Halloween Preview

The boys finally started asking about Halloween today, so I unveiled their costumes.  Thanks to Grandma Pam for the idea and materials.  All I had to do was add decals to the capes with fabric paint! 

The glasses and capes were a big hit

Doing some comparisons--Jacoby's has silver bats and Morgan's has spiders and webs

They've been flying around the house, eradicating all sorts of evil and bringing justice to the world

...and making major messes, as you can see.  Lucky for me, these super heroes are great cleaners too!  (:

I spruced up clementines for the upcoming Kinder Halloween party.  Justin and I spent most of Quiet Time today making a bunch of rice krispie treats, shaped like pumpkins, for the Kindergartners to decorate with frosting and sprinkles on Wednesday.  We'll also be trick-or-treating for the first time this year.  (:

Around the House

Here are a few things that have kept us busy this fall:

 

Remember how I mentioned we adopted this beauty from my mom-in-law?

It's been in her family for many, many years, but needed a little TLC.  Justin tightened and adjusted all of the hardware and I sanded off most of the layers of finish.  I couldn't bring myself to strip it entirely--it just felt like I would be erasing too much history.  So it doesn't have an entirely smooth finish on top, but I like the character of all the dings and scratches.

My mom found these two chairs at an antique store in Billings.

Here are the main table pieces sanded down, thanks to my trusty sander.

All primed and ready for a face lift.

Ta-Daa!  I'm very pleased with how it turned out.  The color I chose was called "Phantom Mist" and I liked it because it wasn't black, black.  Of course, it looks brown in these pictures.  After it got two coats of paint, I roughed up the edges with sand paper, and then put on a couple of coats of polyacrylic.  It cured for a week in the garage.

The bench is also from an antique store in Billings, and I love it.  It's great for the boys.  I plan to get a few more mismatched chairs.

Some of our favorite fall pictures from years past...can you believe the boys were no bigger than pumpkins just a few short years ago?!

The plan for the table is to use it for homework, art projects, work, etc., since we do very little formal dining.  I have more plans for this room, but for now we're really enjoying the table.  Jacoby is reading and finishing up homework in this pic.

Our front porch.  I have a thing for burlap right now, but the banner always makes me smile.  

In other news, Morgan went on a parent-free field trip to a farm with his preschool class today.  They took very good care of him--I breathed a sigh of relief when they arrived back at school.  Morgan rear-ended a parked truck while riding his bike this weekend.  He's very lucky to not be missing any teeth but does have quite an ouchy on his lip.  I finished up a huge printing project for the board meeting today (which kept me from going on the field trip).  Justin is turning in what will hopefully be the last version of his dissertation proposal and hopes to defend it next month.  Jacoby is doing really, really well in school.  We're so thankful, and I think I might be finally coming out of the funk I've been in with public school.  Maybe.  I'm doing a snack activity for Jacoby's class Halloween party next week.  It's allowed me to connect with another parent whose child has a wheat/gluten allergy, which is great.

Happy fall everyone!

Pumpkins

I figure I'm going to start sounding like a broken record if I keep mentioning what a busy season this is for us.  So, I'm just going to share things we've been enjoying, and you can assume that busyness, stress, and being overwhelmed are just a given.  (:

 

We visited a small, quaint farm in our neck of the woods for our annual pumpkin outing 

  

We met several of the friendly residents

Even these two.  They were very curious, but also very shy.

Such a gentle face

You can tell what Jacoby thought about getting this close to the creatures...

These two honked at us about every two seconds

We enjoyed watching this chicken go in, out, and around the hay maze.

Sweet boys

Morgan carrying one of many pumpkins he wanted

Most of the pumpkins had been brought up to the farm stand, but the boys still wanted to look through the pumpkin patch

Where the minis grow

The second, third, or fourth pumpkin Morgan wanted to bring home

In the end, the boys decided they wanted little pumpkins so we could get a large family pumpkin

This boy enjoyed a day off from school

Catching up on some zzz's after a really busy week

Here's the bohemoth the boys picked from the farm stand

Our fall mantle

We love the cool evenings and have been spending a lot of time on the bikes before the snow flies

Speaking of snow, see the snow on the peaks in the distance?

Our ghosties...about as spooky as we'll be getting for Halloween.  They will be out on the front porch for trick-or-treating

Some other enjoyable things include, reading books by the fireplace, drinking coffee on the front porch, breakfast with a friend, planting bulbs around the yard for spring, and watching the debates with the boys.  We've been talking about why the debates are happening, who the candidates are, and how the election works.  When the vice presidential candidates were debating, Jacoby said "Mommy, those two aren't friends, right?".  (:  It was a good opportunity to talk about having a difference of opinion, and how this plays out between the two brothers.

Have a great week!

Fall is Here!

Three cheers for fall, changing leaves, cooler weather, and pumpkin spice lattes!  We are crazy busy, but we're also enjoying the season and some time together as a family.  We've deemed Friday evenings "Family Night" and take turns planning activities.  Morgan went first, so we played Candy Land and ran around with flashlights.  This last Friday, Justin took the boys to the school hoedown and then we sat around our warm fire place while Justin showed the boys some video on the Mars rover.  They really like space things right now.

The weeks are flying by for us.  Jacoby is doing great in Kindergarten.  He's reading and really seems to enjoy math.  We have parent-teacher conferences tomorrow, so we'll find out how he's doing from his teacher's perspective.  His class went on a field trip last week to a farm right across the street from school.  I volunteered and was pleasantly surprised by how well-organized the trip was with 29 kids.  It was a very cold morning, so they were nearly frozen by the end of it.  This farm grows peanuts, so it was an educational experience for both Jacoby and me.  I'm still adjusting to the public school routine and all of the food activities...one week at a time is my mantra right now.  Jacoby is growing like a weed.  At his last endocrinology appointment, he gained two pounds and grew nearly an inch!

Justin is busy with work and his dissertation proposal.  He's conquered several major projects and feels good about what he's able to contribute.  Despite being a DU student, he did not come by tickets to last week's debate!  Morgan is just busy being 3.5.  I think he's adjusted to being without Jacoby during the weekdays.  I'm busy with a fall board meeting, and all of Jacoby's school stuff.  Some days I feel as if I were the one in Kindergarten!  I'm also enjoying doing quite a few projects around the house.  I'll have to do a separate post with those updates.

Here are some more updates with pics:

Jacoby participated in the school Jog-a-Thon...he ran 8 times around the track and got a school water bottle

A tiger sighting.  He's tame...most of the time.

Before our weather turned cold, the boys' favorite snack was honey crisp apples out on the patio

We broke out the paints one weekend.  These master pieces have been incorporated into our fall decor (pics to come).

Playing baseball with Daddy

Learning how the Native Americans dyed cloth with amaranth and sunflower

Learning how to grind corn

Learning about peanut plants

Picking out a pumpkin (he's totally frozen in this pic)

Meet Jack and Francis...they accompanied the boys to the hoedown

Happy Retirement to Grandpa Bill!