X-Men

 Halloween is a pretty big deal around here. The boys start getting excited when the magazines show up in the mail in August.  Owen's favorite superhero has been Wolverine for at least a year now.  It doesn't change, and when asked why, it has to do with the claws. He was very excited to get the costume and it is already showing signs of wear and tear because he is in it all the time.

To my knowledge he has only seen the animated Super Hero Squad version of Wolverine so I am not too concerned. I am a little concerned that I didn't know that wolverines were an actual thing. Ben learned about them in preschool last year and I was all set to disagree with him when Jeremy lovingly pointed out that they were in fact real. This is why we send these boys to preschool and have no intention of homeschooling.

While Owen's favorite stays steady, Ben's will change from time to time. It was The Hulk for for a while then something called Beast. In one of the Spiderman and Friends books, Beast is described as:

"Gifted with superhuman moves, it's tough for the Beast to sit in one place for too long! However, when the blue-furred boy isn't busy playing sports, you'll find him spending countless hours studying his favorite subjects in school."

 Parent-teacher conferences were this week and I met with Mrs. Bryant and Mrs. Thompson, his speech teacher. The meeting went great. Mrs. Bryant showed me some of the work they have been doing in class. On the first day of school he drew a picture of himself with the biggest smile, from ear to ear, and at the bottom it said, I love school! She said that he is still just as positive and eager to learn and I tried, but couldn't stop the tears and I looked at her and she was tearing up too. I have mentioned that I love her, right?

I then saw a drawing of his Halloween costume. It was fairly accurate and I had to laugh. She was understandably confused. She thought he might be talking about Beast from Beauty and the Beast, but nope. I tried to explain that he was a character from X-men, but it was easier just to find the picture of him that I have on my phone. I'm sure that was a great use of our time together.

They can't wait for Halloween!



Pumpkin Patch

Last weekend was our bye week so we did not have a soccer game. We decided to take advantage of the weather and take the boys to the pumpkin patch. We didn't make it last year so the boys were excited to go. While I was taking the picture above the boys were nudging and pushing each other. They really are growing fast!

Owen wanted to see how tall he was without his brother bumping into him.

When we arrived home the boys wanted to play outside. It was great to see our neighbor Garrett out front with them. Ben has been practicing for his basketball skill evaluation that he had earlier in the day. He is all set to play in the Upward League this winter. I have already decided that we are taking the spring off from sports.



Hello. Tap....Tap....Is this thing on?

I am still here. I am just so far behind that I keep procrastinating. My mind works something like this.

I need to update the blog...
Where should I start?
It's been forever...
Gah! I'll do it later.

Here I am a month and a half later and I don't really have anything exciting to report. We are finally falling into a routine with our new schedules.  Ben is still loving kindergarten and doing quite well. I'm just guessing here because I haven't received any notices that he isn't doing great. He is very enthusiastic about school and loves his teacher. She really is a gem. She started sending short emails at the each day the second week of school and I love knowing what they are doing in class.

"Date: Thu, 15 Sep 2011 16:23:08 -0500
Ben was the Letter Expert for the letter Kk....he helped them read the poem for today...it is one they really liked! 
We had library. Mrs. Bosley read several ABC books...and showed them many more! 
Recess was wonderful...the chill in the air is perfect! Don't forget to label all clothing with your child's name/initials 
We worked on counting paper apples and writing our numbers to 10...they are in the hallway with a cute picture. 
We practiced our sight word books with Dexter...the pointer dog. They are bringing them home today...help them read with a pointer (finger/crayon etc)

Teresa Bryant"


I didn't even get this much info when he was in preschool! I still volunteer twice a month to work with the kids. I'm really enjoying getting to know his classmates. When I go, I bring lunch for the two of us. Last week we ate outside in their secret garden. I snapped a picture of him with my phone. (I really need to get back in the habit of taking my camera with me!)

It took Owen a little longer to transition to preschool. He seems to be liking it a bit more lately now that he has a buddy to pal around with. One of the boys from Ben's previous class transferred into his and they have been playing together. It was difficult to get him to talk about his morning but now he will tell me stories about Judson.

A few highlights from the last month:

A trip to Springfield! 
I had a baby shower for my friend Jessica. She's due in December and I am beyond excited for her!  My boys tagged along and went to an Illini football game with the Burgin boys, and my brother Ryan and nephew Wade. We stopped by the Burgins on our way out of town and I can NOT believe how fast their kids are growing. Kelly took a picture of the boys together. On the ride back I edited it with this one from a few years ago. (Again on my phone...)

A visit from Grandma Uebinger and Grandma Guthrie!

Owen's school had Grandparents day a few weeks ago and both grandmas were able to make the trip to go with him. The boys have never received so much attention in their entire lives. I'm pretty sure that they now believe that they are neglected, poor things. Owen and I took them shopping on Friday and he got a ride on the carousel out of it from Grandma Terri.  

And on October 2nd, Jeremy celebrated his 37th birthday!

(I really don't have an excuse for taking this picture with my phone, but here we are... I think I need an intervention.)

We started the day by giving Jeremy all the gear we picked up while in Springfield and later went next door to watch football with several of our neighbors. We had barbecue and an ice cream cake for dessert. The weather was great and the kids were outside most of the day. I am enjoying this fall weather!

Owen has a green stripe belt!

The boys have Taekwondo twice a week and Ben has soccer practice once a week with a game on Saturdays. I'm not sure where all of our time goes, but man, it flies by. We have already started getting ready for Halloween. 

I feel very protected with these two in my backseat.