The Blue Jackets!

When Joe and Marnie's family came to visit Tom's dad was able to get 10 box seat tickets to the Columbus Blue Jackets game! So, Jen and Rob took Calvin, Joe and Marnie took Joey and that left Tom and I and Dad Kiehl plus one more ticket. So, we thought we would take our big boy...Charlie! After getting over his initial fear of the height we were at, the noise, the blimp that kept floating by our heads, oh and the cannon that would shoot off when they scored...Charlie had a blast! Unfortunately the Blue Jackets lost after overtime and a shoot out, but it was still a ton on fun.

It was so fun to have Joe's family here. The kids love playing with their cousins so much. Meg said she wished that all of her cousins lived close by! We all do!

Halloween

What some people don't know, is that in Ohio, we do things a little differently. One example is Halloween and Trick-or-Treat. Most people would assume they are one in the same...but not in the Buckeye State! We like to mix it up a little. Trick-or-Treat is always on the Thursday before Halloween...why you might ask? We're not exactly sure of the answer, it just is. So, Joe & Marnie and the kids were coming to visit on the 30th of October, assuming their kids could Trick-or-Treat with all of us here. But, it wasn't that easy. After some research, we found that a few communities in the Central Ohio area were sticking to the tradition of Trick-or-Treating on Halloween, so we found one close to us so that Joe & Marnie's kids could still get some Trick-or-Treating in this year, and our kids could have double the fun and candy! Unfortunately there were several others thinking the same thing (getting twice the candy) and there were so many kids in this small community (most of which were commuting in like we were) and not enough candy to go around. Most houses were fresh out by the time we got there, so poor Maddie and Holland didn't get the best experience this year. But, we still had a lot of fun!

So, to explain the above picture: Maddie was a Spa Girl, Anson was a bat, Charlie the Great White Shark (not just a regular shark), Holland was Dorothy (ruby slippers and all), Chloe a beautiful witch and our flower fairy Meg. (The caterpillar was sleeping...again!)

More Trick-or-Treat

Trick-or-Treat

We had so much fun this year trick-or-treating! The weather was perfect! A beautiful fall day. We had a flower fairy, a Great White Shark, and a very hungry caterpillar! The were super cute and hilarious! We were afraid that Charlie would not want to trick-or-treat this year. He is a little timid sometimes. He was scared of all of the costumes we were showing him. But, he has been in love with sharks, whales and dolphins lately, so when we heard that Pottery Barn had a shark costume, we thought we would take him to see it. They didn't have his size though, and he didn't like the big hood on it, but the lady working there gave me a great idea! So, we bought the trick-or-treat bag and then just went to Wal-Mart (my mecca!) and got a grey sweatsuit and I used my super human Martha Stewart skills and made a fin for the back! And Tom made his Shark hair and we were all set!

We walked around with some neighbor kids and the kids had a great time filling up their buckets, all except our little caterpillar who slept through the whole thing in the stroller! Their bags were getting heavy by the end, but both kids refused to hand over any of their loot to try and lighten their load. It was pretty hilarious to watch Charlie dragging his bag by the end!

We hope everyone had a great Halloween!

Meg's School Halloween Party

Here are some photos from Meg's Halloween party at school. The kids were all super cute! We love Meg's school. We think it is really helping her come out of her shell, slowly but surely! We think she look pretty beautiful too!

Tom is officially old!

I love these pictures! You could put them in a flip book...before...deep breath...blows them all out...and he's pleased with his work!

Tom turned 30 a couple weeks ago. People keep asking me if he's been affected by that. My response is: He doesn't care, he still looks 18!

We had Tom's parent's and Jen's family over for dinner. We had beef stew, mashed potatoes, rolls, berries, German chocolate cake and homemade ice cream. It was a lot of food!

We all love Tom very much and wouldn't know what we would do without him. He continues to be everyone's favorite person! We are loving having him around more now. He works a mile away and comes home most days for lunch and is home for dinner. What a blessing. The kids just can't get enough of Daddy! Happy 30th Tom!

Circle S

We had to make our traditional trip to the pumpkin patch this year. The day we went it was absolutely freezing though. We had fun in the hay barn where the wind wasn't as bad, but the hay ride to pick out pumpkins was pretty torturous, not to mention the fortune it costs to go to as well! I think our new tradition might be driving around Grandpa Kiehl's farm on the riding lawn mower then stopping at the garden to pick pumpkins there! The kids were great troopers though and had a ton of fun!

The Baby Elephant

We love going to the zoo! We are so lucky to have such a wonderful one close by. Here is the new baby elephant. I couldn't get over how cute it was. Brand new, fuzzy and wrinkly...very cute!

Charlie is obsessed with the zoo and would love to go everyday if possible. He is especially in love with sharks, manatees, dolphins and whales. Unfortunately there are not dolphins or whales at the Columbus Zoo, but he still loves going. We need to make a trip to Sea World sometime!