305:366 - Ghosts, Goblins and Spiderman??

A chilly night for Halloween but the kids didn't mind. We let Zoe (revisiting last year's witch costume) and her friend canvas the block solo while Rodger and Beckett, umm, Spiderman took their time seeing our neighbors. Rodger returned home to hand out candy and the kids, friends, and I rushed block to block trick-or-treating in the dark until fingers were cold, Beckett was tired, and Halloween pumpkin buckets were full of goodies.

304:366 - Leaf Fight!

The leaves are late in falling off the trees but the kids took full advantage of whatever leaves they could coax into a pile. After convincing dad to be buried, a full-on leaf throwing war ensued!

303:366 - What's For Dinner?

How often have I stood, staring into the fridge, waiting for divine intervention to strike me with a brilliant idea for dinner? Countless times.  Like mother, like son.

302:366 - Forty Three

43. We had a great day filled with a sunny hike in the woods, dinner out and a fantastic chocolate cake that Zoe "approved". Yum.

301:366 - Extreme Concentration

Beckett is full-on into Lego's these days. On our trip to Target, he got a new Lego dude and swamp creature. As he concentrated on putting his guy together, I noticed that when he was deep in thought, he stuck his tongue out! It was too cute not to capture. 

300:366 - Better Late than Never

A full 24 hours after I arrived home, my bag made its appearance. Complete with extra tags, stickers and scuff marks from it's trip around the world, this bag clearly had a more rough route home than I!

299:366 - Fly away home

A short trip followed by an early AM flight. We traveled from Koln to Amsterdam to Detroit to Grand Rapids. But, despite the crazy travel, I did have one of the nicest views I have had in a long time from the inside of an airplane.  As we rose over Amsterdam, and above the clouds, the sky opened up in a beautiful sun rise. Further in the trip, as we left the coast of Ireland, I could clearly see windmills and the coast line below. I was glad to be going home!

298:366 - Love Lock Bridge

One of my very favorite parts of my day in Cologne / Koln is walking across the lock lock bridge. What should be a 5 minute walk to cross could easily take hours if I let myself become engrossed in the locks padlocked to the bridge, following tradition, by couples and families alike. These locks are as fancy as intricate, handmade locks with engraved names and dates to the simple bicycle lock with names written with a Sharpie. There are locks in the shape or turtles, fish, hearts, birds...and in ever color: silver, red, blue, green, purple, gold. Love knows no bounds and neither does the variety of lock.

The other favorite part of my day is, of course, Kolsch hour: this time at a different restaurant serving a different variety of Koln-only made Kolsch beer! Prost!

297:366 - Kolner Dom

A group of us started the morning with a 6:30 wake up call and dark, eerie run from the Dorint Hotel, across the bridge and around Koln's famous landmark: the Dom. This cathedral is under constant repair and the inside is as cold as the outside. The detail is unbelievable and almost creepy; like barbed wire. I keep looking and looking for a gargoyle, afraid that I might find one.

Later that evening, in the shadow of the Dom, we celebrated at the old train station waiting room: the Alter Wartesaal. Again, a testament to beautiful detail. 

296:366 - Kolsch!

It seems like Rodger just got home and 8 hours later, it is my turn to leave.  After a full day (and night) of travel, I have landed in Koln, Germany. I was here last 12 years ago and in many ways very little has changed. Funny enough, we had a team dinner at the very same restaurant I ate in my last night in Koln 12 years ago. When in Koln, drink Kolsch! A full glass of beer magically seem to appear in front of you right as you have emptied your last glass.  To stop the madness, you simply take your coaster and cover your glass. It took me a few glasses to remember that!  Must have been the jet lag!

295:366 - What the kids see...

Yup, another behind the lens shot...covers the wrinkles pretty well!

294:366 - Pumpkin carving

With all of our pumpkins from both Vander Schuur Farms and Post Family Farm, it was time to finally get to some carving! Each child had her own technique and his own idea in mind for his pumpkins. Zoe tackled hers with gusto (the expressions were priceless) while Beckett used a flashlight and laid on his belly to make sure every seed had been removed. The end results was a whole lot of fun and pumpkin guts!

293:366 - Haircut!

With Zoe's hair being as thick and wavy as it is, we have been taking her to the salon to get it cut since she was about 2 years old. She loves the whole act of having it straightened and brushed and finally trimmed. This girl needed some serious clean up after summer swimming and chlorine took it's toll. 2 1/2 inches later, she was all smiles. 

292:366 - Because it is all fun and games until...

There is never a dull moment around this place! As mentioned in the posthere, Zoe has spent much of her time upside down lately doing cartwheels and back bends. After one such back bend, she began complaining about her arm. I (of course) told her to knock off the flips and cool it for a while.  A few days and many complaints later, it was time for a trip to the ER as "mommy guilt" seeped in: (What if she had a green stick fracture? What if she was really hurt?) Sometimes it simply takes the doctor to confirm what mom has already prescribed: cool it on the cartwheels. Only as sprain. Whew!

291:366 - Post Family Farm

My friend Debbi and I packed up the kids tonight for our annual outing to Post Family Farm. We have been doing this now for about the past 6 or 7 years and as our brood has expanded, it has been interesting to see how things have changed.  The once perennial favorite, the pumpkin train, had no takers amongst our kids but we couldn't get any of the off of the rope swing in the hay bales! We all ate the donuts (yes, they are really THAT good that they have Donut Parking) and made our way to the tractor ride out to the pumpkin patch and corn maze. Alex and Zoe completed the maze in no time flat and joined us for the pumpkin hunt. Once chosen, we loaded out pumpkins on the trailer for the return ride. A moment later, the skies opened up in a fury of wind and rain! The kids didn't know what to think! Zoe was laughing like crazy and Beckett hunkered down to "protect" his pumpkin. Soaking wet, now muddy and windblown, we made it to the back, ran kids and pumpkins to the car and decided to meet up at our house for a change of clothes and pizza.  This will be another Post Family Farm trip to remember!

290:366 - Dinner Out

With dad away for a few days, I try to come up with fun ideas for the kids after school / work.  Tonight was dinner out at New Holland Brewing Company.  Beckett had to bring Sister Monkey along for the trip! Sister Monkey is irreplaceable so the "rule"is usually that she stays at home.  However, with it being a "special" evening, she came along. I will miss these days when he no longer wants to drag her with us. 

289:366 - Shanghai, baby!

Dad is on another trip; this time he is in Shanghai. With the 12-hour time difference, we can FaceTime him as the kids are getting ready for bed and he is getting ready for breakfast. I am not sure Beckett "gets" it yet but FaceTime makes it a bit more fun when he's far away.

288:366 - Holy sweetness

What a difference a day makes! Pure sweetness. Both of them. Smiling. And, for a moment, life is good.

287:366 - He's / She's Bugging Me!

These two love to bug each other. Zoe tries to read and Beckett tries to interrupt. Five minutes later, Beckett is trying to play with his Lego's and Zoe is trying drive HIM nuts. It's a never ending sibling cycle!

286:366 - Hallelujah! Gramma's goodie box arrived!

On arriving home tonight, we found a package on the back porch.  The kids are savvy enough that they immediately recognized Gramma's handwriting and KNEW that it was a Halloween box filled with goodies! They could barely contain themselves!!!  I didn't even have time to send mom a photo so I snapped a quick shot of my camera display with my iPhone and sent it off.  Thank you Mom!  As always, you made our day!

285:366 - A rare sighting

Zoe showed more interest in being behind the lens again this evening.  I got my first Canon at age 8 so who am I to squelch her camera curiosity?? And so, tonight's photo is a rare photo of me - with one of my kidlettes - on the OTHER side of the lens.

284:366 - Shower Time

The dude has gone the way of all "big kids" in that he has decided showers, rather than baths, are the way to go these days. Still, my favorite part is when he is dripping wet and snuggled up in a big cozy towel post clean up.

283:366 - All filled up

Beckett has a balloon racer car that we bought for him some time ago. In typical kid / toy fashion, the toy is not nearly as exciting as the box / packaging.  In this case, this balloon has been blown up hundreds of times more than the car has been raced.  Just waiting for it to pop....

282:366 - What does a super hero eat for breakfast?

6:00 AM: breakfast with Spiderman. And Sister Monkey, of course. 

281:366 - Roasted Squash Soup

A bag of squash doesn't really make for that interesting of a photo of the day but this is a typical site on our back porch each fall. Every year we buy a grocery bag full of all different squash at the Farmer's Market and every year Fall kicks off with a big batch of roasted squash soup. Happy Fall!

280:366 - A busy, busy Saturday

Saturdays in the fall are never boring and today was no exception. While it was kind of dreary and drizzly, we weren't going to let the weather stop us from: a trip to the Farmer's Market where we picked up a grocery bag full of squash, a walk downtown for the Fall Firetruck Parade where every truck from vintage water pumps to the Coast Guard rescue vehicles drive through town,  and finally a drive out to our friend Kurt's Vander Schuur Farms annual Pumpkin Patch for hot dogs, hayrides, hot chocolate and homemade donuts cooking over the fire. Oh yeah, our carving pumpkins too! It was hard to "capture" the kids after all the day's excitement but, if you look closely in the bottom photo, you can see Rodger doing his best to wrangle the two of them back into the car!

279:366 - Junior fly boy

Beckett got his first "real" helicopter from Gramma Jeannie for his 4th birthday. I thought it would be way over his head.  I was way wrong. Rodger is pretty proud of his dude. He is definitely a junior fly boy!

278:366 - Coconut curry soup

Rodger loves to experiment with Thai and Indian food and tonight's coconut curry soup was exceptional.

277:366 - Ta Da!!

And, the window is done! Voila! Rodger is already hinting that the bathroom window might need a make over. I am not opposed, I am just not ready quite yet!