Fall Packed with Fun

Well, another month has escaped me again. October was packed with lots of pumpkin fun and even though most days were cold we had a few good days to get outside too. The boys picked some more pumpkins at our local pumpkin patch again. The pickings out in the field were slim but it was fun to go exploring and see what rotten pumpkins looked like and just run around.

Then my Mom came for a visit and the boys kept her busy showing her all their activities! We even made it out to Apple Blossom one day for a fun adventure.

Soon after I took these Fall pictures of the boys in our maple tree the leaves all fell and it was time to rake!

The boys were a great help this year! They really helped rake leaves into piles and even did quite a bit of bagging. I feel like we should start rewarding them for the hard work they do. Maybe some money they can save in piggy banks. I'll keep thinking about that idea and maybe get them piggy banks for Christmas. It wasn't all work though because what kid can resist jumping in a big pile of leaves?

Halloween started off with pumpkin' carving! Rita was especially into it and the boys loved it! The quotes of the day were memorable too!

"We need to cut off their heads and clean out their insides"

-Rita Drake

"One more pumpkin's going to loose his head now!"

-Connor Drake

I should have gotten a picture of all three carved pumpkins since they turned out great! Connor named them JackPooh, Com, and Bfe.

On Halloween day the weather warmed up and the sun was shining. By evening the kids were excited to put on their costumes and go trick or treating or so we thought... Lucas decided he did NOT want to be Nemo! He was very stubborn and even had a tantrum. Connor tried to get him to wear Nemo by putting the costume on first. He looks pretty cute in it! But Lucas would not budge on his position and insisted he wanted to be a cowboy. So, we came up with a cowboy outfit. Connor's sporting his favorite pirate costume.



We ended October with tons of fun and started November the same way celebrating Grandpa Drake's birthday! We had a delicious meal, yummy cakes, and a Hootenanny! Tiao was visiting which was great fun because he wrote Grandpa a top hit birthday song!



The boys love to watch the video! The video starts off with the song being partly recorded and then Connor requested they sing it again later that day so we got the full version for everyone! It's an instant hit! Happy Birthday Grandpa!

Belated Birthday Post and more!

Well, I've been thinking too long on how I'm going to catch up from 3 months worth of activities that I need to post. So, I decided to pick one big event from the last 2 months to blog about. It's a start anyway! I came to the conclusion our biggest event was Lucas turning 2! So here are a few pictures from August.

Lucas is a very lucky little boy! He not only had 1 birthday party but 3 parties to celebrate his 2nd birthday! He enjoyed every single one! We started with a small party on his actual birthday with us and Grandma and Grandpa Drake to warm him up.

Then Great Grandma Drake graciously hosted the Drake cousins party! He loves their house and finds plenty of toys to play with and nooks to hide in. Thank you Great Grandma Drake for a great party!

Then to wrap up the festivities we celebrated with my folks. My mom picked up on the Nemo theme and got him this enormous balloon. It was another successful party with lots of smiles. Thanks Mom!

September snuck in and school started before we all knew it. Here's Connor and Lucas on the first day of school. Connor was super excited and couldn't wait to go. Unfortunately, Lucas was also super excited and couldn't wait to go. I had to carry Lucas out of the school crying. This happened the rest of the week too. He's now accepted his fate to be home with me but he's always ready to go pick up Connor from school.

And finally last week the long anticipated Pumpkin Festival started! Connor's been asking for months when it would begin. We did the Pumpkin Festival up right this year and went every night! Connor started off the festivities by participating in the Big Wheel Race Tuesday night and the rest of the evenings were spent riding lots of rides, eating pumpkin ice cream and hot dogs, walking in the Kiddie Parade, and watching the main parade on Saturday morning! The fun has even continued in Connor's room with a miniature Pumpkin Fest made out of Lego's and other toys! He says he'll take it down in November.

June...where did it go?

Seriously, where has this summer gone? I thought we'd have a slow paced summer but instead it's the middle of July and we're packed. August is looking quieter and I'm looking forward to some time just hanging around with the boys.

June started off with our week in El Paso. The cousins participating in St. Mary's VBS: Sun Rock Kids Camp. They loved it and all the cousins had a great time together. We're still listening to the songs a month later. I got a chance to volunteer at VBS and it was a wonderful experience especially because I got to know the strengths of my nieces and nephew better. Audrey's love for music showed every minute while Laura excelled at crafts and coloring. Andrew was inquisitive in everything he did and excels at everything. My Connor was a sweetheart and enjoyed his time with his cousins.



We got to take the Suburban to VBS! What a great roomy car. I think we could have fit 2 more car seats in there.

Lucas and Abby commiserated while we were all gone. Grandma and Grandpa said they played very well together.

The week after VBS my Mom came for a visit! Connor and Lucas showed her all our daily activities and all their toys especially the trains. We even made a trip to the Farm Park to see the animals and slide down the silo slide. Both boys must have gone up and down that slide 50 times in the hot afternoon sun!

Connor and I were trying to take some pictures of ourselves one evening. We made lots of funny faces and a few serious ones. I just think Connor looks like such a big kid in the picture below. I still can't believe how much he's grown!

Our garden is doing okay this year. Not great but not bad. I think I planted too many cucumber plants too closer together. We're not getting as many cucumber growing as we did last year. It's still fun to watch things grow and pick yummy veggies. The boys main job is to water the vegetables and flowers every day.

You would think by the look on Lucas' face that it was his birthday! But we celebrated Matt's birthday with cookies and ice cream. I meant to make a cake but the cookies took priority! Happy Birthday Daddy! We love you! Thank you for everything you do for us!

Our friends from Champaign came for a visit and the kids splashed in the kiddie pool all afternoon. It was nonstop fun for a few hours and they were exhausted by the end of the afternoon. Lucas took a nice long nap and so did Connor and I.

The boys love the pool! They both will spend hours in the water just playing around at G&G. We love going over to their house to visit and to swim. Thank you!

At the end of June we drove to see Uncle Jerry and Aunt Cindy for the day. The boys had a blast with them since they had their favorite hot dogs for lunch and their favorite activity: swimming. They swam for hours and just took a break for a quick snack. Lucas even fell asleep on my shoulder in the pool! We all had a great time catching up and hanging out too!

I was worried about how the boys would react to their dog Gracie. They were both hesitant at first but by the afternoon Connor warmed up. I didn't expect Lucas to be the one that was more fearful since he always has a fearless attitude. By the end of the day they both took Gracie for a walk and enjoyed petting her. Small little steps made a big difference in having them warm up to her! Thanks for a wonderful time Jerry and Cindy!

The last Sunday in June we woke up and saw this in our backyard! Our tree fell over!! We had gotten home late on Saturday night and missed all the storms and winds that went through. So we had a nice surprise when we woke up in the morning.

Matt and Connor did a great job cutting up the tree and hauling it to the driveway. Our linden tree was medium sized and soft wood so that helped break it up faster. We were lucky because some nice people were looking for anyone that needed stuff hauled after the storm so they stopped by our house. They hauled away our tree for a fair price and even helped us chop up the dead bushes in the backyard. It was a job well done for an unplanned backyard remodel.

Lucas did help and made several trips with small branches to the driveway but after a while he would find other things to do. I was a little surprised because Connor was a very diligent worker. But then I remembered he's only 1 and I shouldn't expect him to be doing hard labor.