Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Pumpkin Carving Time





Pumpkin carving is big in our house. It's neat to see the boys do more and more of their own pumpkins each year without our help. Gotta love the carving templates and tools they have out now. All 3 boys went with a pirate theme this year, and Kendyl went for the traditional/lite bright effect.


Finished product pictures will be posted with the Halloween photos.

Monday, October 29, 2007

We Have Been Invaded!



By Webkinz that is. Steven has been wanting a Webkinz for a bit now and decided he couldn't wait for Christmas. So he used his money and a day off of school to hunt down a beagle Webkinz. We went to 4 different stores in the mall before finding it and once there, Andrew fell in love with the Koala Webkinz, but only wanted the animal, not the internet code (not cool in 5th grade ya know).


Well, we get home and set Steven up on the Webkinz web site and it's pretty darn cool. He has had a ton of fun setting up his own room, playing games, and interacting with Jaws (yup - that's what he named his beagle - LOL). Then Andrew decided to give it a whirl and create a room for Lego (the Koala). So now we have 4 people fighting for computer time. I have to admit it is an addicting site as Tim and I are having fun with it too! Plus it's great to get Steven to learn to navigate the computer/web, help with reading, money management, etc.


Here is a picture of Steven enjoying some Webkinz time, along with Kendyl. Also a cute close up of Kendyl - enjoy!

Saturday, October 20, 2007

First Bath



Kendyl had her first real bath last night - and LOVED it!!! She actually almost fell asleep in the tub. Warm water relaxes her, and she LOVES to have her hair washed. So totally a girl!


Thanks to big brother Andrew for taking the bath photos!
The other photo is of Kendyl yesterday in her bassinett. I put her down on her side with her back to the side of the bassinett. Well, she's been moving around a lot and does her own thing already! She's also starting to hold her head up quite well when we hold her/burp her. She's growing too fast already!

Catapults


Andrew had to design and build a catapult for a cub scout den competetion. Here is his creation. He worked hard on this, first designing it out of K'nex to find what worked, what didn't, then onto making it from wood. Thanks to a little help from Grandpop for the wood, learning to use some of the woodworking tools, and doing the more dangerous cuts for him, he came away with an awesome catapult. At home, Andrew then had to put it together, add the rubberbands and fine tune it to see how many rubber bands would make it go the furthest. He made great progress on his own, then Tim helped him with the finishing touches.


I am not surprised by all of the work and effort Andrew put into it, as that is Andrew and he LOVES to build things, but I am surprised and disappointed at the rest of his den (and the parents). They were told to build this themselves (with some help/guidance as needed) yet it seems only 2 of the 8 cubs actually did. Most bought kits off the internet!


Thankfully Andrew's hard work did him well as he learned a lot AND came in 4th place shooting the paintball (what everyone had to use) 36 feet, 8 inches! Yup better than many of the parent made ones, or internet kits!!! Go Andrew!


Thursday, October 18, 2007

Kendyl






Kendyl is doing well. She is such a good baby (so far :-). We had a girls afternoon out yesterday with my Mom (shopping, lunch and visiting) and she was so easy going, except the ride home - she was hungry AGAIN. Boy, this girl can eat. I think she is having a little growth spurt as she is eating up a storm, and sleeping well. No complaints here (except the cost of formula).

Sunday, October 14, 2007

Pumpkin Patch






Our first trip as a family of 5! We took a quick trip to the local pumpkin patch for a family hayride and of course to get pumpkins. The rule was you had to be able to carry your own pumpkin. Lesson learned - Andrew is way too strong for a 10 year old!


When we got home and opened the back of the car, Steven pumpkin jumped out and we had pumpkin blood on the driveway. Thankfully Steven took it in stride and Tim and Steven will be going back today to hunt for a new pumpkin.


Welcome to the Maple Meadows Blog



Well, I finally decided to start blogging as a way to share our family happenings with friends and family everywhere. No guarantees I'll be updating regularly as you all know how crazy busy our life is, but I'll try!

I know most of you have seen this picture, but I thought it was a great one to start with.