Grandpa Helps Carve the Pumpkins and Fall Break in Ohio

For some reason or another, this is the only photo I got to upload from my phone to the website. I blame it on the people at Applebees for cursing me but what can you do? Grandpa knows what I mean. Here is Katie and Grandpa making the face on the pumpkin. I think Zach had a different interpretation of "making a face" and that is the outcome of this photo.

Want to thank all the fine family members this past week for making Hudson/Stow a happening place to call Fall Break. We had some fine frolic and fun. The sleepovers for the kids were the best part I think. Katie is still talking about how much fun it was to eat chocolate chips at 10 at night. Otherwise, Mom would be mad. :) And how about the picture contest the girls drew of Grandpa? What great artists we have in this family and I truly mean that. Those girls drew better than any of us Holman siblings could. I think they got those artist genes from Stringers and Nurkiewicz's. :)

Zach is already making plans to go back to Henry's basement. They have shaker cars there and lots of fast cars. Sounds like alot more fun then the My Little Ponies he is used to playing with here. Maybe Santa will be kind to him and update his car collection. He also liked playing with Caroline although she "did not talk much". But who could get a word in edgewise with Zman around to tell you every inner thought he has? I am sure your homes were much quieter after we, and I mean he, left.

Thank you Rob and Erica for the fine meal. Thank you Judy and Bill for the lunch from Heinen's. Thanks to the parents for putting up with us and for Dad for cleaning out the trashcans full of tissue after we left. Next year, we will try not to bring bronchitis with us. But how can you keep us away from all your fun?

Much love.

Tooth Fairy Visits Our Home and Grandma Reads to Class

Grandma Nurkiewicz or Grandma from the Lakehouse read to Katie's classroom on Friday. Really cool to watch Grandma work the room. I don't think I have ever heard that classroom so quiet. Even the troublemakers, (my daughter) was lulled into a spell as Grandma read some books from the Mr. Men series. Little Mr. Tickle and Mr. Tall were Katie's favorites. Then she surprised the classmates and gave everyone a bracelet with their names on it. What a treat! Mrs. Frye also received one with a colts horseshoe on it. Hopefully that will help Mrs. Frye keep those marks down on the report card this period. We will go in on Thursday to see what she says. Wish us luck for we already have missed some recess due to some laughing and sticking our tongue out at a friend. That lady runs a tight ship!

Last but not least Katie lost her first tooth on Thursday night. The Tooth Fairy was generous and gave her a whole dollar bill! Wow! There are 26 teeth right gang? Hmmmmm. Maybe we should of done the math on that one. Katie was so excited though to be part of her peers on that one. She was the last one in her class not losing a tooth yet. Good Holman teeth I say. :)

You get to see Katie's new smile this Saturday for you Ohio folk. I will be touching base with the parents on the details but we will be in town till Tuesday morning.

Relaxing Weekend Rough Week

This post is brought to you by Treximet...some very fine migraine medicine that makes you not sure of what you are writing, thinking, cooking for dinner or whether you dog has peed or not. But I figure what a perfect time to talk about the crazy week and the fun weekend we had here!

Posting a little later than my standard fashion, we had a great weekend this last weekend at the West Baden Hotel in the French Lick Springs right here in southern Indiana. Could not believe how nice the accommodations and how much to do down there. Here is what it looks like in the lobby. Pretty amazing decor and lots of open space. We sat in the bar here and just stared at the ceiling changing colors all night. Of course, we were drinking a little bit and Jeff was with his usual scotch and I actually drank a bit too. Very shocking I know.

Then we head over to the casino I played some slots and lost the 1 buck I had. There were some pretty trails there. Later that day, we saw a man about a horse and went on a 90 min horseback ride. My horse's name was Speck and he was great once we had an understanding of how he did not like to walk through horse poop. Now Jeff's horse....that was something different. He had a hard time getting up the hills of the trails and I would look back and just laugh my saddle off watching Jeff's horse wish he did not have Jeff riding him. That was just too funny. "This guy looked alot skinner then you thought! Why punish me? I am only 80 lbs."

Then we sat in a hot tub for awhile and ate and drank some more. Could not help but think this place would be a great place for all six of us to meet up and have some fun. They are building an indoor water park and they have kid activities for 6 and up where you basically just leave them. Lots of fun here and I joked with Jeff that we should come here instead of Florida this year.

The kids had a blast with the grandparents this weekend. Grandma was a trooper and got a bee sting at the park. But she took one for our team and that seemed to be the clencher for the weekend. Our kiddos were spoiled and Zach took naps with Grandpa. It was great fun.

And the reality set in.....

Came home to Katie with a fever of 102. She stayed home on Monday and it looked like she would not make it to the zoo field trip on Tuesday but she rallied back and put on her best smile. I can't tell you for sure if her fever was totally gone without Motrin but whatever it took, we got her there. I was the parent volunteer that day and in charge of 4 kids. I like to call them the ADD gang. I had two boys and two girls and we saw every dang animal in that park. Plus my group got all kinds of fun trivia like...why flamingos are pink and what are favorite snacks of boas and pythons. I was cool Mrs. Nurkiewicz for a day. Mostly because before we left, I made sure all my kiddos touched a shark in the touch tank. Cool. Then I snuck them some lifesavers before we got back on the bus to go back to school. One kid asked me at the end of the day if I could show up to the next field trip. Hmmmmm. Have to table that one...

On the same day, Zach decided he had enough of Christ Church Preschool. He was a summer baby so I put him in the "young" class and it was just not a good fit. He was acting out and pretty much bored of the teachers. I think he even told one of them, "Maybe you could do it." Sound familiar? He definitely has stubborn parents so why not just play the part? Pretty harsh. So, we had a change up so to speak...I switched him to the more expensive Methodist Church right next to me ( at this time, I promised Jeff he would get a scholarship someday to make up for the extra cash it will cost). Instead of going T and Th we are going MWF. This pretty much screws up all volunteers schedules (mainly my reading groups at Katie's school) and anything I had planned for awhile. But...everyone in this family has to be happy so we have to make the change. Now I think it is a good thing for now because it makes me relook at some of the things I had lined up. Do I really need to take over Zville? The answer is no. This big change has reset some priorities. So what is perceived to be a rough week or change is actually a great chance to reset all bets.

Now pass me some more of that weed before I fall asleep.....

Night.

Fighting Blueberries End The Fall Season

Wow! What a way to finish the season! No one scored a goal the whole game but we ended the game just the same. Lots of kicks...Katie stopped quite a bit of them as she played 1/2 the game as the cool goalie and then one quarter as an unstoppable driving forward. The girls really jelled and the parents were really fun to hang out with this season. Last night after practice, we all went over to Pizza King for pizza and beer. One mom made all the girls hair ribbons, which you see them sporting in this video. One dad gave us a disc and several paper copies of photos he snapped throughout the season. It was fun to see everyone improve and have a great time together. It really showed.

I got some footage of Katie stopping a goal. Not the usual excitement but I was happy to have at least a few minutes of Katie showing what she does best....having a great time.

Happy Grandparent's Day!

Hey it's a little blurry but here is Katie and I at the big
Grandparent's Day at her school this morning. I figured a blurry picture is about how the grandparents could see us that day.(joke joke) How fitting that it was on Dad's birthday, eh? She made the grandparent's some things that I will be placing in the mail and we listened to some songs that the class put together. Then we stuffed our faces with muffins and talked to some of the other grandparents that were there. Pretty fun day.

Then, I came home and took Mr. Z for a bike ride. Here he is in his fav spot-the trailer.

Later today, we have Katie's last soccer practice and then her last game is tomorrow at 10:45 am. We have had a real fun season thus far and are looking forward to the spring when it starts back up again in March. I will try to take some footage tomorrow or tonight of our girl driving the ball and stopping it as a goalie.

Happy Birthday Dad and I hope you enjoy Maddy's delicious cake. Maybe we will get to see a shot of it on the Bill blog.