FALL

Not only have I been bad at blogging, I've been really bad at taking photos and video of my kids.  Mike and I realized today that we haven't taken any videos since we were on vacation at Owasco Lake this summer.  Shame on us!  The problem is, now, both our still and video cameras are having some problems, which is making it hard to do either. 

Apparently, the kids got ahold of the camera when I didn't know it...

Spirit Week

Spirit Week at school was a lot of fun.  Jessie dressed up just about every day.  She had school color day, sports team day, 80's workout day, and spirit day on Friday where they wear the colors of the High School which is Orange and Black.  She couldn't wait for Friday.  The Saturday before, we had a tu-tu making party at our house making tu-tu's with 2 of Jessie's friends.  They were silly and goofy, but finished their tu-tu's and had a lot of fun!  Here is Jessie all decked out on Friday morning before heading for school...go Bearcats!

TechDecks

In case you didn't know, Ben LOVES riding his skateboard and scooter, and LOVES TechDecks (finger skateboards).  This is one of the ramps he recently made out of cardboard for doing tricks on his TechDecks.  He did this completely on his own!  I was so impressed with the great job he did.

Here he is testing it out...

Pumpkins

Our pumpkin carving this year was sporadic.  Jessie carved hers last Tuesday night at her Young Women activity.  Abby and Josh carved theirs last Friday night and Ben carved his last Saturday morning (he was at a friend's house Friday night).  So...now I'm realizing that I never got a photo of Jessie and Ben with their pumpkins (see, I told you I've been a bad photographer lately!).

Here's Abby with her pumpkin, although Mommy did most of it.  She did help hold the carving saw a couple times.  She didn't want anything to do with cleaning out the pumpkin, but she thinks the roasted pumpkin seeds taste pretty good!

Back side (BOO)

Front side

Josh got a lot of help with his pumpkin from Jessie.

Back side (EEK)

Front side

CubScouts...stay tuned

Tuesday night, Ben was awarded his Wolf rank in CubScouts and one gold arrow and 3 silver arrows.  If you don't know anything about CubScouts, each year they have to complete a whole bunch of activities for that year's rank (like the Wolf when they are 8).  Ben worked on things like cooking, wood working, doing service, keeping track of chores, learning how to keep his home safe, etc.  Once he completes his rank, he can earn arrows for extra activities.  For every 10 activities, he earns 1 arrow, so he's completed 40 different activities.  Some of these include fishing, art, wood working, codes, acting, etc.  I'm really proud of his hard work and am happy that he wants to continue to learn new things and help in the community.  It's a great program that helps the boys to become good citizens and family members.  If you have a son, I would HIGHLY recommend signing him up for CubScouts or Boy Scouts.  You'll never be sorry you did!  Anyway, because our camera wasn't working right, I wasn't able to get photos, so I need to get them from my mother-in-law who did take photos.  I'll have to post them later...

House

We're settling into our house pretty well.  We've bought some furniture so some of the rooms are quite so bare now and we've replaced some of our furniture that we've had for a very looong time (like our computer desk that is 17 years old and is now in Ben's room).  There is still more furniture to buy to fill some of the rooms (like a formal dining room set) and lots of touch-up painting and decorating to do, but that will come a little more slowly.  We're still waiting to close...we were hoping by the end of October, but that's not going to happen.  We're not especially fond of the sellers or their agent, so when this is all over, we will be VERY HAPPY!  When we do close, the house will be ours and we won't have to worry about them any more and we can put all that behind us and move forward.  Overall, we are really happy to be here and really like the house.  SO....if you're ever in the area, come visit us; we have a little more room to be able to accommodate visitors now!