Old Baker Farm 2011

Yesterday we made our annual trip to Old Baker Farm to get pumpkins. We got there too late to do anything but get the pumpkins, but we still had a great time!

Pumpkin Carving Patterns

So I have noticed more traffic to my blog than normal due to people googling pumpkin patterns. So I decided to go ahead and post some of the stencils that we have used in the past. I have more on our older computer, so I'll add those later today or tomorrow at the latest...

Some of these were saved off the internet, and their websites are still on them, the others I created or edited myself.

Ariel

 Barbie Pumpkin Pattern

Dirtbike

Christian Fish and Cross

Jasmine

Monster Truck 

Porsche

Race Car

Snow White

 Tinkerbell

University of Florida Block Letters

Keep your clothes on!

Benjamin has now stripped down 4 times.
#1 resulted in him peeing all over his clothes AND sheets.
#2 resulted in him dunking his clothes in the toilet upstairs and then pouring toilet water all over the bathroom floor.
#3 resulted in him pouring water all over the downstairs bathroom, and his clothes.
#4 - i caught him in the act, while he was sitting in time out.

AND IT'S NOT EVEN NOON YET!!!

Scott, if you're reading this... please come home soon. I am not meant to be a single mother of 4.

Black Widows and Poison Control

Did I catch your attention with that heading? I figured I might.

Yep. I said it. And no, those 2 things don’t go together. But don’t worry, everybody’s fine.

Let’s start back at the beginning…

This morning was pretty perfect, with the exception of waking up to Will telling us he peed in the bed AGAIN. And the sound of construction outside our window. But that was a good sound. That sound meant that our new deck was being finished. These are the best before pictures I have…

They really don't capture how small it was, or how nasty. The paint was peeling off everywhere, which left lots and lots of splinters. It was really just falling apart very very quickly.

But here is what it looks like now!

Anyways…Will and Scott went to their soccer game bright and early while the rest of us were super lazy doing who knows what. At some point after the game Scott went outside to start mowing the grass. Before he even started though, Will tripped in the driveway and got a big gash in his knee. Thankfully it wasn’t ER-worthy, but looking at it almost made me throw up. Thank goodness for Scott.

So I’m corralling everyone else back inside the house so Scott can take care of Will. Which means they are in the bathroom; Will is on the counter and Scott is cleaning up the cut with rubbing alcohol. Next thing we know Benjamin is doused in rubbing alcohol and is pulling the container away from his mouth. Yep, he took a swig. Or two or three. There is no telling how much he consumed, because we don’t know how much was in there to begin with, and he spilled a lot of it down his shirt and on the floor.

So I’m trying to take care of Will’s bloody knee and I have no clue what to do, Will’s still crying because it hurts so badly, Scott’s trying to get Benjamin to throw up, and then I start freaking out a little bit because Scott gets the phone to call Poison Control.

We have now joined that club. It took us 6 ½ years and 4 kids, but we are now there. So thankful that Benjamin is fine. They had us monitor him for about an hour, and they called twice in that time to check on him. Other than acting a little bit goofier than normal, he seemed fine.

Total change of subject now. Will was teaching us all about Black Widows this morning, and Scott told him that he used to find and kill those all the time in Florida. I’m thinking, what? I have NEVER seen a Black Widow before. Crazy! Will thought it was pretty cool. Fast forward a few hours and we are all outside playing and whaddya know? Scott finds a BLACK WIDOW SPIDER IN OUR YARD! Everyone thinks it’s awesome but me, who’s kind of freaking out.

Later on while Will and Kirstine are bug hunting, I inform them that if they should happen to find another one, to make sure and get far far away, but to also let me know so I can take a picture of it.

And here you are. Yep, they found ANOTHER ONE! I am so kind of freaking about this. Seriously? Good thing is they seem to be pretty slow and easy to kill, but, really? I’m NOT happy about there being Black Widow Spiders in our yard.


Is this normal? Not that scared part, but the fact that they are in my yard.

Oh yeah, forgot to mention that Will thinks the second one almost bit Kirstine before they called me over. Yeah.

Here's another fun picture of Benjamin with his obsession with girls' shoes...

And what did I do with the rest of my day?

Scraped paint. That’s my new job. I’m spending every moment I have scraping 18 layers of paint off of our handrails so we can repaint them. Cuz they look awful!

And now I have carpal tunnel.

OH YEAH… When I came back inside, this is what I found…

I love my life!



is there anything else to say??



Soccer time!

This season we decided to also let Will play soccer. I'm crazy, I know. I always said that we'd do only one sport-like thing at a time. But I really wanted to let him try soccer. And since it's his first season off the tee, and hitting off the machine, there was really no way we could let him skip fall ball. Plus, fall ball only lasts 6 weeks, on Sunday afternoons only. So there's no conflict - just 6 busy weekends in a row!

So here we go with soccer. First game was fun - Will's team won 4-0, and he scored one of those goals! Other than that it's just fun mixed with chaos. But at least I got a few pictures!

Fall Ball

It's a new season, in a new league, batting off a machine, and we only had 1 practice. Will got a handful of balls pitched to him through the machine at that practice, and then we had our first game.

If I remember correctly, our first inning was something like 3 up 3 down, i think...
Next inning was going similarly, and then Will came up to bat.

First ball...

2nd ball...

3rd ball...

and we have a hit!

Next time at bat went a little the same, a few fouls and then...

Now here are some pictures of the day...

We started out as pitcher...

These are his special hands that make him fast. They seem to work pretty well!

First time as catcher ever. He learned this position from looking at his cake topper from his birthday.



Buggy's Bee Sting

Today was the most wonderful day.

We woke up (a little later than planned), got ready very quickly, and headed off for another play date at the splash pad. This is definitely Benjamin's new favorite thing.

Then my friend, Kristine, so wonderfully volunteered to take Will and Kirstine home with her! Benjamin and I had lunch, played in the living room for an hour, and then Ben went off to bed. I was lazy and played on the computer and watched Suits.

After the kids got home we got ready to go out again. We were having a picnic at Veteran's Park with all the preschool ministry workers at church. I picked up Subway and met Scott there.

We had a wonderful time. The kids were great and we all had fun. At about 7:30 the skies started turning black. Shortly everyone was hurriedly packing up and leaving. Scott and I both parked about forever and a half away, so he took off to go get the van.

Then Kirstine started SCREAMING! That nasty bee that had been bothering her during dinner finally got the best of her. Twice. He stung her in her right arm, and then she grabbed him with her left hand to pull him off and he got her left thumb. my poor, poor baby.

I write all of this just to tell you the randomness of her wails on the way home. I immediately put Psalty on and she immediately responded by being silent and content. She loves her some Psalty.

A few minutes later she screamed out loud while crying, "I want to sleep with you and daddy tonight!" I told her we would see... and the screaming continues off and on for a few minutes. Most of the time including the words, "It's BURNING!"

Then came some words I never imagined hearing out of her mouth. So I know now how badly it hurt.

"I WANT YOU TO TURN PSALTY OFF!!!!"

Really? I did and it worked, for a bit. She continued to scream off and on the rest of the way home. But her randomness came in full a few minutes later when she asked me out of NO WHERE,

"Mom, who gave you this car?" And she was not crying at all. I explained to her that I bought it at the car dealership (over 2 years ago), and then she asks me, "If it's so big, how did you carry it?"

For those of you that don't know Kirstine, know this... A way-too-oftenly used phrase in our house is, "It's a good thing she's so pretty".


In other news, as I type this at close to 4 am, Bethan is wide awake but with no smiles. And then I started to sing to her, "When I See You Smile" and she just lit up like firecrackers. I love this baby!

4th of July

Today could have easily been a very sad and depressing day. My mom's 60th birthday. Huge party. And I'm not there. Trust me, I've done my fair share of crying about it over the last month. But I'm okay now, and we had a great day.

We began the day by doing my favorite thing these days... sleeping in and being lazy. I was up with Bethan from 6:30 - 7:30. Which is perfect because then I made the older 3 breakfast and went back to bed. Scott got up soon after and hung out with them while I slept in til 9. or maybe was it 10??? :)

We went to Aldridge Gardens for a picnic lunch and had a great time. There was hardly anyone there, and there was a nice breeze due to the storm coming in. And thanks to the threatening skies we headed home a little earlier than planned.

Then a little more lazy time while Benjamin napped.

Finally we had a small group 4th of July party. Bethan and I went for a little while and then came home while the big kids walked up the street to see the fireworks. Jealous I didn't get to see them, but there's always next year, right?

Here are some pictures from the park...