Fall

So we've been keeping busy - football is over, soccer is over, our schools Haunted Woods is over, heck even Halloween is almost here and gone. Ah fall, I love fall - I love the weather, the crispness, the gardens are all sleeping, the trees are naked, you can eat chili because it warms you up. I love everything about it - I do. Even though I've only been blogging here once a week, I have been taking photographs of my kids - I have. I'm trying to capture those perfect Christmas card pictures. Since I got my new camera last winter - I'm trying to perfect my images - sometimes I do, sometimes I don't and thank goodness for digital because my kids can be a real pain when it comes to getting them to not make that awful I am forcing a smile, smile.

Like this:

or this one:

although he looks like this for real most of the time.

We've been slowly cleaning up the outside, Ryan was my hero and made three sets of corn hole games for our elementary school - I think he's starting to cringe when I come home from PTO meetings. We had our first Halloween party at our friends the Webbers. It was our trial run for costumes and I think it went well - Jon is going to be Harry Potter -Drew - Ron Wesley (Harry's BFF) - Penny - The Little Mermaid. Jon was the only one that actually wore his costume. Drew refused to wear his cloak so he just looked like a disheveled frat boy with red hair and Penny wore her costume, but not the crown, shoes or jewelry we had to have when we were at the store. I dressed up too because I offered to paint faces at her house and then painted faces at our school event. Leslie was gracious enough to take a few pics:

Her daughter wondered why I wasn't a vampire - apparently my "twilight" reputation proceeds me. Truth be told I didn't get my costume until that morning, I was going to be perfectly happy wearing my butterfly wings and being a butterfly again - Jon informed me of my potential faux pas and I went out last minute- much to Ryan's chagrin - looking for his and my costume. I had a hard time, first off because I wasn't sure what to be and second there isn't a lot that a woman can wear in front of kids when it comes to available costumes - hell I blushed just looking at some of the pictures. Ryan informed me that it isn't about others seeing you in it - hint, hint - sorry babe the sleazy SWAT team get-up is still on the shelf. Witch was about the most benign thing I could get away with and I STILL had to add a turtleneck to hide the girls. Ryan will be dressing as Sirius Black from Harry Potter - prison breakout version. He donned it for us on Saturday and he looks great. For someone who doesn't like Halloween, he does pretty great.

It was a fun day - like I said Drew had his last soccer game:

Yes he scored, yes he's a good 5 inches taller than most of the kids in his league - my gentle giant

On Sunday we picked pumpkins:

Why couldn't I have THIS picture for the Gap Casting Call?

Penny had the best luck in the field - we went later this year so most of the field pumpkins were green, Jon eventually found an orange one and Drew was happy to pick one out of their bins.

That was our weekend in a nutshell - fun, busy, and at this point over. We have fall break this week and then we're celebrating Drew's birthday this weekend with my dad and brother and sister-n-law. I can't believe my baby boy is going to be 5 - some of you may be saying I can't believe he's ONLY going to be 5, but he still wuvs me and that's just fine by me.

Penny and Mom (photo credit: Drew)

Rock Star Pose

Thanks!