Fall Party and Trick or Treating

I ran upstairs for ONE second and when I came back down look who found the Halloween candy! He was having a grand time playing with it and was quite mad when I picked it all back up:)

He likes the taste of it too! Ryan took the twins around while I stayed home with E and passed out the candy. Our neighborhood kids all went together riding on this neat float that someone was pulling behind a lawn mower. It was covered in lights that blinked off and on - it was pretty creative and someone did a lot of work on it!

Kenton is waiting to play a game at their Fall party at school.

Kaitlyn is playing pumpkin Bingo
Kenton giving me one of his "Kenton Looks"!

Kaitlyn is making the spider craft. They were creative and cute. Yes, I just called a spider "cute"!!!
And here they are before heading off to school. A firefighter and an angel (Just in case you couldn't tell!)

Happy Birthday Braedon!

I had to post this picture because my sister-in-law Jamie makes such AWESOME cakes for her boys! Happy 4th Birthday, Braedon:) We can't wait to see you this weekend!

Pumpkin Patch Field Trip and Other Things

Well, I survived my first field trip with a group of Kindergartners!! It was an ear splitting good time - listening to a whole bus load of 5 year olds sing nursery rhymes over and over and OVER isn't exactly my idea of a way to spend my morning! BUT, it was fun to spend the time with the twins and see how they are with their friends at school:)

Kaitlyn hit the slides with two of her friends - over and over again. Are you starting to see a theme here?!?

We rode a hay rack out to the pumpkin patch where we had our pick of tiny pumpkins to take home with us. Here is Kaitlyn with the one that she picked out.

Here is Kenton with HIS tiny, little pumpkin!

Kaitlyn decided to jump in with the boys and make a scarecrow.

Here is Mrs. Wiley's Kindergarten class - Fall 2007

Onto the "other" things. I thought that I'd write a quick update on Singapore. We've been keeping really busy doing all the little things that come along with such a move. I scheduled Hepatitis A vaccines for us next week along with our usual flu shots. That is really the only recommendation for shots that we haven't already gotten. I'm going to see if they will speed up Ethan's schedule as Indonesia has reported cases of Polio. We have interviewed two rental management companies for our home and now are making the final decision of which one to go with. Both want to start showing the house beginning of November to potential renters so we've been cleaning out and cleaning up. We've been filling out paperwork to get work passes and dependent passes for Singapore. We are waiting official word from the Singapore American School on whether the twins are in for the Spring semester or not. If they aren't we have a choice of a private Christian school or homeschooling until next Fall when they could for sure get in. We have the moving company coming in the middle of November to tell us what will fit in a 40 foot container and what the transit times are for our things. We also get a 650 lb air shipment of things that we will need immediately. I have gone through the house and made a very detailed spread sheet of what's staying, going, being stored, or donated. This way we know exactly what to tell the movers and we have a detailed shipping list in case something gets lost or damaged. We have started stocking up on things like our favorite soaps, diapers, summer clothes, printer paper, etc. to send over in our shipment. I have quite an extensive list of things to get in case they don't have it there, thanks to Lynn:) I am ordering a really good stroller since we'll be doing a lot of walking...We've also picked out area rugs to send since they are considerably cheaper here. All the condos have marble floors and I want to have cozy rugs:) We're also starting to collect medical records to take with us as well. There is SO much planning that goes into a move like this that it can be overwhelming at times! Than, we take a step back, a deep breath, and say a prayer that God will work out the small details along with the big ones...and so far He has!!

We have our first Parent/Teacher conference tomorrow and than we are heading back to Illinois for the weekend. Ryan's going to spend time in Peoria helping Grandma Joos get a few things done and I'm going to help the twins make a REAL pumpkin pie:) Should be fun! We're heading to Elgin for the weekend and than we are home until Thanksgiving while our families come and visit US:)

Peace and Quiet

Finally I have some peace and quiet around here:) The kiddos have been in bed since 8 although they aren't sleeping yet - well, Ethan is but the two that really need to be aren't! It was a rather quiet Monday around here. It was cloudy and cool most of the day so I stayed home and unmotivated. I achieved three things today - I got the twins off to school, I made supper, and I cleaned out the junk drawer. I think that last task more than makes up for the fact that I achieved little else today:)

Ryan and I nailed down the dates today for our move and he contacted the moving company to get everything confirmed. The twins should be accepted into SAS and our official acceptance letter will be here by early November. It's amazing how all the pieces continue to fall into place! When I start to worry about something I make myself take a step back and think about how God is completely in control of our lives and this move. It makes things easier for sure!

We hosted our last potluck:( yesterday. It was a very nice evening and it was fun to decorate my tables with nice dishes and tablecloths and centerpieces! With three little ones running around I don't get to do that often. This week will be a busy one. I have a meeting tomorrow at school for the Fall Party and than it's my day to volunteer in the classroom. Wednesday I head to Topeka for a little get together with my Sabetha friends - I'm really looking forward to meeting up with them and getting to spend some time without children...uninterrupted talking - how nice! Friday I head off on a field trip with the twins to the pumpkin patch - should be fun as long as it doesn't rain:) This weekend we head to Illinois for a wedding - October is going to be over before we know it!

Update on the cheesecake (and Thurs evening)

Kaitlyn in a finer moment...read on!

Well, my evening the other night did NOT turn out as planned...more about that in a minute....what DID turn out was the cheesecake and I ended up calling a (skinny) friend on Friday and told her to come and get the rest of it lest I finish off a half a cheesecake by myself - oh it CAN be done!

About the rest of that evening...Let's just say that Kaitlyn melted in a temper tantrum more than once and during the last one as we were cleaning up supper and getting ready to go to the Bible Study I told her that she didn't get to go to the bonfire and had to go to bed. She didn't receive that well but was in bed at 7:05...and was SOUND asleep by 7:10. I would say someone was over tired. I asked her the next morning if she'd learned her lesson and she said, "No." ARGHHHH!!! I was disappointed to miss the Bible study but she needed a consequence that would hurt - even if it was only for the 5 minutes it took her to fall asleep:)

PS to the 7:05 bedtime....she was wi-ide awake by 6:30am and in our room talking...we won't try putting her to bed that early again as I don't really like to see that side of 8am:) I know, I know...so I like to sleep in!!

Family Art Project

We have officially completed our first "Family Art Project"...it came home from school two weeks ago and we JUST did it this morning;) It consisted of Mom doing all the cutting, Dad doing all the designing, and Kaitlyn and Kenton messing up what we just did! Oh - and Ethan eating all the teeny, tiny pieces of scrap paper that he could find on the floor and than throwing up on the carpet. The scarecrows were still "drying" when the twins left for school so I took them in to the classroom for them...we wouldn't want them to get messed up on the bus, now would we? After all, Mom and Dad did a LOT of work on this FAMILY art project! To be fair, the twins really did do a lot...they colored and pasted and glitter glued. The entire time I was cutting the scarecrow pieces Kaitlyn kept saying, "Look at Mom's GOOD cutting skills...Boy she sure has GOOD cutting skills." I'm sure glad that all my years of cutting experience could be put to good use:)

Tonight we have our weekly Crown Financial Bible Study. I decided to try making my Mom's secret Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cheesecake...sure is hard when it's a secret recipe...:) I've heard that it gets RAVE reviews so we'll see how well I did tonight. The twins are going to a bonfire...it's homecoming tonight so there was NO chance of getting a sitter so they are going to the alternative activity that's been planned for the church kids. Ethan's going with us since he can't be trusted around a fire. I'd better go and get supper going so that we aren't late. The twins don't have school tomorrow so we may be taking a family trip to the pumpkin farm to get pumpkins for them to carve in a few weeks.

AHHH!! Cooler weather:)

Finally it's a little cooler outside! It was starting to feel like we'd already moved to Singapore and weren't going to get to enjoy fall this year. We have wonderful temps in the 70's this week which feels nice...time to head to the pumpkin farm with the kids this weekend:) They have been begging to go and pick out a pumpkin to carve with Ryan. Guess this is going to be a short post - Ethan has a little friend here and they are both begging for attention!

In Loving Memory of Grandpa Joos