** Boo! **

This is our attempt at a scary pumpkin. He looks more silly than scary. The girls have been reciting funny little rhymes about Halloween and looking for spooky trees as the sun sets. They are hiding from one another and trying to scare the other. The kid-friendly sentiment of having a spooky Halloween is in the air! The only thing missing is lots of candy and Charlie Brown's "The Great Pumpkin" cartoon. Have a spooky, fun Halloween week!

Friday catch-up

Well, blogging is quickly getting pushed further down on the list of things to do. For any of you still checking in, thanks for hanging in there. Not much has been updated, as you know. Today was the pumpkin patch visit at the pre-school. Each child brought a pumpkin to school earlier in the week which were then grouped together to make the pumpkin patch. Today each child was able to pick out their own and this is what came home with E & A. Erika picked the tiniest one in the patch according to her teacher. I was expecting much larger pumpkins which we would carve for Halloween. Guess we will be heading out to buy a few more, larger, pumpkins this weekend. Ms. Aidan is the big 1 now. She started walking last Saturday and turned 1 on Wednesday. It was a big week for her!

I am making a concerted effort to take more individual photos of each child. I have too many of E & A together and not enough individuals. Here is Ainslee.

and Erika.

Have a great weekend!!

Friday - enough said

Things that were a hit today:

*edamame

*Blue balloons for E & A

*Listening to She's Electric by Oasis

* watching Aidan sway to the music in the rear view mirror

* finding a new favorite t-shirt

* getting in a great cardio workout

*naps

I hope your Friday was filled with lots of hits too!

a few weeks in photos

Here is a look at what we've done since Ike:

This was the only damage we sustained. It was a large tree. There are so many trees that were lost and have since been cut for disposal. Our first couple of nights back in Beaumont we could smell oak in the air.

This was at our door during a very brief stay in New Orleans. We stayed there one night and got our post-hurricane game plan together.

The people we talked to at the hotel in New Orleans were very nice. This man in particular spent quite a bit of time entertaining the girls and talking with us. This was a Koi pond that all three of the girls were captivated by:
Cousin's house in Memphis. Five girls in one house - ages 10 mos to 6 years:
Sisters loving their cousins' dress up clothes:

At Grandma's house in FL. Aidan loved the beach and laughed at the waves when they ran up on her feet:

Erika & Ainslee thought the waves were fun too:
For an evacuation it wasn't bad. I was very ready to return home when the time came and I am glad to be here now, but I think we made the best of it while we were gone. A lot of people came out so much worse, in our town and nearby towns. My heart & prayers goes out to them.

Back to our regularly scheduled program . . .

Between soccer, day school, three active children and one equally active husband I really haven't missed the Internet - too much. Ike knocked out our power and phone/ Internet. Power was restored weeks ago. Today AT&T restored our phone connection & Internet service this afternoon. Now that I have it back I have a lot of catching up to do. You would think I would have finished a knitting project (nope), caught up the baby books (nope) or at least cleaned out a closet or two (nope, nope). Well, it is good to be back and I can't wait to see what all of my fave bloggers have been up to.