Things I love at Halloween

* Going trick-or-treating with your kids. (And then later eating their candy.)
* Picking out pumpkins in the pumpkin patch.
* Carving pumpkins. My favorite is still the old fashioned scary jack-o-lantern. (Probably because of below.)
* Reading "Legend of Sleepy Hollow." I read this story every year at Halloween. The last scene always gives me chills.
* Watching Boris Karloff as Frankenstein. The original black-and-white version is still the best monster movie ever.
* Reading Edgar Allen Poe stories. "Tell Tale Heart," "Black Cat," "House of Usher." Any Poe story will do.
* Watching "Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown" with your wife and kids. A Halloween classic. Jenny and I have been watching this at Halloween long before we had kids.

Ready for Halloween

Megan is all ready for Halloween tonight. She's going to be a pumpkin.


Got the house ready to go. The pumpkins are carved and the cemetary is all set. Ben and I named the skeleton "Mr. Bones."

Time to carve the pumpkins

Here's some pictures of our afternoon carving pumpkins. This year Ben wanted a bat on his pumpkin. Jenny's is a cat, mine is the skeleton, and Megan's is a little jack-o-lantern. And as always, we always carve a huge jack-o-lantern.

Pumpkin Patch

The four of us went to another local pumpkin patch a few weeks ago. There they had a huge corn maze to go through, and lots of fun things for Ben. The corn maze was very cool...and huge. We actually got lost somewhere in the middle, and decided to cheat and go through the rows in order to get out. It was fun.

Trick-or-treat at Crossroads Village

Ben, Nicholas, and Miles all got to do some early trick-or-treating at Crossroads Village down in Flint. Basically Crossroads Village is one of those parks where grounds and people all recreate an old country village...right out of the 1800's.
Anyway it was fun, and the boys all had a great time.

Time for fall

Well...we're in the middle of fall up here. Here's some photos of the colorful scenery. This is one of my favorite times of year up here in Michigan. The cool crisp breezes, the leaves falling and turning colors, etc. I always thought the falls in Colorado were gorgeous...but the falls up here just take it to a whole other level. The leaves make for great pictures, but it's no fun raking them up.

Pumpkin Face

Ben painted a pumpkin at school this week. He wanted to carve it into a jack-o-lantern but I talked him out of it. I told him it was perfect just the way it was.

Fall Hike

Last week Ben had a day off from school, so we decided to do something fun. Since we're right in the middle of fall right now I decided the three of us should take a fall hike at the nature center. Ben loves finding big leaves, so he kept himself pretty busy. The weather was absolutely perfect, and the kids enjoyed themselves.

First trip to the dentist

Last week Ben had his first visit to the dentist. No big deal. He just went in for his very first checkup. The whole thing was more like a big introduction for him. The dentist just looked at his teeth, made him go up and down in the chair, let him hold a mirror or two, and that was about it. He did great, and best of all...no cavities.

Coo...coo...ka-choo!

Megan is starting to "coo" right now. She likes to smile at you and talk to you. Pretty cute. Also, it really cracks Ben up when she does it. He thinks she is talking so he'll try to talk back to her.
I've been trying to get Megan's coo's on video, but so far I've been unsuccessful. Still working on it.
Anyway, here's a shot of the two of them...right after one of Megan's coo's.

To Infinity...and BEYOND!

Here is Ben's Halloween costume. As you can tell in the video...he's VERY excited.

Little Climber

In Ben's sports class on Saturday all the kids got to climb the climbing wall. It was pretty funny watching 3, 4, and 5 year olds trying to climb up this huge wall. The highest any of them got was about halfway up. Pretty good for such little guys. Ben is one of the youngest in the class, but he held up very well. He did great. Better than I expected him to. It must be a weird thing for a kid to figure out. I'm not sure Ben fully understood that if he let go of the wall he wouldn't fall because of the rope.
Maybe in a few years when Ben is older this is an activity we might be able to do together. This was the first time I had ever paid real attention to climbing. Afterward, I looked into getting some lessons for myself sometime. Looks like a lot of fun.

The Pumpkin Patch

On Sunday we went to a local farm to buy some pumpkins for Halloween. They take you on a hayride out to a pumpkin patch on their farm. Then once you get to the patch you walk through the crop and pick out your pumpkin. It's a little more work than going to the grocery store and buying your pumpkin, but it's a fun experience. I guess similar to going to a tree farm and cutting down your own Christmas tree.

Anyway, we had a great time, and it was a beautiful fall day. Ben had a fun time riding on the tractor, and Megan took a little nap.

2 months old!

Megan had her 2 month check up and is up to 11 pounds...15 oz. She's in the 90% for length and now 75% for weight. She got a few shots so she wasn't feeling too happy.

So here we are at two months. She's sleeping for good stretches at night, and she's napping routinely during the day. Her appetite is very strong, though when she's full she lets you know it and won't eat anymore. She also is taking the pacifier better now, however when she's had enough of it she'll spit it out and refuse to take it. Actually, we're very pleased she's not that attached to the pacifier right now. It will make life easier down the road...

Anyway, she smiles a lot when we change her on the changing table. That seems to be her "happy" time for some reason. She also likes to look at people's faces a lot. We're still having the occasional meltdown at night, but it's usually shortlived.

I'd say the only issue we're having is still with the bottle. She went for about a week taking the bottle from me just fine. Then over the weekend last weekend Jenny nursed her pretty much all weekend. Then early this past week Megan fought me quite a bit taking the bottle. After a full week of the bottle Megan settled back down and started taking it again. I guess we're finding out that the key is to remind her about the bottle over the weekend as well.

So anyway...that's about the latest. I'd say overall she's settling in nicely.

What is Ben saying?

Yesterday Ben, Megan, and I were on our way to have lunch with his friend Miles...and his dad Mr. Bell. Ben had one of his library books in the car and he said, "Maybe I can take my book inside and show Mr. Bell." I told him to leave it in the car because it was a library book. He then said, "Okay. This is a library book. Not a mall book."

I should point out that our Barnes & Noble is in our mall here.

Some fun pictures

Here's some great pictures of Megan and Ben. The last one I took yesterday. Sometimes when I go upstairs to wake up Ben after his nap I take Megan and lay her down in his bed, so he can be surprised when he wakes up. Well...he didn't seem to wake up when I set her down. The result was a cute picture I guess.