Book Fair Festivities!

After an amazing long weekend with my Twitter family at Anderson's Bookshop in Naperville and the NCTE conference in Chicago, I was still able to spend today with my real-life family. I can't even explain the love I felt at the train station when I opened the car door to put my stuff in the trunk and Jordan and Danny both screamed, "Mom!!!" Their little smiling faces are so sweet.

Then we went home and it was all changing diapers and reading books and bedtime and back to real life. It almost seems like my weekend away was a dream.

Today, we went to Barnes and Noble for the book fair for Chad's school. Barnes and Noble hosts it every year and there are activities and story times throughout the day. Chad was the first teacher to read. I spent a lot of time running after Danny. He would pull out a bunch of books and then take off running while I tried to frantically put the books away and race after him. We rode up and down the escalators a few time, too. That was fun.

Jordan and Maddy listening to Chad read

While Chad was reading, Jordan got to hang out with one of his best friends, Maddy. Jordan and Maddy have known each other their whole lives (well, Jordan's whole life since Maddy is older) and for a while saw each other almost every single week. Doesn't this picture of them just kill you? I cried when I saw it. Maddy's dad took it and showed it to me. They are awesome. So glad we have friends like this. What would life be without friends and family to share it with? Thanksgiving is coming up but I'm always thankful for my friends and family any day of the week.

Long Live Waldo!

Jordan and I worked on the computer the other night and came up with Where's Waldo avatars for our family! Looking at them all lined up now is so funny! Chad is first - he looks super trendy and hip and young (which he totally is in real life!). He's jamming to his iPod. Danny is next in the green. I love his crazy hair and his little stocking cap. He's holding his sippy cup. Of course, it's easy to tell who I am. I have my flower in my hair and am holding my cell phone so I can tweet. And Jordan is last with his red and black stripes. He wanted to hold the key...I didn't ask him what he thought the key would be for...but he does have a little car that you put a key into and then can make it zoom off.

Aren't we such a cute Waldo-ish family? I love it! Next year is the 25th anniversaty of Where's Waldo! I'm not sure how many kids still recognize Waldo any more - but they should! We used to love poring through the books looking for all the different characters. Jordan likes the Where's Waldo app we have. Long live, Waldo!

Halloween 2011

This week went really fast! It was kind of hard having Halloween on a Monday. We were already tired from the weekend and celebrating Halloween at my parents' and then we were busy again with Halloween on Monday night. We just took the kids trick-or-treating around our little part of the neighborhood. Jordan was Captain Rex from the Clone Wars (Star Wars) and Danny was Elmo!

I am insanely in love with Pinterest lately! I saw these cute pudding monsters on there and the mummy chocolate bars and just had to make them!

Jordan with his red pudding monster!

 How cute are these guys! We went them to school and daycare with the boys to hand out. It was fun to wrap them up and put their eyeballs on! I love googly eyes!!!!

Something in the air...

There must be something in the air as it gets closer to Halloween...

Can you see his hair standing straight up off of his head?!?! We were playing in our Thomas tent and I had to grab the camera when I saw how static-y his hair was getting! I love this. He's saying, "Cheese!" just not looking at me (of course!).

Mr. Jack-o-Lantern 2011

We finally went to our local nursery pumpkin-y place to get our pumpkin this weekend! We love to take the kids there. It's a cute little place just down the street and we go every year. We got a nice size pumpkin that was perfect for carving. Somehow I avoided the sliminess this year...I just took the pictures!

Chad and Jordan scooping out seeds!

Ah! A Jordan-monster!

Scoop, scoop, scoop

Jordan picked out a design and Chad carved it up!

Rrrr....

Even scarier with the lights off!

Jordan was proud of his pumpkin!

Chad and Jordan!

This guy looks so cool out in front of our house. Coming home and pulling into the driveway is fun because there he is grinning (?) back at me. Even though he's got a mean face, he's really a nice guy deep inside. Did you carve pumpkins this year? What kind of face or other fun image did you carve?

Googly Eyes Make Everything Better

Sometimes I forget the power of googly eyes...and then I remember them and the day gets a whole lot brighter! Googly eyes seriously make everything a hundred times better. They are fun. They just scream, "Look at me, I'm silly! Googly, googly, googly!" I love them. 

Last week a friend at work broke her foot so 

Jordan and I made her this cute little card!

Googly Googly!

Jordan put the googly eyes in place!

I added little smiles and a "Get Well Soon!" bubble.

Googly eyes have more fun!

Do you have a favorite googly eye project??

If You Ain't Here to Party

I went to an "assembly" at work this week. It was a collection of great people in our district talking about teacher effectiveness.  We did an activity where we had to decide if we were mostly a north, south, east, or west kind of person. I'm warning you, this is pretty crazy-true and it freaked me out a bit. I felt connected to recognize my personality but have also be contemplating what it means all week! Don't be wishy washy, you have to pick only one! (I also color coded them, there is a similar personality test that links you with a color.)

Here are the breakdowns:

North - Acting - Likes to take action, try things, plunge in. "Let's do it!" 

East - Speculating - Likes to look at the big picture and the possibilities before acting.

South - Caring - Likes to know that everyone's feelings have been taken into consideration and that their voices have been heard before acting.

West - Pay attention to detail - Likes to know the who, what, where, when, and why before acting.

Can you tell which one I am? I'm totally a north. I actually love being a north. I think norths have a lot of fun. You know what I just realized? My grandmother on my dad's side of the family was a North; that was her family name. That's crazy.

Anyway, I am definitely the kind of person who jumps into things. Then I become more of a west and stop to think of all the elements to get things done right, but I am first and foremost a north. I really like who I am in that sense. I love that I have the energy and will to just go and do things. I definitely think of myself as a leader. I feel like I get things done. Knowing I am a north did make me stop and realize the other directions that I don't identify with as easily. I consider myself to be a caring person and I do take others into account, but sometimes it's hard for me to understand why people aren't on board with me. This helped me recognize that others just think differently before jumping into things.

My north-ish self has adopted this song as my anthem. This is how I'm feeling about life right now! I'm a north and I'm here to party! Let's do it!!!

If You Ain't Here to Party - Luke Bryan - Luke Bryan Videos

What personality do you think you match up with? Do you feel like you can fit into one? Does it change your perspective about people? Where do your family members fit? I think this is to intriguing!!

More Fall Fun!

Look at me! I'm posting again. It feels good to be blogging again. I can't believe how much Danny has changed so I'm excited to share pictures of him as he grows. It's crazy to me that he's already 15 months old. This weekend we visited Edwards Apple Orchard and the Pumpkin Patch. Both are places Chad went to when he was a kiddo and now we've made it a tradition of taking our little family.

First, we stopped at the orchard. We went straight for the apple cider and apple cider donuts. Then we played a lot and went to the store for goodies.

Grandma and Aunt Jane - Aunt Jane's first apple cider donut!!!

Chad, Danny, and Papa

Jordan and me! He was all about the donuts and the cider!

Danny's first apple cider donut (he was only 5 months last year!)

Mmmm...sugary sweet.

See? Look how big these kiddos are! Jordan and Danny!

 After the orchard, we went to the Pumpkin Patch! Jordan got to spend tickets on jumpy things and Chad and I launched pumpkins! Danny had fun petting the goats and looking at all the pumpkins.

Pumpkins!!! Arrrr(?)!!!

This is Danny's sweet "Cheese" face. He actually says it!

I'm glad we are able to take our kids there. It seems like there are so many small town or local places that are closing so it's nice that these two places are still around. I hope they continue to be there as our kids get older and maybe even when our kid have kids! Where do you pumpkin patch?

You know...we did get one medium sized pumpkin but we didn't get out pumpkin to carve yet! We were busy running around and having fun and didn't choose a pumpkin. We do have a great little pumpkin spot near our house so I'm sure we'll be there in the next week or so.

Fall 2011 (So Far...)

It's October and October means fall to me! Last weekend we celebrated at my sister's wedding. She was excited that the leaves were changing colors because their whole wedding was fall themed. I love my blog and being able to share all the fun things we do. I haven't been so great at scrapbooking lately so at least by doing this I can chronicle what we're doing...but that means I have to keep up with my blog. This is it. I'm officially back. Here's some pics from last weekend!

The bride getting her nails done! 

Jordan and my mom at the rehearsal - he was the ring bearer!

Hanging out before the ceremony - Jordan with Aunt Jacquie

My cousin, Silvia, and I

There was a photographer with us most of the day. I felt fancy!

Aunt Jane with Jordan 

Jordan with Grandma

Me with my sister

After the wedding, we spent the weekend relaxing. We actually took the kids to a water park hotel near us. It was a totally free weekend. We were so busy there was no time to think about anything besides having fun. We had fun jumping in the leaves! 

Danny! He's 15 months now! So much fun. 

Jordan - I love his sweet smile!

My boys! Chad with Jordan and Danny

There will be more to come! October is such a fun month. Fall is such a beautiful season. My mom's friend, Betty, was visiting from Guatemala for the wedding last week and she had never seen the leaves changing colors before. I love when the leaves change but it gave me a whole new perspective to think about never having ever seen them before!