Jumpin Johnny

Tristan (four months, 18 pounds) is ONE BUSY BOY! Something tells me he'll be walking before he's a year old!

More fun

My birthday celebration overflowed into the weekend, and Mike took me to the dinner theatre to see "The Last Romance" with Marion Ross. Amber gave me a great surprise by meeting us at the theatre. And afterward, I went home to Clinton with her so I could babysit Tristan all day Sunday (while she and Jon had to work). Life could not be better!!!

Fright Night

Trick or treating was over by the time I brought out my camera, so we had to convince the kids to put their costumes back on for pics.

This was one of the best Halloweens ever -- we had such beautiful weather! Before the trick-or-treating began, we had our traditional chili and spiced apple cider.

Diane and I sat on the porch (I actually wore shorts!) waiting for the ghosts and goblins. We had a bowl of candy on the porch with a speaking mechanical skeleton hand ... and we had a blast watching the kids' reactions when they picked out their candy.

Later, we enjoyed my fave pumpkin cheesecake -- from Cheesecake Factory.

In the punkin patch with the Prechts

We were a little late carving our pumpkins this year, and we barely had them ready in time for Halloween. To compensate for our delay, we bought the biggest pumpkins we could find ... and they proved to be more of a carving challenge than we bargained for.

Happy No. 11!

Nicholas celebrated his 11th birthday Sept. 24. He had a campout/sleepover with five of his buddies Friday night. Collectively, they might have gotten 3-4 hours of sleep, certainly not much more! Despite my efforts to plan a party with "structured" activities and games, the guys were more than satisfied with a bag of water balloons and six cans of silly string!

The next day, Nicholas marked another milestone -- he lost his first molar!