Harvest Train & Pumpkin Carving

The Harvest Train left Alamosa at 11:00am and took a slow, leisurely ride to the Pumpkin Patch. We met up with friends and enjoyed a wonderful autumn day!












































Once at the pumpkin patch, the kids had a great time running around and looking for the perfect pumpkin.


























































After the train returned to Alamosa, we met at our church for lunch and an afternoon of pumpkin carving fun.






The kids had a great time picking out the patterns they wanted, cutting the top hole and digging the seeds and innards out.




By the time they got to the tedious task of the actual carving, well, it was way beyond the average 6-year-old attention span limits.





The adults were left with the fine tuning of each carved pumpkin while the kids enjoyed a game of tag.





More photos HERE.

Shades of Silly

Maybe it was a side effect of the high fat food at McDonald's, but Jamie was in rare form tonight. He was dancing and hamming it up, all the while begging me to "take a picture of this".

I couldn't resist!

McTeacher Night at McD's

Tonight was McTeacher night at McDonald's. The teacher's mingle with kids and sell cookies and 15% of all sales is donated to Polston. A sweet deal, considering that McD's is the preferred "restaurant" for this age group. Try to imagine the sounds of children laughing and playing on the playground at school during recess... now, try to imagine that intensity compressed into the Indoor Playland at McD's. Crazy!

Here's Jamie with his first grade teacher, Mrs. Wilson.
He thinks she's awesome, and so do we!

A New Blanket of Snow

A fresh blanket of snow on the Sangre's.
I drove up the road a bit to avoid getting yet another photo of the neighbors' house.

It's supposed to cool down to 9 degrees (above zero) tonight.
Brrrrrrr!

What Was I Thinking?

Today, I decided that I would be burly and go to the mountains to get a load of firewood. So, I loaded up the truck with the chain saw, chain oil, gasoline, etc. and headed out. I even tried, unsuccessfully, to build side panels for the truck bed so that I could stack even more wood. Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!

Let's just say that I grossly overestimated my abilities! I did OK for about half an hour, before my legs and arms started tremoring from the chain saw. I'm such a wuss!


I was disappointed, but not overly so, when the chain saw stopped workng. I had worked too hard, though, to find decent sized logs that I wasn't about to leave them there. I loaded them into the back of the truck too, uncut, and still only had about half of the bed filled with wood. So much for my attempt to be burly!

It was, at least, a beautiful day to be in the mountains.


I also took my camera and got some nice photos. Next year, I am going back to this spot before the trees lose their fall colors.

Moonrise over the Sangre's

Pretty much the same shot I took earlier of the snow...this time watching the moonrise over the Sangre de Cristo range. I love living here!

Snow covered mountains

While I'm opposed to winter weather at the moment, the mountains sure do look beautiful with their first blanket of white.





The view to the west...










The view to the east...

NOOOOOoooooooo....

This is what we woke up to this morning. That's right...big, fluffy, white snowflakes. I am so NOT ready for snow or winter weather, seems like we just thawed out from last winter!

Jack-O-Lantern Smile

Jamie lost a tooth at school last week and another one tonight...he has only his bottom two front permanent teeth and has the perfect Jack-O-Lantern smile...just in time for Halloween.

Last Day of Soccer

The last day of soccer...
Jamie scored five goals even though the weather was horrible. He had a fun season but we're glad it's over.




















There was no official sports photo ploy this time, for which I was grateful because I refused to pay for another bad photo. After today's game, I had Jamie pose for this photo. Not too bad for an impromptu shot in the wind & rain when he'd rather be with everyone else eating pizza...

Technology is great!

Gotta love the advancements in technology...
Gosh, if I lost a tooth at school when I was a kid, my mom would have had to wait until I got home to hear about it. Not in 2008! I got this picture message from Jamie's teacher at 10:29 this morning with the photo and info that Jamie had lost another tooth.

Soccer Star

Jamie scored 11 goals in yesterday's soccer game. He also assisted in two other goals. He is so much faster than most of the other kids, he is definitely ready to move up to the next level. He's having fun.

A Serious Problem Has Been Detected...

This is sooooo not what you want to see when you turn on the TV with plans to record the Broncos game. The "serious problem" was translated by tech support as a hard disc drive failure which necessitates a new DISH receiver. It should arrive on Wednesday. I was able to record the game on the other receiver, though, so it wasn't a total loss. We were still able to watch our Broncos WIN!!!

Fall Soccer

Jamie is playing soccer again this fall. Parks & Rec changed the format of youth soccer for the fall season, making it more compliant with Colorado State Youth Soccer. There are some major changes as far as field size, team size, etc but, it is a good move for the overall soccer program in Alamosa. It seems like a step backwards for Jamie but, he's having fun. We are having to hold our tongues and allow him to just have fun. We will definitely be glad to move up to the next age level in the spring!

Harvest Moon

So, I somehow lost an entire day this week! I vaguely remember Tuesday because Jamie had soccer practice and it was Shelby's birthday. I also had an online class on Tuesday night and was supposed to preregister for another class (10% coupon expired on Tuesday), which I totally spaced out until Wednesday. You can imagine my shock when I went to do these things on Wednesday to find that I was a day late!
I did somehow manage to watch the moon rise on Tuesday, though, and take these photos. I couldn't get my tripod to cooperate, though, so it was frustrating. I took at least 50 shots but only these two were good. Thank goodness for digital!

Sunset

This was the view of the sunset from the backyard this evening...

The Return of the Tooth Fairy

Jamie's other top tooth has been hanging by a thread for a couple of days and today he complained that it was hurting. Tonight, before bed, he asked me to pull it out. Jamie was so excited that the tooth fairy would be coming again, although she didn't have much of a warning.

The Tooth Fairy Cometh

Jamie wiggled out his tooth this morning so the tooth fairy will be paying us a visit. The one next to it is very loose and will probably be out within a week. He's also got 2 more loose teeth on the bottom. The tooth fairy's going to need to take out a loan at this rate!

Wall Cabinets!!!!!

My mom came to visit so we took advantage of the extra pair of hands to install my wall cabinets.







My scrapping & stamping room is coming together, slowly but surely. Now, I just need the countertops for the base cabinets and I think I'm finished!!!

First Day of First Grade

OK, so I know that I haven't posted anything in a very long time.
I still have plans to post happenings from July and August but knew that I HAD to share photos from Jamie's first day of First Grade.

Jamie's first grade teacher is Mrs. Wilson and there are several friends from preschool, kindergarten, soccer and t-ball in his class (unlike the bad dream I had a few weeks ago where Jamie didn't get the teacher we requested and didn't know any of his classmates). Jamie was SO excited for the first day of school. He got a haircut last night and, after his bath, carefully picked out his clothes. He picked out two shirts and asked me which one was the most handsomest...SO CUTE!!!!
He woke up at 4 am, ready to go, and was so excited to ride on the bus again this year.
I think this is going to be a great first grade year!!