Random

Jackson was the friend of the week the other week at pre-school....meaning he was supposed to fill a bin with his favorite things and take it in to share with the other kids.  He was supposed to bring along things that best represented him.  Guess what he chose....

 Yup....just a few of Jackson's best friends.  He posed them...then had me take their pictures.  He was so pleased with the results!  I wish I were a better photographer...I'll keep trying.  They are a little dark.

Anyway, he loved sharing his favorite trains.  The teachers were not at all surprised that he brought in a bin full of Thomas trains, books, pictures and puzzles.   My favorite little train fan.

 Another, random entry.  We were on our way out the lane the other day...look what we spotted.  It was Direct TV blimp.  We got out and I took a few pictures.  So cool.  It was huge!  We think it was coming from a Phillies game.

When we saw the blimp, we had been on our way to.....

THE PUMPKIN PATCH!!!!

 Jackson bee lined right over to the chickens that were roaming in the fence.  He goes there every year!
Connor was all business.  He picked out his favorite pumpkins, a few gourds...and some Indian corn.

Sawyer wandered around the place a few times...picked out about 3 dozen different pumpkins and wanted to take them all home.  He finally settled on this one. Yep, it has a little blemish on the side, but he loved it...so it's a keeper.

As the other boys combed the patch for their perfect pumpkin, Mitchell was busy making friends.  Okay, if you take a look at the faces of the others kids, they really don't look too pleased.  I think that's becuase Mitchell was actually attempting to take and use every one of their toys.  Ooops.  These kids were very kind...and did not yell or grab anything away from Mitchell.  They just stared.  Mitchell, on the other hand, was oblivious to it all!  Just check out the grin.

 Here's Jackson posing with his prized pumpkin.  It's a beaut!

 Our final selections. ...actually we took home 6, one for each of us.  The others are already in the van! We're planning on sitting them on the porch along with the few small pumpkins we got from our garden this year.   Aunt Lynn is promising a jack o lantern carving event.  We'll see what they come up with! 

More Firsts...

After  Connor got home from school on the first day, I had promised him we would do something special for dinner.  Initially I thought we could go out to eat, or I would make his favorite meal...well, it turned out Craig was MOD (Manager On Duty)  that night so I had to adapt my plan.

We ended up taking dinner to Daddy.  Yes, it was just Burger King...but the boys didn't seem to mind.

It was a gorgeous evening.We took our food up to Mulligans since no one was around.  We ate and talked about Connor's first day of first grade.  I don't think you can see it in the picture, but Connor is eating on a red plate.  His teacher sent it home on the first day of school.  It goes back to an old American folk tale about eating on a red plate on special days.  She sent a plate home with each student...to let us know they each had a special day.  She also challenged us to recognize our child's accomplishments...both big and small...and allow them to eat on the red plate whenever we felt it would be special.  I cried...yes, I am overly sappy...when I read the note from the teacher.  It was so heart warming to know that she cared so much for my little guy.

I think we'll make this a tradition.  A special night, a special meal to celebrate the first day of school.  I'm going to go out and get a set of red plates so that each of my boys can be recognized for their special accomplishments!

A few days after Connor's first day.  Jackson had his first day.

Watch our pre-school...jackson is on his way!

I thought Jackson looked so adorable.  He was so eager to head to pre-school...and didn't even look back when I dropped him off.  I stayed at the school for a Mom's group...then picked him up and we had a special lunch at his choice of fine dining establishments.  McDonald's it was.  We took PopPop along with us for the fun.  I took the day off so I could enjoy it with Jackson.

My little guy is getting big, too.  Oh.