Pumpkin Carving

Thankfully the boys weren’t so sick that they couldn’t carve pumpkins.

I love having a huge laundry room!

Andy did quite a bit of detail work

Chris is punching his pattern onto his pumpkin

Will’s needs a BIG mouth!

I love carving pumpkins and seeing what creative idea the boys come up with every year. Being sick might have put a bit of a damper on their creative spirits, but they still did a fantastic job!

me and my pumpkin

  

can you guess what Andy is in to?

Will looks pretty happy considering his pumpkin is eating his teddy bear :o)

Chris and Mickey

 Zack’s has really cool (and yummy) eyes

Chris was right, he did need a hat

all ready for the Harvest Party carving contest

My other favorite part of pumpkin carving is toasting the seeds. But I don’t like pickin’ em out…

Shuffling Stuff

This whole thing started a couple of weeks ago when I came to the realization that Chris needed a new office and we needed a guestroom more than the boys needed an entire room dedicated to toys. Chris has been relegated to the furnace room in the schoolroom as a home office since we lived here (I think I subconsciously did it to discourage him from working at home… LOL) and the boys have gotten to the age where they have really outgrown 90% of what was in that room.

  Good-bye toy room!!! 

We’ve slowly gone through the toys, giving some to our nieces and nephews and friends. But today was the big push! And a lot of stuff got pushed today!

it’s getting empty

 

Some of the Legos stayed in the new office/guestroom

some went to Zack and Will’s room (which meant Will’s dresser got moved out of the closet and next to Sephira)

the movie prop toys went to Andy’s closet

then we moved in the new desk, my fabric shelf from the schoolroom and the file cabinet from the family room

the fabric from the shelf in the schoolroom went into the craft closet, which is now very full!

 

the school books that had been in the family room got moved into the schoolroom

and the Lego bin got moved into the space where the school book shelf had been

the little kids toys (for when we have company) got moved into the space where the file cabinet was

Chris then moved the stuff from his old “office” into the new one

   that made room for Will to be able to do school in the furnace room

and cleared up my table again 

it also gave me room to store some stuff that had been on the shelves in the laundry room

so now we have more room for our laundry and hot tub supplies

and then cleared up space for all my canning supplies and empty jars from the kitchen

which gave me more space in my kitchen cupboard

and in my pantry for more food after I go grocery shopping

but it also meant the beach towels and swimsuits got relocated to the basement bathroom

I love all the changes and organization! I also love the huge pile of stuff to give away in the garage! But I am kinda sad to see the toy room go… It’s like the end of an era. :o( 

Now I just wait for the, “Where’s my _______???” LOL

Dangerous Boys Fencing

Today we had our Dangerous Class for Boys. Friday School had the day off yesterday and my guest instructor teaches math at our local community college and wasn’t available on weekdays. But he got together a group of members of the college’s fencing club and did a three hour class on fencing for the boys.

They did a fantastic job! Rick started out by teaching the boys the history of swords and fencing. Next he did some demonstrations of both fencing and fencing lessons. Then the boys got suited up in all the gear and got to do 2 hours of learning to whack (sorry, touch) each other with swords. Needless to say, by the end of class they were all pretty worn out and really STINKY!

listening to Rick teach about the history of swords

he showed them how to fight with both a sword and a dagger

now that’s dangerous!

 learning the history of hand shakes

fencing demonstration

fencing lesson demonstration

getting suited up (now the fun begins)

Rick told the boys it was just like putting on a straight jacket

Thankfully none of the boys knew how to put on a straight jacket :o)

almost ready… (Hobo is waiting for his gear)

now that they have their weapons the fun really starts

Advance…

Retreat…

en garde… (the chorus line)

paired up and ready to fence

Zack and Joel

Andy and Will

Andy got to fence Rick at the end of class and LOVED it!

Thank you so much to Rick Swee and the fencing club at LCC! Rick is truly a gifted teacher and the boys had an absolute BLAST!!!