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"Abandon hope, all ye who live here in Minnesota. Anyone who was hoping that the warm weather of the past few days would somehow stay was dreaming…."

Beware… this is a long story.  But since it has been our most dramatic injury to date (thank goodness!), and since this is our family record – here it is.  We were up in St. Paul at the temple on a lovely Saturday.  Nate went first, and I took the kids to a fun park down the street.  The kids were anxious to get playing, and got out of the car first thing.  Our rule when we are in the parking lot is to put your hand on the car – a rule that has since been evaluated and modified.  So while I was putting Carter's jacket on, Emma wedged her fingers in the little crack that is around the door when it is closed.  Zach decided he did want his jacket after all, and opened that door… smashing poor little Emma's finger and causing a significant injury (I will spare you the pictures.)  Luckily someone we knew was at the park, to help me with Carter and to call and get Nate to leave the temple and to tell me she knew someone whose kid had lost 3 fingertips completely and they were able to sew them back on okay.   Emma was so tough – only cried right when it happened and when she looked at it – and since the bleeding had stopped we packed up and headed back home where Nate put 20 + stitches in on the kitchen table.  I was very impressed at his skill and Emma's bravery – not a tear.  So it finally paid off to have a surgeon for a dad!  Here are some photos of before the stitches, the kitchen table fix, and the removal of the stitches (which are now proudly displayed on a stick taped to Emma's wall).  She thinks it is so cool that "the owie looks like a smiley face!"  I told her "you are my tough girl", to which she replied "and you are my tough mommy."  Definitely her more than me!    

I guess the warm weather got to the pumpkins quickly this year… and they were "oldy moldy" within a few days of carving.  Emma had been having me light hers several times a day so she could sing "happy birthday" to the pumpkin and blow out the candle.  Here she is after the last singing, following Nate to the garbage…  They get this nostalgia from me, of course.  

We had 65* weather today for Halloween – cooled down a little tonight but still it was the nicest weather for a ballerina I've seen in years!  Here are a few pictures of our little costumed bunch!  Happy sugar high!

One post wouldn't be enough for something so life-consuming, right?  I actually even really enjoyed the world series – and we all enjoyed the second half of game 5.  Like I read in one article about it, since it was a delayed game that started in the 6th inning, kids got to see a world series champion crowned before bedtime.  (Not really before our bedtime but of course Zach was still up.  I can just imagine his teacher's face when he told her "I didn't get to my Gator Reading Club book last night because I was watching the world series…"  what responsible parenting.)  Unfortunately for Zach, it wasn't his team – he threw down his mitt, shed some tears, took down all his baseball signs, and walked around dejectedly for the rest of the night.  It is a hard concept to grasp, that there always has to be a winner and a loser.   He has since recovered, and is already looking forward to next season!  

Here he is, our big boy in a big booster seat.  Our cereal man isn't such a cereal fan, but he does seem to like sweet potatoes…  He looks cute in his chair, anyways!  I can't believe how fast he is growing up!

Baseball!  And of course the World Series.  (Which has always confused me because it's only American teams that play in it…???)   It has been fun having the Phillies in it – we really grew to love Philly sports when we were there!  But for some reason Zach has been taken with Evan Longoria and the Rays.  He has made signs, taped the letters "E-V-A-N" to animals that watch with him, and makes sure we all know that Carter is rooting for the Rays, too.  (see his mohawk?)  The losing fans were taking the winning fans to Dairy Queen… until we saw on our way home that they are closed for the winter.  I guess we could have apple pie…

After Nate and I finished cleaning up dinner  we went downstairs to see what Zach had been up to – and we found this.   Which wouldn't have been so unusual except for that big open space on the left of the photo… and then we found this.  And this.  I was laughing so hard I couldn't answer  Zach when he kept asking, "are you mad. mommy?"  Honestly, I can barely move the big wooden train table.  I guess anything is easy when you have the right motivation – apparently in this case, the need for a big open baseball field.  

As I was getting Carter in his jammies tonight and he was giving me big belly laughs I thought, "I can't believe I have ever let a day go by without making him laugh."   And the same goes for my other kids.  I think sometimes in "survival mode" I just forget… so I'm promising myself that we will be laughing more around here.  

Emma certainly didn't want the rain to go away! She was so excited to have rain without thunder and lightning, and to get some good use out of her rain boots and umbrella. After walking Zach to the bus in the rain (without an umbrella for any of the rest of us) Carter and I watched from the porch as Emma stomped through the gutters and splashed in the puddles, soaking herself through and smiling like crazy. (You will notice in the second photo she has on no tights… too soggy and they had to come off for more stomping…) It looked like so much fun, it made me wish I had some rain boots myself.