My Super Heroes

There's no need to fear in the Strum household! We have two Super Heroes to protect us! Who would dare cross their paths?!?

We tried to lure them into being Star Wars figures, promising them light sabers and all. No such luck! They are very independent little guys. I think daddy just wanted to play with the light sabers.

Kaeden as the Animated Transformers Cartoon Bumblebee.




You wanna piece of me?

My handsome Superman, Greyson.

Doesn't he look much better than he did yesterday?

It's amazing what antibiodics will do for you!

Unfortunately, I did not get any pictures of them trick-or-treating this year. I stayed home for the first hour to hand out candy so I could see all of my daycare kids when they came. By the time I went out with them it was dark and they were getting tired and cranky. It's so hard because I love both aspects of trick-or-treating.....handing out candy and taking my boys around town. What's a mother to do?

Sick Greyson

The same night that we carved pumpkins and just before bed, Greyson happened to mention that his throat and head didn't feel good. Well, being the overly sympathetic mother that I am (ha! ha!) just chalked it up to a busy day at school with their parties and all and just gave him some Tylenol and sent him to bed.

Well, at about 4:30 in the morning Greyson woke me up crying, saying that his throat hurt really bad. Sure enough he had a fever, so at six in the morning I made the phone calls to all of the parents closing my daycare for the day. We then headed up to Dr. Ingle's office to be seen. Yep, it was Strep....AGAIN! Arrgh! I am so sick and tired of my children getting strep all the time! When we finally got out of the Dr.'s office we went up to Goldie's to get Greyson the chocolate malt I had promised him. It was already 12:30 pm so I asked Grey if he just wanted to get lunch there and he said yes. So, we ordered our food and sat in the booth and waited. By the time (which wasn't but 5-10 minutes) the food got to our table, Greyson was fast asleep with his head on my shoulder....poor thing. I snarfed my bowl of soup down and took him home. I got him inside (he had woken up a little and walked in himself) and quick ran to his room to get his bed ready and came back out to the kitchen to find this.....

Greyson asleep on the kitchen floor!

Poor guy, look at those flaming red cheeks.

Yeah, daddy's home!
As they continue to grow older,
we have to cherish these moments!
When they are sick is about the only
time that they will sit on our laps
for any significant amount of time.

He's out....again!
And Vixen (his stuffed dog) is right by his side.

Anyone who knows Greyson the slightest bit

can tell you that he doesn't sit or lay down for

more than a nano second! When he's laying

around all day, you know he's sick.

School Halloween Party

This year I was able to attend the boys' class Halloween parties. One of my "mom's" and dear friend Tami works from home on Wednesdays, and their party just happened to land on a Wednesday, so she offered to come to my house and stay with the kiddos so I could go to their school. Bless her heart.....I owe her a big one! Thanks again Tami!

After attending their parties, I have decided NEVER to become a kindergarten teacher....ha ha! Talk about chaos! I don't know how teachers do it, but I have to hand it to them for the amount of patience they have! Getting 20 or so kids dressed in their halloween costumes, lining them up, parading them around the school and then back to the classroom for treats was enough to give me a headache. The kids, however, had a blast!

Just a small part of the chaos, er I mean parade.

Greyson in his classroom.

Kaeden is his classroom.

Greyson struttin' his stuff in the parade.

Kaeden is a little more reserved.

What a handsome Superman,

if I don't say so myself.

My fearless Bumblebee

(from the animated Transformer cartoon)

Party time for Kaeden.

Party time for Greyson.

Uh, mom? I don't like these treats.

Kaeden is the pickiest kid I have ever met!

Now Greyson, on the other hand,

will eat just about anything!

Carving of the Pumpkins

On Wednesday night, two nights before Halloween and the night following their school parties, we finally had a free moment to carve our pumpkins. Nothing like waiting until the last minute, huh? At least our Jack-O-Lanterns still look good on Halloween night! Anyhoo, this year the boys wanted to draw their own faces on the pumpkins and then we cut them out for them. They had a lot of fun creating their Jack-O-Lanterns....as did Andy and I.

Andy always cuts our "lids" off first.

Andy carves his pumpkin.

Greyson reaches in....

and pulls out the guts.

Kaeden doesn't get quite as excited...

about scooping his out.

Just look at his expression....eww, gross!

Greyson is always the life of the party.

Our comic relief.

Look at them glow.

(from left) Kaeden's, Andy's, Mine & Greyson's

The proud creators!

Pumkinville '08

This year for Halloween we decided to pick a pumpkin patch a little closer to home. In years past we have gone to either Grinnell or Cummings with the boys. A friend of mine suggested going to Pumpkinville in Mitchellville. It was great only having to drive about 10 minutes, plus it was FREE! I don't know about you, but I'm all for free these days. Of course we had to pay for our pumpkins, but still, four large pumpkins for only 10 bucks.....you can't beat that! We went on a Sunday afternoon and the weather was beautiful! The boys had a blast and it was a wonderful family-oriented afternoon.

Greyson jumps in to the pile of straw.

Kaeden goes for it.

My boys! On the hayrack ride to the pumpkins.

Me and my precious boys.

Daddy and his little guys.

Searching for the perfect one.

What do you think about this one guys?

Look at my strong guy!

That pumpkin is almost as big as you Greyson!

Teeny, tiny pumpkins.

Kaeden struggles to lift his.

Our pumpkin family.

Kaeden leaping from bale to bale.

Look at Greyson jump.

The boys had a blast on the Pumpkinville Express!

It was a "train" made out of bales of hay.