Pumpkin carving

It's funny to watch my sister's kids paint pumpkins or for them to
carve them for their kids! My three are doing the whole process by
themselves and of course do not want any help. They are taking on some
challenging designs, we'll see what happens!! So fun!!

Kate 5th grade

Yesterday was the kids Halloween parties at school. I was downstairs in my classroom at my student's parties and decided to sneak upstairs to see how Kate and Wil were doing at their parties. Wil was in his typical glory, getting way too much attention for being dressed as a pink lady (more on that later). He was having a great time playing games and solving puzzles. I then walked down the fifth grade hallway and it was quiet and dark. I was a bit confused, but then it slowly dawned on me that Kate was in FIFTH GRADE. The fifth graders have a huge party in the cafeteria. Although it may not be significant to others, fifth grade is a huge year here. Fifth graders rule the school and have lots of privileges that the other students don't. I teared up as it struck me that this is her LAST Halloween party at school. How did this fact escape me? I quickly rushed to the cafeteria and could not locate Kate in the massive groups of boys running around and groups of girls giggling...stations of games and crafts set up and dance party music and way too much food! After what seemed liked forever I spotted her with a group of girls decorating some crafts, she is in her sweet ladybug costume and her friends are all just like her (note the NEMO costume on Jessie). It was a huge relief to me that although she is growing up fast, she is still little enough to be a lady bug and do a craft for Halloween...don't grow up too fast Katie Bumblebee. Love u!

Happy birthday, Daddy!

We had a very busy day on Chris' birthday and he had to work late.
Bushia made a casserole and cake that we took to him at work. It was
the kids first trip to their dad's shop and they were most impressed
with the warehouse and forklift, hence the picture of them in the
warehouse. We were glad we had celebrated the weekend before with a
wine and cheese party.

Soccer tournament

Kate's team traveled to a soccer tournament in Illinois this weekend and they took second place! It was so exciting to get to go to the championship game, but we lost. The girls played 6 games in two days (2 EARLY morning games) and they just didn't have the legs to win the championship. They played super hard and it was so much fun to watch!

Muddy backside

Cold, wet, muddy

And TWO wins in the tournament! Awesome job Kate!!

Wil's crazy hair

A few great soccer pictures of Kate

Crazy hair day

Here is the back of Kate's crazy hair!

Endless energy

Wil: Mom, do I have soccer tonight?
Me: No
Wil: Mom, do you ever just get the urge to run around and sweat?
Me: um, I used to (thinking:you're kidding me right?)
Wil: I think I'm gonna do some core body work outs, then work on my
footskills and run around to sweat, ok?
Me: fabulous (thinking: can I have a dose of his energy?)

Sonny needs a haircut

Wil did a photo shoot of Sonny, too bad he needs a haircut!!!

Kate and her buddy

Kate's class went to the zoo today with their buddy class. She had
great weather and a really good time!

Wil asthma

Just when we think his asthma is under control...he has a bad attack. This morning he had the full out, I can't breath, wheezing and cough and then puking kind of attack. He has had a treatment and is doing much better. Poor baby is laying on the couch, he told me,"it's a good thing my nose is not stuffy this morning or else i would not be able to breath, I can't breath out of my mouth without it hurting." I am assuming it is just viral or allergies. Thought it might be the flu this morning when he was puking and miserable, but so far just typical asthma attack kind of day. I am hoping he avoids the flu as I know we will have the asthma junk to go along with it! Keeping my fingers crossed that he continues to improve throughout the day!

Kate scored in soccer and volleyball

Kate played so incredible in her soccer game, she was on fire! So much
fun to watch her skill level continue to improve!

Forgot to take a volleyball picture but she musta been still on an
adreniline rush from soccer as she played awesome!! The rest of the
team really stepped up too! So fun to watch how much they have
improved this season! They beat an undefeated team! So exciting!

Kristen school pictures

So it's a picture of a picture, but it's too cute!! 7th grade!!!!
Yikes!!

War paint

So the pressure was on Kristen to win the fifth game of the day. She
had an awesome game and won 2-0!!

Winner

Wil scored!!

Winner!

Kate played amazing for St. Paul! Won 1-0. Wil's first game was
cancelled due to wet fields. Marissa won her game 3-0 (our adopted
child for the week), although she is a muddy mess! Wil is playing
Squids right now (we are freezing!) and Kristen plays at 2! Two
birthday parties later today and then MIZZOU game!!

Pork butt

Ok really a shoulder, but (no pun intended, ok maybe a little) daddy
smoked for 11 hours today and the whole neighborhood came down for
dinner. Awesome job dad !!

Lawyer William

Today in his gifted class Wil held fairy tales on trial and he was
Goldilock's lawyer as she was on trial for breaking and entering! He
looked the part!

Soccer win!!

Ok, so it's not the right photo but Kate's select soccer team beat an
undefeated team! The game was awesome and Kate played out of her mind,
not only second effort, but third and fourth efforts that gave them
the 2-1 win over an undefeated team! The other coach was so mad he
made his team run after the game (not significant to anyone but Kate
and me ;-).

The picture is of the kids at the mall before the game. The girls got
new jeans ( horrible to shop for tall skinney girls). And we had
pretzels to "carb load" before the game... Lol.

We also went shopping for a birthday present. Wil went to an indoor
laser tag, birthday party. We went grocery shopping and had homemade
pizza for diner with the neighbors. Including housework! Dang
Cardinals should have won so we could have been at a playoff party!!

The girls had a friend spend the night and they camped out in the living room. Wil went to an exhibition hockey game and then to cosmic bowling with a friend and spent the night out ;-)

Busy weekend! Daddy worked but he came home happy as Jimmie Johnson
won NASCAR! At least someone won this week!!!

Biscuits n gravy

The girls made breakfast with our neighbors this morning to drown our
sorrows after the Cardinals loss!

Columbia

The kids are having a good time with their cousins! The girls even
went on a paddle boat ride (it is freezing!).

MIZ

ZOU! Until the bitter end! In the rain for 6 hours and the BEST time
ever!!!

PHOENIX

Click HERE to read the post on my sister's blog about the kids trip to Phoenix.

Click HERE to read about the pumpkin patch in the desert!

Luv ya Chutka!!

Lone Elk Park

KJ and I went to Lone Elk park this morning for a few hours, she took almost 300 pictures with my iphone. I played with the new imovie on our mac and it was really easy to learn. I don't know all the bells and whistles so it is a simple slide show. I really doubt that anyone wants to watch 8 minutes of so-so pictures of Elk, but it was a good time. Some idiots got out of their car and the bull charged at them and they had to jump on top of another persons car to not get hurt. DUH..that would be why the sign says DO NOT approach animals! Kristen had a great time hanging out the sun roof taking pictures.

OK, so really we made this for Noah and Caleb who might be missing the fall in STL! LOVE U!

Hi Kate and Wil

All smiles

I WISH this was a better picture, you would see two kids who could not
stop smiling!

Off to AZ