But I don't want to wear this!

Today was picture day at Sunny Hollow. Normally I let Owen pick out whatever he wants to wear (within reason) and today I picked out his clothes. He was fine putting everything on until we got to the sweater - to which he said this. I told him there are a few days a year that I get to pick out everyone's clothes, even Daddy's, and today was one of them. What a handsome fellow.

Once school was done it was among the longest afternoon's of Owen's life. He was waiting and waiting for it to get dark. Once it did, the boys turned into little buckaroo's and hit up the neighborhood looking for treats. Walter tried his hardest to keep up with his brother but his horse just wasn't quite as speedy or graceful. Owen got to go out twice, once with Jer & me and a second time with my

 mom and aunt. He 

certainly hit the motherload tonight and I'm not sure what we're going to do with all this candy. I have pretty much zero will power and have been avoiding having this kind of stuff in our house. Now it is downstairs just calling my name. I wouldn't be surprised if Jer wakes up in the morning to see chocolate all over my face and a trail of wrappers around the house.

Cougars.

I had a wonderful time away with some fellow moms this past weekend. We decided to celebrate 3 years of friendship and motherhood with a girls getaway in Chicago. It was super fun. We were total girls doing lots of shopping, taking eons to get ready, trying on each other's clothes, putting make-up on and gabbing one another's ears off. It was fabulous and very refreshing. We kept commenting on how strange it was to be only responsible for our selves, to finish conversations, and eat entire meals while they were still warm! Jer called us 'cougars' and I'll let him explain that one to you sometime!

Jer and the boys seemed to have had a nice weekend. Apparently they were busy doing projects as I've been finding things like leafs all over the house (from their wax paper leafs) and homemade frozen yogurts in the fridge. They managed to do some fishing and spent some time raking over at Donna & Bruce's, too. It sounds like they got some good male bonding in.

When I went to get a permit for our new deck last week, the city told me that I could not do a deck or porch or anything except replace our cracking front stoop. So, after feeling frustrated and bad about all the time Al had sunk into designing it for us, we've moved on to new ideas. Gardeneer came out on Thursday and took out our old front stoop and walkway. (Thank you, Al!) We contemplated trying to pour a new front stoop and little patio area immediately, but with temperatures dipping into the 20's at night, the concrete guru advised us to wait. So for the time being, my dad, Owen & Walter built us a temporary front stoop today. We will be patient and finish our curb appeal in the spring. 

The tiger walked on the tight rope like this.

This statement was of course followed by Owen walking on his tip toes with claw hands saying 'roar, roar, roar'. He had a great time with Al & Joanne at the circus Saturday and continues to talk about the tigers. He was originally pleading for me to make him a costume. That plea has subsided, which is just fine with me. I have too many unfinished sewing projects to start another.

We had a day full of visitors and fun today. Walter and I had music to start the day off. We were singing some song on the ride there and he started doing the hand motions to one song! Sounds small, but it was exciting to me. He's just so darn cute. He enjoyed music and even got his groove on a little (usually he's too busy watching everyone to dance).

After school, a friend from Sunny Hollow and his mom came over for lunch. The boys played well together after, while Walter slept, so the mom and I actually got to have some pretty good, full conversations! Amazing.

Tonight Arianna & Ella came over for dinner. We used to swap children weekly if not more and hadn't for a while due to some life changes. It is so great to have them more frequently in our lives again. They are such good girls and all play quite well together. Owen & Ella butt heads every so often and I even heard Owen pull out the "Ella June" a couple times, which just made me laugh. Once they figure it all out, Ella just blows it off and goes on to play. Owen, however, keeps holding on. Funny.

Owen is camping out tonight on his bedroom floor. I tried to encourage him to wait until my parents come next week, but he had to do it tonight!

You can wash the bathroom floor, too.

Owen asked me if there was something he could clean today. I asked him what he wanted to clean and he told me the bathroom garbage. We got him all set up in there and when I went in to check on him the floor was pretty wet, so I told him he could also wash the bathroom floor if he wanted to. He replied with a very enthusiastic "Thanks Mommy!"....um, what...where am I and how can I make sure this never stops?

We've been enjoying the wonderful fall weather these past few days. This afternoon we met up with our neighbors for a little Duck, Duck, Grey Duck followed by a walk around the block. It got rather chilly towards the end of our walk, but I don't think the kids noticed as they were running back and forth, rolling down hills, walking on 'tight ropes' and all sorts of other fun things. Its great to have close friends close by!

Yesterday we spent some time playing football and baseball in the triangle park just north of us. Jer was teaching Owen (and me for that matter) all sorts of drills. Walter copies everything his older brother does, which is quite cute and generally welcome but sometimes a bit annoying to Owen. He is learning patience.

We ended the day by carving our pumpkins. (Unfortunately a squirrel has already eaten part of one of the faces away - rascals!) Auntie Kindi stopped by and watched Walter while I gave Jer and Owen haircuts. We enjoyed a nice dinner together and ended the evening dancing in the basement and eating pumpkin seeds. They are addicting and Owen has some pretty good moves I might be trying to replicate on the Chicago dance floors this weekend.

There's a bird in my bird feeder!

Owen and Jer made a bird feeder yesterday and its been getting some major traffic. Owen sat up during quiet time today, looking out his window, watching birds fly in and out.

We had a busy day today. Owen went to the circus with Al & Joanne...more on that later, as Al is going to send me some photos. I will tell you he came home with a blue face and fingers! This afternoon, we went to a Halloween event at Woodlake Nature Center. The boys got to trick or treat, play games, get their faces painted and pet all sorts of animals. It was a beautiful afternoon for it. Walter loved the animals. He had the cutest, most genuine smile on his face while we were in the petting zoo. Afterwards, we got funky at Champps for dinner.



Our house is in the process of getting painted. Its fun to see the change. So long cutie pie, hello (I hope) modern abode. Next week the construction of our front deck will begin. Al has designed a beautiful, kid-friendly space for us that my dad will help us build. Exciting times!

Well, Josh beat me once.

My boys had dinner with the Cagle family tonight while I went to yoga. After dinner it sounds like they had a few wrestling matches going on. When I arrived to pick them up, Owen was really excited to tell me how he had repeatedly beat Josh. When we got home, he told me that Josh had actually beat him once. Not bad, as Josh was a D3 National Champ!

Since we're talking wrestling, this photo is in the new Augsburg wrestling room.

Faster than a carrot.

Owen's been pretending to be a superhero quite a bit lately. He's often zooming around the house saying he's faster than a dog, faster than an airplane, etc. The other day, I heard him say he was faster than a carrot. Pretty speedy.

We had a full weekend full of anniversary celebrations! It was our 6 year anniversary and I'm not sure what the theme traditionally is, but I'd say ours was Prairie. Friday night we went to see A Prairie Home Companion at the Fitzgerald Theatre in St. Paul.

Saturday, we split off doing our own things in the day. Jer enjoyed sometime at the horse track, while the boys and I biked to get pumpkins. Once Jer returned, I went to a beautifully catered lunch for my mom's group (catered by our very own Martha, who just happens to be named Sarah instead.), while Jer, Josh McMahon and the boys went fishing at the river. That evening Lindsay and Andreas babysat while we hit up a movie.

On Sunday we got up and went to Key's for breakfast followed by a quick trip to Nicollet Island Pavillion where we had our reception. The place has undergone a renovation and, although still beautiful, we both agreed that we were happy we had our wedding before that happened. We capped off a wonderful weekend with two tickets, curtousy of Jer's grandparents, to Little House on the Prairie at the Guthrie. Seriously, I'm not sure how we'll top this anniversary, but I'm glad we have some time to relax before the next one!

I don't want a story. Good night, Mommy.

Tonight, Owen found a costume my mom gave him a while back. Its two sizes too small now, but he got it on anyway and is wearing it to bed, as he and Griffin are having a slumber party. They had an eventful evening playing ball, sharing popcorn and posing for pictures which we will be sending in to one of the magazines he subscribes to. He ended the night bringing down Griffin's bed I made him when Griffin was our only child (it has a built in heating pad - which we plugged in tonight.) and told me he didn't want a story. Apparently his imagination is going wild with its own story tonight.

We went to the MN Zoo today. Owen was off because of Yom Kippur. We finally saw the Russian Grizzly Coast exhibit we'd heard such rave reviews on. It was worth the wait. The kids really liked the playful sea otters and the boiling mud. I had to finally pick Walter up and pull him away from that section. The animals seem much happier at this zoo versus those at Como. Its still sad to see them penned up.

Tonight we went to Swenson's for dinner. Melissa's husband was out of town and Summer's husband was at school, so we had a playgroup family dinner. Its always nice to get out of the house at that time of day!

Yesterday we hosted playgroup at our house. Walter is really enjoying the play dates these days. He's generally pretty quiet and observant throughout them. He gets lots of attention from the older kids who like to care for the 'baby'.

Last night I managed to get a way for a yoga class, thanks to my friend Sarah, who took my boys and even fed them dinner! Its great to have this network of friends. I'm not sure how I'd be surviving this travel without them.

Freddy asked if he could polish it, too.

Owen got a trophy at his last night of soccer last night. He is so proud. He brought it to school today to show his class. He does polishing work at school and told me he polished it and then when he was "up in the loft and Freddy asked if he could polish it, too." It is still in his locker and I'm sure quite shiny by now.

Walter and I had music class this morning. He was really cutting a rug today. In addition to dancing, he enjoyed taking off his rain boots and socks throughout class. He attempted to take off other kids' and parents' shoes, too. He's seriously a stinker.

Are we going to the Donut to watch the game?

Jer and Owen went to the Gopher game on Saturday. As they were getting ready, this is what Owen asked me. They went to the Dome to watch the game instead.

We had a busy weekend between dinners with friends, birthday celebrations, the football game, and the Sunny Hollow Fall Festival.

Now I'm going to share some beautiful photos I took with Lindsay's awesome camera. They are from a few weeks ago. I'll write more another time...

Can you handle that?

Owen asked me this this morning as I was getting him some addition to his breakfast. I remember laughing to myself and thinking how am I going to remember that quote all day. I somehow remembered it, but don't completely remember the context.This afternoon we had a long overdue playdate with Mandy & Miles. We went to Woodlake Nature Center for a hike and then came back to our house for a pizza party. The boys fished with sticks and ran and fed some ducks. Mandy is truly an amazing nanny; she was finding fish eggs, crawling on rocks in the woods, chasing the kids, jumping on the bridge so it would rock the kids...pretty much just doing everything kids love! She has so much spirit and energy. I'm humbled being with her. If I ever had to go back to a paid position, I'd be begging Mandy to be our nanny.