Pumpkin Carving

Well, this past weekend we carved pumpkins. Its that time of year, and Sam and Sarah were ready to go. For those of you who have not carved pumpkins in years, the process has changed quite a bit from when I was a kid. Back then, carving a pumpkin usually involved borrowing one of you moms good knives, making eyes/nose and mouth, putting a candle in the pumpkin and lighting it up. These days, there are pumpkin carving kits that come complete with specialty detail cutters and templates that you trace right on to the pumpkin. Back to Sam and Sarah, unlike last year, I was able to convince Sam to pick a design for his pumpkin that was scary. Last year, he was a bit spooked by some of the pumpkin carving design patterns we had.
Of course, this family project started out with myself, Grandma and Grandpa supposedly "Helping" Sam and Sarah carve the pumpkins. I wanted to control access to sharp knives, but let the kids do most of the digging out of the pumpkin guts, and *some* supervised carving. When Sam realized he would have to put his hands inside a pumpkin and pull out his guts, he offered to let me take care of that task while he supervised. As I got into it though, he suddenly got interested in getting his hands dirty and joined in the fun. Sarah on the other hand, couldn't get enough. She dove right in, wandering around trying to help out with all the pumpkins (We had 4). She also go hold of some glitter glue and kept wanting to "Make the pumpkins Beautiful!" by putting the glitter all over them!.

Sams Kindergarten class is online

Sams class is now officially online here. They regularly post pictures and stories as to what they are up to. Another bit of exciting news is that Sams Elementary School "Harris Hill Elementary" won the Blue Ribbon Award from the Department of Education. It is ranked as one of the 20 best all around schools (all levels) in New York State. There was a big news story on our local news channel here.

Bees!

A swarm of bees moved into the bushes right out side our front yard. They have been there for about a month and went mostly ignored. The seemed pretty harmless, as long as I didn't mow over their nest or bother them. However, this weekend something happened and they suddenly turned very aggressive. We ended up not being able to even go out our front door without getting engulfed in a swarm of yellow jackets. Obviously, something needed to be done. Like most do-it your selfers, I made the trip to the pest section at Home Depot and purchased the most lethal looking spray I could find to wage my war against the nest. I then planed my attacking, making my move in the evening, when the bees were far less active. When I went out to attack, I realized that this was going to be a much more challanging task, as the nest was actually in the ground. I did know where the hole was, and figured I would just pump it full of the lethal spray hoping for the best. So that was exactly what I did, and do my satisfaction I saw many dead bees trying to escape but getting engulfed in the poison foam.

The next morning however, I peeked out to see a VERY busy bees nest, and the same swarm of bees camping outside my door. So with that defeat, I decided to call in the pro's. This morning, a bee guy came to the house and took out the nest. I had not idea how big the nest was! Before he broke it apart, it measured about 12" in diamater.

YMCA Pumpkin Festival at Wickham Farms

The YMCA had a pumpkin festival Friday night at a local farm here in Penfield. Wickham Farms, pronounced "Whip'em Farms" by Sam is a cool place for kids that has all sorts of fun Fall activities. There are hay rides, outdoor electric trains (a favorite of Sam) and lots of pumpkin activities (carving, painting). They also have all of the fun tasty fall treats to munch on between activities (cider, cookies, pies etc).

This Friday after dinner I decided to take Sam and Sarah to the festival. When it was time to go I looked for Sam and found him sound asleep on the couch. Thinking maybe we wouldn't go, I went to find Sarah and as usual, she was wide awake, coat on ready to go. My little Energizer Bunny never disappoints.

It was a crisp 40 degree Fall night here in Rochester, and we had a wonderful time. Sarah painted two pumpkins and we also took part in a bunch of other Fall activities. When it was time to get something to eat I asked Sarah if she would like some hot chocolate or something else to warm up with. She responded "No, but could I have some purple ice cream ?". I looked where she was pointing, and there, behind the glass was a whole variety of ice creams, purple (Raspberry) being one of them. I asked her if she was sure, that it was freezing out. She replied in her independent, confident little voice, "I know, that's what I want.". So I ordered myself a nice hot Cappuccino and my little independent daughter a small cup of purple ice cream. She enjoyed every bit if it while we sat at a table shivering and enjoying the rest of the night.

Thomas's first day of daycare

So today was a big day for Thomas. He is now officially part of the infant room at Storybook child care. Today Sarah took Thomas in, and showed him around. Sarah is very excited to have Thomas at school with her. She is growing into the big sister role quite well.

Thomas had a great day too, Laurie was a bit broken up at drop off, and was worried he would cry all day. As it turned out, he did great, probably flirting with all the teachers checking them out. He has figured out how to focus on people and tends to stare with an innocent curious look.

Trip to the Mothership

So a few weeks back, I took a trip to San Jose for some training for work. Apple is located near San Jose, so one day we decided to zip down and give Steve Jobs a visit ! I stopped in, went to the official "Apple Store", picked up some apple shirts and a case for my iPhone.

For those of you who don't know, the Apple campus is considered the mother ship for computer folks and a must visit if your in town. After spending about an hour in the store, I asked if we could go on campus and walk around. The person at the store apologized, and said "Sorry, we are VERY paranoid, no unauthorized persons are allowed anywhere other than the store and parking log :-(. I was hoping that since we had iPhones, and were software engineers, they would understand and make a special case. Unfortunately, well, that just didn't matter.

It was fun though

Sarah Has Her First Swimming Lesson.

So for those of you who know our children, you know Sam is our cautious, sensitive first born. One thing I have learned raising Sam for the past 6 years is not to push too hard and when to give him a little nudge. With Sam, if you push too hard, he tends to get scared and shut down, making my job that much harder to convince him he can do something that might be a bit scary.

Enter little Sarah, who's personality is equal and opposite for the most part. She is aggressive, willing to try just about anything she thinks others are doing, and not willing to miss out on what she feels she is owed ! Well, for the first time we enrolled our little three year old dare devil princess into swim lessons at the YMCA. At first, I decided to put her in the Pike with Parent class, which I figured was the best place to start. In this class, I get to go in wither her and practice with her while she learns about swimming. Well, it would be safe to say she was quite bored the first lesson, as it seemed we spent more time singing in a circle in the pool and less time jumping in (Something she loves to do and has no fear doing it). As we took our class together, I found Sarah watching the Pike class (Without parent), and rolling her eyes each time we had to stop swimming/jumping in the pool to go sing songs. After class I spoke to a YMCA teacher, and she encouraged me to move her into the Pike w/out parent class since she was so far ahead of the other kids in her class. So the next week, I decided to push her a bit, and moved her into the Pike class. In this class, I get to watch from a bench next to the pool while she sits with the other kids, hanging on to the side of the pool while the teacher takes each one and works on skills.
So there we were, I brought her over, and the teacher asked her to touch her ears into the water and blow bubbles. She did both with confidence and a smile. The teacher then smiled and said "Yeah, your ready!". Sarah smiled at me as she hung on the side of the pool, and I glowed with pride, patting myself on the back for pushing my child when I was supposed to, and it working out. I watched with pride as the teacher took Sarah, put her on her back and guided her around the pool as she tried to kick and make "ice cream scoops" with her hand, learning some basics. Then it happened........ I looked up to see Sarah in crisis!!! She had lost her grip on the side of the pool, and was struggling to keep above water. I jumped up, and dashed over to the side of the pool to pull her up and out of the pool. She was shocked and started to cry. screaming "I want to go home!". She had had a scare, and in my opinion, knowing Sarah's tendency to be on the wild side, taught her to respect the water. Now entered my critical moment as a parent on this occasion. If this was Sam, the day would be done, and we would go home and try another day. That is what you do with him, as he needs to take some time to think about what happened, and approach a challenge on his own, well thought out terms. But this wasn't Sam, it was Sarah, and we are still working on when to push and when not. After she stopped crying a bit, I asked her is she wanted to try again or go home. I assured her that she was OK and wasn't going to drowned. She replied "I want to go back in the Pool and be a Pike!". So she did, but this time sitting on the side of the pool, going in when it was her turn. She is still afraid to stay by herself in the pool hanging on the side, but happily sits with her feet in the water, going in with her teacher and learning her strokes.

In the end, I think I was more afraid that she was. When I saw her struggling, I went into a complete panic, wondering if I had pushed her too hard !!! I even spoke to her teacher after, asking if she was comfortable with Sarah in the class to which she assured me Sarah was fine and would do fine in this class.

Sarah talks about the incident all the time, and is very cautious around the pool (This is a good thing!).

Anyway - My little Sarah is a Pike, and learning how to swim!

Lets not forget Sarah !

So, I have gotten quite a bit of flack over the fact that we have not included any pictures or stories about our little princess Sarah. Well, the little future movie star has been quite active in our humble abode, keeping us on our toes and always helping out with Thomas. Sarah is her own person, someone who like to point that out whenever she can. She is our only girl, and very happy to keep it that way.

With Sam starting Kindergarten this year, Sarah has taken over as the oldest member of the family to attend Storybook. She has been waiting patiently for Thomas to get ready to start out in the infant room so she can keep an eye on her little brother, and make sure he is OK. She has talked non stop to her friends and teachers in the three year old room about her baby brother, and can't wait to bring him in to school tomorrow and show him around :-).