Michelle's Madness

Too bad he's not into it or anything!

We were goofing around before the boys went to bed tonight and Logan was showing me his different "faces". Here is a selection:

Happy Face:


Sad Face:


Mad Face:


And then on to the silly faces:

Silly Face #1:



Silly Face #2:


Silly Face #3:


Silly Face #4:


And Jacob got in on the silly face act too:

Trudging through the store
Kids bouncing around like they're
pinballs on steroids

1. The pumpkin patch
The boys always have so much fun at the pumpkin patch. Unfortunately this year, due to time constraints and long lines, we weren't able to do everything we wanted to do, but we still had fun. And we got 3 HUGE pumpkins for only $10.75, which is awesome. At lesser pumpkin patches, these pumpkins would have been $10-$15 each.

We did some of the corn maze, which the boys thought was fun for about 7 1/2 minutes. Which is okay, because the maze is ginormous, so it would have been worse if we had been smack in the middle of it and then they decided not to walk anymore. This year's maze was cut into the shape of a Toyota Tundra. This is an actual aerial view of the maze. All the green is corn.



My pumpkin boys:




In the pumpkin maze and overlooking the pumpkin maze:





Fun pictures and pony rides:






2. Halloween goodies
No, not just candy, but other Halloween themed yummies. I have an Amish Friendship Bread starter that I've been using to make bread for the last couple of months. The boys love it for breakfast. For the most recent batch, I replaced the oil with canned pumpkin, and it made really yummy pumpkin bread. Today, I made roasted pumpkin seeds using the seeds Brian pulled out of the pumpkins he carved. I made one batch just regular salted, and the other batch spicy with garlic salt and cayenne pepper and Worcestershire sauce. Delicious! And last night, the boys and I had a blast decorating Halloween cupcakes:




3. Little boys in Halloween costumes
What could be better than little boys dressed in their costumes, totally getting into the spirit with a cool action pose?



(BTW, Jacob is Optimus Prime and Logan is Bumblebee. Remember, there's more than meets the eye!)

4. Really cool carved pumpkins
Brian's project for today: carving our awesome annual jack o lanterns! They were time consuming, but quite worth it. The boys are super excited about these. Didn't he do an awesome job???





Here is one more that Brian did a few days later:



Bring on Halloween!

Yesterday after I picked up the boys, we were in the car and Jacob asked me, “When I grow up will you still be my mom?” I told him, “Of course I will still be your mom. I will always be your mom and you will always be my son.” He thought about that then asked, “When Logan grows up, will he be your grandson?” I told him, “No, he will also still be my son. You both will always be my sons, you will always be brothers, and I will always be your mom.” He thought about that for a moment then said, “Cool.”

Later on last night, I was lying on the couch and Jacob came and lay in front of me to snuggle under the blanket. After a while I told both boys to go get their jammas on. They both ran off to their rooms, but Logan came right back, and with a mischievous little smile, proceeded to steal Jacob’s spot with me. I asked him if he was stealing his brother’s spot and he said yes, and then just lay there with a satisfied little smile. Jacob came back after getting changed, and expected to come right back to his spot. He was quite disappointed to find his little brother right where he wanted to be. About 10 minutes later, I told Logan to get his jammas on and Jacob stole back his preferred snuggling spot. But Logan just climbed up and laid on both of us.

I love a good long three day weekend. Plenty of time to putter around the house and get things done without busting my ass, and lots of time to play, hang out and be lazy, eat, and nap. But of course, the beasties need to be entertained periodically, or they'll eat us, or at least drive us very crazy. So this morning while Brian was at work, the boys and I baked some cookies. Jacob chose to make chocolate chip M&M cookies, which turned out yummy. Of course, I cannot stop eating them...




Then when Brian got home, we surprised the boys and took them to the local serpentarium. It's a museum, but you can also buy creatures and their various accoutrement. I very much wanted to take home a turtle. I love love love turtles! I loved the snakes too and I really wanted to pet some of them. I wanted a snake in high school but my then (evil) stepmother quickly vetoed that because snakes apparently represent the devil. Turns out she WAS the devil, and now she's burning in hell.... well, Arizona, but tomato, tomahto.


Larry, Moe, and Curley here were pretty funny. I swear they were posing for the camera.


And I'm not sure if these guys were showing us their butts, acting aloof, or if they were just really interested in something. Actually, it kinda looks like they're watching the game...


This snake was quite interested in Jacob. As soon as he walked up to the glass, it moved forward from the back of its enclosure to check him out.


This is the snake Brian got a call on a while back. The owner committed suicide, so he had to collect her from the home. However she is so big and heavy that her cage didn't fit in his truck. She's about 10 feet long and 100 pounds. Note the smaller snake next to her. That's her boyfriend. They are trying to mate the two. Imagine that, you lose your owner and your home and your new owner immediately starts pimping you out. Oh well, no worries, if she's really that bothered by it, she can just eat the male. That'll learn 'em.


These green tree pythons are really cool. They make me think of the book Verdi. And they're super expensive.


One more day of lounging, food and fun. The weather has cooled and the boys will probably play outside with their friends some more. We'll barbecue some burgers and do nothing. Just what a holiday weekend is for!

I'm done with hot weather. Unfortunately the hot weather didn't get the message and it's supposed to be 106+ on Thursday. I'm overheating just thinking about it! I am definitely ready for some cooler weather, homemade stew, a fire in the fireplace, visits to the pumpkin patch, and my favorite holidays, Thanksgiving and Halloween. The boys are trying to decide what they want to be for Halloween, and of course they are very indecisive. They are flipping through a catalog and they want to be something from every page: Batman, Power Rangers, Indiana Jones, Darth Vader, an astronaut, you get the idea. But it sounds like Optimus Prime and Bumblebee are the clear favorites. That will be really cool, and they are starting to get excited too. Are we there yet?