Homegrown Fright Fest

It's become an annual tradition, an adult only Halloween party at our friend's Brian and Stephanie's house.  This year was like years past - fun, entertaining and painful the next day.  Last year Dave had a rough day-after.  This time it was my turn.

Here are the pictures from the party! (no pictures of the recovery day)

Dave and I went as Sonny and Cher.  You know - I Got You Babe.

Stephanie (aka Dorothy) and I 

 L-R: Rene (as a "ceiling fan"), Cheri (the Rockford Peach) and Me

Check out the brewing concoctions.....

 ... this is what had me in trouble that night and left me hurting the next day.  Starting with beer and switching to liquor, never been sicker.  Even at 19 I knew that.... so why 15+ years later I think things would be different is beyond me.

Some of the girls.  L-R: Cheri, Stephanie, Michele, Me

Sonny, I mean Dave's moustache wouldn't say on.  So he found creative ways to show it off.
L-R: Dave & Michele

And then you have to have the 80s shades to go with your 60's costume...

The costume hit of the night was the Rocky Horror Picture getup....

L-R: Me and Nathan

And here's a partial group shot - thanks to a friend (Waldo) who sent me this picture from his phone.

Where's Waldo?

The hosts - Ted (Brian) and Dorothy (Stephanie) always know how to throw a bash.  Halloween wouldn't be the same without the annual costume party.

I have tons of other pictures, but let's just say when all these parents mix alcohol and costumes... it's an interesting evening and many pictures may not be very "family friendly" hehe.  Not to mention the more I drank the more unfocused the pictures were.... but I swear they looked perfect when I took them!

Another One Bites the Dust

Another one bites the dust... another tooth that is.  Drew lost his 2nd tooth a week ago and he of course has to make sure everyone knows it... at 4:30am.  We were staying the night at my parents house and he was in "his room" and Dave and I were across the hall in "our room" and all of a sudden we hear him screaming "Hey!  Where is everybody?!"

Thinking he was disoriented and not sure where he was, we ran to find him at the top of the staircase.  Still thinking he wasn't sure where he is - and after he woke the entire house... we find out he lost his tooth!

If you recall he swallowed the first one and was very disappointed.  So when I asked where this one was, he had that momentary deer in the headlights look and ran back to his room.  I managed to find it in the bed - whew.


So this time he had something to put into his special tooth fairy pillow case (courtesy of my coworker who gave it to him after the swallowed tooth incident).

Tooth fairy brought a $1 bill and a $1 gold coin this time around.

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Campus Carnival

Last week, Drew's school hosted a PTA Fundraiser - their annual carnival.  I did my civic duty and volunteered for managing the Cake Walk - the Kindergarten class "booth".  This was especially interesting since I'd been out of town for work for the 3 days leading up to the event. 

Drew had a great time though!  I had to ring Drew in for doing the cake walk (he's in the striped shirt in the center of the photo).

 

No one was starting the cake walk and we had nearly 350 desserts to go through!  Unfortunately Drew didn't win but he had fun playing other games. 

Each class/grade sponsored a booth and handed out tokens for prizes.

 

 

 Dave and Drew finished up around 6pm and went home while I stayed around for another 2 hours to finish up.
 

Drew said his favorite booths were things he could throw and get a lot of tokens.

The Great Pumpkin Patch

About two weeks ago we went out to the big pumpkin patch at the Dell'Osso Family Farm in Lathrop where they have everything you can imagine when it comes to pumpkin patches.

Drew enjoyed climbing the tire mountain while we waiting for some friends to join us.

And we walked through the patch while Drew tried out a few pumpkins.

And then he found a few disguises...

When our friends showed up, we started doing a few of the activities... first up Mining for "gold".  Drew is in the orange shirt and our friends are on either side of him.

The kids then climbed around the pumpkins and posed for a few pictures...

Silly faces.
L-R: Elija, Rhianon and Drew

The highlight of the day - the pumpkin canons.  The older boys were talking about sneaking off only the younger boys wanted to watch Daddy shoot some off.  They asked at the counter if they could shoot too - the were ecstatic to find out they could shoot! 

We did a few more activities as well but the while the adults were ready to leave, the boys wanted to ride on the race way.  They were bummed that the line was so long, until the found out they could go first if they rode the trikes.  So they did!

We finished the night with Dinner out.  Drew still can't stop talking about that day he shot the Pumpkin canon.

Family Race to the Finish

A little over a week ago, Drew ran his first 5K race with Dave and I.  It was a local run that raises money for the schools in our District.  While Drew has joined us for races - either as a cheerleader or partial participant who was pushed in the stroller - this was the first time he's ever run the entire 3.1 miles using his own legs!

Daddy and Drew before the race.

Drew and his buddy Christopher

 Some of the participants from his school - there were a total of 160+ who signed up, but these were the folks who joined for the picture.  Dave and I are in the bottom left, and Drew is front row center (blue jacket).

And this year I guess they picked up a mascot - and had some of the kids from the school pose for the picture.  Drew is in the front row, second one in on the left.

And we were off - here's the starting line just before we crossed it.

Drew started out at a serious pace - I was sore after running 9 miles the day before and it was all I could do to keep up with him as we bobbed and weaved through people.

Drew's goal was to pass Daddy - which he did for most of the race.  You can see Drew on the right, Dave is to his left with the blue pants.

This was around mile two, and he was starting to feel it.  We tried to teach him to pace himself for the entire run, but I'm convinced that 6 year olds do not understand the concept of pacing yourself.

Coming in toward the finish.  Dave managed to run ahead of us as Drew slowed down doing a lot of walking for the final mile.  Dave wanted to wait for us to cross the finish line.  I got video of the final stretch as well.  If you get motion sickness you may not want to watch this video - I was running with the boys.




And then the family photo at the finish. 

While we signed up for the un-timed 5K, I had both an app and Heart Rate Monitor clocking our time - which is roughly 43:47.  My 6 Year old beat my first 5K time in 2006 by about 1 minute.  That's freaking awesome in my book.

Later that night after the aches and pains of running without training caught up with him, Drew told me he's not so sure he wants to run that far again.  Time will tell.

Angry Bird Star Wars Ultimate Battle

For about two and a half years Drew has been obsessed with Angry Birds, and then last Fall Angry Bird Star Wars came out.  That has taken his obsession to an all new level.  With much of his Birthday money this year, Drew has collected various Angry Bird Star Wars figures and games - it is his personal mission to beat out Evan from EvanTubeHD for the most characters.  For those that didn't know there is now an Angry Birds Star Wars II app, in which you can "teleport" your characters into the app.  He loves it!

So feeling guilty for neglecting Drew during baseball playoffs generous, Dave assembled every single Angry Bird set for Drew to knock down the pieces.  I'm talking maybe 10 sets!

Drew of course had to line up the correct figures that should knock down each "building".  While it no doubt took about an hour to build all of it, Drew smashed through them within 15 minutes.

He loved it though!  He is forever asking Dave to do it again. 

Reading Assessment

Earlier this month Drew's Kindergarten teacher asked me if she could keep him after school for one hour to do some reading records with him.  She wanted to get a more accurate picture of where he is reading level wise.  While I know she was planning on doing an assessment of all kids I got the impression she bumped Drew's "testing" up a bit.  I just heard back about how things went:

"He’s at a level 16 DRA – end of first grade.  His reading is quite
fluent and often reads with voice :o) (not monotone).  I know he can
decode (read the words) beyond that level, it’s the comprehension.  He
got to a point where he missed a chunk of retelling in a non-fiction
book.  He could interpret the chart located at the end of the book, but
he couldn’t remember details of what he read overall in the pages and
also was challenged with the skill of compare and contrast – he could do
this a little bit but not to the depth that would support him beyond
that level. SO, at this point, this is where I have him at and I’m in
need of locating him books at that level to borrow from class (“just
right books”) we call them."

She went on to say that she is going to have him doing some online reading and comprehension at school and at home using a program the District has to keep advancing and challenging him.

We're so proud of him.

Just for fun, here's a picture of him doing a tricycle race at the Pumpkin Patch last weekend.



He looks so little/young there.  Let me tell ya, he's growing up faster than you can blink!

Patch and Petting Zoo

We had to make a run to the fruit stand and low and behold, they had the pumpkin patch and petting zoo open at the end of September.  So while Dave was getting the food, I took Drew to the fun stuff.

Drew was feeding the goats.  While he was nervous about it at first, he loved it and asked for more.

I see more pumpkin patches in our future this year.  In fact yesterday we went to the big one and I'll post pictures ASAP.

The 60/40 Party

Last month we had a 60/40 Party for my parents at my Brother and Sister-in-Law's house.  What's a 60/40 party you ask?  Well it's a 60th birthday party for both my parents who turned 60 in September, and an anniversary party honoring their 40th Wedding Anniversary coming up later this month.

We asked them what they wanted to do for their Birthdays/Anniversary - since clearly it's a big one for both celebrations.  They came back with they wanted to have a nice dinner with the entire family.  So what did we do - we threw them a fancy dinner party.  Surf and turf - Filets and Lobster, and who can forget the wine?

There was one little surprise in store for them though.... a special guest that they didn't know about.  Here's the video surprise courtesy my sister-in-law Rana's cell phone.



That's my Mom's Cousin Jodi who flew in that day from Minnesota/Wisconsin.  And here's the photographic proof of the surprise...

 

We took a plethora of pictures that night... here are the highlights.

My sister Lisa and her youngest Chloe

Dave and my brother Matt hamming it up

Jodi and my Mom (aka Grammy)

My Grandma (aka GG) and Aunt Connie (aka Jodi's Mom and Grandma's Sister)

Drew

 Aunt Connie and GG

Dave and I

My brother Matt and Rana

Dave, Jodi, and my Dad (aka GrampC) - I think my Dad is trying to do Dave's "eyebrow" thing.  At least I'm hoping he's trying to do something other than look like a big dork...

Matt photobombing the picture of Dave and my Dad.

One of the bottles of wine we drank - I think it was a double magnum.  Gone in about 15 minutes :)

I believe this was the third bottle of wine opened... I liked the name of it.

Rana, Avery (Matt and Rana's youngest) and Jodi

Jodi (aka the baby hog) and Avery

One of the dinner tables (we had a total of 3).  

Matt and Avery - she was a happy girl that night!

It was a great night and I think my parents had a great time - which is all that counts.  Hard to imagine those days when we were living in California just the five of us, while everyone else was back in Minnesota and how small our dinner tables were.  Now we stretch into 3!  Wonderful time with family.