Happy Halloween

Trick or Treat! This year Brandon was Jimmy Neutron and Brittany was a cheerleader for Halloween. They had looked forward to the night for weeks (maybe months). They were ready to go as soon as I got home from work. Angie waited a little bit before they headed out to make sure more people would be home. The kids ran (yes, ran) from door to door for the first half. Thankfully, they slowed down towards the end. Last year it was cold and the princess was ready to come back early. This year they made through the whole subdivision and made it to some of the new subdivision too. They both made it back with full baskets of candy, which should last us until Christmas. You can see a few other pictures from Halloween night here: View Album

Basketball Clinic

Brandon had his basketball clinic tonight at his school. They went through 10 different stations to work on dribbling, passing, rebounding, and shooting. He really enjoyed it and got a new basketball for participating.

He starts his basketball team this Saturday morning. He will play on Thursdays and Saturdays thoughout November. There are 8 teams for K-1. The teams are named for 8 of the Big Ten teams (sorry Northwestern, Wisconsin and Ohio State) and Brandon is on the Illinois team. He had to call me at work to tell me he was on the Illinois team. I'm glad he isn't on the Indiana or Iowa team - I would hate to have to 'boo' my own son's team! If the Indiana team has someone named EJ on it, I might have to teach Brandon how to play dirty.

Anyone Need Their Shoes Tied?

After being close for some time, it looks like Brandon has mastered tying his shoes this weekend. He is very proud of himself for getting it and "putting it in his brain". Note: He is wearing his "King of the Sea" crown that he made this weekend too!

Ummmm........We Might Have a Problem!!

The good news is that Rocky is no longer lonely in his holding tank.....the bad news is we have fish coming out our ears. It started last night when we were checking on Pony because she didn't look like she was feeling well. Then we noticed a small fish about half the size of Rocky swimming by. It must have been born several weeks ago based on it's size compared to Rocky when we found him. We started to change the water and clean the tank since Pony wasn't looking good and stirred up two more that must have been recently born. This morning we found another 4 or 5 that were just as small. Pony looks like she is feeling better today, and now we think we know why. We are now in the market for a bigger tank and maybe some fishy birth control?!?!

Look Who's Going Bowling!!!

It wasn't pretty the whole game but the Illini are now bowl eligible. They are now 6-3 with three more games to go. They should be able to go 2-1 in those last three and finish with a respectable 8-4 record. Definately a far cry from the last two years when they only managed to win two games each season. They have been in every game that they have lost with two of them having a chance to win in the closing minute. Let's hope they stay focused to beat Minnesota next weekend.

Pre-K Pumpkin Painting Project

Angie volunteered in Brittany's Pre-K class this week to take a pumpkin and help with the pumpkin painting project. What could be neater than 20 Pre-K children painting a large pumpkin? At least the paint wears off eventually. This was the first time Angie got to help out in Brittany's class and Brittany really enjoyed it. Here's the final product of the talented class!

Huge Game!

Huge game tonight! Can't wait to get over there to watch it. Hopefully the Illini can pull out another big game at home and become bowl eligible.

Farmingdale Fall Fest

The kids had their Fall Fest parties (formally known as Halloween parties, but without costumes - welcome to the PC world). Mommy and Daddy both got to go, but Dad took Brittany home after she got out of school while Mom volunteered with Brandon's party. The picture above is the Pumpkin Bean Bag Toss game that I made for Brandon's party. I designed it myself and Angie made the bean bags for it. It was a big hit with the kids. If you want to see more pictures from the two parties, click here: View Album

Everyone Happy?

Since I have been accused of not posting the score of last week's game, here you go. That loss hurt! My have expectations grown with this football team! It was worse because we were in position to win the game at the end and threw the interception. I don't know why they weren't giving the ball to Mendenhall to drive up the middle. The option wasn't working, but the few times Mendenhall was taking it up the middle it seemed to work pretty well. I hoping for a big win this week against Michigan to wash this loss out of my mind!

Illini Pinkness

No, my camera isn't messed up and Champaign-Urbana hasn't become the San Francisco of the Midwest. This year's Midnight Madness supported Coaches versus Cancer and everyone had to purchase and wear a pink Illini shirt for admission into the festivities. Two dollars of the seven dollar shirt went to fight cancer, so at least it was for a good cause. Angie didn't think I looked "Pretty in Pink", so she now has a new Illini shirt that I doubt will make it out of the closet very often. The festivities included several performers, some AND1 players scrimmaging against an intramural basketball team, player introductions, three point shooting contest, slam dunk contest, and a 15 minute scrimmage (more a continuation of the slam dunk contest). To see some photos from Illini Madness, click here: View Album

Sun Sets on Tee Ball Season

Last Monday was the last tee ball game of the year. With the days getting shorter and the evenings getting cooler, you could tell that the season had to come to an end. Brandon loved playing tee ball this year and played very well. He had another put out in the last game to bring his total to three on the year. He is looking forward to playing basketball this winter and getting back on the tee ball diamond in the spring. He has really come to like baseball and enjoys watching baseball on TV with daddy and loves collecting baseball cards. To see some photos from the last game, click here: View Album

Pumpkin Patch

We went to Eckert's last weekend to meet up with the McKeown's and Kreidler's at the pumpkin patch to pick out our pumpkins for this year. Since Robert was gone to the races and Paul was "working" (possibly watching football), I had to protect the women folk all by myself. Grandma Abbie was in for the weekend and went down there with us too. We picked our pumpkins, bought some apples, ate at the country restaurant and went to the kids area for a little while before heading back North (and stopping at the mall on the way back). It made for a long day, but it was lots of fun for everyone. To see more photos at Eckert's, click here: View Album

As Good As It Gets

How good of a Saturday was this? First I get to watch the Illini defeat the No. 5 Wisconsin Badgers at Memorial Stadium and then I get home to watch the Cubs finish getting swept at home in the NLDS 3-0 to the Arizona Diamondbacks! The Illini game was very exciting as they jumped out 17-0 and were able to beat Wisconsin to go 5-1 on the year, and 3-0 in the Big Ten. It was pretty warm at the game, but it was well worth it to see the biggest win the Illini have had in many years. Hopefully they can keep up their winning ways.

Brandon is happy to see the Diamondbacks win since that is the same as his tee ball team (and I'm happy to see the Cubs lose)! He was invited to a Cubs-themed birthday party on Monday and the invitation said to wear your Cubs gear. We had told him he could wear his Cardinals hat but he said he wanted to wear his Diamondbacks hat. At the time he didn't know that they were playing the Cubs in the NLDS. He watched part of the game tonight and was cheering on "his team". Who am I to deny a 6 year-old wanting to wear his tee ball hat to a birthday party?!?!

Weekend Visitors II/Tee Ball Game 7

Grandma and PaPa came up after the U of I football game on Saturday and stayed around to watch Brandon's tee ball game on Monday night. It was a cool night, but they got to see plenty of action in Brandon's game as he fielded a majority of the balls hit. He fielded 10 balls (his own count) in the three innings - has to be his personal record! In the first inning, he got almost every ball except a couple. In addition, he recorded his second out of the season (captured on video in the photo album linked below). Only one more game left for the year! You can view more pictures and video clips from Game 7 here: View Album