Happy Fall!

We are, we are, drug free!

Red Ribbon Parade! Nick's class dressed like football players and cheerleaders. Once again, we heard 'I am not going to do that' referring to letting Mrs. Blackmon paint black lines under his eyes. Alex's class wore red and I'm not sure what their theme was. But the boys had fun marching in the parade and chanting the slogan. They got to ride the bus from their school over to the high school and then walk all the way to the track and twice around the track. Alex was very tired last night although Nick told me this morning Alex got up during the storm and got into bed with him last night.

Party time!

To avoid World War 3 at our house, I asked Grandma and Grandpa Bradley to go to the fall parties at school. We switched off. I went to Alex's party for the first half while they were at Nick's. Alex's class had a lot of treats and he was having lots of fun sitting at his desk and opening all the goodie bags. I found out he loves fruit roll-ups. I never think to buy those. He also got to go decorate a cookie with Mrs. Brown. After I left the party, Grandma and Grandpa said he got to play hot potato with a pumpkin. When he got out, he went over and sat by them and said 'that's okay, I wanted out anyway so I could sit by Grandpa.' Nick also had lots of goodies at his party. He was eating the icing off of a cupcake when I got down to the room. They played pass the pumpkin and made Halloween masks. Nick just stuck a bunch of random letters on his mask. I guess he was the letter man. Then he wanted to show me 'his' books and read a book to me.

Making Pizzas

We were at the store buying supplies for pizza and I told the boys they could make their own. Nick said 'I am not going to do that. I can't do that. I've never done it before. No way!' This seems to be a theme lately. Guess what? He did do it and he loved his sausage pizzas. I think he made one ham pizza, too. Alex made pepperoni pizzas with green peppers.

More Pictures of Elephant Rocks

Beautiful Fall at Elephant Rocks

Don't worry! We didn't fall. But it was beautiful with all the fall colors at Elephant Rocks this October. The boys were off school last Monday (October 18th) so Grandma and Grandpa Bradley took a day trip with us down to hike and climb at Elephant Rocks. It was a wonderful day!

The Circus

Once we convinced the boys to go to the circus, we had a lot of fun. It was interesting driving into downtown St. Louis from Illinois. The views are pretty. We walked past the people telling us we were paying for animal cruelty. Ryan told them- nope, we didn't pay. (Our tickets were free!)

Nick's favorite part of the circus was the high wire. But he loved all of it. He was hilarious during the tightrope act because he kept hiding his face he was so nervous. I don't think any of the performers ever fell off the tightrope. But they put the wire at an angle so the performer had to walk on the tightrope basically climbing a hill. He was almost at the top and started sliding backwards. He slid all the way back down to the first platform- maybe it was just for effect- but that really caused Nick to worry.

Alex was tired and told us he didn't like the circus. He did much better once I let him sit in my lap. Then he told us his favorite part was the chinese lions- which were people in costumes. He liked the tigers a lot, too and decided maybe he will be a tiger trainer. I think he is fearless enough to go into a cage with 10 tigers!

They both really likes the motorcyles that drove around in a cage. That was crazy. The whole thing was really good. Unfortunetaly we didn't get any really good pictues. Our camera batteries were low but we did get a few.

A Return Trip to Eckerts

Two day later (after Alex's field trip) we went back to Eckerts. Nick really wanted to go this year so we decided to try to squeeze in a quick visit before... The Circus! Nick and Alex had fun and kind-of didn't want to leave to go to the circus. Because it was a Saturday and beautiful weather, the place was packed. This also meant the rides- like the spinning apples- were open. The boys rode with our friends Hannah and Victoria who spun the apple so fast we couldn't even see the kids. Yuck! That does not sound fun to me.

Zane got to take his first trip to Eckerts in his cute pumpkin outfit. And doesn't his Daddy look like he's having so much fun- even though I heard him say at least 16 times- I am done with Eckerts!

I know exactly what you're thinking, "I want to see Zane from the front." So here is a cute picture Kerry just sent me today with the message "Zane says Happy Halloween."

Alex's first field trip

Lucky Alex did already get to go on a field trip last year, but it was much more exciting to be going on his own field trip (not Nick's) and riding the bus. His field trip was scheduled for October 14th and it turned out to be a beautiful day. It felt pretty warm but I think it was around 75 degrees. He rode the bus with Mrs. Brown and the Plattin Primary Kindergarten to the Millstadt Eckerts Fun Farm. Alex was determined to go pick apples, so we rode the wagon (by ourselves) and went out to pick apples. This was after Mrs. Brown had released him to go home with me. Alex is a hard worker and picked really good apples. He knew they were called Fuji- the only apples left for the season- and told everyone. They were really good apples. Alex found Mrs. Brown before she got on the bus to go back to school and gave her an apple. We got to watch the pumpkin cannon shoot pumpkins across the field. And Alex raised his hand and got picked to go up and pick out the pumpkin for the farmer to load in the cannon.

Here he is getting interviewed by Candy Apple or something like that.

The kids had a lot of fun walking through the pumpkin patch and picking out their own pumpkin. They could pick any pumpkin as long as they could carry it all by themselves.

Alex really loved being with all his friends from school and riding the wagon to the pumpkin patch. All day long kids would be yelling 'Alex' and he would take off running to go play with someone else. I had a hard time keeping up.

The Corn Maze was fun until I decided to wait at the front and I waited and waited and waited... He eventually came out!

Alex really likes two little girls in his class- one named Ava and one named Avery. They are both blondes and sort-of look alike. I think this one is Avery.

If you look closely, you can see the arch in the background. We were right across the river.