Our Little Thumb-sucker

So today I had my long-awaited ultrasound to answer a few of the questions about this pregnancy...like my due date and what we're having. I was so excited to find out that we'll be having another little boy! And my due date is March 31st. That's about 6 weeks before I have my finals. Things will definitely be interesting.

Anyway, I'm posting a few pics of the little guy for anyone interested.

I had trouble uploading a video so click here for a link to youtube to see it.

Isaac's Fall Party

On Friday I got to go to Isaac's Fall Party at school and watch him in action...or not. How come the wacky and wild kid who never stops talking that lives in my house is not the same one sitting in that classroom? I'm sure the teacher appreciates it but I found it interesting nonetheless.

The kids played a few rousing games, including "Toss the Candy Corn Into the Pumpkin" (I didn't see one kid make it), "Pumpkin Bowling" (Isaac opted to chuck his pumpkin through the air into the pins instead of rolling it), and a contest to see who could roll their pumpkin the closest to the big pumpkin. Then they ate some yummy looking snacks (why didn't they bring enough for the parents?) and ended with the grand finale of the "Too-tee-tah Dance". I didn't want to be the annoying mom taking pictures so I failed to fully capture what Isaac looks like with his thumbs up, elbows back, feet apart, knees together, bum out, tongue out, and spinning in a circle (try it, it's amusing).

Halloween in Hershey: Part 4 - Kasia

I am dedicating this post to Kasia, who took to Halloween like a fish to water. The first house was a little confusing to her but after that she had it down. She tolerated holding Billy's hand for the first little bit and then he was holding her back too much so she was off on her own. It was so funny to watch and we took about a million pictures of her. She would walk from house to house, kicking her little pink pumpkin bucket as she went, go up the walkway and say "Pees" (please) and then take her piece of candy and be on to the next. People at some houses thought she was so cute that they'd give her more than one piece (more for me!) but that started a bad trend because at later houses she would sometimes cry if they only gave her one. She's so funny! So props to Kosh on a great Halloween and enjoy the small selection of pictures.

Halloween in Hershey: Part 3 - Night on the Town

Our first stop on the trick-or-treat route was the local police station where they were hosting a "safe trick-or-treat" night. Little did we know that besides juice and cookies, the boys would be photographed for the local newspaper with one of Hershey's own police officers. They were so excited!


After that we headed to Elm Street. Now why did I not think that going to Elm Street on Halloween night might be a little freaky? Thanks, mom, for helping me draw that connection. Lucky for us, nothing scary happened...except for maybe one house that went all out in decorations. We tried to capture it as best we could. I think they had their entire family there in full-out costumes and it seemed just like a real haunted house. The kids loved it!


The kids actually had the energy to trick-or-treat for about an hour and a half (including Kasia) and got way too much candy. But then again, that's the point of Halloween, isn't it?

Halloween in Hershey: Part 2 - Costumes

Like I mentioned in my last blog, the costume part of Halloween presented quite a challenge.

Isaac had received a costume in the mail from his dad the day before and it was...scary. He said he wanted scary and scary is what he got...or gruesome. Call it what you want, he was most likely the freakiest little 5 year old in all of Hershey. I'm actually not sure what he was. I told him he was a zombie, which is what his dad later confirmed. He had decided, however, that he was a troll like the ones on the movie Willow. Only a child that is heavily influenced by Billy would decide that.

Will was a little trickier to dress. You see, he'd been wearing a different costume that we have in our dress-up clothes every day around town. He was a giraffe at parent-teacher conference, a power ranger at the grocery store...you get the idea. As a result, he kept changing his mind on what he wanted to be for Halloween. When it all boiled down to that last 30 minutes, he decided that he wanted to be Woody from Toy Story (thanks Mom). And he was a great Woody, topped off with Billy's cub scout hat from when he lived in Australia. He had a blast! Anyone who's spent significant time with Will knows that he takes his time in everything he does and this was no exception. He walked SO SLOW while we trick-or-treated and every few steps would take off his hat, hold it high, and say "Let's ride like the wind, Bulls-eye." (from the movie). What a nut!

Kasia was a cute little farmer girl complete with overalls, plaid shirt, curly pigtails, and freckles. It just doesn't get any cuter than her!

Halloween in Hershey: Part 1 - Pumpkins

So this last Wednesday night a sweet neighbor informed me that trick-or-treating would take place on the following night. That's right - Thursday, October 28th. Thinking that perhaps he was getting a little kooky in his old age, I went online to check it out. Sure enough, the government of Pennsylvania has decided that they have the ability to change the dates of holidays. I'm thinking now I need to double check when Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years will take place so that I can plan accordingly.

This type of change is not one that a mother is thrilled to hear (especially a mother with a big midterm and 2 presentations coming up soon). I had to do some major schedule reshuffling and Thursday quickly became "All-Day-Halloween Day". I didn't have costumes for all the kids, the pumpkins hadn't been carved yet, and I had a few decorations that I wanted to put up over the weekend.

This first part of my Halloween blog will focus solely on carving pumpkins. Will was the only child who had carved a pumpkin before and so we had lots of fun picking our own faces and cleaning out the guts. I also thoroughly enjoyed the roasted pumpkin seeds that I was able to make with the innards of our pumpkins. Ahh, childhood memories...

Here are the final products:

True works of art in progress...

Isaac is glorying in the guts of his pumpkin.

Can you guess who's pumpkin this was???

Yes, this was my design of choice because it's fast and easy and it's what I feel like I've been doing for the past 4 months...

This was Will's "Mean Pumpkin"...with a little help from his dad.

Isaac actually drew the face of his pumpkin himself but I carved it for him...like I would give a 5-year-old a knife.

Why is it so impossible to get a decent picture of 3 kids under the age of 6?

How cool are these?

A Midnight Visitor???

The boys woke the other morning to a pleasant surprise -- a large string hanging from the light fixture in me and Billy's bedroom to our bedpost. They sat with wide eyes and awakened imaginations as I spun a tale about an enormous spider that woke us up in the middle of the night as it started to create a web over our bed. Afraid we were about to become dinner for the spider, I shook Billy who proceeded to battle the spider with the baseball bat he keeps under the bed. After a long and arduous fight, Billy was victorious and the spider agreed to never return. All that remains is this one strand of his web...

The actual explanation: we have no lamp in our room for the time being and so we have to use the overhead light to read at night. Due to laziness, we tied this string so we can turn the light out without having to disturb a comfortable position and risk re-awakening ourselves.