Happy Halloween!!

{I know it's massive and taking over the edges, but I don't care. This is one of my favorite pictures ever ever ever so over take it will!}

If you've been around me in real life, you've heard me bitching about these costumes, lol. Eddie has been declaring that he wanted to be Flynn Rider from Tangled for months, assigning each of us our character....Finn as Pascal (Rapunzel's pet chameleon), Mommy as Rapunzel and Daddy as the horse, Maximus. Thank goodness for Frank I couldn't find one of those horse head masks in white...he would have made a great Maximus! Unfortunately for me, Tangled doesn't seem to be popular enough to make it into mainstream costumes. Which means it was all up to me.....

For Eddie's costume, I made the entire vest myself which was a true labor of love. I've never sewn that much in my life, and I'm damn sure that my middle school home ec teacher would be proud that some of her lessons have stuck. The pants and undershirt we had (win!) but those boot covers are my creation too, from a women's shirt I found at Goodwill! They're the sleeve and the cuff, with the curve of the shoulder as the toe. They are so perfect and I surprised the hell out of myself when I figured out how easy that could be. 

Finn's costume I hacked from a dinosaur costume. I started his from scratch too, making a whole fleece zip up thing with a hood myself (woot!) but then stopped working on it, lost motivation, saw how awesome Eddie's was and realized Finn's wouldn't cut it. The only thing I changed on his was the hood, which was a triceratops with horns and such, so those all got snipped and sewed and I put on the ridiculous boob-like eyes (you're welcome, sweetie!) and even made little eyebrows that you can't see but fit perfectly with Pascal's expressions. 

Eddie is beyond thrilled with his, and it made my tired and over-it heart soar every time he screeched in delight of seeing what I had accomplished each day. That boy loves his vest and has worn it around the house every day since completion. A true test on my seams, but everything is holding nicely and OH MY GOD IT LOOKS AWESOME. I mean, seriously. I love it. 

So, with that, Happy Halloween everyone! Stay safe, have fun and don't for get your TOTing manners!

happiness is...pumpkinfest!

One of my favorite fall events was this weekend, Sycamore's annual Pumpkin Fest. It was as terrific as always.....the exact same kiddie carnival rides as last year, the same food and the same long ass parade (with no candy). I don't know why, but I love this damn festival even though it's always the same, lol.

{once again, eddie's favorite multi-level climbing thing}

{and the motorcycles, always a goodie}

{we ran into these two, who just finished the pumpkin run 10! it was Erin's first official race and she was awesome, even pushing marathon man turned homeless looking man Keith!}

{no joke, this is named "the moonshine barrel"....kiddie drunk tank, anyone?}

{parade crew}

{boys and their snacks}

{finn's cookies didn't cut it, so he got his first ever sucker....blame nanna. little partners in crime, those two}

{eddie continues to be in love with marching bands, especially the drums!}

{oh, look who was a pro flag waver....turned pro flag thrower}

{dude, this is the best way to watch the parade that never ends}

{random parade picture....have you ever seen the shriners' plane before? we had classic cars, mini cars and this mini plane this year! "air fez one"....heh, shriner humor :) }

This year definitely wasn't as cold as our first year, when Eddie was a wee little baby, but it gave it a run for it's money. Thankfully the sun came out during the parade and warmed us up! Or, maybe it was the bloody mary's from Hinks :)) 

Autumn Lake Lovin'

Weeks ago (goodness!) we went up to Lake Geneva to cheer on our dearest cousin Jen as she kicked ass in the Gladiator Challenge. It was so fun to watch (and she even got me to sign up for the one in April..eek!)...even if Eddie was totally perplexed by the whole thing.

{we kept telling eddie we were going to watch Jen run, and because we mostly watched her do the crazy mud pit obstacles, he kept asking why she wasn't running. In hindsight, I wondered if he thought she was doing some track-like events like the olympics? poor kid, momma confused him}

After Jen finished, we hugged and congratulated and promptly stole her ride home so Jerry and Julie could go on Chuck and Lorrie's boat with us. Poor Jen! We had a great time on the boat, though....it was the antique wooden boat show that weekend, so we rode on over and got a great view of the beautiful boats out on the water. It was gorgeously warm, too, and combine that with Lorrie's fresh popcorn, the whole trip was wonderful.

{happy us}

{this picture cracks me up}

{ah! this boy's smile. he loves the boat}

{my new favorite picture of frankie and the boys. love, love, love}

{eddie driving the boat! he loved this job}

{there's that big ol' grin again! i think eddie's smiles are single handedly convince frank to buy a boat}

Aren't we lucky? The lake was gorgeous that weekend....it will never fail to take my breath away. Looks like Eddie is going to feel that way one day, too :) 

Catch Up

I'm so sorry, blog. I've neglected this place for so long...and then today it pops in my head that this place is my baby book, the place I've dedicated to my boys so that one day their partners can oogle them in all their cuteness and craziness. So I need to continue to make the time to come here and post. I promise I'll try better!

Why is life so crazy, though? Well, if we take out the everyday school drop off and pick up, and even the fact that I'm working almost every evening of the week (and saturday mornings!)...you're pretty much left with the fact that Finn keeps me on my toes 24/7.

Holy hell, this child causes trouble. It's to the point that I don't realize how crazy he is until we're around other people who say "WHOA." once Finney gets going. We went to the pumpkin farm with Auntie Stef and Uncle Mike and once Finney was free and running around one of the barns, poor Mike looked scared as hell and went "so...he's a handful, huh?!" It was the funniest thing. Poor Stef, I think I delayed baby negotiations after scaring him with Finn! And for all that Finn is absolutely insane climbing and running and OH-MY-GOD-WHY-IS-HE-FASCINATED-WITH-VENTS?!?! and eating various non-edible materials and knocking over furniture and generally causing havoc, he is the sweetest most loving boy ever. Jekyll and Hyde, this kid. He is terribly shy when you first meet him, and he literally monkey clings to me so he doesn't have to make eye contact. Slowly but surely he warms up, until he is his normal self about an hour into a playdate. My best example of this is at school drop off, he monkey clings the whole time, until we're halfway down the sidewalk back to the car when he'll finally pop his head up, grin like a mad man and shout "BYE!!!" while waving like crazy to ensure he's seen. Half way down that sidewalk is apparently a safe buffer to let the shy act slide...lol.

And Eddie? He continues to rock. He lives for hockey on Saturday mornings and is doing better with the whole everyday school thing than I anticipated. He no longer comes home with stories of the same boy picking on him or playing alone. He talks about his friends and silliness on the playground. In the beginning, he focused so heavily on the negative things that happened (so-and-so took my toy, etc) that it was hard to get anything else out of him, but now we're hearing about funny things his teachers said or what he played with happily. He is starting the speech classes soon, and I'm so excited to see the results of that. Even without the extra help, I've seen a HUGE improvement in his speech since we've started this school. Can I get some claps for real, motivated teachers who are happy to be with their class?!! No phoning it in here, thank goodness. Our biggest problem with Eddie seems to be at night, since he wakes often and gets up far to early. I think I'm going to have to cut his nap out, which is going to be AWESOME (not). Oh well...if it means not waking up at 5am, I'll take it.

vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv {aw, that was Finn, adding his two cents}

Adjustments are still coming hard and fast, and I'm learning to take them in stride the best I can. I know now more than ever that I can't continue to say "yes" to everything. And oh, I know how awesome my husband is. This man? I don't deserve him. Not by a long shot. He, too, I think, lives for taking Eddie to hockey on Saturdays and while I make dinner for them before I leave for the pool, he is in charge the rest of the night. He is so awesome, even if he does play football or hockey or soccer or whatever else that is causing marks on my cabinets and crooked picture frames when I come home. They're boys, and what Momma doesn't see, she doesn't know, right hun? <3 br="br" nbsp="nbsp">
I promise to try and do a phone dump and a real post of whatever left over pictures my camera decided to take during it's fit. Soon.....

The lost pumpkin photos

Phew. My crazy weekend is over and now I'm onto making Halloween costumes and swim team stuff and other, general, less crazy but still crazy items on my to-do list. Lets cover the rest of the pumpkin patch, shall we?

{this boy loves a hayride}

{finney found his pumpkin!}

{once free, he picked up tons of pumpkins, would carry them for a bit and then throw/drop them and move onto another. finally i just grabbed one from him before he threw it, declared it the winner and put him back in the backpack!}

{eddie loved his little baby pumpkin gourd}

{child labor at it's finest}

{my pretty pumpkin! i love her}

{finney tasting gourds....yum}

{eddie, as serious at can be riding back with our haul}

Eddie is so funny at the pumpkin patch. He is so careful about what he chooses, and once he does, there is no changing his mind. That wonky shaped one in the middle? Eddie's. Silly boy. 

Happy Fall

Our annual trip to Yaeger's was today and let me just say, it delivered. Grandpa Yaeger gave us our tractor ride out to the pumpkin patch (thats right behind our house!) and we found some great ones. Finn loved picking out his pumpkin, cooperating with our new rule of only picking a pumpkin you can carry. Although Frank still carries mine. I mean, I probably could do it, but...well, it's what he's there for :) 

{proud of his oddly shaped and oddly colored pumpkin. he loves the weird looking thing}

{and oh, this stinker. i attempted to photoshop out his boogers, because they weren't very cute. Looks weird, but better than boogers! Ha!}

More pictures to come...sometime. I've got a crazy week with doing flowers for a wedding on Friday and another wedding on Saturday and a day full of meetings on Sunday. Yikes! Hopefully I'll find time to put up the rest of the pictures from pumpkin picking and especially Jerry and Julie's anniversary party that was this weekend. No promises, though!