Another month gone!

Each month I keep telling myself that I will do better at updating the blog..and then another month just disappears. Life in the US isn't quite as interesting or eventful as living in a different country but it sure is busier! We really miss being able to travel around Europe and plan the next adventure. We have planned a road trip to Nebraska after Christmas and then a flight to Arizona in January. That will be our first flight since our return to the states in May! Not quite as exciting as spending Christmas in Paris, Spain, or Belgium.... We are able to take advantage of our frequent flier miles for that AZ trip though! Max started a new school on the 2nd of November and is now attending all day Kindergarten. He really enjoys having lunch at school, which I make everyday (not quite like the lunches at Copthill!), and being able to play outside a couple times a day. I'm not sure he is learning anymore, but he is having fun! Blake does miss having his big brother around but is happy they are going to the same school. I really do miss that bus picking him up and bringing him home each day! There are no buses at the new school, so I am now the official "bus driver"! Doesn't he look so sad....??? We have started a new round of sporting activities for the boys. They are both playing indoor soccer on Saturday mornings, which they LOVE!! We are lucky to have a wonderful facility in our town so that they can continue with soccer throughout the winter. Max and Blake are also signed up for wrestling! They have practices every Monday and Thursday nights and then can register to participate in tournaments on Sunday mornings/afternoons. I will post pictures next week as they are competing in their first one this Sunday. We need to be there between 7-8a and the wrestling starts at 9a. They will each wrestle 3 times throughout the morning. I'm told the tournaments last until about 1:00p and there is a lot of waiting time. We need to be prepared to bring something for them to do. It should be interesting. I'm just praying that they win one or two of the matches so they don't get discouraged. We have had some great weather this month and Dan and the boys were able to fish a bit in the pond across the street. It wasn't too successful, but Blake and Dan both caught one! Max loves to fish and could stay out all day, but Blake gets a little bored if the fish aren't biting. Can you blame him?! My Aunt Kay and Uncle Buddy stopped by our house for dinner one evening on their way from South Carolina to Chicago. My mom and I were able to take Kay out during the day and get quite of bit of Christmas shopping done! Thanks to my dad and Uncle Buddy for watching the boys play the Wii all afternoon!!...and jump on the trampoline, play baseball, play basketball, etc.. On the 13th of November, our town had a little community event to kick off the holiday season. It reminded me of why I love this place! I have to admit, it seemed a little early for Santa, but it was fun anyway!

That Saturday was Dad's weekend at U of I so after the soccer games, we all headed to Champaign for the last quarter of the football game. As bad as the IL football team is, it was amazing to see the stadium filled with orange! The boys really enjoyed it and it was a beautiful day. We spent the day with Kara and then ended it with Pierce's hockey game. Well, the little boys and I did. Dan took us to the hotel and went back to Pierce's house to party with Kara and a few of the hockey players and dads. Needless to say, he was not happy when Blake woke up at 7:00am the next morning! (I just can't imagine how he is going to be when Max and Blake have a Dad's weekend! Comments Holli??)

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving (for some reason I didn't take a single picture!) with Kara and David. My parents were visiting my brother in CO so I did most of the cooking, with help from Kara. She loves to bake so we had more than enough pies! We all have so much to be thankful for! Now for December...wrestling tournament, holiday parties, Kara's graduation, a couple birthdays and Christmas! Luckily, I have most of the shopping and wrapping done!

School parties and Halloween

It is so fun being back in the states for Halloween. We know that our neighbors in England miss us this time of year...and we miss them too. They really enjoyed seeing the boys and the other American kids dressed up. It is not really celebrated much in the UK as they consider it more of a "dark" and "evil" celebration. We were invited by Traci, Andy, Max and Maggie to attend their party at church the weekend before Halloween. Max and Blake were so excited to wear their costumes for the first time. Unfortunately the years of the "cute" costumes are over.... Max wanted to be the Incredible Hulk because he is all about who is the toughest. Blake decided to be a Transformer, "Optimus Prime". He has never seen the movie but thought it was a cool costume. They were always trying to figure out who would win if their characters had a fight. We still don't know... They were able to play several games, decorate cookies, win 2 cakes in the cake walk, and come home with WAY too much candy! Thanks guys for inviting us!

The 28th of October was a very busy day. Max's class had a Halloween party and it was his last day at this school. We got called a couple weeks earlier from the school that has full day kindergarten. They had a spot for Max. It actually was a very difficult decision for us to switch him in the middle of the school year, but we felt it would be the best decision. (He was to start on Monday, Nov 2, but has been sick with a fever for a couple days. I'm hoping he can go by Thursday.) I had offered to help with the Halloween party so I was responsible for a bean toss game.

This was Max's class. They had a great time at the party. There were a few other mothers that helped with different games and activities. It was a lot of fun.

Since it was Max's last day, I brought in some flowers to thank his teacher. Thanks Mrs. A. You are a wonderful teacher and we will miss you!!

Blake had a program at his school at 10:45. He was supposed to dress as what he wanted to be when he grew up. I had forgotten about this little detail... Thank goodness for my parents. They were able to run to our house, pick up the race car driver costume and get it to Blake before the program. He would have been the only one without a costume! They sang several songs and he did great!

For Halloween, we went over to Traci's for trick or treating. We had such a great time and thank goodness the rain stopped and the sun was shining. It was pretty cold and windy though so we stayed out for just about an hour...which was plenty! We have sooo much candy. The boys don't even ask to eat it very often. I'm thinking that Dan will be sharing some with his friends at work very soon! Kara and Reuben also joined in on the activities. Kara is Luigi but forgot her hat....Reuben is a lobster and wasn't too happy about it. Thanks Mr and Mrs C for the candy and thanks Maggie, Max and Quinton for letting us join in with the family!

October happenings

There have not been too many beautiful Fall weekends this year, but there was one that we took advantage of and went to the apple orchard. It seemed like everyone else decided to do the same thing that Sunday! Max and Blake had never picked apples before so they had a great time finding them and getting a little lift from Daddy to reach the "perfect" apples. We had to taste a few along the way too! Max had his last football game...in the mud! This is his best friend on the football team, Braden. They were the speedsters on the team and just loved it. Now it is on to soccer! I signed Max up for both flag football and soccer at the same time and didn't realize they would conflict almost every Saturday morning! Football finished a couple weeks earlier than soccer, so Max was able to go to a couple of his soccer games. Both weeks it was a complete muddy mess, but he LOVED it!! He enjoys every sport that he does. I'm not sure how he will ever decide! He received his first trophy last week. He was very excited!

Blake has been wanting me to take off his training wheels for awhile now. Daddy did it a couple of weeks ago and he just took off! He is doing great and is extremely proud of himself! And he is thrilled that he learned at 4 yrs and Max learned at 5 yrs. Always a competition...

Max had to decorate a pumpkin to take to school. I had found something on the internet that I could handle. I am not a bit creative or artistic. Max didn't like my idea and wanted to make a rat. I let Daddy take on that project. This is what they came up with.

We live in a beautiful neighborhood with loads and loads of trees. This time of year though we are glad they are not in our yard...no raking! They have changed colors and fallen of the trees very quickly this fall, but we decided to take a little hike and check them out. We have seen so many deer, fox and other furry friends around us and thought we might find some on our walk. No such luck, but we did find a great view. Blake thought he could rip the corn stalk out of the ground. This was right before he pulled it and fell right on his bottom!

Happy Fall everyone! We are not looking forward to the very cold and snowy winter coming soon.

Illinois Hockey

Since being back in the US, we have been catching up on many sporting events. We have taken the boys to the high school football games, volleyball and soccer. They LOVE all of them. Kara's boyfriend, Pierce (who the boys already think is their relative!), is the captain of the University of Illinois hockey team. We have never had the opportunity to see him play so we are trying to attend the games when we can. U of I is about an hour and a half away and the games don't start until 7:30p on Friday and Saturday nights. We have made it to a couple games so far, but we don't get back home until about midnight. Sunday is a little rough, but the boys have a blast!

This was the night that they played the #1 team in the nation... U of I is #2. It was a tough weekend as they lost both Friday and Saturday night. These are the only 2 loses so far! Max and Blake still had a blast with their big sis! She bought them the shirts and Pierce surprised all of us by getting the whole team to sign the back of them. They also got their faces painted and Blake ate a whole roll of Sprees. He couldn't chomp them fast enough!

Pierce is #12 and it is just amazing to see these guys skate. Seriously, I can't even stand up straight on skates and they move like they are in sneakers! He even managed to put on a happy face for us after the game. Thanks Pierce!

So at the second game, Pierce's mom and step-dad got Illini hats for the boys. Thanks Barb and Randy...they look so cool! Go ILLINI! This game was much more fun since they won and Max told Pierce that it was the best he had ever seen him play! We will be heading to another game for Dad's weekend in a couple weeks. The boys are starting soccer next Saturday and wrestling a couple times of week. Busy, busy, busy!

One more little tidbit - Max is starting all day Kindergarten on Monday. We finally got into the school we were hoping to after being on the waiting list for months. He is very excited, but Blake will miss him terribly!

Flag football fun!

Since the end of August, we have been spending most Saturday mornings watching Max play flag football. He is having so much fun and Dan is coaching. They have practice 2 times a week and then the games on Sat. This is his first experience playing "American" football and he is doing great! The kid has some fast little legs....

Celebrating his first touchdown of the season! There were many more to come. His favorite part is playing defense and pulling off the flags.

The Team...They are missing Coach Dan. This was about the only time he missed because of work and it just had to be picture day!

Max - #9 - running like crazy for a touchdown. Not sure where he got his speed!

Two of his biggest fans...Dave and Blake have been at every game cheering him on. Next year, Blake will be able to play on the same team. Watch out!

We were lucky to have a HUGE cheering section for one of his games in September. It was Pumpkin Festival weekend and everyone was here to celebrate birthdays. Max promised David he would get 2 touchdowns and he did. I didn't realize how exciting it is to watch your child in sports. My heart jumps like crazy when he takes off down the field. Blake asked me last week why I scream like I do and I told him, "I'm his mom and I'm allowed to!" We are having so much fun watching him. Up next is soccer. Great job, Max!

End of Summer Fun

The summer has truly flown by and I can't believe that September is here! The weather has been amazing...not too hot and not too cold. I love this time of year. We finished the summer with a few fun activities...some I will post later and I still have to blog about our few days in CO with my brother. I will get there.... This is just a quick update of a few things we have been doing in August. David celebrated his 26th birthday the day before Max's first day of school. Lucky for me, I had a get together with some girlfriends that night so we celebrated a day later. Kara and Reuben were still here to help with the party. Happy Birthday David! We were also celebrating the exciting news that Kara got a full-time offer from State Farm to begin as an actuary after she graduates in Dec! She has been interning there for a few semesters and was fortunate enough to get an interview. They told her they would call her within a week to let her know and they called her on her way home from the interview to make the offer! We are so thrilled and proud of her. One of the car dealerships in town was having an open house over the weekend and had free food and fun! The boys spent quite a bit of time going down this bouncy slide while Dan and I enjoyed the BBQ, popcorn, soda, etc! I'm not sure why we only went one day.... Grandpa was home by himself for a couple weeks as my mom was visiting my sister and her family. We invited him over on Sunday for dinner and then wanted his help as we took the boys to the driving range for the first time. Dan wanted to make sure they were taught correctly! Max was a very good student. Blake, on the other hand, already knew how to do it himself!

It was a beautiful night and we had to finish it off with some ice cream. Thanks for coming Grandpa!

A couple weekends ago, we took the boys to the National TT races. Blake is so excited about anything that races so we thought this would be great fun for him. They were able to get right up to the dirt track and had a pretty good view.

There were thousands of people, thousands of Harley's, and lots of black Harley t-shirts! We'll have to get some for next year. It was another beautiful day and Blake thoroughly enjoyed it! I just hope he isn't one out there racing someday!

So many fun summer things to do...now on to Fall and sports.

Max's first day of school

Max started Kindergarten last week. It is such a big difference from last year in England. He is only going from 8:10am - 10:50am. Last year he was in full-time school and was very "smartly" dressed in his uniform. (Mommy really misses those!) For the first day, it was just an hour and Mom and Dad were there to meet the teacher and help him put all of his supplies away. We also had a couple special guests in our house that week. Kara was here and made Max cinnamon rolls in the morning. (I took a great picture but I promised her it wouldn't be posted!) She brought her 3 month old puppy, Reuben, with her too! Max and Blake both loved him and are missing not having him around. (Nevermind that Max broke out in hives 3 different times and had to really be careful about petting him....so sad!) I'm surprised he didn't break out after this picture....

Blake was actually awake this morning but was in his jammies and didn't come outside for the pictures. He sleeps until about 9:30 or 10am each morning so it will be rough when he starts school in Sept!

So after the first day, Max decided he wanted to ride the bus home. This is a great service as it is just the "short" bus for the Kindergartners that come home before lunch. It pulls right into the driveway! It takes him about 45 mins to get home when normally it is just a 10 min drive! He is about the last child to be dropped off.

Max also thought it would be great to ride the "big" bus in the mornings with all of the other kids, up to 6th grade. This one has been a little bit harder for mom to handle! I haven't been able to sleep the last couple of nights just thinking about my little Max growing up and getting on that bus all by himself. I walk him a couple blocks to the bus stop where there are 5 other kids also waiting (Holli - can't wait for Drake to ride with him someday!). As soon as the bus came, he just hopped on with everyone else. He sat next to a neighbor, Franklin, who is in 1st grade. He told me today that he wants to walk to the bus stop alone tomorrow. Are you kidding me??!! That is NOT happening!