Welcome Fall

This is my favorite time of year and since it appears we are going to be in Ohio for the season, I thought we should decorate!  So we headed out to the pumpkin patch to pick up some fall decor.  (By the way, it's really stupid to vacuum out your van the day before you go buy corn stalks, straw bales, and pumpkins.  Just FYI.)  

Here's my front porch looking all harvesty after our trip to the pumpkin patch.  

And this cute wreath is on my front door.

 (Thanks to my cousin Natalie for the awesome idea!)

Welcome Fall!

Today's Conversation

Gabe: Mommy, when you die it will just be me, Daddy, and Porter.  So there will be three daddys.

Me:  No, you won't be a daddy until you grow up and get married and have kids of your own.

Gabe: When will Porter be a daddy?

Me: When he grows up, gets married, and has kids of his own.

Gabe: Well, who's Porter going to marry?

Me: I don't know.

Gabe: He could marry you!

Me: I'm already married to daddy, he'll have to find someone else.

Gabe: WELL, IT'S NOT GOING TO BE ME!

Look who's riding a bike!

More Gabeisms & introducing Porterisms

You know you live in the city when your child asks a question like this:
Gabe : Mommy, why is there hay on that golf course?
Me: Because that is a hay field, not a golf course.


Gabe: On Mickey Mouse Clubhouse there are two mice, two ducks, a dog and a moose.
Me: A moose?
Gabe: Yeah, Goofy is a moose without antlers.
Me: I always thought he was a dog.
Gabe: No mom, I'm telling you, he's a moose without antlers.  I think I know what a moose without antlers looks like!

Me: Yuck, who farted?
Gabe: I've never farted and that's a true story.


Me: Where would you like to serve a mission?
Gabe: At the docks.


Examples of Porter's favorite expression right now:
Me: Porter, eat your dinner.
Porter: No way!
Me: Porter, do you want to go outside and play?
Porter: Yes way!
Me: Porter, do you want a bath?
Porter: Yes way!
Me: Porter, it's time to get out of the bath.
Porter: No way!


Do you ever try to get your kids to eat dinner by telling them that their food is something else?  For example:
Me: Gabe, did you know green beans will give you super powers?
Me: Gabe, asparagus is Spider Man's favorite food, you should try it!

Tonight it went down like this:
Me: Porter, this is monkey food.  Don't you want monkey powers?
Porter: No, it's soup.
Me: Dang, he's smart.  Now how am I supposed to get him to eat?


And finally, my favorite:

Gabe: Mommy, why can only black people cross the street here?

Back to School

Gabe's first day of school - Fall 2011.

And yes, there were tears involved, but not from me, and not from Gabe.

Porter cried when we dropped Gabe off.

Life's just not fair when your older brother gets to do all the cool stuff!

Rainy Wednesday

It has been raining all day : (

but we still had fun : )

Do you ever look at people's blogs and think their life seems so perfect and they have it all together?  I do.  My sister said my blog looks that way to her.  So I guess I need to share a little more of our craziness, so no one is thinking I have it all together, because I really don't.  

So what's real life at our house like?  Here's today's example: The kids played outside happily with their umbrellas and rain jackets for about five minutes before one who shall not be named completely disobeyed me, so our fun playing in the rain ended with the wailing and gnashing of teeth, because we had to come inside and sit in timeout. 

I also neglected to take a picture of the kids watching cartoons and me sitting in front of the computer.  Both happened a lot today.  Oh, and just so you know what happens while I'm blogging and the kids aren't watching TV or listening to Mozart - right now they are currently behind me in the bathroom dumping cups of water onto the floor and sliding around in it while I blog.  I think I may be burning dinner right now as well.  We're having leftover chili that we'll turn into navajo tacos.  The fact that there is dinner on the stove is actually a big deal.  For example, if John were to call home and ask what's for dinner and I told him I was making pizza, he always asks, "are you making it for real or on the computer?"  Did you know that with a few clicks of your mouse you can have dinner delivered to your door in 30 - 45 minutes? 

As long as I'm confessing I should also admit that I'm currently obsessed with Grey's Anatomy and Terry Goodkind.  Which means any free minute I have I occupy with one of these two things.  Forget house work, mothering, and getting ready to move, I have a show to watch and a book to read.  Priorities people, priorities.

Come to think of it, I've changed my mind.  As you can clearly see, maybe I do have it all together ; )

Ohio Renaissance Festival

We spent our Labor Day at the Ohio Renaissance Festival.  The Jousting Match and Human Combat Chess were our favorite events!  Unfortunately, our knight lost the jousting competition.  That's her lying in the dirt.

    Gabe thought it was so cool there were "real" knights and people with "real" swords walking around!  Notice he got his picture taken with the real knight, not the girl knight.

Porter had fun with the ropes and picking rocks up off the ground.

Shooting cross bows!

Did I mention Gabe was in heaven shooting all these weapons?

Catapulting frogs into a pond!

John and his turkey leg.

I had to look up the definition of waif.  It makes these pictures a lot funnier!

Waif: a homeless and helpless person, esp. a neglected or abandoned child.

 

Island Metro Park

This morning we joined a few of our neighbors at Island Metro Park.  

As you can see, the kids had a blast in the water and we had fun experimenting with the camera!

"Weren't you supposed to move?"

We've been getting that question a lot lately, actually all summer.  Which totally makes sense since we were supposed to move to Alabama back in May.  But, here we are still in Ohio and it's September and until just recently we had no idea where or when we'd be moving.  Talk about a long frustrating summer!  However, we finally have a new assignment - teaching ROTC at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York.  We are still waiting for official paperwork, but the tentative plan is for us to move in October.  We are so relieved to finally have an assignment and be moving on.  As much as we've loved Ohio, we are ready for our next big adventure!  We are super excited about living in New York and the chance we'll have to explore the northeast!  

So for now, as Al Roker would say, "that's what's happening in our neck of the woods."