Pumpkin Art

Daryl talked Kelly into carving pumpkins again! They already did it once but he got more at pre school and wanted to do it again. They have a pretty good system. Daryl draws the faces and Kelly cuts them out. It is too cute to watch!
Can't you tell how proud he is!

I finished the hat! The tassel may be a little long but he isn't messing with it yet.

 

 

Alex's First Boo!

Today was Trunk or Treat at our church. I have no idea how it is already time for Halloween and costumes, we just got Daryl's on Friday. Because he doesn't care Alex was a spider and wore the same costume Daryl wore when he was one.

Daryl has known for a very long time he wanted to be an "Army Guy". So we got him some camo clothes and some camo face paint and a toy machine gun.

So the boys got to test run Halloween before Thursday. Daryl was very good saying Trick or Treat at every trunk and saying Thank You after only taking one candy. Alex was a different story.

He walked to the first car and our friend Greg gave him a piece of candy. He immediately sat down and tried to open it. We got thru about three more cars before he had had enough of this ridiculous game where people give you candy but you can't eat it. He sat on the ground and started to cry. I carried him through the rest of the cars and tried to get a picture of the boys.

That was unsuccessful.

 

Earlier today I ran in my last race of my running season. I've made no claims that I run when it gets cold. I did however sign up to run with a relay team at the first of the month. It was a very cool relay as 9 of us ran the 50 miles from Topeka to Lawrence. Kelly did it with us too! The relay was the Bison 50 our team was the Stampede Society.
I ran from just outside of Topeka to Grantville. It was mostly on dirt roads and was 6.4 miles. I ran it in 58:45. That is my best 10K time ever! Especially since it was over a 10K!

Kelly ran his 4.1 miles in 37:45. I'm very proud of him. Not just because of his speedy time but because he ran when it was 30 degrees outside. At least when I ran it was a balmy 38 degrees.

Shout outs to Aunt Barb for watching the boys so Kelly and I could do this together and to Tony and Lisa for picking us up so we could get the boys to Trunk or Treat on time! We have great family and friends.

I was going to finish my shawl this month but then I got distracted. Pointy hat patterns will do that to me every time!

Pointy hat #1 for Alex.

Questionable Parenting

I feel like this title should be a reoccurring subject. Time to time as I guide Daryl through childhood I question decisions I have made. I wonder if there may have been a better way when the outcome is not what I expected. I guess that is what you do with the first child. Figure out what works and do that for the next child!

So Sunday after church Daryl, Alex and I are all playing in Daryl’s room. This is when this conversation happens:

Daryl: I said a bad word, Daddy told me to never say it again.

Me: You shouldn’t say bad words Daryl, you know better than that.

Daryl: I know, I said I was sorry.

So at this point I really want to know what he said and Kelly is who knows where, probably staring at the backyard willing his grass to grow. So I figure I can question Daryl a little bit and figure out what the bad word is.

Me: Daryl can you tell me the letter that the bad word started with?

Daryl: I don’t know what does Ass start with?

OMG I almost fell over I was trying not to laugh so hard. After he said it he covered his mouth and was worried. I told him not to worry it was mommy’s fault he said it again. But just say butt if you ever want to say that word again!

Daryl has a large vocabulary and HEARS EVERYTHING. It is impossible for him not to hear cuss words. It is just important for us to stop him when he says them and let him know it is on the bad word list.

We had a nice relaxing fall weekend. Kelly did a project for our Aunt in Holton and I got to knit a lot on my Stripe Study Shawl. I hope to have this done this month. I do need to make the boys some hats too. The weather is getting cool enough for hats!

 

 

 

 

Dance Party!

Alex is getting new moves!

Not really what I was going for...

My owlish Cordell

Sometimes you see a knitting project and you think, that is so cute! I need to make that! Then what you make is not cute, and it doesn't look like the picture. That is what happened with Cordell.
He is supposed to be an owl but he is kind of a cross between a pelican and an angry bird. Not an owl.
pattern can be found at http://www.knitazoo.com/



The sort of owl was my only hiccup this weekend. After two months of training I finally ran my first half marathon! My time was 2:07:45 and I even had to stop to go to the bathroom!! I really wanted to finish under 2:15 and finish before any of the marathon runners. I hit both goals so I couldn't be sad about my run at all!
I took today off to recover and hang out with the boys. Daryl still went to preschool in the afternoon but Alex and I were together all day. He slept on me twice...awww..... I can't remember the last time he napped on me so I am going to cherish our mom/al day!



I've never taken a good running photo.

A New Backyard

This last week we have been doing a little landscaping at the manor. After many quotes to fix our defunct pool we decided to fill the sucker in! The first quote we got to fix it was 10-15 thousand. Since we have made a promise to ourselves to stop borrowing money we spent a good year saving up for that project. We didn’t have all the funds but we brought another contractor out to see if we could at least get started.

After they drained the moss and frog filled pool they discovered the price tag to repair was actually going to be around 25-30 thousand. Well then, that is the same price to have a new pool installed. So that is not realistic for us now or for many years so we took part of the money we had saved and spent it to fill it in and reshape the backyard.

I can’t wait until next spring when the grass starts coming up and we can play with the boys back there.

In all reality the year and a half we have been in our home we have only played in the front yard. We never wanted to take the chance on someone getting hurt by falling into the empty pool.

 The funny thing about taking the pool out, we no longer have a pool house with a restroom. We now are just the proud owners of an outhouse!

Purl approves of the new backyard!

Our week was a carnival!

 
We had an action packed week and we did in fact end it with a carnival! Daryl's preschool has a carnival every year for a fundraiser and this year the theme was western. Daryl had that covered and went to the event wearing his boots and cowboy hat, he didn't want to wear his holster for fear that was taking it a little too far. Geez mom!




I also blocked and washed Daryl's vest and it looks smashing on him. It will look better with a shirt and a navy bow tie. I'm working on that.
















It was also KU Homecoming this weekend. We hadn't tailgated yet this year so it was a good time seeing all our KU friends. We had tickets to the game and it was a really good one...for the first quarter. After that I just felt bad for our boys. It can't be easy to keep marching on that field when the score is getting embarrassing. I hope they get a big XII win this season. That is a monkey no one deserves on their back. Just to keep track of all the firsts, it was Alex's first KU football game! He really dug the popcorn.



After two weeks of my long run failing to be ten miles I finally had a double digit long run today! I was so relieved to finally run ten miles that I went eleven just for the fun of it. I got my mojo back just in time, I will attempt my first half marathon in one week. I'm as ready as I will ever be, and now that it is cold in the morning I'm ready for this race to be done so I can stay snuggled in my bed in the morning!
I'm a fair weather runner, when it is cold I'm a sleeper!

Finally, this evening we gathered to celebrate cousin Carter's birthday. It was a great family gathering and Carter was so excited for his party it was too cute. He showed me the biggest wrapped present and told me it was from his mom and dad. I asked him what he thought was in it and he said he dropped it and he was pretty for sure it was legos! He was right and when he was showing me the legos he said he had been waiting for this particular set his whole life! That was a rough seven years, I'm sure.  :-)

Alex got to eat cake and ice cream with Aunt Nikki!