Mr. and Mrs. Oktoberfest

Brett and I love dressing up - ACTUALLY, I love dressing up and Brett does it because he loves me!!!!! This year, I think that he was a little excited about the annual Halloween party because he found these costumes in August. We ordered them and have been waiting to dress up.

The kids love seeing us dressed up. Madison kept looking at me and just smiling. Caitlin kept asking me what my name was. Blake looked and just kept playing. Maybe he is getting used to our craziness?????

My parents were down for the weekend and watched the kids while we went to a great friends house. It was a neighborhood party. We have gone for three years now. It is so much fun to see everyone dressed up. We had a great time and have been talking about what we will dress up like next year.

Tinker Bell

Caitlin's preschool halloween party was this morning. She was so excited to dress up as Tinker Bell. She picked out her own costume this year. She was so cute. She danced and pretended to fly while I was taking pictures of her.

My sweet Caitlin

Caitlin has had a very hard week. She woke up last Monday morning with a horrible cough. I was helping her go to the bathroom and found the biggest hives all over her body. I was so concerned. Brett kept assuring me that she would be fine. Her cough kept getting worse and the hives wouldn't go away. She started scratching herself raw. She was just the most pathetic looking little girl. She had no appetite except push up pops! She has missed a week and a half of school and is finally feeling better. She still has the scratches as battle scars. I had to pin her down to give her a breathing treatment one morning and it broke my heart. This is so unlike her. She is the most passive child that we have. I called Brett in tears and told him that she is really sick. He talked to one of the ER docs and they told him to NOT bring her in. She would catch something worse if we brought her in. She never ran a fever, so I was OK with his response.
One morning while trying to convince her to take MUCINEX, she said, "will the medicine help me sing again" ? Of course I said, "YES"!
We are going to try school on Thursday.

I took this picture of her in our backyard. I have been trying to convince her to come outside to take pictures all week. She finally was feeling up to it and ended up being so cute. I have just found out about this new editing software and just sat down for a minute to try it out. I can't wait to play around with it more.

Pumpkin Patch

Daddy's little peanut!

That smile was on her face the whole time.

Caitlin loved all the signs in the corn maze. I don't think the other two even read them as they ran right by.

Follow the leader...

DEAD END!!!!!

On your mark, get set, GO!!!!!

I love the fall. Maybe because it is my birthday, but the leaves are just beautiful. Going to the pumpkin patch and corn maze is a family favorite of ours. We have this great family owned pumpkin patch just around the corner from us. They have the best corn maze. This year the kids were so cute. They ran ahead of us and found the way. Brett and I just followed them and laughed at how cute they were. They would crack up and yell, "DEAD END". Between all the ran, cold weather, and sickness, we weren't able to go until this weekend. The kids picked out great pumpkins. The little pumpkins were a hit this year. The kids got a big one and little one each. They thought that it was great to get two pumpkins. Madison said that it would look like we had 6 kids. Thankfully, she added that that would be too many kids in our family. I reassured her that three is the perfect number for us!!!!!

Pumpkin Doctor

Blake's second grade class was able to carve pumpkins. Someone donated surgeon caps for the kids to be pumpkin doctors. Blake has never been a fan of the gooey stuff in the pumpkin. Come to think of it, he has never scooped it out in the past. I was hoping peer pressure might set in and he might just do it.

Both Caitlin and Madison were home sick that day, so I couldn't go up to the school to help out and watch.

His teacher wrote me an email about how funny Blake was. She said that he wasn't interested in touching "the gooey stuff". She kept encouraging him, but ended up giving it a good scrape at the end. While she was scraping it out, he said, "Every doctor needs a good assistant".

He was so proud of his pumpkin that he did MOSTLY by himself. Check out all the eyes that he put on it!

35 years YOUNG!!!!!

Favorite restaurant in K-zoo --- Fandangoes!

Brett got us this car service for the night. LUCKY LADY!!!!

Wow, where has the time gone? I am still struggling with the fact that I am getting older. However, I think that my 30's have been the best years so far.

So my birthday celebration was just amazing. My parents came down to visit and help me out while Brett was in Arizona. We went to our usual RED ROBIN birthday celebration dinner Friday night. My parents took my kids and headed back to their house for the weekend. I had about 3 hours of alone time at my house. I must say that I actually was bored. My wonderful three firends from the Detroit area came that night and we went out for the night. I really miss those girls!

We tried to sleep in the next morning since we had no kids, but just couldn't. Why is that? We watched a movie, did a little shopping and then got ready for dinner. We met several other K-zoo girlfriends at the restaurant. We had a great time eating delicious food.

Sunday, I met my brother in Jackson to get the kids back. I was ready to see their smiling faces. They looked like they missed me over those two days.

I also went out to dinner with two friends that weren't able to make it out over the weekend on Monday night. I definitely loved celebrating my birthday for 4 nights.

I definitely need to hit the gym hard this week to burn up all those CALORIES that I consumed. I love birthdays!!!!!!

Cheerleader - GO WILD CATS!!!!

Madison was so excited about Cheering. She did a three day cheerleading clinic afterschool. The highschool cheerleaders taught the girls some cheers. She cheered at the Friday night highschool football game.

Brett and I have never been to a highschool football game before. Those private boarding schools really sheltered us. It rained all day on Friday and I was even thinking about bribing Madison into NOT going. Being out in the cold and rain wasn't exactly appealing to me. Brett called and told me that we were going. He said that she worked hard for this and that she was going to go and cheer. So we all bundled up and headed out. We were actually going with our good friends - Madison's cheering partner. As we were walking into the stadium, it stopped raining. YEAH!!!!! It was a little chilly, but at least not wet. Madison was so cute and loved every minute of it. She can't wait until next year. Blake and Caitlin liked the popcorn at the concession stand. I liked all the school spirit. GO WILD CATS:)
"Peel Banana" was her favorite cheer. At the end of peeling the banana, they sing - GO BANANAS - and the girls start jumping up and down in circles. Caitlin even sings it now...