Pumpkin!

We need to stick to basic pumpkin faces I think since the pictures make our pumpkin look like one with just 4 holes in it.  ;)  It looks better in person but it's 4 bats.  That is what Travis wanted--though next year we should start planning what we are putting on the pumpkin way before Oct 30th.  lol

Giving the pumpkin bunny ears

Now the pumpkin and Travis have bunny ears!  lol

All done!

I promise it looks better in person.  ;)

From the Halloween Parade

Travis' school has a Halloween parade every year on the Friday before Halloween (usually that is the day).  All of the kids and teachers dress up in costume and they literally parade around the school one class at a time.  Sometimes they run so you have to be fast.  ;)  This year like last year Travis wanted to be something that he wasn't going to be on Halloween night.  He was Alex Ovechkin for the parade and will be a black ninja on Halloween.  The kids all had fun and it doesn't hurt that it takes about 45 minutes out of their school day!  I took a video of Travis' class running by but something has happened to it--it wasn't on my chip just now.  Crap!  Enjoy the two pictures of him after the parade!

Just in time!

The bedroom in the basement is put together just in time for Evan's parents to get here later today.  They will notice a new flat screen TV on the wall since we couldn't find a TV stand that was tall enough/not too wide for the old TV.  (well I found stands that were but only for flat screen TVs and I got this TV as a graduation gift from college so it's definitely not flat-lol)  We will be tucking the cords up behind the TV but for now the room is totally livable again!  The bathroom is almost serviceable as well.  Before yesterday it was PACKED with stuff from the remodel/carpet etc.  I cleaned all that I could yesterday but the pool table slate is sitting in front of the shower and it's way too heavy for me to help Evan move....which means I can't get into the shower to clean in it until they get here and Poppy helps Evan move it.  Oh well.  :)

My kid? Are you sure?

Travis had his 1st parent/teacher conference this week.  Evan went since it was at 7am and someone had to be with our kids.  lol  His teacher had nothing but AWESOME things to say about Travis.  I know he's smart but I also know he has behavior issues.  She said he will be "meets expectations" on all of the behavior stuff which sent Evan (and me later) saying "WHAT?"  Maybe it's because she is a brand new teacher or because he is learning to behave himself in school but at home he still a wild child.  :)  And she said he "exceeded expectations" at washing his hands.......WHAT?  I have to ask him over and over to either wash his hands or if he washed them at all!  Anyway--kind of shocking.  I can't wait to see his actual report card and compare some of the categories to last year.  All of his school work, tests and homework have come back perfect so we shall see!  Maybe he will need that gifted program in the county that starts in 3rd grade?

Carpet!

Yesterday they put the carpet in the basement....which means the remodel/repair is now complete!  Just need to start putting all of the furniture etc into place which will take a few days since I can't do it alone.  Stay tuned for the final look!  (and yes the carpet is very light-Evan's choice not mine-lol)

Videos from last night's football game

Well the Bears lost their game in the rain last night.  Evan took a few videos when Travis was on the field but they are pretty blurry.  :(  (partially from zooming and he may have forgotten to push the focus button 1/2 way)  The 1st one is Travis causing a penalty-he is trying really hard to sack the quarterback these days.  lol  The 2nd video is just of a random play.  The 3rd is a kick off return that Travis was a split second from scooping up and the last one is Travis hobbling off the field.  He apparently got speared in the back by another kids' helmet (his words btw) and was having trouble breathing and walking.  No shock here that he was completely recovered about 2 minutes later.

Another attempt

This year will be the year that I don't get a decent pumpkin picture of the boys.  We tried again yesterday and none of the pictures really turned out.  It doesn't help that Brody doesn't ever look at the camera and he NEVER smiled on command.  Crap.  Here are the ones that weren't terrible--but they aren't great either.

We also have photographic proof that Travis got on the haunted bus for the 1st time in about 4 years.  He only got on to "drive" though so we gave him partial credit.  The scary heads, bloody hand prints etc are in the other part of the bus.  ;)

And what family outing wouldn't be complete without a temper tantrum?  Brody was NOT happy about leaving the bus, slide etc and man did he let Evan know!

He was flailing around like a mad man--this is Brody in mid-flail

Nice

Menu Oct 24-Oct 29

Monday-  Leftovers from Sunday
Tuesday-  Breakfast for dinner
Wednesday-  Turkey Pumpkin Chili (crock pot)
Thursday-  Chili leftovers-there is always enough for at least 2 meals
Friday-  Baked Mac and Cheese
Saturday-  FFY (fend for yourself) since we are going to a Halloween party!

Carpet gets here tomorrow!!!

I am so happy that the carpet gets put in tomorrow--maybe then we can finish putting the basement back together!  On Saturday we put the big TV and couches in the spot they will live now and it looks pretty good (well except for the lack of carpet and we didn't move the coffee table yet-lol).  Tuesday night will be busy around here trying to get things into their new homes!

Travis scored a goal today!

As luck would have it I didn't catch his goal on video but it was a great goal and he was SO excited!  The Teal Tornadoes are still undefeated!  Here are some pictures and video from today's game:

The video on my new phone is GREAT

Now keep in mind this isn't the best shot Travis has ever taken in his short hockey career but the video quality is really awesome!  Expect more and more of these to come!

Learning letters this morning

Multiplying

Brody is bringing up the trains from the basement one by one.  This picture is Brody and his collection.  There are still quite a few of them in the basement but the collection upstairs is growing!  It will be interesting to see what happens when the basement is finished and most if not all of them return to the basement where they were in the beginning!  He is such a train/Thomas freak...just like Travis.  Too cute.

What?  I don't see a problem here Mom.  ;)

They will be burned

No matter how much I have washed, bleached, scrubbed or stain treated these football pants...they remain looking like this.  Next year I will know that we need practice pants like this and will pick them up in the summer before the rush for them happens.  Evan got the very last pair the day before he needed to wear them this year--mostly because the coach hadn't told us newbies they needed practice pants with pads.  (I was assuming they would wear the pants provided by the league for practice also)  So next year Travis will have a pair of BLACK pants since we all know black hides a multitude of sins.

It was chilly at practice tonight--can you tell?

and for the record he took his gloves off within about a second of getting them on

I love this tree

It's just too bad that it isn't mine.  ;)  It turns the perfect Hokie colors every year and I love it.  Last year the neighborhood kids started raking the leaves of this tree and then I stuck my boys in the pile of leaves.  It made for some cute impromptu pics!  Hopefully we will be able to do that again this weekend!

Last year

He was so tiny!

This made me LOL

I learned something today......

I learned that a splitting headache and working out don't mix well.  I had an awful headache last night--either a migraine or a really bad sinus headache and it was "better" this morning but still not great.  I took some Aleve and trudged to the gym anyway.  I found out that about 1/2 of my strength class was either bent over or laying down which KILLED my head.    I then trudged over to my cycle class and fought the need to put in a ponytail since it would hurt. It certainly wasn't my best workout but I got through it.  I always feel better when I workout with a cold afterwards and was hoping for the same effect but it didn't happen.  Oh well--maybe I've really learned?  Maybe not-lol.

Trying to catch up

I am still trying to catch up on my scrapbook--the basement though really slowed me down.  It sucks not having a place to scrap anymore.  On Friday I went over to Judie's house and made a few pages.  I hope we get together again soon because I love getting stuff done and catching up with her!

At the pool in the OBX

On the beach!

Cuties

Gym check in

Sunday-none
Monday-  The Mixx class 567 calories burned, Barbell class 416 calories burned
Tuesday-  Strength training class 376 calories burned and Cycle class 646 calories burned
Wednesday-  Kickboxing class 561 calories burned
Thursday-  Barbell class 401 calories burned, Latin Fusion class 519 calories burned
Friday-  Latin Fusion class 543 calories burned
Saturday- none-football games for Travis

I love donation day!

I know I've said this before but roughly once a month we gather things for a donation.   If you haven't used it yet....you should.  It's so EASY!  I log onto http://www.gooddonor.org/ and select when I want to donate, what types of things I am donating and they just show up!The basement overhaul meant a lot of random things were going this time-things that we had but I have no idea why we still had them.  Like the 2 large boom boxes.  I know one was mine in college but I don't know about the other one.  Who uses those anymore?  ;)  A lot of random toys from the basement--and I mean random like crappy Happy Meal toys--all of the good toys are still down there.  I also got rid of a lot of old clothes that were too big--which exposed a huge problem in my closet.  I have not one long sleeved shirt that fits now.  I have a few 3/4 length shirts that are a little big (size L) but I probably need to get a few that fit.  I have found that even though I am now a M top I can't always wear a M because it tends to be too short in my arms AND my torso.    Hopefully I can find some acceptable "tall" ones on Old Navy.com or something.  Anyway.....it was GREAT to get that stuff out of the basement.  There were other things I wanted to part with but Evan wasn't ready yet.  ;) 

And no the cute kitty in the window is NOT getting donated

Travis is 1-0 as the goalie!

It took about one period for Travis to get comfortable with playing goalie but the 2nd and 3rd period he was blocking some great shots and even caught one in his glove!  He looked shocked and excited all at the same time!  It was a hard fought game but the Teal Tornadoes pulled out the 11-10 victory against the previously undefeated orange team!

In most of the videos Travis is just waiting for something to happen but the last video was one of his great saves.  Of course I started the recording after the first stop with his chest but I caught the part where he crawled forward to cover it up.  This was towards the end of the game when they were holding on to a one point lead.

Freecycle = 90+ minutes of peace

Yesterday someone on Freecycle said they had a brand new Geo Trax set and Thomas puzzle they wanted out of their house.  I jumped on the chance since we have a ton of Geo Trax and another few pieces of track and a new train is always welcome.  ;)  We got the stuff home and Travis built the set in the kitchen.....he and Brody played with it and played with it and played with it.  Brody is playing with it right now using his Thomas engines!  Another person's trash really is another person's treasure!

Engineers hard at work

Very important work

Brody is getting excited!

Now he is building it all over again.

Cheese!

Travis moved on to the Thomas puzzle.  ;)

I MUST carry all of these trains at one time!

Goof

She's here!

Evan will be spending the evening moving all of my stuff onto the new phone and I'm sure he will be figuring out the new gadgets etc for me.  ;)  I told him I didn't need the new one but he always likes to have the newest technology in the house and since his phone is still under contract and mine wasn't...I got the new phone.  Let's hope Apple makes a super good case since my darling kids have a tendency to drop my phone A LOT!