Payton Pumpkin Carve-Off

One thing that Luke's and my marriage does not lack is a little competitive spirit. We both love to win and figured that the upcoming Halloween Holiday called for a little friendly competition. A pumpkin carve-off! I figured we would do it the old-school way and use markers to draw our designs and knives to carve, but Luke informed me he planned to use a dremmel tool. For those of you who don't know what a dremmel is, it's a power tool that has different heads on it and it rotates the heads very quickly. More or less, a Power Carver. Of course he was; I should have seen it coming. Of course I wasn't going to let him have the edge, so off we both went to our respective corners to get to work with our pumpkins and dremmels.

Will loves tractors right now. Specifically John Deere tractors. Therefore, Luke carved him a mini pumpkin with the "John Deere" on it:

Luke's Pumpkin:

Sarah's Pumpkin:

According to the votes already cast the winner is........... ME! Luke is just one vote behind though, so it was a close race. (his witch in the moon was a big hit)

UPDATE: now that all the votes are in we have a new winner. #2, Luke's pumpkin has pulled out into the lead. His witch in the moon was apparently his secret weapon. Good job Luke. (I'll win next year)

Pumpkin Patch

There is the cutest pumpkin patch in Martinsville. They took a big field and filled it with pumpkins. Their signs said they were open, but when I pulled in there was a huge roadblock that said CLOSED. What... I was going to have one disappointed little boy on my hands after all the Pumpkin Patch talk. So I pulled up and asked the woman if they were opened. Nope. I said well your signs say you are. She said if we just wanted to pick out a pumpkin and had exact change that it was fine if we wanted to go on. YAY! Will had such a great time running through the pumpkins and playing (on) them. It turned out to be great and even better that we were the only ones there! The people who run it were really nice. They said this weekend they will be having bounce houses, hay rides, apple cider, Sponge Bob will be making an appearance and possibly pony rides. Looks like we may be going back.

Roadtrip!

Luke and I had tickets to a show at the IU Auditorium last Friday night and my mom had agreed to watch Will for us. Then one of our cousins who lives in Chicago invited my mom up for the weekend but - she was watching Will. So that turned in to Can you bring him? So Nana and Will headed up north for the weekend. Two nights away. Friday through Sunday! He was SO good. He did a great job in the car and (apparently) was extremely well behaved. They played games, went to a fantastic park, and had an overall blast.

Before he left I got Will his very own suitcase that he can roll behind him. He was so adorable with it when we were packing for his trip. Such a big boy!

Luke and I had a great time too. On Friday we went to see Rain: A Tribute to the Beatles, which was great. Then on Saturday after getting some things done around the house we went to see a movie and then to dinner at Fogo de Chao - which was fantastic! Overall, everyone had a great weekend. But it sure was wonderful to see my baby boy when they got back!!

What a great day!

For Will's 2nd birthday my mom and GG and GG(2) got him a zoo pass. We went a few times over the summer but not as much as I had envisioned us going. With me working the extra day, the summer just flew by. Now that I'm back to my old work schedule a zoo trip was at the top of our list of priorities. The weather is getting cooler (and fast!) so I was a little nervous that we had missed the zoo's prime. ...boy was I wrong!! My first inkling that things were looking up was when we pulled into the parking lot and got a spot so close that we didn't require a map to navigate to the entrance. The whole experience was WONDERFUL. There were a few schools there on a fieldtrip and of course some parents with their kids, but there was nothing close to a "crowd." I didn't find myself racing thru the exhibits irritated by rude people while wiping the dripping sweat off my face, and most importantly, rushing poor Will through. Rather, we took as much time as we wanted at each exhibit without having to wait or push our way to the front and then feel like we needed to get out of the way. We really got to enjoy the whole thing!! I felt like I was let in on some secret. I almost felt like winking at the other parents like "yeah, this is great!" So maybe I got a little bit too excited over it, but I can't wait to take him again this fall. :)

Petting the sharks:



We got to watch them feed the penguins! Which was interesting; they had different colored arm bands and we figured out that the yellow arm bands were the smaller, underfed penguins so they got the most fish.



Petting the goats..

This bear was definitely in a friendly mood!

Tuesdays

Ever since Will was just a few months old he and I have gone down to Bloomington every Tuesday evening to visit with my mom. At first it was a mid-week "My husband is out of town all week long please someone else just hold him so I can have a two-minute break!" visit. Two years later, since I now usually have to beg and bribe Will to let me snuggle up with him, it's turned into a special weekly visit that we all love and look forward to. A couple of weeks ago I called Will's pediatrician's office to find out about flu shots. They were having a flu shot clinic on Tuesday Oct. 6 at 5:30 - perfect! Come to find out that my mom was going to be in Michigan that week spending time in Pentwater and at a conference at Michigan State. So, Will and I made the best of the day and spent the morning at the Wonderlab and then went to Nana's house to eat lunch and lay Will down for a nap.

My mom currently has 3 cats in her house. Her two cats that she's had forever, and one "foster cat" that she is taking care of for someone else. For any of you who are familiar with cats, they can be funny little creatures. Pretty much, three lonely cats makes for three bored and spiteful cats. After Will got up from his nap he was running through the house playing. I was in the kitchen and Will walked in and said "ROCKS!" and shoved his little fist toward me. Huh? Rocks? Upon closer inspection, I saw that it was dried cat poop! I found the rest of the mess on the front door rug. Apparently one of the sweet little kitties left a coming home present for my mom. :)