Pumpkins…no shortage here.

Last week, we had an nice sunny afternoon and hit the Gardens… mostly to see the HUGE pumpkins.

   

ArtPrize 2010

This year our family became enamored with ArtPrize in our town.

ArtPrize is a radically open competition. Open to any artist in the world who can find space. Open to anybody in Grand Rapids, Michigan who wants to create a venue. Open to a vote from anyone who attends.

We made it downtown two separate times to see many of the pieces.  And even then, I know we didn’t see probably half of all the art. The boys really got into it as well…. they would come home, draw a picture, and call it their ArtPrize.  

Some art was amazing, some was a little crazy, some were completely geared toward the kiddos and some not so much.

 

There were several of these pianos stating, “Play Me, I’m Yours”.

 

 

 

Mostly, I loved what it did for our city.  It was abuzz with ArtPrize conversation…. which pieces were favorites and which venues were visited.  I felt very proud to live here… and I’m not an artsy gal.

 

And the 2010 ArtPrize Winner (and my personal favorite as well) is Cavalry, American Officers, 1921 by Chris LaPorte. All sketched with No. 2 pencils.  Amazing.

Happy Halloween

Tiger AJ and Cheetah Andrew at Boo goes Zoo.

 

Racecar Driver AJ and Astronaut Andrew

Happy Halloween!

Coach Marc

As I mentioned before, Marc coached AJ’s flag football team this season with help from his lovely assistant, Kelli.  And we had so much fun with this group of kids.  We found ourselves looking forward to practices and super excited for game days.

At first, especially after watching how four year olds play T-Ball, we thought we would be lucky if the boys ran in the right general direction.  However, before the season was over, Marc had them running and completing pass plays.  

And even though no “score” was kept at the games, I’m proud to say we were undefeated!

We even kept stats on these boys… just for fun of course, that way at the practice we could pass out awards during our pizza party.   And I admit, we were sad to see the season end.

Of course, we can’t forget that these are only four and five year olds.  We had trouble getting a game restarted once when one of the boys found a worm in the middle of the field.  And there were tears here and there when a kid was hit a little to hard.  And boys running off for potty breaks.  And trying to keep boys focused when we told them we had donuts for the team after the game.

Can’t wait until next year.

I love it when….

…I take the boys to a large field to fly a kite after spending all day indoors due to tornado warnings. However, we ended up spending most of the time playing "Find Mommy's Keys Somewhere in the Leaf-Covered Field". 

It’s a great game.
Praise God, we found them!

From Minnesota Vikings to Rocket Football Vikings.

This year the boys played Rocket Flag Football and we had a blast doing it. Andrew was in the 6-7 year old group. And AJ was in the 4-5 year old group coached my none other than Coach Marc himself (with his lovely assistant Coach Kelli).

The season consisted of 4 Saturday morning games, and weekly practices. The boys got to walk in the homecoming parade and can go to any of the home games. (We’ve only made it to one so far).

As parents, this, by far, has been our favorite sport the boys have participated it.  Both boys were able to score a few touchdowns and make some tackles...  

 

 

(more football to come…)

Moss is Back, Baby!

\

Inviting everyone to a Party he wasn’t having

Last night as the boys were getting ready for bed, somehow the conversation shifted to half birthdays.  I was trying to explain to AJ what they were.  As I was explaining it, I realized that his half birthday fell next Wednesday. 

So I told him his half birthday was in two days. Andrew asked when his was and I told him.  Then the boys went to bed. End of story… for the night.

This morning, AJ got to go with my friend and sons to church while I worked.  When she dropped AJ off she wanted to talk to me about what AJ has been saying in the car.

Apparently, he was telling everyone that tomorrow is his half birthday (correct) and inviting them to his half birthday party (nope).  And that his mom would be making  a surprise cake of some sort of shape… or possibly buying one and that would be okay with him, too.  And that they should bring presents. (what?!)

The good news is that yes, his friends ARE coming over tomorrow… because they already were planning on coming – NOT because of his half birthday. And…. his mom just may have to use this excuse to make a cake.  At least a half of one, right.   The bad news (for him), is no presents. 

Little Stinker.

Sentimental Sunday: Rambo

I’ve been blogging for almost 6 years. That’s a lot of great and not so great moments documented. I main reason I blog is to remember these times… good and bad.   “Sentimental Sunday”, is when I link back and remember posts I’ve written in the last several years. 

 

Originally Posted September 07, 2009.
…this is how AJ went to bed tonight..

Instead of Camping… (Part II)

Cousins. It was so nice to see them.

 

Putting on his dad’s roller blades; Marc was a very good “blader” back in the day.

Hunny and I eating a late night snack of doughnuts.  Hey – we were on vacation.