The kids helped decorate the cookies I made to take in to John's preschool for his Halloween party today.

The kids had a fun time at the Halloween Family Concert at the JCCC Carlsen Center. They enjoyed eating lots of cookies - John had three - and I just HAD to eat what they didn't - it isn't good to waste food now is it? :) John decided to get a pumpkin bat and Alyssa wanted a big pumpkin (wonder how hard that will be to get off later)on her face. John was getting antsy in the middle of the performance but was able to make it through with promises of the treat bag at the end. (I knew there had to be a reason they didn't give out the treat bags earlier!)

Welcome to the newest edition

Here is a picture of Monica Kateri Lynn born Oct.22 at 6:55 PM weighting 7# 3 oz. and 20 inches long. She looks like her mommy. Andrea and Monica doing well and Kevin is a proud daddy.

Baby's on the way...

So my younger brother and his wife that live in Michigan are at the hospital now...with meds she's doing much better....resting until later this afternoon when it will probably be the time for the baby to finally come....

Kids had a great time climbing in the tree after their last soccer games of the season. Alyssa scored a goal and was so excited.

Yesterday we went to parent teacher conferences for both of the kids. Alyssa's was a perfect report. The picture is Alyssa's self portrait. Teacher explained that the more details they had on the pictures, the more developed they were. John's was that he was still immature (aren't most 4 year olds!)and that he wouldn't sit still/pay attention for more than 4 minutes and had hard time staying on track but he was getting better every day. Don't think I'll worry too much about those things - he is after all a BOY and he is only 4! He has another year of preschool after this one....

On Tuesday we went to the Pumpkin Patch again - this time for Alyssa's field trip. Was raining a bit so not as nice as when we went before. Alyssa enjoyed her first time riding the school bus.

The life of my computer is coming to an end. So I am in the process of trying to get everything copied that I don't want to lose. I have taken so many pictures since 2005 when I got my digital camera....and I came across this photo that made me laugh. August of 2007 the kiddos were not monitored for a few minutes...and this is what they did....Alyssa was blaming the whole thing on John - but she never thought to come to me to "tattle" on her bro because she was having too much fun joining in! I made them put the stuffing back in the cushions - not as much fun! :)

Last night the kids had fun getting messy in paint at the Ceramic Cafe. We were suppose to put paint on the kids hands and make handprints, then make something for Halloween or other creative picture from them. The kids seemed to want to do their own thing so I let them at it! We can pick them up next week to see how they turned out. I tried to make something of John's plate after he finished and I tried to help Alyssa but she didn't want me to. And after we were finished I took them to McDonald's for ice cream cones.

We enjoyed a fall day with friends at the playgroup before heading off to school.

Last week we went to the pumpkin patch with John's preschool class. The kids had fun on the horses made of tires. John did some climbing (the picture shows him hanging) on the Humpty Dumpty wall. Grandma was with us and we all enjoyed a tractor ride and picking out pumpkins. Alyssa made sure to take her time to find the "perfect" pumpkin. Alyssa goes on her field trip to the same place next week.