Wild Things

Happy Halloween from my Wild Things!

Pass, Punt and Kick

There was a pass, punt and kick contest at the end of our YMCA flag football season. It was held in connection with "bowl games" to cap off the season, which were played on the high school football stadium field--the big time.  The boys are convinced that they are going to play in the NFL when they grow up, so as they were practicing for the punt, pass and kick contest in our yard, I think they had high hopes that they each would win their division.  I thought they did a nice job, but no awards were won.  A little bit of humbling never hurt anyone. It hopefully will be good motivation to keep practicing and working hard.

Pumpkin Party

We carved pumpkins today with Pops and Susan.  It's funny how the kids' personalities emerge in activities like this.  I think if I did not know who made them, I could still guess that the creators left to right were David, Julia and AJ.  David always adds ears to his people, and he even did that all the way back to kindergarten.  It doesn't surprise me that his pumpkin is the one with ears.  Julia likes funny things, not scary, and the middle pumpkin looks pretty smiley and happy to me.  AJ is in the phase where he has left the little kid things behind and likes some scarier books and movies, to the face on the right matches his developmental stage right now.

I remember carving pumpkins with my Grandpa Walt when I was little.  Our job was to dig out the guts with a large soup spoon.  Grandpa did the carving.  I think for that reason I always love it when the grandparents help with the pumpkin carving.

Happy Halloween from a Witchy Cat

Happy Halloween from Julia's latest creation, a Kitty Witch.  Not sure what I like more, the fabulous witch hat or the striped tail.

Cub Scout Hike

The boys and I went on a cub scout hike this weekend.  The weather was beautiful and we went in Walnut Woods State Park down on the Raccoon River in West Des Moines.  I would like to say we are better about getting out into nature than we actually are on a day-to-day basis.  I believe in the calming, sensory-regulating benefits of being in nature and want to do this more, so I love that being outside is a big focus of cub scouts.  The boys and families in the pack are some of the nicest in our school, and any group with an oath to be cheerful is something I want my boys to be a part of.  Midway through the hike we stopped to look at a bird blind, which is something I had never heard of.  David loved taking pictures of it, and I have about a hundred pictures of the bird blind on my phone with blurry birds flying in or out of the frame.  May have had something to do with him excitedly shouting every time he spotted one?