Like Christmas Morning

It's finally here....I'm so happy!

The new Low Impact Series from Cathe that I pre-ordered during the summer. Ack, I can't even stand it! I knew they shipped out on Saturday, but coming all the way from New Jersey, I didn't expect them until maybe Wednesday. Imagine my surprise when I found the package in the mailbox today. Wow, now that's some fast shipping!

Now starting tomorrow I can really get down to business and get my body back in shape. According to the scale I've lost all of the 20 lbs I gained while I was pregnant (give or take a pound), but I still have some extra 'stuff' around my midsection that needs to go.

So move over treadmill, I've got some new workouts to do!

Black and Blue

On Thursday I got a call from Tyler's school to let me know that he had been injured during P.E. and had a black eye. I don't know the exact details, but it had something to do with another kid running into him with a hula-hoop. I didn't think too much of it until I saw him.

Wowzers! It was way worse than I had imagined. You can't even tell from the picture, but his upper cheek was super swollen, like there was a knot under the skin. We kept ice packs on it throughout the day, but it still looked pretty mean by bedtime.

Then it occurred to Rick and I that picture retakes were happening the next day and since Tyler had a black eye, retaking his school photo was no longer an option. So I guess that means we'll be keeping the original....

Not that it's a terrible photo. It's fact it's probably the best smile he's had for a school picture, but Rick and I just couldn't get past the awkward diagonal angle. It's like he's centered towards the bottom left corner and he's about to tip over out of the frame. It's not my favorite pose, but much better than having a black eye!

Don't Follow the Leader

Especially if the leader is a 6 year old penguin.

Because I'm not sure they have a very trustworthy sense of direction.

Last night was family fun night at the local corn maze; an event put on by Tyler's school. Costumes were encouraged and Tyler was super excited to debut his penguin costume. I liked the idea of seeing the kids dressed up in costumes, but not so much having Tyler traipse around the muckety corn fields in a pristine white outfit. Eh, but what can you do?

We got there right at 5:30 and with just about an hour of daylight left, we had to scoot through the maze if we had any hopes of making it out the exit before dark.

But after 30 minutes of following our misguided penguin, we ended up popping right back out the entrance. Fail. And with this being our 3rd attempt over the years, the score comes to Corn Maze: 2, Freese Family: 1. Hmmm, maybe we'll be able to even out the score next year.

So with only a few minutes of daylight left, Tyler played in the kiddie area going up and down the giant slide as much as possible. Then when it got too dark, we settled in around the fire pits and roasted marshmallows.

Mmm, smore's before dinner.

Ork Ork!

Or is it honk honk?

I finished sewing Tyler's Halloween costume over the weekend and now all that's left is perfecting the penguin sound. He wants to say 'penguin sound trick-or-treat penguin sound' when he's out trick-or-treating, so this is important stuff here.

I think he'll go with ork, ork, trick-or treat!

But what about the costume? It's cute, right? It's a Simplicity pattern that's been around forever that was retired this year, which means I had to hunt it down on Ebay. Thank goodness for that. It wasn't too complicated to put together and it even has spats to cover his shoes. My only complaints are that  the bodysuit closes with velcro instead of a zipper, which is stiff on the neck and that the tail is a little too big and awkward. It's still cute though.

Halloween Pie

Every Monday Tyler goes to the library at his school and checks out a book. This week he brought home a book called Halloween Pie and he was quick to point out that it included a recipe in the back. I usually save pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving, but with no other desserts around I thought, 'oh why not'.

I thought I had everything on hand except for the pre-made pie crust, so I made one of those from scratch. Then when I was collecting the other ingredients I realized I didn't have any evaporated milk. Oops...quick trip to the store.

Back to business. Tyler whisked all the ingredients together and poured them into the crust.

Ahh, look at that reflection!

I've never gone to the trouble of making my own crust for a pumpkin pie....I usually just stick with the frozen variety, but I have to say it really made a difference. Yum! We should have Halloween Pie more often!

Fun At The Fair

Quick! Super fast update! Rick and Tyler just left for the movies, Kyle is asleep and I'm getting over the cold I've been battling, so that means I can finally tend to my blog again.

Last weekend we went to the fair, but I've been so sick that I just got around to taking the pictures off the camera yesterday.

We went on the last day and got there maybe an hour after they opened so the crowds weren't too bad at first. Tyler didn't have to wait in long lines and we had plenty of room to stretch out.

As usual his favorite ride was the roller coaster, but he also went down the giant slide several times and in and out of the fun houses.

Then it was time for some food. For lunch we stopped at a Mexican food stand and we all got Carne Asada Tortas. They say 'carne asada', but I swear it just seemed like ground beef to me. I've never had a torta before, but these were giant hamburger buns filled with refried beans, meat and topped with lettuce and tomato. Eh, I wasn't impressed. Tyler wasn't either...in fact, he quit eating his and asked for a corn dog instead.

For our sweet snack, Rick and I shared a huckleberry ice cream cone and Tyler had a soft serve tropical twist. Yum!

They actually had a few good deals on some of the games like this water shooting one that was only $1 to play. He played that and a few others, but didn't win any big prizes.

Then the boys stood in line for.ev.er to ride the bumper cars. And that was it for the rides, the crowds had gotten too big at that point. Who wants to stand in line for a half an hour and we still had all the exhibits to look at.

The newest attraction this year (or at least that's what the newspaper made it sound like) was this deep fried butter stand. For $5 you get five cubes of fried butter, which we figured must equal about a stick and a half...or 3/4 cup. Yeah, I think I'll pass.

Moving on to the exhibits.

We plain ran out of time this year. We didn't get to see everything, but we did make it into the ag building to see the prize winning vegetables and then we looked at the artwork and photography.

Then Tyler and I went into the Butterfly Adventures exhibit. They had Monarch and Painted Lady Butterflies that you could feed using nectar soaked cotton swabs.

I didn't catch a thing, but Tyler ended up with a few of each.

We finally left a little after 8:00 at night. And we still had to eat dinner and get Tyler home and ready for bed. Good thing for Little Caesars!