Pumpkin Carving

About two weeks ago, the Zoo Crew took a road trip to Catoctin Mountain Orchards. Grandmother & Grandfather Bolingbroke really enjoyed the drive through the hills of Maryland to the orchards. We were planning to do a little apple picking, but October means it's pumpkin patch time...so no apple picking. *sigh*

Flexibility is, of course, a Zoo Crew specialty, so we quickly opted to check out the orange gourdiness. The beasties were loosed upon the poor unsuspecting orbs to make their selections. Beastly eagerness nothwithstanding, the pumpkins have been patiently waiting on the front steps for THE day.

Abbey was more than a little disgusted to remember that the scooping of the goop comes first. (note her thumb pointing to the goop!) Once I explained that the stringy stuff can catch fire from the candles, Ben was ultra intent on getting all the goop out of his.

The candles, by the way, were Patrick's idea--his requirement, actually! We put 'em in the pumpkins just for tonight...on Halloween we'll use electric ones. But he was happy!

Matthew aimed high and put a moustache and eyebrows on his!! (I think it looks remarkably like Bill, don't you?)

Patrick, ever the traditionalist, took great pains to draw his triangle eyes and nose.

Once we finished I told the kids to clean up the mess so we could wander outside and light 'em up. Matthew's response? "First, I must prepare the hose!" hee hee hee


Oh...let me set your worries to rest...Bill was carefully supervised while using the sharp objects!!

More pictures here: Pumpkin Carving 2009

At long last and....

FINALLY!

It's Patrick's turn to go back to school.
MSD reopened today and Patrick couldn't be happier! He was up and at 'em bright & early, chomping at the bit to hit the road...he sat by the front door and counted the minutes down. Of course we had the usual drama about "when will the bus be here?" (finally resolved after numerous calls to the school district at the crack of dawn!) He's learned to tell time and that's a mixed blessing, I tell ya'!! Thankfully, time moved quickly for the boy-o and the bus arrived promptly at the promised time...with the added bonus that Megan, his favorite aide, will be joining him again this year. YAY!

Please note the lack of wheelchair--double YAY!! YAY!!!

Abbey was persuaded to help in the leave taking, though a wee bit reluctantly.

See more pics here: Back to School 2009

Hard to believe we've hit this point...FIVE beasties on their way to school.

...and away they go...

If you were curious....

In case you were wondering what Patrick has been up to while the others are in school...he's been spending a lot of quality time with the cats. Click here for pics.
We've also had a great deal of fun playing with the computer and watching ASL videos on YouTube. Then there were what I like to call "the baking episodes"...brownies, cookies and something with bisquick that he just whipped up...

He's turning into quite the movie maker, too...creating DVDs with the computer and demonstrating quite the flair for dramatic juxtaposition.

FOUR out the door...

Back to School this year is wild for the Zoo Crew...when school kicks into full swing, there will be no beasties left behind. No more pre-schoolers in this household!!

Off to school this week:

• Katie--9th grade (yes, that's high school!!)
  
• Matthew--4th grade
• Ben--2nd grade
• and Abbey--kindergarten (YIKES!)
• 

Abbey was very enthusiastic 'til it was her turn to board the bus today. Her older sibs offered up lots of advice, here are a few of the better tidbits...

• Katie: "Abbey, when you have to choose between a pink crayon and a purple one, don't. Go with both!"
• Ben: "Sometimes you get to make friends and sometimes you get to be one. I say you should be one first." (pretty profound huh?)
• Matthew: "If you listen to your teacher, you can't go wrong."
• Ben: "Abbey, school isn't always fun, but, well, you gotta go or you get in trouble."
• Matthew: "Sometimes you get to do all kinds of fun projects...relax and enjoy the kindergarten ones when you don't have to write about it."
• Katie: "You know, Abbey, some of my friends & I have been in class together since kindergarten. Get to know your peeps, kid."
  

Patrick starts back to school next week.

I miss 'em already. (If you didn't click the link above, click here for pictures!)

Happy Birthday, Big Furry One!!

Yup, believe it or not, it was 14 years ago today that the Zoo Crew came to be...and the adventure began in earnest.


It started at 4:10 am with one GINORMOUS kick; I just *knew* it was time! I wandered out to the family room to make sure....killed a little time watching the 4 am news man reading silly headlines from around the country. I can't remember the exact headlines, but I remember him cracking himself up so hard over something that he took his glasses off and wiped his eyes.

More highlights from the labor room:

• Mom & Dad beating us to the hospital and freaking out because the nurses couldn't confirm we were there--still sorry about that one!
  
• Getting locked in the delivery room--just Bill & I--due to a faulty lock when the nurse ran to get the doctor and Mom ran to get ice chips. Nurse Maria stood outside the door yelling "do NOT push! do NOT push!" Poor maintenance guy had LOTS of support for his door opening efforts!
  
• My dad inching his chair from the waiting room into the hall and to right outside my room.
• Puking on the doctor--the ONE doctor in the group practice I hadn't met yet!
• The lady across the hall delivering her 5th and smallest child--a 12 1/2 pound boy! (they put Katie in the bassinet next to him in the nursery so that she would look small, hee hee hee)

And then, there she was, only 7 1/2 hours later--all 9 1/2 pounds of her!! And life has never been quite the same...

Katie's quote of the day today? "MSJ--isn't that some sort of chemical replacement for chicken?"

Happy 14th, Girlie!