Halloween Week

We started the week with pumpkin carving Sunday night. Jack loved Bea's pumpkin.

Here are the Jack-o-lanterns.

Ryan did a great job carving our pumpkin. I thought Jack would enjoy pumpkin guts but he would not touch it. Our pumpkin is the the right of the pumpkin with the larger than life stem.

My sister is a rock star

I have to take a minute to brag about my sister, Susan.

Monday she turned in her doctoral dissertation to the University of Minnesota.
She defends it on Friday and then I will start calling her Dr. Susan. (She said I had to wait until it posted to her transcripts but I can't wait.)

She completed her dissertation in time to give birth to baby Oscar in the middle of November while parenting cute Willa and always remembering Wilson.


Yeah, she's a rock star.

Look what we found in the pumpkin patch

The best way to eat an apple

Take large bites

After picking it yourself
and after driving a tractor
and playing with ghosts
and while riding in a wagon

before running through the pumpkins with your friend W1. Thanks to brown's Berry Patch for for a great Saturday adventure with friends.

Happy Birthday Cake

It is birthday season at our house and Jack could not be happier.

Birthday season started with my birthday on the 29th of September.

Both of the kids got handfuls of frosting from my Wegmans, yummy pumpkin shaped happy birthday cake.

Then we move on to my brother-in-law Mike's birthday on the 2nd of October and then to our nephew Joshua's birthday on the 5th.

Ryan's birthday is next. We were the same age all of last week but now he is back to being old:)

Jack loved his Dad's happy birthday cake the best. The morning after Ryan's birthday, I found Jack in the kitchen jumping up and down in front of the cake on the counter chanting, "happy birthday cake. happy birthday cake. happy birthday cake." He loves a good cake just like his mom.

Princess Adeline's first trip to NYC

If you have to take a baby with you on a getaway trip with friends, may I suggest taking Adeline.

Here she is riding the subway after making eyes at Matt Dillon. She is on her way to visit the Museum of Modern Art. (Note to self: when they say they have a mother's nursing lounge it really means they have a bench near the sinks in the woman's bathroom on the 5th floor.)

She fell asleep at the Museum and slept through most of her trip to Times Square. When she was finally awakened by the loud music/people, she just looked around with her big eyes and took it all in. Didn't make a sound even though she really wanted to just go to sleep in her bed.


She was carried up and down the stairs to the subway and never fussed. Not even when we repeatedly set off the emergency exit alarms or when the mean subway worker yelled at her mom for not wanting to set off the emergency exit alarms. She (we) survived evacuating a broken down train too.

She saw the Statue of Liberty while waiting patiently with Seleta and April while I ran the race. She even fell asleep and stayed asleep with all the noise and chaos at the finish line.
She cheered me on at the end of the race. It made me happy to see Addy smiling at me as I rounded the corner.

Seriously, she travels so easily that you almost forget that she is with you.

The only problem is that she didn't find the Coach bag she wanted. (or at least her mom didn't find the bag she wanted. Fortunately, there will be a next time.)

way better than church

I'm kidding, mom.

Sunday morning was an awesome experience. I finally got to run in the Tunnel to Towers run.
Here we are towards the end of the race. Mrs Finkle, Nicole and I are in this picture but Joanna was ten paces ahead. (Mrs. Finkle is in the gray shirt in the middle, Nicole in the blue shirt next to the lady in the hat, me in the white shirt on the other side of the lady in the hat.)

I don't even know how to begin to describe this event.

As a girl who cannot make it through singing the national anthem without crying, this event was overwhelming to my patriotic senses.


First, we line up with 15, 000 other people for this run. Some of them are firefighters in full gear, some of them are military men and women, people who lost loved ones
on 9/11 and they are blasting Neil Diamond's Coming to America over the speakers. I am a sucker for Neil Diamond anyways and this song always gets me. (In the above picture is a squad of men and women in their full battle fatigues with their packs. Wow.)

Then we sang God Bless America and the Start Spangled Banner.

Did I mention that I cry during the national anthem?

It took us 10 minutes to get to the starting line after the race started.

These men and women chanted their way through the tunnel. It was an amazing sound and sight. Again, I got teary.

You exit the tunnel to see a line of firemen holding American Flags and pictures of all 343 firefighters who died that day. That first picture is of Stephen Siller whose family started this race in his honor and to honor all of the rescue personnel. Again, I got teary.

As you run past these men, they are cheering, smiling and giving high-fives.

The men wearing their firefighting gear were amazing. The tunnel was so hot and I was wearing shorts and a t-shirt. I cannot imagine running with all that extra weight. One man that ran by me was in shorts and t-shirt but wearing his helmet. He was dripping with sweat.

We did it and we're going to do it again!

(well at least I am and anyone who wants to join me.)

Thanks to Seleta and April who watched Addy for me so that I could run.

Check out all of the links for more pictures and stories.

http://wcbstv.com/local/tunnel.to.towers.2.827550.html