Five Little Pumpkins

The kids had so much fun for Halloween. We had a Fall Festival at church on Wednesday night where they did some trick or treating, and then we went trick or treating again on Saturday night. I was happy because we didn't end up with an insane amount of candy this year. They were so cute in their costumes, and they had fun helping design their own pumpkins. We used craft pumpkins this year (thanks Papa and Nana!) and the kids have been playing with them non-stop. Emily has named every one of them, too.

Here is Daniel with the pumpkin they carved at Mom's Morning Out.

Super Jonny! He is the fourth boy to wear this same costume.

Emily made a great cheerleader.

Daniel was so excited about the Thomas costume I bought him, but when it came time to go trick or treating he wanted to wear this homemade one instead. I made it for Nathaniel six years ago! He did wear the other one to Mom's Morning Out and storytime at the library on Friday, though.

Andrew as Batman. He wasn't fond of the cape.

It took us forever to find a costume for Nathaniel. I got this on Wednesday at CVS, of all places.

Ready to go get some candy!

Here are the pumpkins we carved. Jonathan was already in bed, but we carved one for him, too--it's the one in front of Daniel.

Jonathan just wanted to roll them around on the ground. Here he is this morning before church.
Happy Halloween!

Emily's Baton Routine Part 1

More of Emily's routines. I'll post the other half later. :-)

I realize the camera work isn't great--I was dealing with whiny boys. You can probably hear them in the background.

Emily's Jazz Routine

I finally figured out that my videos were too long to upload to my blog, so I've trimmed this one down. It's one of Emily's dances from back in May.

Nathaniel Playing Piano

Here is Nathaniel playing "Morning Has Broken." I love to hear him play. He is getting so good!

Best Buddies

I am so excited that I was actually able to upload a video. Yay! Andrew gives Daniel a ride on his tricycle a lot and it's so cute. I love it when they play together. It's hard to hear it, but after Daniel gets off the tricycle Andrew says, "Love you."

Random Pics of the Boys

Daniel is so excited to be Thomas the Tank Engine for Halloween. I got this costume at a great price at a consignment sale. He wore it for a few days straight until I told him we needed to put it away to keep it nice for Halloween. He (amazingly) agreed.


Here is my happy Jonathan in the car, with Andrew in the back.

After many tries, we were relieved that Daniel had finally gone to bed. This is what we found in Nathaniel's bed. Can you tell they are brothers? Notice Daniel's hand underneath Nathaniel. :-)

Here is Daniel reading the "newspaper," aka the Toys R Us ad!

That seems like a lot of pictures of Daniel. He is home with me all day, so I guess that's why. I'll post some of Emily soon.

Good morning, Dad! I know you're reading this, since you're my number one blog fan. :-) Have a great day! I love you!

Michael's Awesome World War II Speech

Two weeks ago, Michael gave a speech called "Remembering World War II" at the reunion of the 504th Bomb Group. There were 10 World War II veterans there with their families, as well as second generation members of the group. We had a nice dinner first, and I was privileged to sit next to Fiske Hanley, who was a prisoner of war in Japan, and his sweet wife, Jeri. He said he was kept in a 9 by 5 cell with five other men for six months. I can't even imagine what that would have been like, or what other things he suffered. He is a very kind man. He was so impressed with Michael, and after his speech he excitedly told Michael "I have a book I want you to have!" Now, really, I'm not just saying this because he is my husband--it was a wonderful speech! He had read their history and shared some information and anecdotes specific to their group. I sat there with a huge, goofy smile on my face as I watched people line up to tell him how much they enjoyed the speech, and one man even asked if he could use part of the speech for a book he is writing. I was so glad I was able to be there!

From left: Fiske Hanley, Jeri Hanley, me, and Michael