Our Lil Kicker Andrew

Andrew was in Lil Kickers this past fall and just had his last class a couple of weeks ago. We were very surprised how well he did since he was the youngest kid in the class, although he was the largest in size!

I love his little mischevious laugh!

Look at him doing his "head bonks" as they call them! He's a pro!

Working on his toe touches, which they call "The Soccer Dance." He really liked that part!

Halloween 2009...Finally!

So the date today is November 21 and I am just now getting the Halloween pictures posted. Why, you may ask? Because we JUST NOW FOUND THE MEMORY CARD THAT CONTAINED THEM! We were very disheartened to learn the day after Halloween that the memory card had disappeared from the camera. We searched and searched. Nothing. I called the hostess of the party we had attended after trick or treating. Nothing. After a couple of days, I had just accepted the fact that they were gone. I had plans in place to re-stage Halloween and put the kids back in their costumes so I could at least have a picture of that. But then while my mom was playing with Andrew on Wednesday, she found the tiny blue card. In the Little People market in the playroom. Hummm, wonder how it got there?! Anyway, here they are!


Here are the boys carving our pumpkin. Alex loved the squishy gooey but Andrew preferred to watch.





























Here are the boys in their costumes. This was Alex's first year in a non-mom approved costume. I held out as long as I could with cutesy costumes but I think the age of superheroes and gross stuff is here. :( I still made my Andrew cute, though, in the Mickey Mouse costume!





























Trick or treating at a neighbor's house. Alex did a full neighborhood circuit but after about 6 houses Andrew said "I want to go home now." So he and I headed back to the house where he enjoyed giving candy to the other trick-or-treaters.




























One of the houses in our neighborhood had this giant inflatable spider so of course Spiderman had to pose!

Fall Family Photo Shoot

In October we headed to the grounds of the Indianapolis Art Museum (one of my favorite places) for some family pictures taken by Lexi Smith. She did a great job and was very patient with our sometimes frustrating boys! Here are some of the shots in no particular order... (for family members, if you would like prints of any of these, let me know and we'll get some to you in whatever size you'd like)

PumpkinFest '09

Saturday was dedicated to the celebration of the humble pumpkin at the PumpkinFest! The Country Market in Zionsville has this awesome festival each weekend in October with all sorts of Autumn related activities. Here was some of the fun we had:

Typical family photo. Alex won't look at the camera, and neither will Andrew this time. Nick and I just smile and hope for the best. Sigh. Will we ever get a nice family picture?! AHGAH!














They had pony rides, which thrilled Andrew who fancies himself a cowboy...

What is fall without a good ol' hayride?! Me and Alex cozied down in the soft hay and enjoyed the ride around the farm...

OK, here was my favorite part of the PumpkinFest...warm, fresh, homemade DONUTS. To quote Homer Simpson, "MMmmm...DONUTS." Seriously these were so good I went back for seconds. Here are the boys enjoying the warm little pieces of happiness...

They even have this adorable old timey fiddle music playing, which of course made the kids dance. Here would probably be a good place to explain Andrew's coat situation. We had been working in the yard all day and he had gotten his coat filthy. So I popped it in the washer and dryer over his nap so it would be ready to go when we headed out to the farm. As we headed out the door, I grabbed Alex and Alex's coat and Nick grabbed Andrew and I THOUGHT Andrew's coat. We drove all the way to the farm and realized that we forgot his coat but didn't want to waste and hour driving home and back. Still, it was about 50 degrees, which isn't something for a little guy to be running around in coat-less so we improvised by cinching up Nick's pullover around Andrew and rolling the sleeves up A LOT. So he looks kind of like he has a costume on but really it's just a man's jacket on a child. Nice parenting, I thought. Anyway, here is some video of the boys dancing...

They have these cute cut-outs where you can poke your face through. Which would have been adorable if I could have gotten everyone to LOOK AT THE CAMERA. AGHAGH, again!

The boy's selection from the pumpkin patch...

Instead of a sand box they have a corn box full of dried corn kernels to play with instead of sand...

They have all these really cute little places to take pictures. If only I had a photogenic family! Curses! This one didn't turn out TOO bad, though. You've got to love little boys on tractors...

And I've saved the best for last! The boy's (Nick included) favorite part of the whole thing was this hay slide they had constructed on the side of a hill on the farm. It was really just a long peice of hard plastic that had hay bales on either side but the kids loved it! Here is me going down with both boys...

And here is some video of Nick and the boys going down together. Too fun!

CrossRoads Fall Festival

Last night was our annual fall festival at our church. We couldn't have asked for better autumn weather--cool, clear and the air smelled just like you want it to on a fall evening. Here is a family portrait that isn't too bad for us.




















The Westfield Fire Department was there with all sorts of fun trucks to explore. Here are Alex and Andrew in the hook and ladder cabin.

There are all sorts of fun games for the kids to play--here are Andrew and Daddy working on a tic tac toe game...

When I asked them afterward what their favorite part of the festival was, they both said it was the bounce houses--there was this little one for the smaller kids and a big one for the big kids. Alex bounced for a collective hour, I'm sure.

What is a fall festival without a bonfire?! Here are the boys warming up by the fire after their smores.

My favorite part was the hayride. Of course at this point the boys were so wired from all the candy, cakes, cookies and smores that they were never going to sit still for a nice picture so this was the best one I could get.