{update on the mass hysteria}

Gerard's school is closed for the rest of the week. FOUR DAYS OFF due to illness. Rumor has it that the 6th grade had 33% of the students out on Monday and the high school was pretty bad too. Gerard's elementary school didn't seem as bad, though. He said he only had one student out sick on Monday but I heard the other elementary school was not so lucky. Not sure exactly what is going around... obviously most are concerned it's H1N1, but I know one class of 2nd graders that had several cases of strep. So, we're keeping our fingers crossed that we all stay healthy (and sane!).....

In the meantime, I thought I'd share some of our Halloween decorations. I'll have to take pictures of the outside stuff later today and post those later.

I made a new Happy Halloween banner. Our other ones were pretty old and beat up, so I figured it was about time.

Each year I get a new piece for my halloween village.












Boo! And happy halloween!!!!

{fall!}

I thought I missed fall this year. It went from summer to winter in the blink of an eye. We even had some snow 2 weeks ago! But these last few days have been wonderful -- sunny and unseasonably warm. We were lucky since Gerard had his cub scout hike on Sunday and yesterday we went pumpkin picking (school was closed due to illness). We couldn't have asked for nicer days. Although most of the pumpkins in the patch had been picked already so we had to go with the pre-cut ones. That's OK...we still got some nice ones.

Here are some pics from Gerard's scout hike (try to ignore the boy picking his nose behind Gerard in one picture and the food stuffed into Gerard's mouth in another):

Gerard was mostly upset that school was closed yesterday and today. I say mostly because he was excited to sleep in, but he was bummed that he was going to miss Mileage Club today. Here are a few pics from Monday's Mileage Club.

And finally, here are pictures from pumpkin picking. The corn maze was fun but it took us a little longer than usual for two reasons; (1.) I went through with the kids instead of Gerard and I lack the sense-of-direction gene; and (2.) Gerard wanted to stop to read all the cute signs along the way. I love listening to him read everything!

{new moon!}

I'm not usually into vampires and warewolves. I normally wouldn't even consider picking up a book about vampires and warewolves, nor would I consider watching a movie with vampires and warewolves in it. Not usually my cup of tea. That being said, let me tell you HOW MUCH I LOVED the entire Twilight book series and the movie Twilight. LOVED, LOVED, LOVED, LOVED them. Couldn't read the books fast enough. Couldn't watch the movie enough times. AND COULDN'T WAIT TO GET TICKETS FOR NEW MOON so Sara got presale tickets already. Girls night out on opening night -- November 20!!!! WOO HOO!!!

{mother/son dance}

I had the most handsome date for the mother/son dance tonight. He's got a lot to learn before he takes a "real" girl to a dance, but we both had a nice time. Of course, it did remind me a little of those old school dances -- girls wanting to dance to the slow songs and the boys just acting goofy. Only one of Gerard's friends was there -- a boy from his class and his Cub Scout den -- but he didn't seem to mind.




We went out to dinner first (taken with my cell phone):


At the dance:








He may not be Fred Astaire, but I love him anyway. He always makes me laugh!