Scooby Dooby Doo Where Are You?

I had it all planned.....a Spongebob themed birthday for JJ.

After all, that kids does love Spongebob. And just for the record - I never ever would have let my first 2 kids watch a cartoon like Spongebob at that age. Anyway, he watches it and loves it. He also loves Scooby Doo. Originally I thought about doing a Scooby Doo cake, but decided that he liked Spongebob more.

So, I bought some Spongebob party favors and when I went to buy the Spongebob cake pan, JJ wouldn't let me buy it. He insisted I buy the Scooby Doo pan. So, we had a mixed up birthday!

But I will admit that this was one of my favorite cakes to make.

Maybe it is because I was a HUGE Scooby Doo fan as a kid too. But it was neat to watch Scooby come to life the more I decorated it!

And JJ refuses to say he is three - he thinks he needs to be six for some reason!

HALLOWEEN!!

We finally got around to painting some pumpkins on Friday. Due to the weather it had to be done indoors this year - something that won't be done again:) There were a couple of paint spots on the carpet that luckily came out with some stain remover!

Abby always does a pretty good job:

I am wondering when Jackson will actually try to paint a face on his pumpkin?

I was pretty impressed with JJ - he jumped right in and started painting away!

The kids couldn't wait to get into their costumes and go trick or treating! Luckily the weather was nice and they weren't freezing!!

And they were still in good spirits when they came back home!

Scarecrow, Saints and Such

This week has consisted of a scarecrow:

made by Abby! JJ has to give it a hug every time we leave or come home!

St. Francis of Assisi AKA Jackson:

St. Therese AKA Abby:

Still hoping we can get some pumpkins carved or painted at some point before Halloween is over!

All I want for Christmas....

is my two one front teeth tooth!!

After putting the kids to bed tonight, Abby came down about 20 minutes later because her tooth was too loose to go to sleep. I let her sit and watch TV with me for almost an hour as long as she agreed to keep trying to turn it and pull it out. Mike was at a work dinner, otherwise I would have just made him pull it out. I didn't think I could handle pulling it out. After almost an hour, I told her I would just tug on it a little - when I gave it a little tug, it came right out! Thank goodness there was no blood! She is now up in bed trying to get to sleep so the tooth fairy will come!

IT"S A .......

nice healthy baby as far as we could see:) The kids weren't as excited to be at the appointment as I thought they would be. Abby was pretty upset that we were not finding out if it was a girl or a boy. I can't believe that I actually held strong and now have to wait another 19 weeks to find out if us girls will be forever outnumbered!

3 Pumpkin Patches and 13 Pumpkins Later......

In a span of nine days, JJ and Abby and I managed to make it to three pumpkin patches! Jackson and Mike were able to join us for two of those trips. I have to say that I think three trips to the pumpkin patch in one season is a bit too much and we probably won't do that again! But the weather was wonderful for every trip which made them all enjoyable.

The first trip was to the Scarecrow Patch up in St. Libory, Nebraska. We had never been to this patch before. It was a first grade field trip. JJ and I rode the bus with Abby and all the first graders. I think the kids had a blast!

Here is the group of girls I was with:

Abby and her friend Cece teeter tottering.

Our group sitting on top of some straw!

The girls and JJ enjoyed running through the little maze.

The pumpkin chucker!! The girls really didn't have enough muscle to make their pumpkins fly too far!

Out to the pumpkin patch - Abby found her pumpkin right away!

The whole first grade class - minus about 5 students who were out sick that day.

The second trip was to Country Harvest Pumpkin Patch in Glenvil, Nebraska. We were invited by our friends to help celebrate their son's 4th birthday. I was so bummed because my battery on my camera went dead about 20 minutes after we got there. But I did manage to get a few pictures.

Tried to get a group picture of some of the kids - you can see how well it worked!

View from the top of the slide - looking down on the trike track

Most of the kids pumping water to move the duckies!

Checking out some of the pumpkins for sale.

Our last trip was to Helgoth's Pumpkin Patch up in St. Libory, Nebraska. As soon as we arrived at this one, the kids were all excited because it was the 'normal' pumpkin patch - in other words the pumpkin patch that we go to every year. The only reason we even went here is because Mike's company provided us with discounted tickets that included a free lunch and a free pumpkin. How could we pass that up?

Train ride

Teeter Totter!

Abby and JJ on the slide

In the corn maze

JJ showing off

Me and the kids

So, now we have the pumpkins and just have to find the time to carve or paint them. I found a cool idea in a magazine - decorating a pumpkin with some sunflower seeds. So, we'll see if I ever get around to trying that this year. If so, I'll be sure to post some pictures! The weather is supposed to be nice this weekend, so maybe we'll get some pumpkin decorating done then!

Halloween Preview

This is what the kids chose this year for their Halloween costumes - of course, I will NOT be dressing up as the scarecrow though. For the most part we have their costumes ready - just a few minor details need to be done. JJ's lion head is a bit snug on him, so I told him he has to at least wear it for pictures! But I couldn't pass up this photo op at the pumpkin patch!

How do you know when it is time to dust your furniture?

Mike didn't want me to post this picture at all. I told him he can pull out a dusting rag and dust just as easily as I can. After buying a black entertainment center, we discovered that it is IMPOSSIBLE to keep it dust free! Plus - won't it be fun to look back at this picture when the kids are older? They will get a kick out of this picture more than they would out of a picture of a nice clean dust free entertainment center! And I just love how cute JJ's footprint is! And it also helps me to see that he has been climbing on the entertainment center for some reason.

JJ doing his thing!

Here is a video of JJ pooping in the sunroom. This is where he goes when he has to poop. And every time if I ask him what he is doing - his response is "I'm Pooping!"

4:15:54

That is the official time from Mike's marathon. I am so very proud of him and all his hard work! It finally paid off. He never walked except while drinking the water/Gatorade. For the most part he was in good spirits every time we saw him!

Somewhere between Lincoln and Omaha (which is actually a pretty busy section of interstate for Nebraska) Mike all of a sudden darts over to the side of the interstate and stops the car. He jumps out and gets the kids out of their seats and spanks them at least 5 times each. I was too flabbergasted to even say a word or really have a reaction at all.

Before we could even get back on the interstate, Abby starts in again and she just won't quit. He put the van back into park and jumped out again and she got it again!

My mom and my aunt Julie drove out so they could help with the kids during the race. Mike went to eat his spaghetti dinner and listen to a marathon speaker. We finally were able to eat dinner at the THIRD restaurant we tried. The first two had closed since I had last been to the quad cities!

JJ earned the name of 'The Nebraska Strangler' while we were eating at Bennigan's. He kept acting like he was strangling my mom. And it just made it worse that we were laughing at him because it was kind of humorous at first.

It took over 1 1/2 hours to eat - the service was HORRIBLE!!

Back at the hotel, the lights were off by 9pm and everyone was off to dreamland! I was up at 2AM and was never able to get back to sleep. That made for a very long day for me! Must be those pregnancy hormones.

We first saw Mike as he was coming off the I-74 bridge over the Mississippi River - this was around Mile Marker 2. He gave us a smile and a wave!

We saw him again right before Mile Marker 5 - still in pretty good spirits.

The next time we saw him was right after Mile Marker 11. He got a high five from Jackson! The rest of them were eating Oreos and drinking some Kool-Aid!

We saw him again right around Mile Marker 12. He got high fives from all the kids this time. He then proceeded onto Arsenal Island. Spectators are not allowed on the island, so this can be a long 7 miles for the runners!

The next time we saw him was coming off Arsenal Island right after Mile Marker 20. He still managed a smile at this point. Only 6 more miles left! Jackson missed seeing him this time because him and Grandma Teresa had to hit the bathroom!

Mile Marker 26! Just before the finish line! We got NO smiles this time. I think he might have given us the evil eye - although he says he doesn't remember it! He crossed the finish line right around 4:17, but the official time of 4:15:54 comes from the chip on his shoe.

Took us awhile to find him after the race. He had went to sit down under the tent for a little bit. When we finally found him, he seemed in pretty good shape for just running a marathon!

Long drive home! Ate at Machine Shed in Des Moines and JJ ended up under the table so he could go poop. He hadn't done that at all on the trip and normally he goes to hide in the sun room at home. During dinner he kept whining about wanting to poop, so we told him to go under the table. And he did!

JJ is under the table in this picture - it was hard to get a good picture of him. He was under there for probably a good 10 minutes!

Finally made it home and everyone crashed hard!

Painting is DONE!!

Here are a few pictures of the finished project!!

Actually it is not 100% finished - still have to put up a new fan, put new outlets and light switches in, and put up new blinds.

But that stuff will have to wait until Mike is off 'bed rest' - which is only for a couple of more weeks and then the marathon will be behind him and he can get back to marking items off his 'honey do' list!

It feels good to have the painting done! Now my next project will be catching up on the housework that didn't get done while I was painting all last week.