Halloween

I think I have set a new record for taking the fewest amount of Halloween pictures! Ima gets all costume credit again this year. (Thank you Mom!) Elizabeth wanted to be a witch, but a good witch. She picked the fabric and Ima sewed up a storm to make her a pink/purple good witch! Grant had a very difficult time deciding what to be. We finally narrowed it to two and since they were both pretty simple we agreed that he could have two costumes this year! Grant was a fisherman or a scuba diver. I can take credit for spray painting his air tanks but getting them in backpack form was all Ima! We did the indoor trick or treating at the high school (he choose to be a fisherman) and then they had their costume parade at school (again the fisherman) and then Halloween night Scuba Grant made his debut. His costume got a lot of compliments, while Elizabeth was commonly mistook for a princess, a fairy godmother or something else! At one point I whispered to Brandon "no one knows what she is" to which he replied "hell I didn't even know what she was!" She was a beautiful good witch and she was proud and that is all that mattered. We were able to trick or treat for an hour and a half with no coats, no gloves, no umbrellas - just very heavy candy bags! I stopped on the sidewalk about an hour in and asked everyone to take a moment to reflect on the best Halloween night we have ever had! No one really stopped, it was really more just me talking aloud hoping they were listening! I mean c'mon there were doorbells to ring!

We sorted candy into lots of different piles!

First stop on Halloween was giving out full size candy bars! 

It was a little breezy at the school parade!

Pumpkins carved after an Illinois game

Fisherman Grant at the school parade

Boo Bash

She got her full size candy bar too!

With the master seamstress!

Australia

I recently had the opportunity to visit the family who moved to Australia in the spring. This trip was made possible by Brandon and my Mom stepping in help out with the little chiefs in my absence! I was gone from a Tuesday to a Tuesday which was a full week for my family, but for me it was more like 5 days with all of the time traveling!

I was a little apprehensive about the flight and doing it by myself, but I really miss my friend and I knew I had the ability I just needed to put my girl panties on! My itinerary had me flying out of Chicago to LA, then LA to Sydney, Sydney to Brisbane. In the time leading up to my trip some nights I would lay awake and be nervous that no one would talk to me and then other times I would worry that someone wouldn't stop talking to me on the plane. As luck would have it I had a good mix of all! The flight from LA to Sydney is the long one...14-15 hours...go ahead and make it 16 because we sat on the plane for an hour before we took off, but who is counting?! For a brief moment I thought I lucked out and was going to have an open seat next to me, but he came back and I failed to get the armrest back down - rookie mistake. I know it sounds ridiculous to say that 15 hour flight went fast, but really it was fine. I watched a lot of movies, ate two meals and a snack, slept and only got up twice. I did wake up once and saw the flight map and it was only blue water and had a brief moment of panic, but what was I going to do...so I went back to sleep! I got through customs in Sydney and transferred over to the domestic terminal for my last flight and all was good - I even felt pretty good. And then I was reunited with my friend and I knew it was all worth it just for that moment.


I had told her I was fine sitting on the couch all day just chatting but she was determined to give me the full Brisbane experience and we still had all the time we needed to chat! We had lunch on Oxford street at a perfect little cafe. I got to pick the boys up from school and see where they spend their days. They took me to their favorite restaurant that night for dinner and by 8pm I was ready for bed!

The next day we took the City Cat (boat) into the city. We started with a walk in the Botanical Gardens. We stopped at a cafe to grab a drink and then we noticed comfy chairs calling our name and when we walked up to them and sat down we had an awesome view of the city. We sat there for a long time trying to solve a few of the world's problems! It was perfect and perfectly surreal...I was in Australia...with Jessica...it was a pinch me moment. We toured more of the city, shopped (Queen Street), had lunch (lemon lime bitters), went to South Bank, had a coffee and decided we probably had to go home to the boys! That evening we went to Eat Street which is like a food carnival but they use old shipping cartons/boxes as the food stand. It was a really fun experience. In case you are wondering what Sweden named their candy of the year, it was a raspberry salted licorice and none of us liked it!

Eat Street

Saturday morning we went to one of the boy's baseball games and then headed to the beach, Mooloolaba to be exact - try saying that 5 times fast! It wasn't the greatest beach day but it was still a lot of fun and great people watching. We finished the drive home with a trip to Costco (yep, even in Australia!) and a quiet dinner at home. I did manage to stay awake past 8pm that night.

Sunday was golf lessons for the boys and koala and kangaroo day. We think a lot of tour buses had been thought that morning because the kangaroos were not hungry! In fact they just seemed lazy! We had to work hard to get a picture of one standing up! I did manage to feed a few, but mainly just petted them because they were in relaxation mode! I did get a video of one hopping across so I can prove that they did move! I could have watched the koalas all day. Yes they do sleep the majority of the time (on average 22 hours a day) but they are so cute! We even saw some baby koalas! When it was my turn to hold one they gave me a little one but she wouldn't turn it's head for the camera and they only allow them so much time in the "koala experience" area before they swap them out so they took the little one away from me and brought in a big daddy! This guy was big compared to the previous little one! His face was so close to mine, I was a little intimidated, but he just sat there on my hands! That night was adult night out and we went to steakhouse that featured cows that have been fed lollies (or Mars bars, yes like the candy)!

The big daddy!

The little one!

On my last day we went to Ikea (yes even in Australia Ikea is still my happy place!) and found a few treasures that I just had to bring back! We then met Matt and a co-worker for lunch so I could experience a famous Yatala pie. She took me to the shopping center near their house and although Australia may have Targets, I can vouch that they are not the same! The boys had swim lessons that night and we had dinner at home and just like that my time down under was coming to a close. For someone who was content to sit on the couch, we did anything but that! They showed me an amazing time and made my trip very special. I can't thank them enough for all of their hospitality!
 
My travels home were not as easy as I had hoped. I missed my connection in Sydney and ended up flying into San Fransisco instead of LA. There were weather delays and pilots and crews that didn't come to work and I was exhausted. I finally made it to Chicago and called home to say I was getting ready to board when the flight home got delayed. I kind of wanted to cry. I was so close and I was so tired and I was ready to see my family. Given all of the travel mishaps of the day I was extremely lucky to actually only get home 5 hours later than scheduled and my luggage made it. As an added bonus the man sitting next to me on the San Fran, Chicago flight was really interesting. He was a pediatrician who had been in San Francisco for a conference. He was from Northern Maine. His family has a few islands of sheep (one just for the rams) and he is a lobster fisherman. He had a lot of good stories to share and after traveling alone for over 20 hours it was nice to have a stranger get you a ginger ale and pretzels and provide some entertainment!

Good bye Sydney - your airport was a nightmare! 

Soccer

Soccer season got off to a very wet start. The kids had so many games cancelled that they had to extend the season! They both had great coaches. Grant still plays with a big grin on his face. He has great hustle and has really started to pass the ball. He seemed to enjoy playing goalie (just like his daddy!) and at least this fall he wasn't on fields with short goals, because I was always afraid he was going to hit his head when he was goalie! He was typically the tallest kid on the field!

And yes there was gold team and a yellow team - that wasn't confusing at all!

Early in the season I described Elizabeth as a giraffe. She has these long legs and isn't quite sure what to do with them. However, if you have ever seen a giraffe run once they get going it is beautiful and Elizabeth improved so much throughout the season. Her age is still co-ed and by the end of the season the boys would pass the ball to her and one game she scored the one and only goal! So for her first time playing soccer she really did well and we owe a lot of that to her coach. Her coach didn't have a child on the team, he coaches simply because he loves to coach. The word I used to describe his style was intense but in the best possible way. He expressed disappointment when the kids screwed up but he always celebrated big with all of them when they had successes. I think she truly learned the fundamentals of the game.

The funniest story of Elizabeth's soccer season is what her coach called her. The first game I noticed him shouting "Beth!" and she wasn't responding - mainly because we don't call her Beth - no one calls her Beth! This went on the entire game. I talked to her about it afterwards and we agreed that she just needed to tell her coach to call her Liz, if Elizabeth was too much for him to shout during the games. So before the next game I walked up with her to the coach and explained that she doesn't respond to Beth and that if needs a shorter version of Elizabeth to please call her Liz or even Lizzie. He looks at her and says "so do you want me to call you Liz or Beth?" and she says "Liz". He continues to call her Beth the whole game! I am kind of frustrated and we are kind of all laughing about it on the sidelines.  The next day I am at the school and one of her teammates is in her class so I walk up to him and say "Hey buddy, have you noticed how sometimes the coach calls Elizabeth, Beth? Do you think you could help her out and when you hear him call her that say - "hey coach we call her Liz!" or something like that". Wade looks at me and say "Yeah, at breakfast this morning I told my mom, the coach kept yelling "pass the ball to Beth" and I'm like who's Beth?!" The next game we hear the coach say "Wait for the yo-yo Beth..I mean Liz!" Which we still don't fully understand what this yo-yo business is, but he finally started to call her something other than Beth! It got to be a joke and during the medal presentation after the last game he gave Elizabeth/Beth/Liz special recognition! It was a fun soccer season and she says she is playing in the spring! Grant hasn't declared his spring sport yet (we have time!), but my fingers are crossed for baseball!

Date Night is Back!

Now that we are into the full swing of school and activities I decided it was time to start kid date nights again. Elizabeth was with me and Daddy had Grant. The girls decided to have dinner and some fall clothes shopping. Brandon texted me at 3:30 and asked me how fast I could have G ready. Ready for what? He took him to St.Louis for a Cardinal game! That takes date night to a whole new level! They had really good seats and they even tossed Grant a ball. As a bonus the Cards won and he stayed awake for the whole game! It does not matter that before he left the house he asked me if he was going to a football game.

Elizabeth choose our favorite Mexican place for dinner and then it was off to the mall. We made a  pact that we each had veto power over outfits - meaning I had to like what she picked and she had to like what I picked. Let's just say we have very different taste. At one point she looked at me and said "you don't like anything rainbow colored do you?!" No honey, not really. We did compromise on some panda print leggings and then had a big laugh about it on the way home because apparently the pandas on the leggings are wearing pearl necklaces, which I had not noticed. Of course this is the outfit that she had to wear to school the next day and Grant pointed out that some pandas were wearing watches! I think these beloved leggings cost $6 - I can already tell they will be fast favorites!

While we were at the mall she had birthday money burning a hole in her pocket so she got a new bunny friend!

  

Order this Book!

This is currently one of my favorite books. It is called "A Street  Through Time". Check it out at your local library or bookstore today!!

Auggie's Outing

Since Bass Pro welcomes dogs and Auggie was ready for a car ride we decided to let her join us on recent visit. We have a picture of her as a puppy in front of the fish too!

Homecoming Parade 2016

Down on the Farm

These are not our pumpkins - but Libby's! Something to strive for!

In April we planted pumpkin seeds. We really had no idea what we were doing but the kids were super excited about this experiment. We have plans for some improvements next year, but we were pretty pleased with our first year's yield. We had over 90 pumpkins, varying in shapes, sizes and colors!