoying noise. E asked him very nicely to stop. G kept it up. We told G that his brother had asked him nice, and he needed to stop. Here's the interaction that followed:

G: It was the horse!!
Me: Well, you'd better tell the horse to stop.
G: He says 'NO!'
Me: Well, the horse had better stop, or he will get a time out or a spanking.
G: He will say YES!!!!

T just about bust out laughing. It really was funny. At least the horse was able to dodge disciplinary action. Oh, interesting about this horse toy. G asked me if it was a mommy horse. I said I think so...oh, let me see...so I look at the horse. WOW!!! Um...I've seen udders on cow toys and stuff, but this horse is, um, CLEARLY a stallion. Good grief. You rarely see 'male' toys be anatomically correct. This one sure is. I simply informed G that it was a daddy horse. I didn't show/tell him how I knew. Heaven knows my boys do NOT need another reason to discuss their, um, anatomy these days.

Anyway, things are good here. We had our regular play/mom's group this morning, then met a friend and her 2 boys at a park for 2 1/2 hours or a little better. Then home for G to have a nap, E and I did a very short and modified school session, as we were finished with our work for the week (actually quite ahead in some areas). Tonight we met some friends at a BIG wooden fort/play structure about 20 minutes away, and then since it gets dark SO early anymore, we went back to their house to play.

No huge plans for the weekend. Soccer game tomorrow afternoon. Church and SS on Sunday. we'll see what else we drum up for fun...and hopefully some relaxation. Have a great weekend everyone!

Wanna come for dinner??

I'm feeling like such a Suzy Homemaker today. It's only a little after 2, and I have dinner made!! YAY!! Southwest white (chicken) chili in the crockpot, and honey oatmeal bread in the breadmaker. Perfect cool fall day meal, don't you think? We're headed off to a park playdate in an hour or so, which will get us home between 5 and 5:30, so if it wasn't going to be a last minute scramble, I had to think way ahead. YAY for actually doing that. Now if only the dishes were cleaned up...

So, E, Mr. Firstborn, really was never very mischievious. Just didn't get into that much trouble. He has his own 'issues', with arguing, even over very silly things like what time it is, etc. But G....well....he's different...here's some proof...

He apparently was in search of a piece of gum and thought it'd be good to rifle through my purse while I was upstairs finishing up school with E for the day and ran across some lipstick. Nice, huh? He also wrote all over E's bedroom walls the other day with a ballpoint pen. I'm pretty sure that the Magic Eraser is going to take care of it, as it for a sample spot, but I just haven't gotten to it yet. Once before he 'expressed his artistic self' on the wall with a washable marker, which came off pretty easy. E also never really went down the "I don't like you!!" road when he didn't like a decision...this one? Heads right on down that road on a fairly regular basis. Ugh.

So, other happenings since I last posted...

E officially turned 6. It was a nice day. Presents before Daddy went to work (Boom Blox for the Wii, pj/lounge pants, and a Pokemon sticker book from us and G, and another Leapster game from my folks. We did a modified school day -- spelling and math drill online instead of our regular routine -- and we went to McD's for lunch. I was right about him choosing Carlos O'Kelly's for dinner. That was fun, and he looked adorable in the hat just like G did:

Monday of this week was a busy day. My folks came to Des Moines on the way back from Iowa City, where they went to the football game on Saturday. We had a family dinner with them and my brother and his family to celebrate 4 different birthdays. Anyway, my parents were still here on Monday morning and hung out playing with the boys. Then we had a field trip for co-op to an apple orchard. We had a great time, and it was spectacular weather (has been pretty much all week).



After the orchard we continued on up to Ames to visit my mother-in-law, who was in the hospital following extensive back surgery. Then back home for dinner (which, by the way, I'd thought ahead and put in the crock pot that day too!!!), and E had soccer practice that night. I stayed home and got started on laundry and did some cleaning. BUSY day.

OH!!! Friday night I got to hang out with a great friend having dinner at a BRAND NEW restaurant here called Graze, and scrapbooking til pretty late. It was a great time. Now I think I have to leave the scrapbooking put away for a while. I'm working on a project for the above-mentioned friend and I'm on a mission to get it done.

School is still going great. We started on subtraction yesterday, and we've got about 10 books left in the stack for him to read, and at his current rate, that'll be only 2-3 weeks. Fortunately, a friend has loaned us the 'advanced level 2) readers from the same curriculum that we're using, so we'll just keep trucking on. E did great at his soccer game Saturday. We'll have another one this Saturday.

So, that's life here. Loving the spectacular fall weather!!! Keep it coming God!!! :)