Random photos of the kids over the weekend. All are completely filthy from playing in the fall leaves.

Our Brush with Fame (& Fortune?!)

There is a company called Exposures, which has become one of my favorite catalogs since having children and becoming slightly photograph obsessed. Periodically throughout the year they will advertise on their very back page, that they are looking for more pictures. This program is called Fame and Fortune and it promises a $50 gift certificate if they ever use one of your submitted pictures in their catalog, website, or a promotion. I had sent in a small stack a couple of years ago, lured by the promise of $, and never heard anything. I had assumed my photos were sub-par for their needs.

Well, their Christmas catalog arrived yesterday and what should I see on page 12?! Yep, two of my kids! I was shocked! (If you don't receive this catalog and want to see them; go to www.exposuresonline.com, and go to the online catalog. Then "flip" through it to page 12, they are at the top of the page, advertising a Christmas Memories Book.) This was our Christmas Card photo from 2006.

What has ruined this small brush with fame, is the fact that we have never received a gift certificate from them. I am so ticked! I fired off an email to corporate this morning, so we'll see what happens.

And keep your eyes open when looking at future Exposures catalogs. As I said I sent in a small stack of photos and am curious to see who else turns up....

Ellie

"This is how you model Mom"

I think she's got the maximize the cheekbones thing down in the second picture...

Nick

My Kids are CRAZY!!!

I was trying to catch a couple of photos of the three kiddos together, but no such luck. William was sitting in the car sulking. And Nick and Ellie were WILD! I didn't even know that Nick knew the "hang loose" sign, but apparently he does. Isn't it sweet what they learn at school. Think any of these are Christmas card material?!

Snow!

It's October in Colorado and that means, SNOW! It's here- this was taken in Estes Park today. You can see the accumulation up above in the mountains. It was 80 degrees in Denver today, but snowing forty minutes west. Wild!

The Boys

We headed out for pizza after the pumpkin expedition. William was not in a great mood as evidenced by the pacifier. He did perk up briefly for pizza though- the boy loves anything (pseudo) Italian! You guys will get along great Aunty Mimi!

The Pumpkin Patch- Trip #1

In a spur of the moment decision this afternoon, brought on in part by Paul and I deciding we were sick of cleaning the house and doing laundry, we decided to go buy pumpkins. This was our first trip to this particular farm, and we are thinking about trying another next weekend. It was very commercial- lots of mini roller coasters, train rides, bouncy houses, petting zoos, etc. And everything cost an arm and a leg. Mind you, so did the pumpkins. William was far more interested in figuring out how the wagons worked, not so interested in the pumpkins. Although he was eyeing that mini roller coaster and saying "Whee"!

So how does this thing work?

Got it! You pull it!

Not so easy pulling once there are pumpkins inside the wagon though.

Oh well, I give up on the wagon. Much more fun to roll in the dirt and pick up sticks.

(Nick refused to wear a Halloween shirt. He did opt for a green bandana around the neck though. Apparently this is festive enough.)

Will

Couldn't resist a giant William picture- he's just too cute! I love his cheeks, and lips, and hair... And this was the last cooperative photo we got for the entire day. Enjoy!

Bathing Pumpkins

After you choose your pumpkins you can give them a "bath" and scrub the dirt off. The kiddos loved this part! William of course ended up soaking wet. And the pumpkin patch trip degenerated swiftly after that. In fact it ended in one of my favorite activities: carrying a screaming, kicking, arching, dirty, wet, and now muddy toddler back to the car while the entire place stared at us to see if I was abusing the little guy. As if they've never seen a tantrum before!

These sunflowers grow wild all over Colorado. Everywhere except my garden of course! I am on a mission to find some of the seeds for our flower beds...

Three in a bed....

Why do we bother with individual bedrooms? They all want to hang out in William's crib anyway!

The Frontier Festival

We took the kids out to Morrison (about a half hour west, in the foothills) to check out the Frontier Festival. It was a celebration of life in the 1830s.




Ellie checking out the teepees.

Nick having his face painted with "authentic" Indian face paints. (I was told what the design means, but I forgot! Sorry!)

He seemed a little concerned during the painting process...


William was a little crabby today. He has a cold and a bad cough this weekend. So he pretty much just hung out in the backpack.

And of course for the kids, festival food. Nick with a giant bag of Kettle Corn. Which he didn't want to share as he was worried that he wouldn't have enough.

And Ellie with an enormous ear of corn almost bigger than her head.

"All done Mom!" She actually ate the entire thing.

The kids were a little hesitant about the firearms display. Too loud according to them!

We missed the burro race earlier in the day, but there were plenty of them still wandering about.

Nick wanted to climb up the rocks. Thankfully we saw the sign first!! Yikes!!

One of the snakes?!

It's days like these...

...that are going to give me gray hair!

Spent most of the day running around- drop off Nick at school, race out to the pediatrician's for Ellie's 4 year check up, race back home to feed lunch, quickly do several loads of laundry/swiffer/clean the kitchen/make beds/etc. Then back to school to pick up Nick, referee fights between big kids/help with homework/make snacks/clean up snacks/make dinner/feed dinner/baths/clean up toys/etc.... Finally it was 8pm and everyone was in bed and asleep for the night. Phew!

Just one more load of laundry and the dishwasher to start and I would finally have some peace and quiet. Luxury!

But alas, on my way downstairs from the bedtime drama what do I see?! The powder room door closed, with water running out from under it. And soggy toilet paper floating out into the hardwood floored hallway. Great.

Sure enough, the toilet had overflowed all over the brand new (well sort of brand new- new this summer anyway) tiled flooring and the filth had dripped all the way down into the basement. Water, water everywhere. On the floor, down the heating duct, IN the wastebasket, soaking into the new trim. Ugh!

So I spent my quiet evening plunging, mopping, and then on my hands and knees scrubbing bleach into the tiles, trim, and the formerly bisque grout with a toothbrush.

I am going to go out on a limb here and assume that it was one of the kids who was responsible.

There was so much toilet paper in that bowl I am completely baffled as to how this was even possible. It was literally like someone took an entire brand new roll of super puffy Charmin, and jammed it down the hole with a jackhammer wedging it in tight FIRST. Then proceed to do their business after having consumed an entire box of Fiber One cereal. Then flush. Then quickly run out of the room and slam the door behind you.

I was alternately crying and laughing while cleaning up. Isn't that a sign of insanity?!

Anyway, thanks for reading if you got this far. Sorry about the revolting subject matter.

But Paul had to work late tonight and I just didn't want him to think we were having fun without him!! See what you miss at home Daddy?

Make A Wish!

Happy 4th Birthday Eleanor!!

She opened her gifts straight out of bed this morning.

Star struck by the wonderous Barbie Diamond Castle coach. Thank you Nonie and Grande!
A Tinkerbell cake as requested!


The silly little birthday girl at 12:22pm. Taken at exactly four years to the minute after she was born.

Happy Birthday little Princess! We love you! Hard to believe it's been 4 years...

The First Day of Pre-K!!

Elle started Pre-K today! Hard to believe our little girl is ready for 4 year old preschool!

She has Mrs. McDonald this year, the same teacher that Nick had for Pre-K two years ago. Ellie did awesome on her first morning! She was up early and ready to roll. The weather didn't cooperate though, so we had a last minute wardrobe scramble to find something long sleeved and warmer. She walked right into her classroom and found her name and her coat hook straight away. *sniff, sniff* I didn't even get a "goodbye", she was too busy playing with her classmates to notice that we left. Which I suppose is good- at least for the teacher's sake! And if you can't tell by the last picture, Ellie is super proud of herself and can't wait to get to school!



**Update: School went well! Yippee! She had a wonderful first day and announced she feels like a four year old now. And she is very excited to share her birthday next week with the class, especially since she will be the Superstar Leader/Helper on that day =o) She spelled her name correctly on her projects and there was no crying, no missing Mom, no potty accidents, no time outs, and both teacher and Elle were all smiles at pick up time. Whew!