Shane, Kayla and Ryan got to carve their pumpkins today. They did a really good job. The boys didn't want to touch the "guts" so the moms got stuck cleaning up the pumpkins so they could do the carving. Here are some photos of the kids carving the pumpkins. I also took a picture of the kids in the front of the house with them after it got dark. I LOVE that photo! They both look sooo cute!



Tonight we had Shane soccer dinner and he got awarded his trophey. This is his third one and he was just as excited for this one as he was for the last two. Here are some photos!

We had a fantastic fall weekend. On Friday, Jamie and I did some running around with Ryan and Kayla. I needed to buy Shane's Halloween costume, so we went to Party America to see what I could find. While I was looking for a costume, Kayla and Jamie kept themselves entertained by looking at this ridiculously funny glasses! I was successful in finding Shane's costume over there. He wanted to be Ninja this year and match Ryan. Ryan's Ninja costume is black, and Shane's is white. They both look very cute dressed up! We then ran over to Price Chopper, which on Fridays have the $1.01 meals.. its a brat or a huge hot dog, chips and a water! We couldn't pass it up! I am thinking we are going to be eating there on Fridays for lunch more often!! We grabbed our food and ran home to meet the bus and grab Shane to go see if we could find and garage sales and then run to Deals to find some odds and ends.
Here is a picture of Jamie and Kayla. They had soo much fun trying on the glasses!



Saturday ended up being just the most beautiful fall day and we took complete advantage of it. The day started with us heading out to downtown Blue Springs to go trick or treating. The kids had a fun time getting lots of candy from the businesses downtown. We were a little pressed for time since we needed to be at Ryan's football game at noon, but it worked out just perfectly and we had time to go all the way around to all the businesses and still make it to his game a few minutes early. It was a beautiful afternoon and Shane and Jim played a little football themselves and Kayla, Lacy and Sarah played in the playground while Jamie, Mark, Karen and myself watched Ryan play a some defense!



After the game we ran home to grab some lunch and then quickly set out again to hit the River Market in downtown KC. I was in heaven! It is amazing to me that we have lived here for almost 3 years and have never made it to the fresh market downtown! We spent a whopping $10.50 and I bought the most wonderful fresh produce! Enough to have fresh fruits and veggies for every meal for at least a week! We will have to definitely make trips over there more often! We even hit the Chinese market. This place was huge! As soon as we walked in through the door, you could smell fish.. not yummy, delicious, fresh fish.. just nasty smelly fish. Jim quickly made his way to the back since he was in search of clams, and we just followed. Hmmm... yea... not going in there again! We looked around for a bit, checked out all the thousands of condiments and drinks and other packaged foods which really even though were written in both English and Chinese, we had NO clue what they were!

We also went to this look out bridge that overlooks the Missouri River. The kids had a fun time out there. It really was very interesting and very pretty even though the water was brown and looked so dirty.



We came back home for dinner and then Shane and I ran out with Jamie, Ryan, Lacy and Sarah to go to the Enchanted Forest in Independence. We waited in line for over 2 1/2hours in the cold. It really was very interesting. Shane was a little spooked by the fact that it was so dark, but it really was in good taste and not scary at all.

Sunday was Jim's birthday!! We didn't really have anything special planned. Jim, Kayla and I went to church and Shane got to go to Ryan's church. He was very excited and enjoyed it very much. Jamie invited us over to Momo's (her mom's!) for a Halloween party in the afternoon. It was SO much fun! The kids got their faces painted, they painted pumpkins, ate lots of delicious Halloween decorated food and drank lots of witch's brew, hot apple cider and the most delicious white hot chocolate! Shane got in the car on the way home and said "This was the best Halloween party ever!!" It was a wonderful weekend to be outside. I don't think we will have many left, so I am very happy we got to spend as much time as we did outside!


Jamie's brother Josh has a Guinea Pig named Susie Q. Guess who fell in love with it??

I wanted to post this picture I took of the kids yesterday before we went to church. I LOVE it!

We had such a beautiful weekend. The weather was just perfect. Makes me wonder if this is the last one before the weather really cools down. Needless to say that when the weather is nice, we let the kids spend as much time outside as they can. They love every minute of it! This is a blog made up mostly of pictures I took of the kids enjoying being outside.

Here is Kayla helping daddy pick up and mulch the leaves falling from our trees in the backyard.


We have a few gords growing in the backyard tree line. Here is Shane with them!


Kayla blew bubbles with Kayla and Shane played basketball with daddy.

And here is Shane getting rolled up like a bugger! Haha

Jamie invited me to go along with her, Karen and Sonja to Atchinson, KS. I said great! The catch?? It is said that it is the most haunted towns in Kansas! We took a trolley ride through the town that gave us an insite on some of the "haunted houses". I took a lot of pictures. Some of these houses were massive. And you could tell just by looking at them, even by daylight, that there was something eary about them. Next year the girls are planning on actually visiting and touring one of the houses! Maybe I can work up the courage to go!
I found a nice website that describes a lot about this haunted town, if anyone is interested in learning more about it. Here it is: Atchinson Kansas Hauntings
I took a lot of pictures of the houses. There are a lot of "orbs" on the pictures. Some people say its just dusk that show up on the photos. I don't know....

Here we are waiting to get on the trolley.

This is known as the "Gargoyle Home" - Jamie really didn't like this one!

Here are some of the pictures I took of the houses where you can see some of the "orbs"?!

Here are a couple of videos of the kids.

Kayla is a true girl!! She is about everything that girls like to do.. her newest thing is dancing. I bought her this little leotard at a garage sale and she just LOVES it! Here she is.. my Kayla Ballerina!



Shane is a true boy!! I got him a skateboard for $5 at a garage sale. He loves it and it seems to come second nature to him.. he falls and gets right back up on it!

Miss Kayla gave us a scare. A couple of days back, she got bit by a bug on her foot and she would not quit scratching it and complaining about how much it hurt. She woke up yesterday morning with this huge blister on her little foot where the bite had been. I didn't think anything about it at first, but I did find it odd. I brought it up to Jamie and told me to make sure that it wasn't a Recluse Spider bite because their bite turns into a blister. I had no knowledge of them, so I did a lot of research online. It is prime season for these little critters and they are one of 4 poisinous spiders.. GREAT! After looking at some photos online, I was freaking out. I saw way much more than I was hoping for and it really is very scary what can happen after a bite. So I called the doctor and of course, as calm as they always are, made me an appointment for today, and told me just look for any changes. I took her in there this morning, and the doctor said that she had been bitten alright, but reasured me that it was not by a Recluse spider bite which was a HUGE relief! Sometimes by scratching a bite too hard, it can blister. I just need to watch it and make sure that it doesn't get infected and within ten days it should be all healed. Thank GOD!
Sorry that the pic is a little gross.. but I wanted to put it on my blog.



I also wanted to add this very cute picture of Kayla. It is funny how just a few days ago she was dressed up like Spiderman.. and here we are talking about how we thought she might have gotten bit by a spider!

Last night, Jim and I got to have some 'adult only' time. Lacy babysat the kids for us, and Jamie, Mark and I met up with Jim at Gomer's in Lee's Summit for their deck party. Sonja and Tim met us there a little later. They had wine, beer and mojito tasting areas, apart from everything under the sun you could get at a liquor store. There was a great band there also, and I can't remember the last night I had that much fun dancing.
Here are a few pictures I took and some Jamie took with her phone.



On the back of the delicious bottle of Riesling that we got, was this label. It was called NEXT. I really enjoyed the message on it so I took a picture.


For all of you who can't read the label since its a little blurry, here is what it reads:

Next: is a statement
Next: is a question
Next: reminds us that
We always stand at a crossroads,
that we are all poets, all philophers
the makers and keepers of our own dreams.
That we bring wine to our friends
that we might share both wine and words together
folded into a moment on the edge of the next.

I found my camera! Amazing! After almost 2 weeks of looking and looking, I decided to turn the play room upside down for the second time. In the corner of the room, was one of Shane's old bookbags that the kids play with. Well, it never occurred to me to look inside the bag!! I looked everywhere else, but in that bookbag! Sure enough, along with two other play cameras that Kayla has, was MY camera!! Yaahhooo!! I have missed it like crazy! I am VERY happy to have it back!
I took these pictures not this past Monday, but the previous one when I watched Paige and Addison for the day. I didn't get the chance to post them since that was the day the camera went missing. The kids had a great time together.. it took Kayla a little while to warm up to having to share mommy, but for the most part, she did pretty well.
Here are some pictures of them. We played with chalk, chased bubbles and while Paige and Kayla took naps, Shane and Addison watched a movie.

Last night we invited 6 of our couple friends (well, really 10, but Nicole is prego and VERY sick and Heather was not feeling well), and their kids for a night of Italian food and games. Everyone brought something to contribute to dinner and we had a feast! It was great, thanks to everyone!! Even to Mike and his bread 'sticks'! The boys got to watch some football for a while and the girls got to chit chat. We played 'Last Word', which was fun, but actually sort of difficult and then we played 'Buzz Word', which we ended up having a ton of laughs playing.
Ryan got to 'spend the night', as he calls it! The boys were both very excited when they both found out! They played and played and at about 10:45pm, we told them it was time for bed. They went to bed without complaints. Shane said his prayers, and the part that I found adorable was that when he ask for God's blessings, the first person he named was Ryan. :) Ryan had the cutest little smirk on his face!
At around 1:30am, I was awaken by talking.. I thought I was dreaming at first, but then I realized it was the boys.. I went into Shane's room to find the closet light on and the two of them reading books, playing with all the stuffed animals and looking through Shane's pins from DisneyWorld. Needless to say, I asked them to go to sleep!! They laid back down with no problem. At around 2:05am, I woke up hearing them again!! This time I nudged Jim and he went it there... I guess Ryan was telling Shane ghost stories! Lets just say that Shane is not as brave as Ryan is when it comes to 'scary' things! As soon as Shane saw Jim, he started crying! Well, after that there was no more waking up for me by little voices! Thank you Jim!
To my surprise, the boys and Kayla were up at 7:00am!!! They ate breakfast and sat on the couch watching George of the Jungle and that is when I took this picture, (taken with my cell phone since I have no clue where my camera is!) They look hypnotized don't they??