2nd Grade Photos

Halloween

Friday evening we broke bread with

Dale and Francis and had a wonderful visit.

The kids got to show off their costumes and also play with the old neighborhood kids as well which they just loved!

Black Ninja and Sweet Heart Bat

Jo asked for this photo.

Loving shot?

We still get them once in a while.
Jo didn’t wear her teeth treating,
she said they hurt a bit and she couldn’t talk.
I laughed a bit when Cole would smile for a photo
even though you really couldn’t see his mouth.

We stuck around Lil’s house for the treating.
The kids almost ran from house to house.
Ok, that isn’t quite true, they did run from house to house.
That would be up hill and down hill!
(no flat ground unless your walking around inside a home)

They were the only two treaters in the area so they were quite spoiled as you can see. Nothing to large here! You should have seen their eyes when they got these two!

Some houses didn’t expect the knocks on the door as I heard one woman say to the kids. “Something very special for you, a healthy snack” and she handed them each a granola bar. The kids said Thank You and when they got to me they each handed me their granola bar and said “You can have this one Mom”. Gee, thanks.

Happy Halloween BS Groupies!

OMSI

Took a weekend road trip with Rachelle n Connie to OMSI and SCREAM!First stop = spiders, snakes and scorpions? Their were live ones in cages above these “stick your hand in and feel” boxes. Do You Dare?
Jo had no issues with this. In fact she giggled as she pulled out the rubber snake tale and said “Look, it’s just rubber!”

Fear of Falling?
Mom went first and actually had a shocked look on her face when she fell. Everyone who watched Mom knew what was going to happen so they didn’t have the shock like she had. But all laughed through the ride.

Guillotine!
The guillotine was hidden well to keep the young kids from watching something that could really scare them. Mom almost missed getting the photo of Oma’s head in the guillotine because she spotted the SHOCKED look on Cole and Connie’s faces.

WAY FUNNY!

The basket to catch your head had a mirror in it so when you looked down you could see the blade above coming down to lop off your head.
Mom felt it was a tad freaky to watch it happen as you may see from her facial expression.

WHAT?


WHAT?


Did you say come here Mom?


WHAT?

We spent over five hours in OMSI looking, touching and playing with everything we could.



Here we played Meteorologist against the green screen.
If you look closely you can see the kids are on the tv’s to their left.
We had some good laughs watching other people really getting into the part of talking about the weather. Some fantasies played out maybe?

Playing with Electricity
The small foil pie plates floated/shot right off their hands. And then if they touched you before stepping off the box you got quite the zap!
Why does hurting other bring laughter?

Two Way Mirror
If you look closely there is a mix of Cole’s face and body with Jo’s.
The kids thought this was neat and laughed hard when Cole looked like he had Jo’s hair.

Family Fun Center
We headed towards home after a very loooooong day but decided to keep the fun going. Stopped by the fun center right along the freeway. It was chilly outside so we only played outside long enough for Cole to try rock climbing for the first time. He made about half the wall three times. He really enjoyed this.

The rest of the time we played arcade games and won many tickets that the kids turned in for prizes.

Great weekend that put smiles on all our faces.

Family - Awards – Pumpkin Patch

Our Host Family Photo

Poor poor Lil
Jo has found that Lil will let her do about anything. After Jo put the glasses on Lil, Lil decided to go to the front door and look out. Lil just walk around with the glasses on like it was a normal thing to do. Jo liked this quite a bit.

Awards!
September Awards were given out this month and Mom was able to sneak away from work a little early to watch and snap a couple photos.

Here Jo and Cole received Perfect Attendance necklaces.

JO
Jo also received the Citizenship Award for her classroom. Only one student from each class receives this award each month. This comes with a very nice medal and a certificate which reads: “Jo is always kind and respectful to others. She follows all of Brattain’s school rules each and every day. Way to go, Jo.”

As most of you know we are living with Tracy and Martha in their wonderful home located on one of the hills in Eugene. Just about every day we are able to watch some sort of wild life right out our windows.
The fawn was the highlight this early morning,
on their way to bed we imagined.

Pumpkin Patch
Lots to do at the pumpkin patch and we did quite a lot of it. The sun even broke through and took some of the chill of the air.
Kids fed the goats and scratched the pushy ones on the head when they ran out of food.
The kids panned for gems.
They then matched up their gems to the card they were given to see what kinds they found.
We skipped the corn maze this year but they took a ride on
the Cow Train!
Cole kept watching how close the driver got to his cow and kept Jo in the know. “Jo, he came this close this time” holding up his fingers to show the distance. The driver saw Cole do this a couple times so he swung yet another loop this time bumping Cole’s cow and Cole laughed hard and was a little shocked!

Pumpkins in the Night!

Martha, Mom, Tracy, Cole, Jo and Oma

(from left to right)

Changes N Fun Stuff

Learning to Dance?!
Yes, it’s the Miley Cyrus Hoedown Throwdown how-to video the kids watch while learning the Hoedown Throwdown!

Pop it, lock it, polka dot it
Country fivin', hip hop hip
Put your arms in the sky, move side to side
Jump to the left, stick it, glide

Saturday Market with Rachelle
and Connie.

Jo LOVES to paint her face and look beautiful. She found a face painter at the market and had to have it. She was full of smiles after this.
Oh, and the walkabout with Rachelle and Connie was fun too.

MOVING!
The kids helped us pack.
Plastic, a safe thing to pack and when the instructions are “Find a lid for every container first” kept them busy for quite some time.
(Oma and I liked this)

Break!
Packing can only last so long before little peeps start to go crazy so we took the kids bowling for a couple hours.

The kids skills and strength have grown to where they don’t use the bumpers quite as often and now they are smart enough that they actually try to bounce the ball off the bumpers to pick up their spares. (Jo was the top bowler this day)

Moving Day
Not as many photos taken while working so hard. The kids did an awesome job moving boxes and non-stop work till the job was done. We are very proud of them!
They both rode in the moving truck which they thought neat!

We want to THANK all our friends who helped us move. If not for you I would be rolling around in a wheel chair right now. For reals Peeps! We had many of you come and move box after box and other stuff (trying not to say our crap) into our storage unit. Oh, our storage unit. Storage! Oh, yeah. We have no home yet. So most of our “stuff” is stacked in storage. Stacked? Yes, yes…Stacked VERY high indeed! (note to self, if there is still room to hold a dance inside a storage unit after you have moved all your stuff in that’s an ok thing. A storage unit piled wall to wall and floor to ceiling is not a good thing. There will be no pulling out our rubber boots for the rainy season. Winter jackets? I have no clue where you’re hiding and if I did I couldn’t get to you.) We are not looking for sympathy, we are doing well and will be just fine. It makes me wonder and laugh mostly.

Empty Home
Last D Street Family Porch Photo

Homeless – noun, persons who lack permanent housing.

(Ha Ha, this was the card we sent out to those who helped us move)

Squatter – noun, a person who settles on land or occupies property without title, right, or payment of rent.
We found a really nice place to squat.

Lil’s House
Ok, Tracy and Martha opened up their home to us, and when we say opened up their home we really mean it. We came with “stuff” (not storage stuff) but stuff nonetheless and they have welcomed us with open arms and many rooms to put our stuff.

Not only did they offer their home but as you saw a hot tub, lots of wild life because they live on a hill and the sights and lights of Eugene. And then there is Lil the dog. Lil gives lots of loves and cuddles. She also loves to play and is so strong that she pulls Cole around. Tracy and Martha say that Lil is happy to have two new puppies to play with.
(that would be Cole puppy and Jo puppy)

The kids have named our new home Lil’s House. So if you hear them say that you will know what they are talking about.


Martha pulled their Halloween stuff out for the kids to decorate the house. It didn’t take long to decorate but it never does when you have kids.
The front window really shows that Kids are living in Lil’s House.








The kids tried on some of their costumes that were also packed in with their Halloween decorations. Good times.

We stopped by to visit Dale and Francis this evening and got a full report on what has been going on at our old home including painting inside with all new colors, a large new fridge to name a few. We won’t miss much detail as time goes on. It was good to see Dale and Francis and we already have dinner plans with them in another week.

Life long friends/family/neighbors.