Pictures from the last few weeks

I've been meaning to post these pictures on the blog for a while but was just too busy.   Here are some pictures from the fall season:

We had beautiful weather this past weekend, so we took a trip to the zoo.  The boys' favorite part is the playground they have at the zoo; not the animals.  Jack was disappointed the pigs weren't at the kids' farm.  He is obsessed with pigs ever since watching Charlotte's Web.

Having a snack with the neighborhood friends

Robert's swim lesson.  He has really improved the last few weeks with his arm strokes for the crawl. 

Family came to visit for my big 40th birthday.  This is the only picture I have.  :(  Hopefully, my sister will send me her copies soon!  Here is a picture my sister holding Ellie, Ryan, Robert on the phone, Alex and Jack.  Every day Jack tells me how much he misses his cousins.

Fred the Elf returns!

Fred the Elf arrives each year after Thanksgiving.  He watches the boys during the day and flies home to Santa at night to report back.  Robert was very excited to see Fred return.  He thought it was hilarious that Fred the Elf was fishing for goldfish in our toilet.

Jack, on the other hand, does not like Fred the Elf at all.  As I was telling him the story on how Fred tells Santa if he's been a good boy or not, he had a look on his face that read "Oh crap, I'm in big trouble!"  Jack is a typical rowdy younger brother and he does have reason to be concerned.  Hopefully, Fred will do his job and keep Jack in line these next few weeks.

Thanksgiving 2011

The boys did their Thankful Tree again this year for Thanksgiving. 

Here is Jack's:

And Robert's tree....

...notice that he is thankful for GIRLS!

The week before Thanksgiving, I was tasked with making pilgrim costumes for Robert's kindergarten class.  Long story short:  I missed Back to School night and was volunteered to be room mom.  While I'm not very crafty, I do admit that the costumes didn't turn out so bad and I enjoyed helping his class with their Thanksgiving Feast.

 Robert was happy to wear his again to Thanksgiving dinner:

We had a delicious dinner at Grandma and GrandDad's home. 

After dinner, it was time for the boys to beat up their uncles.

Jack and Uncle Brent

The boys with Uncle Tim

 And, some brotherly love:

The boys with their GrandDad

Primal Mud Run

My friend Shannon and I ran in the Primal Mud Run this morning in Warrenton.  It is basically a 4 mile obstacle course. 

We had to scale big walls, wade through freezing cold creeks while carrying a heavy sandbag, but the most fun part was sliding down a huge Slip-N-Slide down a mountain (well, it was fun until it dumped you into chest-deep ice cold water).  And, since it was a mud run, we had to army crawl through mud underneath barbed wire. 

The experience was very cold but lots and lots of fun. 

I'm trying to talk Alex into running it next year with me, but he tells me that none of that sounds like any fun.  I have a year to try to change his mind; I think I can do it.  :)

Super Mario Brothers

Robert had been telling me for weeks that he wanted to be Luigi for Halloween (from his favorite Wii video game).  So I went to Target and was very proud of myself for grabbing the very last Luigi costume, as well as an evil Mario costume for Jack.  Moments before we left for our annual neighborhood potluck, Robert tells me he wants to dress as a Power Ranger like he did last year.  As you can see from the pictures, I said 'no way!'.

Super Mario Brothers

Keira found it more comfortable to be in her stroller during the potluck.

Jack and his friend Drew

Max.  The cupcakes were delicious!

Friends Keira, Jack and Drew hanging out at the potluck

Who knew Luigi had such big muscles?

And the most difficult photo to take:  all the kids in the neighborhood