I think Max is ready for Boot Camp...Hooah! He was running through this obstacle course like it was his JOB! He doesn't know he's 3 years old!

Climbing over the top.

Check out these cool tires. I ran through them after the boys, luckily I didn't fall down!

Ways we are Going Green

1. We've stopped buying juice boxes for the boys...they cost too much AND they make a lot of trash. In fact I only buy frozen juices and mix them with water.
2. No bottled water either! Even when we take a trip, I pack the Nalgene and if we need to, we'll stop and get a gallon of water, but mostly we refill it at taps. And I always take a Nalgene to Jazzercise too.
3. Of course we recycle...and recycling cardboard boxes from cereal, granola bars and crackers etc. has made a huge impact on our trash can. We really do have less trash each week!
4. I just went to Winn Dixie and bought their reusable grocery bags. They are $1.29 each - very reasonable! I wish they didn't say Winn Dixie, but the Commissary doesn't sell them yet so I guess I'll be carrying my Winn Dixie bags in there. The funny thing is that the lady rang them up and then put them in a PLASTIC BAG! Old habits die hard. I left the plastic bag there. I know its just one bag, but I had to make a point I think.
5. No hybrids yet but our van does shut off half of its cylinders when it can and a little "Eco" light comes on. I was obsessed with watching this light for the first few months we had the van!
6. Ed has created a compost pile in the backyard! We have a huge pile of leaves and banana peels right now...mostly leaves. Hopefully it will be good compost for spring.
7. I don't actually know if this counts but Ed has cut down several rotten tree branches and cut them up into firewood for our fireplace. I don't know if that is good for the environment or not, but the self-sustaining part of it is cool.
8. Next week we're installing a bar complete with soda fountain and beer tap to cut down on soda cans and beer bottles. (OK, this one is a joke but I think the soda fountain is a good idea!)

Well, thats it for now but they say even small things make a difference!

Trick or Treat

Hope you all had a wonderful Halloween! I think the kids had fun and I know I did. We went to a few houses in our neighborhood, then we went to meet up with our friends at Fort Rucker. The kids got more candy than I will let them eat - even spread out over a month. Some of it will "disappear". Nolen was scared of a couple of houses, but not Max, he marched right up to a scary man and said, "trick or treat".

My ghost, Scooby Doo and myself all ready to go!

The trick or treating gang. Max, Dorian was Wolverine, Austin was Darth Vader and Nolen.

The boys couldn't wait for this part. After 5 houses, Nolen told me he was finished. I think he just wanted to go home and start eating!

More details later. Gotta get ready for Jazzercise!

Halloween Preparations

We're getting all ready for the big day! We've been keeping very busy. Here is a quick recap....

Wednesday night we went to the fall festival at church. The boys had a blast! I had planned on setting up a table with Jazzercise info, and I did, but I left it sitting there and went and played with the boys. They had two jumparoos set up in the gym and tons of games for the kids. The boys played the bean bag toss, the duck game, find the coins in the hay, and the cake walk. Nolen won a cupcake! They had so much fun and we really hadn't even planned on going so it turned out to be a great night. This church is really great. They have some many cool programs for the kids and everyone is so nice.

These are the pumpkin shirts I made for the boys. We already had the orange t-shirts. I used black felt and sewed on the pumpkin faces. They turned out really cute. The boys were being really goofy here. I don't know if you can tell or not, but Nolen is huge! He has shot up like a weed!

Friday night we had our first fire in the fireplace. We burned some wood that Ed cut down out of our trees in the backyard. There are a lot of branches that are rotten or too close to the house and one of his projects has been to cut them down. As soon as he got them lit the boys started asking for marshmellows. They were tooooo cute to say no to, so Nolen and I jumped in the car and ran to Winn Dixie.

On Saturday we went to the Boll Weevil Festival in Enterprise. I set up a Jazzercise booth and pestered people all day long. "Have you heard about Jazzercise?" It was a wonderful day for it! I sat out there for 7 hours and it was so cool all day that I didn't realize I was getting sunburned! Oops! The boys came down and visited. We all had some fair food for lunch and the boys rode the Boll Weevil Train. It was pretty cute. Hopefully I've generated some interest for Jazzercise too.

Saturday night I took the boys to a haunted house at Fort Rucker. I wasn't too worried about it being scary since most things on post are FOR kids. You can see where this is going. We got there and the line was out the door and around the corner. We waited in line for an HOUR! The kids were great though. They ran around and played with the other kids in line. We finally got the front and Max and Nolen were high-fiving the ghoulish door man so I was thinking we were golden. Well, I was wrong. The gym was pitch black and there were about ten tents set up to walk through. We were guided into the first tent and no one was in there but there was a huge box of balloons. Being the haunted house professional that I am, I knew someone was going to pop out of there. It scared the boys to death! When we backed away from the clown that popped out, another one popped out right behind us and then another one after that. Nolen was freaked out! We went out of the tent and I couldn't convince him to go on. He was shaking but he wasn't crying. When we were leaving he told me, "I was brave, Mom, that's why I was shaking." It was still a good night. I think the boys still thought it was cool. I also think Max could have kept going. He was scared but not quite as scared as Nolen.

Last night the boys decorated some Halloween sugar cookies and today they dressed up in their costumes for Jazzercise. There seems to be a whole lot of Halloween celebrating going on this year. I'm excited to take them treak-or-treating tomorrow night too!!! Its hard to see us, but I am the Cat in the Hat, Max is Scooby Doo, Nolen is a ghost, Kim is a football player, her daughter Madison is Princess Dora, Katie is a ladybug, her daughter Ellie is a ballerina and Kathy is...well, you figure it out. I'll give you a hint, she had a black eye.

Happy Halloween!

A trip to the Pumpkin Patch

Happy Birthday Brittany

How did you do that??

Several people have asked me how I recovered my couch so I thought I'd give a quick description here. First, I read an article from 1974 describing how to do it. The best advice I got from it was to carefully take the existing fabric off of the couch. If you search around the couch you will find the piece that should come off first, next etc. Some of these pieces will be attached with tack strips which you may be able to keep and reuse. Other pieces are attached with staples which you can easily pop off. As you take each piece off, it may help to label where it came from and which side is the top or bottom and left or right. Keep these pieces because you will use them for a pattern to cut the new pieces of fabric. Once you have the couch apart, you can begin cutting the fabric using the old pieces as a pattern. The first piece you will reattach to the couch will be last piece you removed from the couch. Once you have cut your pieces you may need to sew some of them together. If this is necessary, a helpful trick is to lay the pieces on the couch right side down and pin them together. REMEMBER that because you are pinning it inside out, the right side (e.g. right arm) will actually end up being the left side (e.g. left arm). Sew any seams. And when you're ready, start stapling! It is VERY gratifying to see your NEW couch take shape! It is really not too difficult. The hardest part was having a torn up couch in our living room for a week! Haha! Good luck!