Leaves?

So, I don't actually have a single tree in my yard, front or back. This is something that my boys complained a lot about when we moved into this house. We do intend to play a tree or two, but haven't gotten around to it. Despite this fact, I somehow end up with an unreal number of leaves in my yard. In the back, the pile was as tall as Wyatt. Caleb and the boys cleaned most of it up, and I thought we were done with leaves. A few days later we had a big wind storm and the next morning, I found the entire front yard covered in leaves. The boys love the leaves so much more than I do.

I even got some help cleaning them all up, and it is a good thing, because it looked like this a few days later.

Fall Break

Almost forgot that we had a fun fall break in between the Marathon and Halloween.

Some of the fun things we did.

Went to a great private park with Anne, and got to climb around, run and play with new friends. It was beautiful.

 We went to Wheeler Farm to wander around in the sun and see the animals.

 Had some corn from our garden... those are the full size ears.

 Wandered around all of the cool places near our neighborhood. Threw rocks in the water. Played on the playground and climbed tree.

 Squeezed in a little bowling.

Gotta love having some time off school just to mess around.

Happy Halloween

We had a super fun Halloween this year. Caleb has told me that I have let the boys expectations get too high by trying to create whatever costume idea come to their heads. Sadly, I can't help it. They get so excited and then go on and on when it is all finished about how much they love it. It just feels like I have to keep doing it, as long as they keep getting excited about it.

Pre-trick-or-treating shot.

And in order of age... not necessarily in order of awesomeness...

Gavin- The Roman Knight

Gavin picked his costume all to fit around that sword. Which all of the boys thought was the coolest plastic sword they had ever seen. We also had to make some choices around which helmet would fit Gavin's head. Luckily, it all came together to look great. Not too shabby for a mom without a sewing machine.

With his best friend during the school parade around the neighborhood.

Somehow Henry got the idea that he wanted to be a minotaur. Not an easy costume to make for a skinny 6 year old, but luckily he had quickly abandoned the idea of needing to appear to have big muscles. He loved his costume and wore the nose around for several days. He is, by far, the easiest kid to please when it comes to things like this. He gets excited about the small things.

Also with his good friend in the school parade... no weapons for school, of course.

As with most 3 year olds, Wyatt got excited about being one thing... A real knight, and then made a last minute change on Halloween...

... To batman. We are pretty lucky to have such a good stash of costumes hanging around.

Finn was our little monster. He even got fully into character and did lots of yelling and howling when we tried to take his picture. I finally learned that there is no point in going to tons of effort on a costume for a boy this age. They just had it. At least, Finn was tricked into feeling like he had been let off the hook. And he was pretty cute.

Just a couple more group shots.

And a peek at the loot at the end of the night... way too much candy, but lots of fun was had.

Pumpkin Time

We had some serious pumpkin fun in October. Wyatt kept begging me to buy "tiny pumpkins" every time we saw them at the store, so I finally did. Then the boys got out our large collection of sharpies and went to work designing the pumpkin art.

 It was serious business. and they all made great decorations for the door step.

 Next came the carving... We didn't get around to this until a couple of nights before Halloween, but it was a lot more fun than usual. This was mostly because in the past, all of the boys will draw some sort of complicated design on their pumpkin and then ask Caleb and I to cut it out. This never ends exactly like they seem to hope it will. This year, we got out the small carving knives and Henry and Gavin set to work carving their own pumpkins with just a little help from us on how to work in the new medium of pumpkin. It was awesome. Aside from scooping the seeds out, I got to sit back and watch the creative boys at work.

 Thinking over his next move.

And the final project. 

 Caleb wasn't quite as lucky as me in his level of involvement, but I think he enjoyed making his creepy creation.

 Wyatt was a bit tired and grumpy and most just bossed people around and then went to play with Finn.

 The finished products. They looked pretty awesome.