Riley swimming her leg of the pumpkin relay.

Payton finishing his leg of the pumpkin relay.

Kids from both HCSC and Power Aquatics.

Go, Bethany!

Swimming in the dark with glow sticks -- how fun

This is Payton swinging his glow sticks around and around.

Riley and her friend Lucy.

Smile, Payton!

The swim club (HCSC) had their Halloween party this past Thursday and it was a lot of fun!  The kids warmed up, had a relay contest with a pumpkin on a kick board, and then they turned out the lights and the kids swam with glow sticks!  It was fun seeing all the green glowing in the pool and the kids were all having a blast!  All this fun followed up with hot dogs, cupcakes, juice, and a treat bag!  

Great Website

I was looking online for the carb count in Reese's Pieces for Riley and stumbled across this link (click here).  Even though it hasn't been updated for a few years, I'm sure the candy and carb counts haven't really changed.  Hopefully someone else will find this as helpful as I did tonight!

Doesn't She Look Beautiful?

After a few failed eye tests at school and a visit to the eye doctor, it was determined that Riley should wear glasses while she is reading and doing school work.  She wasn't very happy about this, but has remained a pretty good sport.  She did perk up a bit when she tried reading while wearing a demo pair with the same prescription.  She said she could immediately tell a difference.  Her daddy and I really like them, I just wish they didn't make her look so much older!  :)

The 2nd and 3rd Grade AFC Champions!

I have to share with you all how Payton's football season ended...


Final game (the Orange Bowl), and they were getting beat 12-7 with about 2 minutes left on the clock.  This was the first time all season that they were down.  They tried to run the ball.  First, second, and third downs unsuccessful.  


Now there was only 40-45 seconds left on the clock.  Payton was playing QB.  Fourth down play starts.  He throws a beautiful 20 yd spiral pass and the receiver actually catches it and runs it down for a TD with only 6 seconds left on the clock!  


I think I forgot to breathe during this play.  It was amazing!  The boys were so excited!  It was adorable.  I think Jon was just as excited as they were if not a little more!  He was as much fun to watch down on the field as the boys during all of this.  


Even with as many people that were there, we cannot find anyone who was taping it!  Bummer.  I had my camera and my video camera, but wasn't using it because I was so sad that they were losing.  Payton was a little upset with me at the end of the game because he wanted to watch the play over and over again.  I tried to explain to him that if he would have let me know the plan ahead of time, I would have been recording it!  :)

Fall Fun

Meet Buki

Buki, pronounced boo-ki with a long i, is our new outside kitty cat.  We adopted him from the animal shelter and hope that he ends up liking us and sticking around.  We also hope that he is a good mouser!  We have a snake problem out here (see posts from July of 2008) and have high hopes that if the mouse population decreases, so will the snake population.  We named him Buki, because it means weapon in Japanese.  He is our weapon of "mouse" destruction.  Gotta love it!  He will be sleeping in the "Kitty Condo"(aka "the shed") after spending a few days in a large crate so he can get used to us.  So far, he seems pretty attached to us.  I just hope he sticks around once he has freedom...


****EDITED to add that Buki is now an inside kitty cat!  I don't think he had a chance to hunt down even 1 mouse!

So, What do you think?  Does he look like a mouser????

A Wonderful Day With Payton!

Today was the 3rd grade field trip to Conner Prairie and I was fortunate enough to be able to attend!  Payton and I had a wonderful day together!  The weather started out shaky, but the clouds rolled over and the sun came out.  Our group consisted of myself, Payton, and one other friend from his class.  We stayed with another group of his friends and they all were really well mannered and just little gentlemen!

Dearest Payton,
Thank you for a wonderful day today!  I am so proud of the young man you are becoming!  I had a lot of fun with you today.  I am glad that I could share in your field trip fun!

Love,
Mom

I absolutely LOVE this picture of the 4 boys!

He did say that he'd like to get one of these.... I am seeing a Christmas present in the future!

There are no words for this picture!  He's a ham!

Gotta Love a "Living Museum!"  Everywhere you go, everyone you see is playing their roles.  We couldn't even ask someone a question and get a modern day answer! :)  We went into a house right after a very rowdy group of boys and made mention that it's a crazy day, just kidding around with the lady... and she responded to us with "Well, you know in a little over a month, they will all start taking their lessons seriously and life will be different here on the prairie once the harvest is over."  Payton just stared at her with this "Are you serious" look on his face!

This outhouse is a "double seater"... how crazy is that????

HHHS Football Homecoming 2010

"Mixed Up" day was a lot of fun!  Riley and Payton picked out their outfits all on their own and loved every minute of being silly and having fun all at the same time!  I think it just comes natural to them.

 The Football Seniors on their float during the parade.  The weather was wonderful... warm and sunny.  October 1st and the temps were near 80 degrees!

HHHS Football Team 

I LOVED this float!  They all had a cereal theme but the float the Junior class created was awesome!  I like how they created their own covers of the Wheaties boxes.  This was the best float in my opinion, but the Senior float won.

Sierra was having fun in the parade riding with her cross country team.

Another look at the Hornet's Nest

This is what is left of the hornet's nest.  Cathy tied it all up in a bag for 24 hours and most of the hornets died.  Just to be sure, we stuck it in the freezer for another 24 hours.  After that, she hung it up to "thaw" out and let all the dead hornets that were up inside it fall out.  If you look closely, you can see dead hornets stuck to the nest and on the ground.  When we saw the nest in the tree, it looked huge.  When we saw it out in the open hanging over by Cathy's shed, it looked enormous!  I can honestly say that I enjoy seeing dead hornets over seeing them fly around!