Cole in action

Here's a few shots of Cole, doing his thing...

Helping carry the backpack like a big boy.

Watching the tree trimming truck outside his window.

Chillin' on the couch with his Winnie-the-Pooh hat.

Such cuteness!

Happy Halloween!

Laine wanted to be an owl for Halloween.  Not sure where she got the idea, but I was fine with it, as long as she helped make her costume.

So she and Penny found a mask cut-out online and glued it to cardboard and taped it to some old glasses with the lenses removed.  Then, entirely on her own, she created an owl trick-or-treating bag, using real bird feathers that we had collected earlier this year.  I love her creativity!

Here's everyone all dressed up for the big night - owl, monkey, fire fighter.

We joined the Reels and went in their neighborhood, which is much more trick-or-treater friendly than ours :-)

Cole and Caroline - two little monkeys!

Pumpkin Carving

A busy couple weeks for our family with birthdays and Halloween back to back to back - here's the pumpkin carving process...

Scooping out the guts (look at Mead's face!)

Starting to carve

The finished product: big hungry pumpkin eating tiny little pumpkin!

Nice work, Penny.

Happy Birthday Cole!

Just six days after Penny's birthday we get to celebrate Cole's birthday.  And then Halloween!  It makes for a very eventful October.

Cole was very excited to open his presents

And the girls were excited about getting pictures with him on his special day.

Cole got some great new toys, so he postponed eating cake until after he had time to check them all out.

Finally we made it back to the cake - a Spiderman ice cream cake.  Penny made the cake, I did the decorating.

Happy Birthday to Cole...

He got all the candles... eventually.

His new drill and pattern set has been a big hit, along with his Rescue Hero action figures.

The next day I took Cole to his 3 year doctor appointment, which went well, with no health issues to worry about.  He is 40 inches (95% height) and 39 pounds (95% weight).  The doctor predicted, based on Penny's and my height and Cole's current measurements, that Cole will be at least 6 feet tall when he grows up.  Kind of crazy to think about that!

Happy Birthday Penny!

Penny's birthday was on Monday, so we celebrated appropriately with a Cardinals double decker cookie cake! 

Penny also picked out a nice Cardinals sweatshirt for his gift - we all went together so he could try it on in person before purchasing it.

And Cole is already practicing celebrating his birthday, which is just 6 days after Penny's.

He, too, is excited about baseball and often carries around his glove and ball wherever he goes.

Train Museum with Friends

Last weekend a college friend of mine and her family came up from Arkansas to visit us.

Being that both of our boys LOVE trains, we decided a trip to the train museum was in order.  First stop: watching the circus train go round and round.

It was a bit of a rainy morning, but the kids still had a great time - not too crowded as a result.

Cole and Sam especially loved the trolly ride - we rode on a 99 year old electric trolley still traveling on train tracks around the museum

Love this picture of the girls and me!

Cole's eyes tell his happiness.  Such colorful leaves on the trees in the background too.

Saying, "Choo choo," on the tram ride back down to the main building.

Both Mead and Cole took turns as "captain" of the tram.

One more detour to see the circus train.

And that night we ended our day with a trip to Ted Drewes - a must-do for every visitor to St. Louis.  Yum!

Glad you guys were able to come see us, Kristen!  Hopefully we can do it again before too long.

School Events

The girls' school has kept us busy with attending various events.  First they had a special chapel with George Robertston as the guest speaker.

The first graders got to present an acrostic poem about the school using the words, "Covenant Pelicans."

Laine was "C" for Cardinals Day.

Then we had grandparents day, and both girls were able to perform a song on the platform with their classes.  Mead was especially excited and waved to Daddy out in the audience.

The pre-K and J.K. classes sang, "If You Love God and You Know It," clap your hands, stomp your feet, say Amen.  It was very cute, especially since they showed such enthusiasm.

Laine's class sang "The Perfect Ten," about the 10 Commandments.

Laine did a wonderful job, remembering all the hand motions and words as she sang.

At the end all the students came up to the front to sing "Amazing Grace," the school's theme song.  Fun to capture both Mead and Laine in the same photo here.

These are some photos from the school's Fall Festival a couple weekends ago.

Everyone had fun going for rides in the trailer being pulled by a huge farm tractor, silly faces, crowded spaces, and all!