Happy Halloween

This morning we woke-up and carved our pumpkins bright and early!Here Cullen is adding some details (hair) to his finished pumpkin. Geremu is in the background scaling Nick's body while Nick cleans off the pumpkin seeds.The boys spent the day playing outside while Nick worked on organizing the garage for winter. They were so excited to finally get their costumes on to "play trick-or-treat" tonight.
The boys stayed out for about 40 minutes then came home to eat dinner. After dinner Geremu wanted to head out again so I took him back out and Cullen stayed home to color and answer the door. Geremu would look at me and tell me to "run" if I was walking from one house to the next. He would get up to the door and yell trick-or-treat without knocking or ringing the doorbell. If a dog came to the door or started barking in the house Geremu would take off running from the house.

Once we got home Cullen decided he wanted to go back out for a few more houses so we headed back out. Cullen and Geremu had added pencils to their costumes and considered themselves kings despite the fact that they were still dressed as a firefighter and dragon... Below is how they would hold their pencils up when they yelled trick-or-treat at the people answering the door.

Arts and Crafts Night

So tonight was arts and crafts night. Lots of pumpkins were drawn and two necklaces made. The boys are so proud of the necklaces they wanted me to take pictures to show Dad (who was not home) and Granny Bird.

As you will see the boys seemed much more interested in posing for the pictures then having me actually capture their artwork. Tell me someday it will be much easier to get them both in one picture looking "normal"?

A typical Geremu pose., I'm sure he is saying "cheese".

Cullen still believes that he needs to have a hand in the air when he poses for pictures.

My personal favorite...

A smile with a little help from his brother.

This is about as good as it gets.

Slow and Steady

We had a relaxing weekend just hanging low around the house. The boys both seem to finally be recovering. They had been cooped up in the house for so long, all that was left to do inside was fight. So it was time to get out for a bit. On Saturday while Nick raked the yard the boys played outside, this was short lived because Cullen gets tired so easily.

After a good night sleep and a windy night Nick also got to rake today while the boys played outside for a little longer. With lots of leaf bags filled up Cullen was busy painting the bags this afternoon. Both boys seem to be feeling much better (knock on wood). I'm thinking our family quarantine is now over. I spent most of the day disinfecting the house and man does it smell delightful!

Suey, suuuuey! (This is a pig call...)

This weekend Nick and me had a HOT date planned. Nick's good friend from high school is getting hitched. We had a babysitter lined up to watch the boys from Saturday until Sunday. We had plans to headed back to Nick's hometown for our first overnight date since before Geremu came home.

But... Mama just can't leave her little Swiners at home. In my last post I mentioned that I thought we were on the down swing of the Hini, but as luck would have it the fevers came back in full force and the cough... Oh the cough... I don't wish this upon anyone.

*As a side note Cullen has seen a doctor (he has it a bit worse than anyone else) and we do not have confirmed cases but more than likely (and I'm actually hoping at this point) it is the Hini.

H1N1 in the house?!?

All of us have been sick since last Thursday and let's just say I started the trend. We don't have confirmed cases but I'm calling all illnesses in this house this winter Hini (a simple way of saying H1N1). The boys seem to have gotten it worse then me and Cullen has not been to school this week yet. I'm pretty sure we are on the down swing or at least crossing my fingers this is the end of it.

I went in today for some chest x-rays. I've got lots of funny noises coming from my chest and they just wanted to make sure I didn't swallow a harmonica. I didn't, which is unfortunate for the boys, they would have LOVED another harmonica. Turns out my illness triggered my asthma, ah imagine that. So I'm on some steroids for a bit and will go back for another check in a week. In the mean time you will find me jumping off buildings and saving the world because that's what people on steroids do, right?

Picture Perfect Fall Day

Today was a sunny, windy, cool day and the boys enjoyed it with lunch outside. I think it was a bit chiller than they thought because they had to come inside to find blankets to cover up with shortly after they started eating.
Nick's brother Dan came into town yesterday for a wedding and the two of them stayed out LATE. After the picnic outside Nick raked the yard and mowed the grass before heading to bed. I'm assuming he went to bed for the night since he hasn't gotten up and it is now 8pm.

The boys entertained me with a puppet show- here is a picture of the main characters. If I had to name a 3rd main character it would be Geremu since his head kept popping up to make sure I was watching. The story line was a bit hard to follow because there was fighting under the table at times, especially when the story didn't seem to be going in the direction the older brother had in mind.
After dinner the boys relaxed and watched a Little People DVD. I'm afraid they were not feeling 100%... I really hope they are feeling better tomorrow after a good nights sleep.

I didn't know...

The first thing Cullen said to me this morning was, "Mom, I didn't know I was such an artist." I told him I didn't realize he was either but had no idea what he was talking about until I went into the bathroom and found him next to the toilet looking like this...This piece of art work contains one new bar of green Irish Spring soap with shimmering liquid pearl colored soap pumped over and around it. The addition of the two pieces of fools gold on top just adds to its beauty. The bidding on e-bay will start tomorrow morning wake-up early to get your bid in.Last night for a little family fun we headed over to the school I teach at to check out the middle school dance. Nothing screams Friday night fun quite like a middle school dance! We weren't in the doors 2 minutes and Cullen was swept away from us and dancing in the middle of a group of about 20 middle school girls. Needless to say he has clearly has picked up some moves from his father:)

Geremu was a bit overwhelmed by the experience and preferred to hang out for a bit in the gym playing basketball with some of the boys. After he felt a little more comfortable he was seen ripping up the dance floor with Cullen.

Tonight I made the boys carmel apples. This was what Geremu's bowl looked like when he was all done...
He some how managed to eat all of the carmel off of the apple without actually eating the apple.

Guess who...

fell in the toilet tonight.


His initials are GEREMU, he even managed to get toilet water about 4 feet up on the walls. I didn't take a picture because at the time I thought he had hurt himself- turns out he was just in shock. Now I know better, next time I'll run for the camera:)

School Days...

So today when I walked in the door from school I was given this gorgeous necklace made by Cullen today. He was so proud and told Nick, "You can take our picture."

The weather has gotten really cold, really fast. Tonight the boys went outside with Nick to pick the last of the carrots. After they were done they came inside to warm up with a movie and carrots.

It has been crazy busy around here during the week and it doesn't look to be settling down until the end of the month.

Room Situation

I just wanted to post a few pictures of the dorm room/college apartment situation in the Mississippi Valley Region for all my nosey extended family members.

I will start with my sister Colleen's pad. She lives in a quaint, upper level apartment with two other roommates at the Harvard of the Midwest.

For your viewing pleasure here is the living room...

Followed by her bedroom.

Next we have Kennedy's 10x20 foot room she calls her "home away from home". As you can see from the evidence on her desk, she likes a clean window in her room.

Callan's room is a bit smaller/cozier then Kennedy's. He was originally sharing with two other roommates but one has since moved out leaving a little more breathing room.
Doesn't he look at home?

Kid-less

I left town yesterday to head across the state to the Harvard of the Midwest, UW-Stout. It was such a pretty drive with all the leaves changing. I went out for a treat with my sister Colleen and checked out her cute apartment before punching out for the night. I spent the today working on dividing up research for a study that my students took part in before heading to my parents house for the weekend. On the way I stopped by Winona to pick up my cousin Callan. Colleen had picked up Kennedy earlier on her way through. My children are at home for the weekend and since it's homecoming at Nick's school they are busy with the parade and football activities tonight.

I've got pictures I'll blog tomorrow because my camera is sitting in the car and it's so cold I'm not going outside now.

It's Monday Night...

Around here we love each other... and we love our Packers!

The boys are prepping for the game as we speak.

We also love Favre, but tonight we are hoping Mr. Rogers goes into Favre's neighborhood and comes home with a WIN:)

The Little Farmer

We made a family trip to the Little Farmer this weekend, this is one of my favorite places to go in the fall. The weather was a little chilly, which the boys never seemed to notice. The weather helped to keep the crowd away. I'll let the pictures help me tell about the day...

On the hayride to pick apples.

Cullen wasn't as into picking this year as he was into running through the trees and hiding.

Geremu was a good picker, every time he grabbed an apple off the tree he tried taking a bite of it before putting it into the bag. When he picked the high apples from my shoulders he would pull really hard so when the apple finally broke away from the tree he would hit me on top of the head.

From apple picking we headed into the fields to pick our pumpkins.

Cullen spent a lot of time finding the "perfect" pumpkin.

Seriously these two are 3 and 4, I don't need attitude when I ask them to look at me and smile.

Take note of Geremu's smile with his eyes closed. I'm sure you can imagine just how entertaining I thought this was when I took the boys to get their pictures taken last week.

Cullen thought it was fun to feed and pet the animals.

The playground...

Here is a picture of the caramel apples that we ate, the apple is in there somewhere. It tasted as amazing as it looks!

A little more play time before heading home for well deserved naps.

Roses and Thorns

So every night at the dinner table Nick likes to play this game he calls Roses and Thorns. We go around and describe one or two good things about our day (roses) then one or two bad things about our day (thorns). Tonight Cullen was telling us that his thorn was that he got hurt at school. I asked how he got hurt and he said that he tried to kiss one of his friends and got hurt. Upon further prompting it turns out that Cullen tried to kiss the shoe of a girl in his class (don't ask me why) but she didn't want him to so she kicked him in the lip. I'm still laughing about it as I type this because I can totally picture this happening. I hope he learned his lesson:)

Geremu never has any thorns and he has the same rose everyday. It doesn't matter if the sitter takes him to the Children's Museum or Library his rose is always his nap. I only wish I could enjoy a nap everyday too...

I've got nothing...

This has been a busy week without any blog-able material. The sitter took the kids to a place full of inflatable fun stuff one recent afternoon. It appears from the pictures that it is not very busy in the afternoon. Tonight we took the kids to get their pictures taken and when/if I get an e-mail with some of the pictures I'll post the link. Hopefully this weekend brings a bit of excitement.