The Rest of October

We continued October Halloween preparations by carving the pumpkins we picked out at the pumpkin patch. Bradyn was a little more involved this year than last. He actually stuck his hands in and helped pull out the guts. I'll never forget the disgusted look on his face last year. He didn't want anything to do with getting that stuff on his hands. After about 30 minutes Bradyn was bored with carving pumpkins and left Chad and I at the table to finish them. But once they were all done, he sure liked how they looked all lit up. He was so proud of his pumpkin.

October brought us a few days that were nice enough to go to the park. Here are some pics from a fun day at Lake Bloomington. Bradyn enjoyed throwing rocks in the water with daddy, playing hide and seek behind the trees, and playing on the swings and slide. We also enjoyed playing in the leaves a lot this year. Bradyn loved the shuffling noise they made when he dragged his feet through them. He also liked throwing them up in the air and watching them flutter their way back down to the ground.
We also enjoyed a fun evening at Katie's Kids for the annual fall weinie roast. It's always fun to watch Bradyn play with his little buds. They were having so much fun running, climbing, swinging, and spinning on the playground. We absolutely love that place!

We took off down to Mount Pulaski for a weekend for my Godson Dean's 1st birthday party and the Hahn weinie roast was the next night, so we just made a weekend out of it. Dean sure is growing up fast. His mommy (my best friend) is expecting baby boy #2 the end of March. We had a fun time at the party. Bradyn enjoyed playing with the other kids and watching Dean open his presents.
Papa took Bradyn to the bus barn. Since my dad drives a bus route for the school, he was able to take Bradyn down there and let him see all of the busses. Of course Bradyn had to "drive" all of them. He even got a kick out of the fact that there was a stop sign on the side of the bus, and that Papa could make it move and light up with flashing lights!

The Hahn weinie roast was a nice relaxing evening. Bradyn had a fun time playing with cousin Kyleah in the leaves at Grandma Netter's house. He also enjoyed having a playmate to play trucks with. He's getting so good at the whole sharing thing. I've got such a sweet little boy..(most of the time) hehe.

Then of course.. last but certainly not least.... Halloween!! When asked what he wanted to be for Halloween, I bet you never would have guessed in a million years that he would want to be...THE TIN MAN!! LOL I think the tin man may quite possibly be Bradyn's lifelong hero. LOL. I found a tin man costume and it fit perfectly. Chad and I actually needed costumes too because we had a costume party to go to as well. With only a few days before Halloween we still hadn't decided on costumes yet, so we asked Bradyn what he thought we should be. Again, I bet you never in a million years would have guessed that "daddy be scarecrow, mommy be dorfy". Soooo off to the halloween store we went, and what do you know... we found both. So we were Wizard of Oz minus the lion for Halloween. Bradyn really got into trick or treating this year. He rang doorbells, said trick or treat, and even politely said thank you at every house. It's super fun to be a kid again through our little man!

P.S. here are a couple pics from our halloween party that Chad and I went to....

"Poppy's Art Show"

My father-in-law is in his last semester as a Ceramics Professor at Northern Illinois University. He had his final art show last night where he had a whole bunch of his pieces on display. We drove up to see what he's been working on and to show our support and excitement about his approaching retirement.

Here are a few pics from the evening. :)

Playtime at the Punkin Patch

We just couldn't pass up the nice fall day we were having the other day & seeing the forecast looking so gloomy, we decided to take a trip just outside of town to the Pumpkin Farm. My friend Brooke had the spur of the moment idea and I decided to jump on the opportunity as well. (I saw her car out there, but never ran into her :( ) Oh well. We both had fun separately. :)

There seemed to be a lot more to do out there this year and we could have spent longer out there, but they were getting ready to close. Maybe we will have to take another trip out there before the season is over.

We started out by going to pick our own pumpkins straight outta the field and off the vine! Chad started finding a few that looked nice on one side, but when he flipped them over they were kinda rotton or smashed. But as he found them, he said a couple of times, "this looks like a good one." From then on, Bradyn was walking through the field shouting, "This is a good one!" "This a good one." "Is this a good one?" Too funny! Bradyn found a cute little green one that he maneuvered off the vine and kept carrying it around with him. Looking back at it, I should have let him get it.. but I was thinking..what are we gonna do with a little green pumpkin?

After we picked out our pumpkins we went over to enjoy the play area. They had a big "sand box" full of corn and beans. There was a bunch of little scarecrows that you could play dressup with as well. He also had fun climbing on the big stack of hay and petting the animals too.

Soooo, I convinced him to put that green pumpkin back and to get a little orange one that we would color with markers when we got home. He liked that idea and the little orange pumpkin face has become his friend. He wanted to sleep with it the first night, but settled for having it sit on his dresser instead. He carries it around the house with him sometimes and sometimes it watches him play with his choo choo train. Now I'm not feeling too bad about making him put back the green one. hehe.

"I Ride School Bus to The Zoo In 2 Weeks!"

Even the day before...it was still "in two weeks".

Oooohh he's all grown up and going on field trips with his classmates!! :( I got to join in the festivies on Bradyn's 1st field trip to the Miller Park Zoo. We got to ride the school bus, which may have been an even bigger hit for the kids than the actual zoo! They had a blast riding the bus across town.

And we all sang "The Wheels On the Bus" song on the way there. I almost teared up for a moment as I kinda had a flash forward of Bradyn sitting on the bus with his buds as if they were on their way to a sporting event or something 10 years later... Cute. He sat next to his good friend Logan (and me of course so they didn't fall out of the seat). They had a good time singing and just being excited that it was kinda bumpy. hehe.

Once at the zoo, the kids enjoyed watching the sea lions show off with their trainers and seeing other animals such as the tiger, the monkeys, and the wallabies. Then after a quick snack at the picnic area, we headed back to "school" because the kids were getting hungry for lunch and some were getting sleepy for naptime. It was a great day and I'm so glad I got to join the fun and I look forward to MANY more field trips to come!

September Stuff

Ok, so I'm a little behind on updating our blog, so here's the rundown on what we were up to in September.

Grammy & Poppy came to visit one weekend and we decided to go check out the Children's Discovery Museum here in town. Ummmm, hello??? what a blast!! I can't believe it took us so long to go check it out! Bradyn had an absolute BLAST. Three stories of non-stop fun!

He loved it all, but his favorite parts were the race tracks and choo choo train tracks. He also liked making pizzas at the play kitchen area. He enjoyed building "big towers" with the stackable blocks and knocking them down of course.

Last but not least on the favorite list were the tractors! We all had so much fun there that since the weather is getting cooler, we decided to go ahead and get a family pass so we could go exert some energy there this winter! Anyone want a playdate?? Come on over!!

Also in September is the annual Mt. Pulaski Fall Festival. Bradyn enjoyed seeing the big firetruck, the police car, and the church bus and loved running after the candy.

Then before retiring the evening at Grandma Netter's house while mommy & daddy partied at the "adult beverage" tent, we took him on a few rides. He wanted to go on the choo choo train, but it was broken, so instead he rode the fast ride that went "round and round". He had so much fun on it that he wanted to ride it again, this time with grandma!

Next up for September was Bradyn's first REAL choo choo train ride! Mommy, Grandma Netter, and Bradyn all hopped on the Amtrak from Bloomington to Chicago. We went to visit some of grandma's friends that she works with, but then ventured off to Millennium Park where we danced with our reflections in "the bean",

then rode the water taxi to Navy Pier where Bradyn got his first tattoo (a stamp), by a pirate; rode Thomas the Train; and saw "BIG BOATS"! After a long day running around Chicago, we practiced our city skills and hopped on the EL from downtown alllll the way out to Rosemont where we met up with daddy.

We stayed in a hotel overnight, then continued our adventure the next day at Brookfield Zoo! It was a beautiful day outside for the zoo and tons of fun. Bradyn loves animals and it's so fun to watch him get excited about the different animals. His favorite that day seemed to be the Rhino because the zookeepers were feeding it and everytime it took a bite it made a funny sound with it's mouth. Almost as if it was digusted at what it was eating as if it was trying to spit it out. If you were here, Bradyn would immitate it for you. ;) Other hits at the zoo were brushing the goats and seeing the lions and tigers and bears...oh my! What a surprise huh? As if one would expect anything less from a kid that has been obsessed with Wizard of Oz since 18 months! Bradyn fell asleep for awhile, so we went ahead and took a little break to eat lunch, we "lolly gagged" a little, went through a couple shops etc, because we didn't want him to miss the monkeys!!

Finally we ended up just waking him up at the monkey house, and he was grouchy for about 30 seconds and then realized there were monkeys jumping around everywhere and perked up in a hurry! He loved the monkeys to say the least! Overall...AWESOME day at the zoo!

To conclude the whirlwind weekend, we went to cousin Miles' baptism in Chicago and enjoyed a fun day with the Maz fam.

That's pretty much it..LOL for September. As if we really could have packed much more in there!

Follow those Balloons!

Last Friday night, I hopped off a plane, went home, unpacked, repacked, picked up Bradyn and headed down to Lincoln to meet up with Mom, Grandma, Corey, Sarah and Kyleah. We grabbed KFC, and plopped down on some blankets and chairs and had a dinner picnic in hopes of watching the hot air balloons launch & glow at the Balloon Festival. Unfortunately the wind didn't cooperate and the balloons were having trouble staying upright. A couple of them took off, but the glow was a no-go. Despite the lack of balloon action we still had tons of fun hanging out as a family. It was nice to all be together and it was fun playing with the kids. Bradyn and Kyleah had a good time feeding each other goldfish crackers and pointing at the balloons that did go up. Once we found out the balloon glow was cancelled, we all headed back to moms and hung out a bit longer. Then mom, Bradyn and I decided what the heck... let's get up first thing in the morning and try to see the balloons. Chad opted to stay and sleep in... which was much deserved after being Mr. Mom for a few days while I was away. So the three of us went over to Lincoln and found the balloonists... they were supposed to take off from the airport, but ended up going a few miles further north to catch the wind and end up near the airport. Almost all of them went up, and it was fun seeing them get blown up and be up close and personal with them. One of these days I'm gonna ride in one!!

Let's Go Fly A Kite!

Let's go fly a kite

Up to the highest height

Let's go fly a kite

and send it soar-ring

Up to the atmosphere

Up where the air is clear

Oh, let's go... fly a kite