Pumpkin faces

I love Halloween. I LOVE pumpkins. Sure wish it would have stayed 80 degrees, but it worked out well (at least for me!) for Ed to carve the pumpkins while we fixed/ate dinner tonight. The boys looked at some pictures and gave their final requests. Ed did a great job!

Not sure why Brady thought this was such a great pose with his pumpkin. . .whatever :)

Where's the Beef?

Ed's company's fall event this year was having a tent/party (they even competed in the contest on Sunday) at the American Royal BBQ - we had never been before and it was a lot of fun. The food was amazing - they took 18th in the Brisket contest.

A Little "Before and after"

As we (slowly) settle into our new house and get "our stuff" arranged, it starts to feel more like home.  For 10 years though, this was our home (before and after) and we really loved living there (except for a few major things - like our small backyard and some neighbors :).

Here is the "before" - this is what it looked like when we bought the house. Amazingly enough we saw through the navy exterior trim and teal walls with wallpaper borders! Ed started painting the navy trim white immediately and our neighbors stopped by to thank us.

Mauve carpet and teal paint (with red brick) - enough said

Ed extended the flower beds and improved the looks a ton shortly after we moved in, which I quickly filled up. This must have been the first spring - bare beds, but lots of tulips :)

And here's a couple pics of the "after" - we changed our carpet to neutral right before we moved out, which I totally understood, but it didn't quite feel like "our" house after that which I think made it a little easier to leave.

Too bad I can't find the "before" shot of the kitchen - Ed put in a new floor, we tore down the "half" wall between the kitchen and dining room and put in new appliances (except for fridge). This was Brady sorting out his cards as my mom and I were cleaning the morning we left. The comment I hear most from Brady is he misses our kitchen - strange, but true.

Oh the places you will go!

The boys started school today - 1 1/2 weeks after they would have started if we hadn't moved. It was weird to start later than so many other kids in town, but nice as well.



I hope they have a great day. We went to Back-to-School night Monday and took their school supplies and met their teachers. I am really excited for them - their teachers seem great.  (The neighbor girl, who we have spent quite a bit of time with, is also in Brett's class which was a nice surprise.)

Brett's teacher - Mrs. Sudac

Brady's teacher - Miss Thompson

They were excited to find out they had lockers. So cute!

Very excited to get this school year kicked off so the kiddos can make lots of new friends. 1st and 3rd grade here we come! :)

Visits from the Tooth Fairy

Brett's smiles has changed a lot this week - 2 teeth lost in 4 days! The tooth fairy had to come visit grandma's Tuesday night and she will be paying us a visit again tonight. He lost the second one just as I was getting ready to turn his light off tonight. What timing!

Worlds of Fun

We went to Worlds of Fun the Monday after the All-Star Fan Fest - it was actually overcast and not crazy hot for most of the day -- and there were NO LINES. Worlds of Fun was our bday present to Brett this year and he waited patiently for us to go. He is definitely the family daredevil and loves all rides.



We rode a lot of flying, go around and around rides - which Ed  DOES NOT love, but Brady does :)

I had forgotten about these old cars -

Brett kept asking to ride the Mamba -

So we thought we would all ride together. About the time we got to the line, I think Brady said "I don't want to die" and was about to break down in tears. Poor guy! But Brett rode it twice (once with Ed and once with me) and loved every minute of it. And even though I kind of felt like Brady at the beginning, it did end up being fun :)

This ride however -the Detonator - not so much fun and I don't think you could get me back on it. It was terrifying how it just shot you up from the bottom. And yet, the boys rode it and I didn't hear much about it from them.

One of the last rides we rode was a water slide. It was where Worlds of Fun and Oceans of Fun connected so visitors from both parks could ride it. There was a bridge over the bottom of the slide where you could stand and get soaked. I was standing off to the side to try and get a funny shot of Brady & Ed getting wet, HOWEVER the joke was played on me. The waves came out on the sides and they barely got anything. This was the shot I took right before I ran to get out of the way (too late - I was soaked and my purse and my camera were too) - Ed trying to get Brady wet.

Anyway, it was fun - too expensive, but fun. Ed says once was enough :)

Staycation

The 3 days before we started the moving process, we tried to do some fun things with the boys. Our "staycation" started with watching the new Spiderman at Merriam's Drive-in theatre. It was a lot of fun - and the movie was great (yes, I was surprised).

And the next afternoon we went to the All-Star Fan Fest. It was fun - the boys did some activities, we watched the mascots play a game, etc.

And they left with smiles - because on our way back to the car, Brady picked up a glitter tattoo and Brett became Spiderman. And then it was off to Arthur Bryant's for lunch!