Passing time

Where do the weekends go. Sometimes I don't feel like we really get anything accomplished. It was a nice weekend, but I sit and think how I have to clean up the whole house this week. Why do weekends bring disaster to the home? Saturday, the kids spent the night at my parents' house. Adam and I intended on going to a Halloween party, but decided to go to a neighbor's cookout instead. It was so nice not having to chase after kids and just enjoy adults. They had a BBQ outside in 40 degree weather. It was a bit cold, but we got some traditional Indian food and Korean BBQ. (Our neighbors are from India). We left the cold early and head home to find it only to be 8:30pm. So, we said, let's go to the Riverboat for fun. Well, that ate only 45 minutes of our time and 30 bucks before we were out the door. The riverboat will never be as fun as it was when it left the dock and all drinks were free. I had fun with a 2cent slot machine. So today we went to Target and finished getting Halloween stuff and pinata stuff. We carved pumpkins, painted our pumpkin beanbag toss and made some s'mores. The kids are excited for all the festivities this week. And yep, we leave NEXT WEEK. I can say that now!

Got Milkshake?

Hall-Zoo-Ween

Last night we took the kids to the Peoria zoo for their halloween thing. We went last year and seemed cute, so I wanted to get the kids all dressed up and go again this year. First, Brennan is supposed to be a dragon. He cried for 45 minutes as I tried to get him to put on his costume. Then I decided fine, he's not going to go for it and dressed him up in his Lakers windsuit and said fine, you're Luke Walton. He threw a fit about wearing non-Diego shoes, but we made it out of the house. The zoo was packed. Seriously, it was not worth the trouble. Bren, however, caught on to the idea that you go up to people for candy. I think he enjoyed it. Maya had the grip of death when she saw anything remotely scary. Guess we won't have a kid convincing us to take her to haunted houses. She calls her costume the Fairy Princess Butterfly Ballerina. It's a 4 in one costume. We actually get many wears out of it this year. There is dress-up at Library Storytime, gymnastics, Brennan's school party, Maya's school party and the night itself. Maybe, I'll try and find an actual costume Brennan will put on.

Birthday Treats

So our little girl is 4 today. We spent yesterday and today making bday treats. Gymnastics was cookies and school was the cupcake ice cream cone. All have care bear rings. My parents, Becky and Troy and us are all going to Chuckie Cheese to eat tonight in honor of her.... if we don't blow away first! This wind is crazy! I think about Fairbanks, AK and how a slight breeze was thought of as windy. Days were so still there... I think the mountains provided wind protection. Anyhow, four years ago today our dog was sent to the pound to be put to sleep (after biting my dad in the neck) and I was in pain, but blessed with a near perfect little girl.

The Family

So my Grandma turned 85. The whole family headed to Dyersville to help her celebrate. She had an open house with cake and punch. She had a great time. The kids were great considering we drove 3 hours there and 3 hours back all on the same day. I made a carebear cake for Maya since her bday is this week also. I forgot to take a pic of it prior to cutting it. Oops.
Yesterday we did some quick shopping errands. The Birthday Fairy hits our house every year filling the kids' rooms with balloons on their birthdays. They love waking up to this, so I had to head to Michael's to use the 40% coupon to buy the balloon maker kit. We had lunch at Sam's club. Gotta love feeding a family for $6. We honestly didn't buy anything else in the store. Just went in for pizza, icee's and pretzels. We have been looking at cameras since our old one is not working right. The screen is dead and that is not going to do for our upcoming (just 3.5 weeks away) trip. We're gonna get an SLR. I think we are leaning toward a Nikon this time around. After our shopping we went to a bday party down the street. The guys all watched football, the kids played and the moms chatted. And that was the weekend.

BOO

What's the craze with being booed? We were booed a couple nights ago. I didn't think people really bought those bags at the store. If you don't know what I'm talking about, here is the scoop. Basically, you run up to somebody's door, ring the doorbell, drop a bag of candy and run. The bag comes with a ghost sign and directions to follow through with the game. The booed household must hang the ghost in their window to prevent being booed again and then go BOO 2 other houses, etc etc. I'm wondering why do I want to hang the ghost in my window? Keep booing me with showers of candy. However, I'm a game player and booed 2 neighbors yesterday. It was actually pretty fun ringing the doorbell and jetting off into the dark without getting caught. The excitement for the stay at home mom.
So lets talk about Brennan here. The little guy will be 3 in a little over a month. Speaking of, bday invitations went in the mail today. This year we are doing a duo party on November 3rd, between the birthdays. I'm excited, cuz we've never had a "birthday party" for Brennan before. Should be fun. Anyhow, Brennan.. Brennnan, the little guy is a big pain in my butt, but I love him to death. He is in this AWFUL pinching phase. He thinks it is fun and laughs when he gets pinched back. Goodbye terrible 2's and hello terrifying 3's. The kid has the ability to switch his personality in the matter of seconds. Possibly a "Hero" talent, I don't know. Semi, bi-polar if you ask me. And please tell me everybody's kid is a little OCD, cuz I can't turn on lights or cut things up with him. Ugh!!! But then there is the cute and sensitive side. He kisses, tells me he loves me all the time. Even in Walmart the other day, he's hugging me and patting my back and a mother asked her kid why he couldn't be like that. What, you want this boy? I guess I take the really bad with the really good. One day I hope he learns control his aggressive behavior. Must be in the Gurewitz genes, cuz we Stoffel's are very caring people... hehe. Whatever, I love my pinching, OCD son. Here is a favorite line from him. I tell him, Brennan, come on "Get a Grip". This throws him over the edge and he comes at me screaming and pinching... "No. No Grip, No Grip!" How can I not be amused?
Today is picture day for Maya. She is looking very cute today. Hopefully we get a good smile. Not the cheesy, forced smile with eyes clamped shut. She loves school. I love school. Here is Maya's Our Father at this point.... "Our Father who art in heaven, please give us our bread". Cracks me up. It was only the first part for 2 weeks, now we get the bread line.
This weekend we are heading to Dyersville for my Grandma's 85th bday. I'm making a CareBear cake for Maya too. Should be fun.
I know grandma likes video so I will be adding them as often as I can.

Zoo trip

Another eventful weekend for our household. We took off Saturday for Iowa City. Adam's dad and stepmom were flying in to meet up with her sister prior to a trip to Israel. We left around 9:30am to stop with the kids at the Niabi Zoo. I had been to this zoo when I was young and didn't quite know what to expect. But hey, anything beats the Peoria zoo! The Niabi zoo was small, but very good for kids. I was pleasantly surprised how nice it was. They had this cute "Australian" section where it was open and a kangaroo or emu could walk on the sidewalk in front of you. I though that was pretty cool. The kids had fun feeding the goats and fish. My and I got to ride on the merry-go-round. The damn bees were my only complaint. I was freaking out.... I HATE bees! I felt bad acting like a 2 year old in front of the kids, but apparently I fear them more than I know. I loved the little strollers they had to rent for the kids. They were perfect. I have to add.... don't eat the hamburgers at this zoo... it was a brownish gray mystery meat. I am still alive to tell the tale, but I really don't know what I ate.
When we got to our Iowa City hotel we had some issues. We went to our room and it had the worst smell from smoke. Adam and I had headaches, there was no ventilation.. it was nasty. So we found a new place to stay that was much better and by the mall. I love the team spirit of Iowa City. You walk around and over half the people have a Hawkeye shirt on! I still don't know why I didn't check out that campus. I really really wanted to go there when I was in high school. No regrets with EIU. Thank goodness Mark Fauble didn't go to Western!!!
Anyhow, Maya colored a pic for a coloring contest which I thought was awesome. I also had to add the little blurb about AquaDots.

Apples, Pumpkins and Goats...

Took the kids to Tanner's Orchard saturday with my parents. It was a good time. The kids fed the goats, rode the ponies and played on the playground. It was breezy, but besides that a beautiful day. My mom took pictures that I'll post later. I ended up taking Brennan to the doctor on friday. His fever never got to high (always under 100 degrees), but he had a weird sounding cough and just seemed sick. The first thought to the on-call nurse was croup. He had a cough like a dog. However, it just appeared to be his allergies again, probably with another virus in there too. They stuck him back on Zyrtec and he is breathing much better. The doctor said his nasal passageways were so small, he could hardly believe he was breathing with his nose.
As the fall season is settling in I am embarrassed to the amount of TV that gets watched in this house. Week one was kinda disappointing to me. There was no "wow" show. We watch all the biggies: Heros, House and Grey's. You know what show is good... "Brothers and Sisters". I do really like that show. Of course I had to finish my "Rock of Love with Bret Michaels". He chose the good girl. However, what the hell is she gonna do with that guy? What the heck are any of those reality people going to do with their so-called winners. Whatever, it is amusing.