Trunk or Treat?

Every year at our church we usually have an activity around Halloween called a Trunk or Treat, or a trick or trunk or something like that. There is also a chili cook off for dinner. Dinner taken care of and a fun activity for the children-a win win in my opinion. The Trunk or Treat part involves going out to the parking lot and trick or treating around where all the parents give treats from the backs of their cars.
Getting the costume on...
Kaylyn found a new friend, Becca Anderson!

I put in this photo of Morgan from 7 years ago,
And this one of Jensen from 5 years ago.


I guess I can see why some people think the children look alike. :) Kaylyn was a ladybug.

Weston was a Wizard.

If you have never played Zelda on Nintendo then you probably won't recognize Jameson's Link costume.









Our friend Cody came too.

We had a witch. Yah ha ha!!!

And a Unicorn.

And I don't know what we will do the first Halloween we have that no one decides to be a princess! Here Morgan is with a friend.

Our friend Becky with Kaylyn. We had a fun night and were exhausted when we got home.

Weston's 11 Year Old Scout Camp Out.

Also on Friday night Weston and Thomas went to Weston's scout camp out. If you have been following our blog, you might realize that this is Thomas' second camp out in as many weeks. He's getting tired. :) This was a big deal for Weston because he had to do the meal plan for all the meals during the camp out(to pass off a requirement). I guess everything ran pretty smoothly. Although it was cold and they did get rained on. But I think they had a good time.

Weston pointing something out to his Dad.

Weston and a friend.

The Last Hurrah! (Pediatric HEMOC Clinic)

Friday night the child life specialist planned one last get together for the families of the children seen at the Carle Pediatric Hematology Oncology Clinic. She, Doey Gordon, planned an outdoor activity, hay rack ride, hot cider, and roasting marshmallows for smores around a campfire.
Our weather that night was rainy, cold(high 40s low 50s I think), and did I say rainy? :) We did go, along with just a handful of families, and honestly, we had a really good time. I put the baby in her snow suit which seemed fairly waterproof. We sang camp songs and visited. The children really had a good time and were not too happy when I decided the baby had had enough.
Kaylyn began the night bright eyed and happy about this exciting new experience.

Doey pours Morgan a cup of hot cider.

The girls warm up drinking their hot cider around the fire.
Kaylyn is mesmerized by the fire.
She is winding down pretty quickly.
This photo cracks me up. Could Jensen be any further away from the fire and still be able to roast her marshmallows? The fire was not THAT hot!

Have you ever seen the movie "Castaway" with Tom Hanks(he gets stranded on an uninhabited island and befriends a ball)? Here Jameson reminds me of the scene where Tom Hanks' character finally makes fire and dances around yelling/singing "FIRE! FIRE!" Sounding like "FIGH ARRRE"

Okay, okay, Our children are very easily entertained. Morgan and Jensen had a lot of fun taking turns standing on this rock!

Blowing up balloons just to jump on them to pop them..... and doing the "Hokey Pokey" that really is what it's all about! We had a fun night! We are really going to miss the wonderful people we know through the Pediatric Hematology Oncology Clinic.

Jameson's Boy Scout Campout

Thomas and Jameson went to a Boy Scout camp out last night. They are not even back home yet but Thomas just sent me these photos and I wanted to post them. Can you find the tree frog in this photo?


It isn't that difficult to see because of the extreme closeup, but from just a few feet away this guy would be hard to see!

I did clean it up a little on my computer.

Here Jameson is sharing with his Dad the joy he feels when he has dish washing duty. His acting is a little over the top. But I'd rather he had this attitude at home than the one he normally has when he has to wash dishes! :)

Megan's Oncology Checkup

Just a quick post a couple days late. Megan had her blood work and monthly exam by her oncologist on Monday afternoon. Her counts are completely NORMAL. It still feels so good to say that! She is healthy and doing great. Her doctor did have her get a flu shot and a chicken pox immunization booster. She wasn't too excited about those, but they're over now. He also instructed me to get the other 5 in for their flu shots as well....Add one more thing to my to do list....Well really 5-7 more things, Thomas and I should get one too. :) Think the children will want to do that for a family night??? Yah, even I don't think I could figure out a way to have them get excited about that! :) Here's Megan at the game last Saturday, she's a little orange but that color is washable. Can you believe she had no hair just over 2 years ago. Wow, wish mine grew like that!

5K Update

I am still trying to prepare for a 5k next year. So, I am trying to make time for walking/jogging/and moving in any way, anytime I can.(Okay, maybe not anytime, but more often.) I dropped the girls off at their activity tonight and walked around in the neighborhood they were in. I got some exercising in and saved gas too.(We don't live in the same town they have their bi-monthly activity in.)
It was beautiful out. Some of the walk was in a wooded area. The leaves are beginning to turn color. The air was cool, but not cold. The fallen leaves are beginning to make a blanket on the ground. As I walked through the crinkly beds of brown, yellow, and orange, the leaves crunched beneath my feet sending up wafts of that musty yet fragrant scent of Autumn. Occasionally I would walk past a Sycamore which leaves have an almost pungent smell. The sky was a patchwork of clouds with large areas of crystal blue sky. Something about this season always makes me nostalgic. I wonder why Autumn can't be 4 months long and winter 1 month. That would be a perfect world for me! :) I don't know how far I walked, it was only about 45 minutes, but it was beautiful.

Bats

Okay, I am trying to hurry because Blogger is stating they have a scheduled outage in less than 15 minutes and with our dial up connection I am not sure how long this will take to post.
We received an email from the superintendent of the schools yesterday. Apparently, Weston's teacher is the one who came in contact with the bat last Thursday.

Here's the email:

A bat found in the gymnasium of OUR Elementary on October 9th, 2008 has tested positive for rabies. The bat was found after it came in contact with the foot of a teacher. The bat was captured and turned over to the OUR County Animal Control Officer for identification and testing. The District also notified the OUR B-County Health Department.

The teacher who came in contact with the bat is receiving precautionary medical treatment to prevent infection from rabies. There is no indication that contact with any student occurred. School officials immediately employed wildlife removal experts to examine the school and work is in progress to prevent future entries by bats into the building. No evidence of other bats was found and school will resume as scheduled on Tuesday, October 14th.

We sent them all to school, I think all the parents did, but this was after the children told me more stories of spotting bats at the school in the last few years. My biggest question? Why is this the first we've heard about it at home?
Personally, I like bats, they usually leave us alone and are major pest eaters, but the rabies issue changes my opinion. Even our little town can have excitement once in awhile....
If we are going to have excitement, why can't it be something fun and positive....Rabies!

Tagged

I got tagged. So here's the game:Tag Rules: list 3 joys, 3 fears, 3 current goals, 3 current obsessions, and 3 random facts about yourself.


Joys

1: My Family
2: Nature/Outdoors(except bugs)
3: Fun Music or a Good Book


Fears

1: Someone harming my children.
2: The rabid bats at our kids school?(you'll have to see another post) :)
3: Debt


Current Goals

1: Prepare for 5k
2: Get the canning done for the season.
3: Become more organized, specifically at home.


Current Obsessions

1: Chocolate
2: Diet Soda(means more chocolate right?)
3: Trying to stay committed to preparing for a 5k next year. I do realize that 1 and 2 don't really help me realize #3.


Random Facts About Myself

1: I enjoy a fairly challenging sudoku problem.
2: I was at the top of my class in the last Chemistry class I took at college.
3: I'm a pretty low maintenance girl, when it comes to needing things. Probably a high maintenance girl when it comes to needing/wanting someone there for me emotionally.


I Tag Peggy

Illini Game

Today was the homecoming game for the Illini. We had tickets through the pediatric hematology/oncology department at Carle. With that part of the clinic closing this will be our last game for awhile. :( The game was early so we were up early for a breakfast tailgate. We still had a few minutes of "peek a boo" with Kaylyn after her bath. She was bright eyed and ready to go.















































Megan gearing up for cheering!




The girls with some of the U of I cheerleaders.



The anticipation for face painting was too much for Jensen and we couldn't get her to eat more than a few bites of breakfast.























The Sprague family was there too! Yay! We don't live far from each other and talk of getting together but get busy in our own lives and the getting together doesn't happen. Abby and Dani (above) were a great help with Kaylyn all day. (That baby is getting heavy!)

























Jensen and Morgan, painted and ready for the game.
























Above Weston, Below Morgan.

Even Kaylyn sported a little face paint. "Go Illini Go!"

Different Illini teams came to the 'Special Spectators Tent', including the girls softball team. They had bean bag tossing games at the tail gate. With all those competitive young adults there, competitiveness was bound to rub off on some of us. Here Morgan helps on one of the teams. Looks like she was having a great time.























It was a cool morning, but warmed quite a bit. Kaylyn changed from orange to pink but still had Illini on her shirt. I don't think you can see it in the photo, and she was oblivious, but we thought it was cute! Her 'I' for Illini didn't last long. She was enjoying some dehydrated apple in the photo below.



Abby holds a very tired Kaylyn.
























Above Weston, Jameson, and Papa. Below, The Sprague and Eliason children after the game. We lost 27-20 but still had a fun time.
After the game their family and ours went to Monicals for dinner. (Papa's treat for us, thanks Papa!) Kaylyn, as usual, was so great all day. She was out so quickly when we left the game, but after the half hour drive to Monicals she was up again and ready to go.
At first the kids were all a little subdued, but after they ate their energy was restored. The photo below was taken while waiting for the pizzas.

























Had to put this photo in. It took a looong time for our pizza to arrive. Patrick had a little Parmesan cheese during the wait.

It was a fun day.