The Accidental Boilermaker

Evelyn was so excited for Halloween this year.  All day she kept off listing the things that needed to happen (school, lunch, naps, etc) before we could go trick-or-treating. Yesterday we carved our pumpkins with my dad because he is an expert pumpkin carver.   Scoop out those pumpkin guts Jameson! Evelyn's jack-o-lantern.  She did a good job picking out the shapes for her and Jameson's pumpkin faces. Jameson's jack-o-lantern. My pumpkin.   Finally time to go trick-o-treating!  Jameson still refused to wear his beard.  Which was his loss because Nate and I found that our beards kept our faces quite warm.  And we got lots of comments on them too. It was cold outside, but we dressed in layers and no one complained.  Evelyn and Jameson did a good job walking between houses, but they also liked being pulled in the wagon.  My parents handed out candy at our house and we had 92 kids com...

We visited a new pumpkin patch this year. Evelyn and Jameson each chose a pumpkin earlier in the month when Meijer had a BOGO deal on pumpkins but those ones have sat out in the rain and I didn't think they would crave well.   This new place is part of a tree nursery and apple orchard so there's lots going on. What they don't have is all the fall festival stuff (corn maze, corn pit, etc.) like the place we went  last year . Which is fine with me. Evelyn and Jameson have just as much fun running through the pumpkin patch; I don't think they missed all the other stuff.  But we did come home with some apple cider. My kids love their apple cider. 

Today:  "No Mom I don't want to nap in my crib. I want to fall asleep on the futon at 3:30 in the afternoon while watching a movie with my sister." Saturday:  "No Mom I don't need naps anymore. I'm just resting my eyes while Dad holds me at the table."

Jameson is 21 months old. We are still dealing with terrible twos in the form of continued indecision from what to eat for snack to what pjs to wear to bed and everything inbetween.  But when we aren't arguing over whether he does or does not want cereal for breakfast, Jameson is a sweet kid. I've enjoyed our one-on-one time while Evelyn is at school, especially story time at the library. Jameson has more and more three word phrases and sentences. He still loves cars and trucks of all kinds, but he also plays with Evelyn's dolls and babies. One of the neat things about having a girl and boy is watching them each play with gender opposite toys.  He and Evelyn are really into Magic Schoolbus on Netflix, but Jameson also likes to watch Curious George, Daniel Tiger, and Wild Kratts. He's just as active as Evelyn and is getting pretty good at kicking the soccer ball. He also likes to run around the kitchen saying "running my race."  Jameson can't quite j...

We took Evelyn and Jameson to a trunk-or-treat tonight. Evelyn is Snow White (again) this year and Jameson is Grumpy. It'd be slightly easier to tell he's a dwarf if he would wear his beard and hat but he hates them. Thankfully he loves his pickaxe.  We had to wait in a decently long line before we reached the start but Evelyn and Jameson were very patient.  Finally a well earned treat back at home. 

Over the weekend we made a short trip to Decatur to visit Mimi and Grandpa.  Evelyn helped me bake sugar cookies to share.  We frosted pumpkins and leaves.  We left Friday evening and on our way out of town, we missed the ramp for 69 south (there's a lot of construction in the area).  So we took the Hoosier Heartland Highway to West Lafayette, which is about half way to Decatur, and stopped for ice cream at the Silver Dipper.  We lived in West Lafayette for 5 years and had never been so it seemed like a good time to try it out. Saturday morning we took a trip downtown to Del's popcorn shop for caramel apples.  Grandpa gave Evelyn and JJ each a dollar to spend, so they pooled their money to buy a bag of kettle corn. After Del's we helped Mimi pick the last of the tomatoes out at the garden. Saturday was a beautiful day, so we went to the park before dinner. Evelyn practiced her pull-ups with a little help from Nate...

Today Evelyn's school took a field trip to Ohio to the farm of a family that goes to our church.  It rained all day yesterday (and misted all morning) so we left the house early to run into Meijer for a new pair of rain boots for Evelyn.  Good thing we did because it was muddy! We took a hay ride out to the woods where we first meet some sheep.  Here's Sam. And this is Greta. The kids also learned about using wool to make yarn. Later they learned about different animals found in Indiana. Apparently we are starting to see bobcats in Indiana.  Jameson really liked the bobcat. The kids got snack around a campfire and then it was time to take the hay ride back to the cars.

Here's an update from marathon weekend.  We drove to Katherine's apartment Saturday morning where we waited for my parents and Meredith to meet us.  Then it was off to packet pick-up. Plenty of photo opportunities at the expo. Evelyn wanted a picture crossing the finish line. Early Sunday morning we were all off to the race.  Katherine and I met my dad at the start of the race while Nate, Meredith and the kids met up with my mom at about mile 1.5. Since this was my dad's 17th marathon, he and mom have their routine down pat.  My mom sees my dad at mile 1.5 and then right before mile 13.  It's so exciting to see people you know cheering you on when you're running. It was a long day for everyone, but I was told Evelyn and Jameson were great little cheerleaders. In between cheering on runners, they got to eat doughnuts, go shopping, and pet adorable puppies. We finished!  This was not my best marat...

I made apple butter for the first time. I used my crock pot so it really wasn't that much work. In fact it was so easy I made two batches for a total of 9 half pints and two pints. It was fun to get my canner out and put it to good use.  If I can get my hands on more apples, I will definitely make more.

Today was probably was our last trip to the zoo and Nate's first time back since breaking his leg.  To kinda celebrate Nate being with us and to use up our last punch on our ride pass, the kids got to ride the sky safari. Last admission to the zoo is 5:00, but you don't have to leave till 6:00 (the employee at the gate told us they let the lions out at 6:01), so we had just enough time to see Africa and the farm animals. It was a beautiful afternoon to be outside. A picture of Evelyn and Jameson both smiling and looking at the camera!