Happy Thanksgiving!

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend.  Some of the highlights include:

incredible food

being with family and friends

starting Black Friday shopping at 5:30am and scoring some great deals

did I mention pie...

playing a roudy game of Pit

getting to sleep in

going to see Inception (finally)

and the fact that I got the stomach flu starting Saturday night (so I didn't have to miss any of the good eating)

Run for fun? What the h... kind of fun is that?!

 High five if you can name what movie the title line is from.  I, like many others, do run for fun and I find it especially fun running in a race.  Especially a cool race where you get to run through the countryside and they give everyone a shirt, socks and running hat instead of a useless medal that ends up collecting dust in a closet somewhere.  So how lucky for me that I found a race that does just that! 

A couple of weekends ago we headed up north for the Stomp the Grapes 1/2 marathon and despite the 30 degree weather we had a great time. I also felt surprisingly good during the race.  I figured the freezing weather and the hilly course (Columbus having absolutely no hills to train on) would make it a long, slow run, but I was able to run it faster than the last half I ran in May!  In the end I think it comes down to having a really good playlist on your iPod to listen to.

 Ryan got these shots of me at the finish.  He was the real hero of the day, chasing cold, whiny kids around so I could have some fun, competitive mommy time.

1:39:19 ended up being my final race time.  It's funny Ryan caught it exactly in this picture.  Another reason this race is cool: I finished first in my age group so they gave me a fleece blanket.  Sure it's a deep purple color (not my favorite), but at least it's useful.  The boys' favorite part of day was getting to ride the "b-bus" in the words of Tate.  The starting line and finish line of the race were in different places so they shuttled the runners & spectators to and fro.  Hence the opening picture of the boys enjoying their first ride on a real, live school bus.  I remember school buses having walls that were more than a 1/4 inch thick, though.  Budget cuts, I guess.

Of Cheerful Lads & Broken Arms

Almost a week ago, I started noticing that occasionally Tate would give a small whine whenever we held onto his arm a certain way.  I didn't think much of it, because it was only occasionally, and otherwise he was acting completely normal.   I finally mentioned it to Ryan, who, after some arm probing realized that Tate whined the most when he touched his outer forearm (the distal ulna for all you anatomy people out there).  This was on Saturday, so we decided we would just take him to the doctor on Monday, because Tate didn't act like anything was wrong, as long as no one grabbed hold of his right wrist.   

So, this morning I took him to the doctor, who also thought it most likely was not broken, since Tate did not act in pain and there was no bruising, etc.  But he sent us for x-rays just in case.  Sure enough, his arm was broken (a transverse fracture--i.e.all the way through the bone!).  We were asked several times, how?  Therein lies the mystery. I don't think most parents can even count all the times their kid has fallen or ran into something.  It apparently didn't bother Tate enough for him to make a fuss about it either.

Come to find out there is a surprisingly large number of colors you can choose for a cast, but I went for a nice solid blue.  Tate was a champ the whole time.  But I guess I should have figured that, since he's been running around with a broken arm for a week, maybe more, acting like all is well.  When there's playing to be had, who has time to fuss over a broken bone?

Joining the Private Club

I've been thinking about moving the blog to a private setting for awhile, so I figured I better get a move on it.  I'll switch it next week sometime, so if you would like an invitation and don't think I have your email you can leave a comment with your email address and I'll delete it after I get it. 

Grant was keeping watch for Ryan while he changed the oil.

Fall is not over yet!

 

Although we've had several very cold days, today is in the mid 60s so we are attempting to enjoy the wonderful fall weather as long as possible. With that in mind, I realized I had not posted about several of the fun things we have been doing this fall.  We decided to make it a yearly tradition to go apple picking and headed to our favorite farm in the beginning of October.  We picked Melrose and Suncrisp, which were both apples we had never had before.  The Suncrisp were really good, almost like a cross between a green pear and golden delicious apple. 

 It's about a 45 minute drive to the farm, so I planned on this being an entire morning outing with the boys.  Ten minutes later the boys had filled both of our bags with apples and began to run up and down the apple orchard.  Luckily, the farm had a "Fall Fun" area and we headed over to see what fun could be had.

 The fun area had a western theme and the boys were able to dig in a dirt pile for gold (rocks painted gold) and ride the tractor pull carts.  We were the only people there for awhile so the boys got the tractor ride all to themselves.  Grant loved it, but Tate kind of just stared mystified the entire time.  I think he was wondering why some lady on a tractor was driving him away from his mom.

 Also like last year, we visited Leeds Farm which is another farm with more fun activities.  Last year we went on a cold and windy day so we had to place mostly to ourselves.  This year we ended up going on one of the warmest days of October so it was very crowded.  The warm weather also made it feel less fall-like so we are not sure if we're going to officially make this a tradition.  We did have fun though!

 Grant and I enjoyed riding the bike-go-cart thing.  Ryan and I thought if we ever have land in the future we may get some of these for exploring purposes.  It's good exercise and these bikes are surprisingly fast.

 Ah, yes, the corn box.  Although almost every foot was occupied by a kid, the boys once again loved the corn box and scooping and dumping corn.  This is another idea Ryan and I may put to use in the future.

Unlike last year, Ryan and I did wait in line to try the zip line.  Some of our friends were at the farm too so we switched off watching kids so the adults could ride.  Was it worth the wait?  Probably not.  Was is pretty dang fun anyway?  Why yes, yes it was.

Happy Halloween!!

 Yes, trick-or-treating was last night (because Ohio is cool like that) and though it was pretty cold outside, we had a lot of fun.  I layered up the boys under their costumes because I refuse to be the mom that makes their kids wear a coat over their costume (still traumatized ;).  

Batman and Robin joined a pair of Peter Pan's for a fun night of running around past bedtime and collecting candy.  I enjoyed the after party where I had to "check" the candy and remove all that may contain peanuts (Grant is allergic).  I figured to be extra safe I had better finish off at least half of the peanut-containing treats, just for safety of course.

 Lots of pictures for Grandparents and otherwise bored people's enjoyment.

 Batman and his trusty sidekick in full costume.  Robin was opposed to hiding his true identity for every moment except this one.

 The R.S. put on a fun Halloween activity at the church.  It was a fun reason for the kids to wear their costumes again and have treats.

 We had bought Halloween cookie cutters that Grant was begging me to use (plus the giant container of Halloween sprinkles my mom had sent to us).  Since we have been surrounded by baked goods and candy I didn't feel like undertaking the messy and time consuming task of making and decorating sugar cookies.  Instead we made a pan of rice krispie treats and used our cookie cutters of cut out shapes.  Grant was in charge of sprinkles and Tate was in charge of adding the candy corn and pumpkins.  I think Tate thought his duties were to touch a candy corn to the rice krispies and then deposit it in his mouth. 

Ah yes, I believe I was right in my assumption.

Spooky Crafts

This craft is obviously not spooky, we just happened to have finally finished this during the month of October.  I am somewhat embarrassed to say this project was started before Tate was born, back when Grant was still really into cars and trucks.  Ryan cut the wood, we painted, and used bought stencils for the smaller paintings.  I think what took so long was that we had to hand design and cut out the stencils for the motorcycle, tractor and firetruck.  I'm not very artistic, so this part was frustrating and slow (hence I procrastinated finishing it).  Finally it is done!  We added Tate's name since Grant does not care too much about cars and trucks now and one day they will be sharing a room.  Grant did say he liked it, so I don't feel too bad about taking a over a year to complete it. 

 Now on to the spooky things.  My mom kindly sent the boys a Halloween package in the mail (which they were very excited to get).  Among the goodies inside was their new favorite skeleton PJ's.  The bones glow in the dark so the first night the boys put these on they invented a new game they call "dark".  Basically, they turn out all the lights in Grant's room and chase each other in a circle growling and making spooky noises.  It has somehow made it's way into the bed time ritual because now we generally can't get from teeth-brushing to book-reading without a few rounds of "dark".

 In that same Halloween package I received the Taste of Home Halloween magazine with tons of ideas of yummy Halloween treats, crafts, costumes, party ideas and the like.  Grant and I made these cute little lanterns using old jars, tissue paper and lots of Mod Podge.  It was fun and they turned out really cute.  I'm really into Halloween this year (partially because Grant is so excited about it and partially because it's just fun).  I am planning on making several of the Halloween food ideas so I'm sure I will post some of those (I know you can't wait :).

Here's what they look like at night on the porch.