WE ARE SPEED

BYU hosted a Cougar kid's run as part of it's annual homecoming festivities. Our speed obsessed boys jumped at the chance to join an official race. Here they are stretching before the race:

A proper warm up-- Grandpa Mark should be proud!

And here's an action shot. Lincoln is #236 and Daniel is the kid in the red pants without a number on his shirt (he insisted on carrying his for some reason):

And here are our victorious racers. Good job boys!

for the quote board:

Daniel, in his T Rex halloween costume:

"See my two claw*? Some people call them terrible. Some people call them terrific."



*Pronounced "kwah". Daniel is convinced that the same plural rule that applies to words like "deer" and "fish" also applies to claw.

Pinewood Derby

Our ward hosted a pinewood derby/ice cream social. Genius idea for a ward activity. Everyone loves the derby, right?

The competition was stiff. We clearly had some professionals in our ranks.
The boys designed and painted our car-- complete with a little trailer to hold the (marble) weights. They were so proud!

We were clearly out of our league. Joe and I were a little worried that they'd be disappointed in the race results.
They weren't. Daniel kept shouting: "Yeah! We're the third winner!!!! Yeah!!" at the end of our heats.


And his optimism was rewarded: we won the award for the Most Creative Car.

nice and bright and clean as a bean...

...Happy Happy Halloween!!

Halloween is typically seen as a chance to step outside of reality and be something different. A chance to get a little crazy. That's why Jack and I dressed up as Suburban Mom And Baby, and Joe dressed up as a bicycle commuter.

We are wild, people. Crazy wild.

(actually, I had a baby stegosaurus costume planned for Jack, but due to a teething and miserable baby, didn't get a chance to start said costume until midnight last night. Then I realized that he has no idea what the heck Halloween is and can't even eat candy-- so I decided to sleep instead. Sorry Future Jack-- I hope that not having a costume for your first Halloween didn't mess up your life.)


Lincoln and Daniel both decided to dress up as their favorite cartoon character: Buddy the T Rex from PBS's Dinosaur Train.

That's right boys: Shake what your Mama gave you!!

They wiggled their little tails for treats. It was too cute for words.


And this. Well, the lovely blond is my brother-in-law Alex, and that tough linebacker is my sister Erin.

I am so saving this picture to show to their kids...

bookworms

Our boys have entered the wonderful world of read-aloud chapter books. It's so fun to see them get caught up in the books that I loved my parents to read to me when I was little.

This all started when Daniel grabbed Beverly Cleary's The Mouse and the Motorcycle off of a library display table. He was completely taken with the picture on the cover. Since then, we've read the sequel, Ralph S. Mouse, and started The Tale of Despereaux-- although that one was deemed too scary after the first two chapters-- we'll have to come back to it later.

We couldn't find any more mouse books after that, so we moved on to the closest possible category: tiny people. We're almost through with The Borrowers (and love it!), and The Littles is next on our list, followed by The Indian in the Cupboard (one of my very very favorites).

Some other great books on our to-read list:

James and the Giant Peach

Matilda

Ramona

The Box Car Children

The Jungle Book

The Swiss Family Robinson

Heidi

The Little House on the Prairie

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Gulliver's Travels

Do you have any recommendations for us?

lame

What kind of idiot manages to sprain her ankle walking slowly over a hardwood floor on her way to put the baby to bed?

Not me.

I, ahem, earned my injury doing some hardcore Parcour.



Maybe I shouldn't have attempted that triple flip off of the 12 foot wall...

Coolest Invention Ever

Remember these? With a few turns of a handle, you can peel, core, and slice an apple into apple slinkies. My kids can't get enough of it. They'd slice (and eat) a bushel of apples a day with this sucker if I let them.

Now, if I could just figure out a way to run broccoli through this thing...