it's all about the treats...

'I got a rock.' ~Charlie Brown

'Nothing on Earth is so beautiful as the final haul on Halloween night.' ~ Steve Almond


Well it was another cold Halloween in Wisconsin requiring Winter coats over costumes or wearing several layers of clothing underneath the costume. At least it didn't rain. An excellent time was had by all as shown by the pictures and I'll let them speak for themselves. I added our cat Jack (as he sits on our front porch) in the collage below because he followed Dan and the kids down the sidewalk as they stopped at different houses. Guess he wanted to be included too...
Hope your Halloween was extra special. :)

Happy Halloween!

'When black cats prowl and pumpkins gleam, may luck be yours on Halloween!

~unknown

Well they have celebrated Halloween a little early with parties at school and last night we carved pumpkins. Grace designed her own on paper and Daddy carved hers just like she drew. Will was interested in the cleaning process but had no interest in touching the innards of the pumpkin. We have one ginormous pumpkin(truly the largest we've ever had, unfortunately I didn't get a picture of it after it was carved and lit). In the below pic Grace's is the mad pumpkin on the right and Will's is on the left.

We have lots of weekend fun ahead starting with Dan and I going to the Wisconsin-Purdue football game Saturday. GO Purdue! In the afternoon we'll all be attending a neighborhood Halloween party for kids and adults and going trick or treating tomorrow night. We're hoping the weather cooperates. Buzz Lightyear (Will) and our mermaid(Grace) can't wait for the festivities to start. Have a very safe and fun weekend!!!

busy...busy!

Been crazy busy around here as we ramp up for Halloween already....
These are a few from our China travel group party on Sunday. The kids dressed up in their Halloween finery, and they all participated in a little talent show. There was a piano player, gymnasts and dancers...Will did a spontaneous break dance that was hilarious and he got tons of applause. He even bowed at the end...he was so funny! We ate lots of yummy food and the kids played in the leaves, roasted marshmallows and made leaf crowns.

Tomorrow Grace and Will have their Halloween parties at school with a parade and there's no school here on Thursday and Friday. We still have to carve our pumpkins and get ready for Halloween on Saturday. We'll be attending a big neighborhood party. Will's been practicing saying 'trick or treat'...I think he's ready. ;)

a boy named Will

Recently Will said to me, "Mommy is Daddy your boyfriend?" (I'm not quite sure where he got that from...) I had to think about it for a minute and replied, "Well...yes he was my boyfriend and now he's my husband." He said, "oh..you are married!" I said, "yes, we are married."
Like I said, I'm not sure where he gets this from but this little guy is always thinking and processing stuff. He's a bright boy and may be reading very soon. He's got such an interest in learning and picks up new things easily...he loves to be read to. School for him is going extremely well. He has many friends and is quite the social little man.

Monday evening I had my hair cut and colored. I went back to my natural hair color(for a change) and it's dark brown. It hasn't been this color in years and it is very different from what I've had...I didn't tell Grace and William before I left for the appointment that my hair would be changed so much, and when I returned at 9pm they were asleep for the night. In the morning when Will saw me, he immediately ran up, got close to my face and said, "WOW!!!!"...."WOW Mom!" He had a big smile on his face. I took my glasses off and asked him what was different about me...he said, "Your hair looks like mine Mommy!" I loved his response... and I thought it was so cute he liked it. I love this boy so much. He and I have lots of fun in the afternoons when he's home from school.

I'll be gone for several days as I have a girls weekend away in downtown Chicago with friends(Christmas shopping and maybe a little photography on the side), a travel group get together on Sunday in the Chicago area and Monday I have an adoption conference I'll be attending...busy and fun next 4 days. Have a wonderful weekend!

a mother's art

So what exactly have I been doing on my weekends lately? Besides the regular activities with my own family I've been asked to take pictures of quite a few other families and children. (The above ones are some of my favorites). My weekends have been pretty busy especially as the holidays are approaching and everyone wants to have Christmas cards to send and gifts to give. Taking pictures has been incredibly rewarding for me and MOST of the time it's been extremely fun! I've had 9 different sessions with either children or families and I have more scheduled. I never dreamed a year ago I'd be doing this and for now I'll continue to practice and learn as much as I can... :)

a Fall tradition

"Bittersweet October. The mellow, messy, leaf-kicking, perfect pause between the opposing miseries of summer and winter." - Carol Bishop Hipps This is our 5th Fall living in southern Wisconsin and 5th time making the trek just north of us to a tiny town called Lodi.

Going to the Treinen Farm has become one of our traditions. It's a working family farm that opens to the public in the Fall and fortunately has retained it's charm and not gotten too terribly commercial.


Grace and Will played in corn, had apple cider and doughnuts, fed goats, played on the tractor tires and went down a tube slide(Will's absolute fav!)



The highlight for us all was taking a horse drawn hayride down to the pumpkin patch where Grace and Will carefully chose their pumpkins.

It was a perfect crisp Fall day and the leaves here are almost at their peak. They both played hard and took a long nap after we got home...playing is hard work you know! Can you tell something's different about Grace? (2 things)...hair cut(it was her idea and I think she looks adorable!) and she's lost another tooth. Big gap now in the top front teeth...
if you look at the top collage you can see.

it's Friday!

• Another week has gone by and I'm happy to say Friday is finally here.
• Will asks me no less than 3 times a day, "Is it Halloween yet Mom?" He is so excited about Halloween and all that goes with it with dressing up in his costume and of course getting candy! This boy LOVES candy. I mean I feel a little bad, it's a bit confusing with our Halloween decorations up in the house and he sees it everywhere.
• I think we may have skipped Autumn in southern Wisconsin and gone promptly to Winter...what is the deal with this?
• My weekends have been full with taking pictures of families and I'm thoroughly enjoying it and getting great experience. This weekend I have 2 families on Sunday. Next week I'll post a few favorite pics from my sessions (with their permission of course).
• I did make the apple cake and most of it has disappeared...it is yummy and maybe even more so the next day after you bake it.
• Have a wonderful weekend!

wordless Wednesday

apples and snow?!

This post is a bit picture intensive(just letting you know).

This weekend we made a little trip to our favorite apple orchard...instead of seeing 'frost on the pumpkin' we experienced snow on the apples! Just as we were getting ready to leave our house, I look out the window and see it snowing! And I mean serious snow...heavy and for about 30 minutes...snow on Oct 10th? Something is SERIOUSLY wrong about that one. It didn't stick but the temp was like 34 degrees at one point.

We made the best of it and put on our Winter jackets and off we went. Will loved picking and eating his first apple fresh off the tree...you can see he was delighted with the entire experience.
Grace took it all in stride and kept warm...


We picked several varieties of apples, walked around(well Will got pushed in his stroller) and Grace ate a carmel apple which aided in another tooth falling out. We'll probably be having temps in the 80's next weekend...just that way it is in Wisconsin sometimes. :)


I'll be baking that apple cake this afternoon...

2 favs on a Friday

Taken a few days ago after the 'field' session with Grace. There's something about train tracks that appeal to me with the lines and perspective in the image. Also love the texture of the wood and rocks. And of course Grace loved playing there and picking flowers...

Another busy week in our world with school, homework(yes in first grade!), swimming lessons and playing outdoors when it's nice outside. Fall is upon us full force with the leaves rapidly changing and we are supposed to have frost one of these weekend nights. I can't believe we are almost to mid October! I'm going to try and make Lisa's apple cake this weekend...
Hope y'all have a great one!

what we love about Fall

So Fall to us isn't just being outside and enjoying the change of season, loving the cooler temps, gorgeous colors of the leaves and seeing pumpkins in the field.
We celebrate it by bringing a little bit of Fall indoors too...which includes Halloween. We get our wreaths and familiar scarecrow friend out to decorate our home. Will seems to remember getting dressed up last year(he was Spiderman) and is totally getting into this Halloween thing as far as knowing you go knock on some one's door and the concept of 'trick or treating' for candy. The scary parts of Halloween we try to avoid and attempt to make it more fun. Every time we are in Target and walk by the Halloween section of the store he hides his head on my shoulder as I push the cart. I can't blame him...some of those masks scare me!

My newest acquisition is this 'trick or treat' banner I bought a couple of weeks ago from a website I love to buy from...etsy.
Here's the seller Bekah Jennings:
http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=6293150

What I love about the banner is that it's lightweight and can be hung up with tape. Makes the mantle look a little bit more festive!

{October} fields

No spring or summer beauty hath such grace as I have seen in one autumnal face. ~ John Donne I seem to have a 'thing' about taking Grace's picture in open fields...we've gone out in Spring, Summer and now here's the Fall edition of miss Grace in a field. As I recall in Spring we were in the middle of a wildflower field with her in a wagon. Summer she sat on an old red wooden chair...she was in a field of Queen Anne's Lace and wasn't real happy about the bees and bugs getting a bit too friendly.

I do wonder what's the fascination with open fields with me. Perhaps because they are plentiful in southern Wisconsin and to me are actually quite beautiful. This golden and green beauty is not even a mile away from my house and I suppose it inspired me because of the colors that said 'Autumn'. It's a field of soybeans by the way...


Grace takes this field thing with her momma in stride I have to say. I have been wondering what will we do in Winter...perhaps a snow field? I'm up for it...will have to see if Grace is by then!

{about a boy}

He was born with a gift of laughter. ~ Raphael Sabatini


A boy is a magical creature - you can lock him out of your workshop, but you can't lock him out of your heart. ~ Allan Beck

My beautiful boy. I find new things out about him on a daily basis. He's just so darn funny...he even makes himself laugh often. Last night was teacher conferences at Will's school and I got glowing reports from his teacher Miss Carrie and his Speech Therapist Miss Betsy. Will likes everyone and has many friends and is doing many good things with his play and speech. He's a smart little boy and things come easily for him. He truly is a happy guy most of the time and loves life. This week Dan was out of the country for 6 days for his work and came home last evening. Will and I had some great alone time in the afternoons, and both kids did very well while their Daddy was gone...I really am proud of them both but it sure is nice when Dan is back home!

Have a great weekend, the weather here has been pretty yucky the last few days. Would like to get these 2 outside some!