October-ish

In early October, Cade went on his first field trip (not counting the field trip he took to the same place last year when he was in pre-school. We'll call that a pre-field trip.) to a pumpkin patch. Dana and I both went with along. It's supposed to be educational but I'd say it's more like 2% education and 98% running wild and playing. Those are the best kind of trips. Cade jumped in the pit full of corn, bounced on a huge trampoline thing, played on the slides, pet the animals and basically didn't stop running and jumping until we left. He slept well after that.

Dana and Cade on the hayride to pick out a pumpkin


Cade and me showing off his pumpkin. Poor little pumpkin had no idea what we were going to do to it.

I scored a good deal for admission to this place on a couponing site (Hey! It's not just for women!) so a few days later, I went back with all the boys. Just like last year, Dana wasn't able to go with us because she had worked the night before. The good news is that was her last weekend! No more night shifts for her and us boys got our mom/wifey back on the weekends! Woo hoo!

They look a little bigger than the "How Tall this Fall 2007" pictures I have. Especially that one in the middle.

Take a picture quick! They're touching each other and not fighting!

Can you believe Mr. Cade turned 6 in October? We gave him his gifts on his birthday then took him out to eat. He chose Applebee's because they sing to people for their birthdays. Not very shy, that boy. His big gift from us was a new bicycle. He simply outgrew his other one and after having gone through the other two boys, it's ready to be retired anyway.

Cade's new wheels.

That weekend, we had a proper birthday party for him at the bowling alley. Kevin was too cool to be in a picture with all the little kids.

A couple of weeks later, Cade lost his first tooth. Dana noticed it was barely hanging on so I yanked it out for him. The very next day, he showed me how loose the tooth next to it was so I pulled that one out too. I told him two teeth in two days was plenty. Didn't want him to get addicted to that Tooth Fairy money.

Soccer season finally came to an end. Almost unbelievably, Kevin went non-stop from January until mid-November. As much as he enjoyed playing and we enjoyed watching, we're all glad for a break.

Yes, Cade was that much bigger than the other kids. Little dude turned into a pretty darn good defender and saved countless goals.

Cameron had a terrific season and surprised a lot of people - including us. For someone who "quit" soccer in the spring to wrestle, he not only looked like he hadn't missed a beat but like he'd actually been secretly practicing. He didn't score but he had many assists throughout the season including 2 to two kids who had never scored before (and will likely never score again). That's saying something!


Kevin on his most recent team. They played great all season, barely missed qualifying for the state cup in first place and promptly bombed in the tournament. We had a lot of fun being on this team and traveling to other cities to play and Kevin improved his skills immensely by playing with these bigger, faster kids. I can't wait to see him play for his school next spring where he'll get more play time.

I should add here that getting a good action shot in soccer is very hard. All season long, I only managed to frame one really good shot of Kevin. He was jumping up to head the ball right in front of me and for once I had the camera ready. Unfortunately, one kid behind him and one in front of him had the same idea. All I got was a picture of a Kevin sandwich. You can see one of his legs and maybe one arm. I think a lock of his hair is visible too. It's difficult, I say!

This is Carly and she chews on things.

Outtakes from our family pictures in our back yard.

Haven't taken a boyhead picture in awhile.