FALL 2014

As always fall is a busy time and just when I thought it couldn’t get any busier, we found a way.  We had our annual Fright Fest, a must in our fall schedule.  Then there was the end of the outdoor soccer season but not to worry, we then started indoor soccer.  Mom thought it would be a good time for reconstruction of the kid’s closet.  At the end of a busy day we attended the Fireman’s open house.  Our annual Halloween bonfire and trick or treating on Halloween were some of the highlights from this fall.  As if all of that was not enough our family grew by 2 small feet.

We made our annual trek out to Fright Fest.  This year Little Man was able to go on more roller coasters and Hopey was up and running around.  As much as Little Man loves roller coasters and rides, Hopey does not.  Hope loves being around the other kids and standing in line for the rides but when it comes to actually riding, she could do without.  Little Man rode the Whizzer and the Little Dipper but my favorite was riding in the front car of the Demon with him.  I remember in high school waiting two plus hours to get on the ride and now here we were jumping in the front car of a half empty ride.  He enjoyed his ride on the Demon but not near as much as I did.

 

We took some time and went on a haunted version of the tea cup ride which was all in the dark with flashing lights glowing pictures and loud music.  The first time we went on, Mom asked us to spin slowly but just as at Disney, that was quickly gone and we spun around faster and faster.  When the lights would flash, I could see the kids smiling faces, it brought me great joy to see them so happy. 

We rode the ride several more times before moving on to other rides.  Little Man not only rode the Demon but also the Whizzer but while Mom and I were riding X Flight, we heard Little Man’s favorite was the Little Dipper that he rode over and over and over again.  We had a great time at Fright Fest and the kids and adults were beyond tired when we left.

I have found one problem with Halloween and parenting, when to buy the costume?  Buy too early and they will change their minds on what they want to be, wait too long and the costume they want won’t be there anymore.  This year on a trip to Wal-Mart Little Man fell in love with a Transformers costume that was reversible; one side was yellow Bumble bee and the other side was red Stinger.  We made a phone call to Mom who said if he was happy to go ahead and buy the costume.  I warned him that this was it and there was no changing his mind, he agreed and Little Man’s costume was done.  The nice thing was we bought it early and he had a great time dressing up in it and a few nights asked if he could sleep in it. 

At the end of last year we bought Hopey a pumpkin witch costume that lights up on sale.  When we got out the Halloween stuff and found the costume, it was still too big for her.  We had avoided a tough costume choice with Little Man but now we had to find another costume for Hopey.  We took her to the Halloween store to pick one out but she was more interested in the possessed babies.  We debated over several costumes and as hard as we tried Hopey did not pick one, unlike last year where she was so excited to be a peanut.  We finally decided on an Olaf costume from Frozen and it looked like it would be warm enough for Halloween.  A Transformer and Olaf is what the kids where going to be for Halloween.

The soccer season was now in full motion.  Little Man was on the Green team and the kids decided they should be called the Green Ninja Turtles.  Little Man improved from the fall season and was scoring goals and getting into the game.  I still love coaching but each season presents different challenges as coach but it’s still a lot of fun working with the kids and watching them improve and work together as a team.  Little Man had a lot of fun with the other kids but told us he wanted his hair to look like Sean’s and Rex’s hair, so Mom started spiking up his hair with and it continues to this day.   I’m not one who is big on hair, so as you can imagine the hair spray job falls onto Mom.  As always it was sad to see the season end, but the kids played great and I will be back coaching in the spring. 

After one Saturday morning with soccer games we headed over to the other soccer park for some training from a professional coach.  Little Man had a good time and I liked the fact that even the professional coach had problems getting them all to pay attention.  After that work out we headed over to the fire house for their open house. 

Little Man was super excited to see all the fire trucks and fire men and Hopey was just happy to see him so happy.  They had games for the kids to play like hitting a target with the fire hose, it reminded me of the old days when fire fighters used to compete hitting a keg barrel on a cable to push it to the other side. 

They also had a house with pictures of fire that would pop up and the kids had to hit with a fire extinguisher. Little Man loved the games and Hopey was happy just to watch.  They also had a demonstration of putting out a fire in a stove and even a car fire.  That was exciting for Little Man.  Mom and Hope spent a lot of time waiting in line to take a ride in a fire truck.  Little Man sat in front; Mom, Hope and I sat in the back as we rode in the fire truck down the road and back.  I’m going to keep my eyes open for the open house next year since the kids loved it so much.

Mom, Mimi and Auntie Jea Jea had talked about opening up the kid’s closet and the dining room closet into one big closet.  Since we were faced with such a big decision on another child and we thought maybe it wasn’t the best year to have our Halloween Bonfire.  Mom cleaned out the closet and started taking the cedar planks down.  Little Man could hardly wait to help and since he was helping, Hopey wanted to do the same.  I’m still amazed at how well Little Man can handle a hammer at his age.  When I was his age, it would have been very dangerous to put a hammer in my hand.  The kids pitched right in and helped us get the closet done and before we got it done we had decided to have the Halloween Bonfire after all.

Before the bonfire we had to fit in one more tradition, our trip to the pumpkin patch.  Mom, Mimi and the kids had already gone once with Little Man’s preschool but I had to work and couldn’t attend.  We met Auntie Wendy and Bayle at the pumpkin patch.  The kids know now that the faster Dad gets his picture the faster they can get to playing and they were very good this year at posing.  We of course had to take the tractor out to the pumpkin patch and the kids love the trip out there. 

Once we got out there, I notice we were a bit later this year and there weren’t as many pumpkins but none the less the kids headed out and stated telling us what pumpkins they wanted.  I had my fun and the camera started clicking away.  The kids ran around the pumpkin patch and kept changing their minds on what pumpkin they wanted until we were ready to leave and they had to make their final decision. 

Next in the pumpkin patch was the petting zoo. 

We saw horses, goats, pigs, turkeys and little chicks.  The kids fed the goats, well Bayle and Little Man did, Hopey kind of dumped the food in front of them.  They also had a play area for the kids to play and a kids hay maze for them to run threw and burn a bunch of their energy.  The kids love the area and the hardest part is keeping track of them as they run around.  I think if we would let them, they would spend all the time in that area playing and feeding the animals.

On our first visit to the pumpkin patch Little Man and Bayle ran inside the pumpkin house, looked out the window and I snapped a picture.  Every year

since then we have taken a picture with the kids inside the window of the pumpkin house.  It’s a lot of fun looking at how they have grown from year to

year.  The kids have a lot of fun playing in the area and I think they are also having fun trying to pose in different ways for me.  We had a great time at

the pumpkin patch that day but as our life is these days we had to buy our pumpkins, apple cider and doughnuts and head home for soccer practice.  It’s kind of hard to miss practice when

you’re the coach.  We did find time to stop off with Auntie Wendy and Bayle for hot dogs before practice.  Hopey skipped the hot dog in exchange for a nap and who could blame her after running around the pumpkin patch all day.

We took time to carve the pumpkins.  Little Man did not like sticking his hand into the pumpkin and pulling out the guts.  Hopey on the other hand was more than willing to reach in and pull out the guts. 

We kept telling Little Man he had to do the dirty work if he wanted to carve but the look of disgust whenever he would put his hand into the pumpkin was too funny.  We started to carve the pumpkins but we were short a few tools when Little Man jumped up ran to a drawer and pulled out the tools.  How does he remember these things?  Little Man loved carving the pumpkins and Hopey loved cleaning the guts out; I guess they make a pretty good team.

Not only did we decide to go ahead with our Halloween Bonfire but also to once again adopt.  Mom, Auntie Jea Jea and Mimi did a lot of the work to get ready for the party as my work schedule filled up (as usual) before a big party.  The night of the party was a great night in fact the weather was almost to warm for a fire.  All the kids at the party had a great time and all night I could hear laughter coming out of the bounce house.  I also kept the tractor barrel train busy that night driving both kids and adults down the haunted trail.  I finally had to take a break so I could see a few guests and say good bye to some who were ready to leave.

The next day was when we had learned that Baby Rock had been born the morning of the party and the problem he had at birth.  http://rogtvblog.blogspot.com/2014/11/baby-rock.html

Monday after the party and news on Baby Rock we had the soccer team over for their end of season party as scheduled.  I like to pass out special awards to the kids; last time I did cartoon characters this time I thought I would do superheroes that turned out to be harder than I thought.  There are not too many female superheroes that the kids would know.  Little Man of course had to get the Superman award for being the man of steel.  The kids on the team get a big kick out of the awards and I think the parents do as well.  

The party for the Green Ninja Turtles was a success and Little Man has already started his indoor play.  He is doing very good at the indoor and in fact got three goals in one game the other night and yes that meant three toys from the dollar store. 

After all this in fall we came to O’ Hallows Eve.  This year was a bit different, we loaded up Hopey, Little Man and the costumes and headed out to the hospital first to visit Baby Rock.  The kids were still disappointed that they could not go upstairs to see their new baby brother.  We did our best to explain why but they still wanted to see him.  The nurses on the NICU had made a couple of foot prints of him.  They made three ghosts with his foot prints and a witch riding a broom. 

After our visit with Baby Rock we headed over to Auntie Wendy, Uncle Duane’s and Bayle’s house for Trick or Treating.

  They have the best neighborhood for Trick or Treating but this year was different, the weather was not nice, high winds and rain made it a very scary Halloween.  We did find a brief window to head out and the doors we knocked on were more than happy to hand over a lot of candy.  In the short time we were out the kids got a lot of candy filling up their pumpkins.

I had a great time much to Mom’s chagrin, teaching Little Man one of my favorite Trick or treating phrases, “Trick or Treat smell my feet give me something good to eat if you don’t I don’t care I’ll pull down your underwear!”  I laughed every time he said it and Mom just shook her head and that would make me laugh even more.  When we did go out trick or treating Little Man was in such a hurry to get a lot of candy he never did say it once which was probably a good thing.  

With their pumpkins filled we headed back to the house to warm up.  I tried to teach the kids about taxes with their candy but they were not having it, in fact you can forget the Boston Tea party, we now have the revolt of the Halloween candy.  The kids then had a great time taking turns answering the door to pass out candy unfortunately there were not a lot of Trick or Treaters out on such a bad night.  Dylan and I took turns using different pieces of the kid’s costumes to dress up run around the house and ring the door bell.  I’m not sure who had more fun us, the kids or the other adults watching it all.  Once again it was a great Halloween; we loaded up the kids and headed back up to the hospital one more time so Mom could check on Baby Rock before we headed home for a well deserved rest.

The day came when Rock was ready to come home perfectly healthy by the grace of God. Ironically, he came home on Jynx’s Mom’s Birthday which is November 5th and on day 11 of his life, which just happens to be Jynx’s Dad’s favorite number.  He completes our family and I am sure he will live up to his name sake.

I normally think our fall is pretty busy but now with the addition of Baby Rock it would easily be our busiest fall.  I don’t think that record will stand for long as just thinking about next fall and chasing the three of them around already has me tired but I do think we will enjoy every minute!!!