Pumpkins

Our boys are learning all about Halloween this year. They've never really seen decorations and keep asking why people have skeletons in their yards and ghosts in their trees. We've done variations of trick or treating but the real deal will be a first for our kids next week. More important on their list last weekend was the carving of the pumpkins.

We went with one big and two little since Matt and I would be doing the bulk of the work.

Alex was NOT thrilled with the guts.

We made him get his hands dirty if he wanted to participate and he did so very reluctantly.

The boys picked a bat and a ghost for their pumpkins and were very pleased with the results.

Alex chose a candle for his but Ben used a toy red light to make his bat extra spooky.

Pumpkin carving is serious work. Apparently this one required power tools for precision drilling.

It turned out very nice and even got a few dowels for reinforcement. I always have to laugh at the differences between Matt's and my work. I free-handed the boys' designs so they turned out generally as requested but a bit crooked. You ask an engineer to create something and it will be exactly right!

Friends

We've been fortunate enough to catch up with some of our close friends over the past week. We helped Haley celebrate her fourth birthday and although it doesn't look like it in the picture, the kids had a great time. By the end of the party they really just wanted me to crack open the big jar of M&M's. As though two cupcakes weren't enough!

It was a very exciting day when Brynn and Ansley came to visit! These sweet girls have just left Australia and are moving to Alabama soon. We're bummed that they won't be in Texas but excited we'll get to meet up in Alabama sometimes. Malcolm, our other buddy from Perth, joined in for some fun as well.

These two are still the sweetest pair. It was a quiet, shy reunion but after half an hour they were talking and playing like no time had passed. Ben is still quite convinced they'll get married one day but he promised to wait until he's 18. I'm encouraging at least 25.

Alex and Ansley have always been two peas in a pod as well, but still like to do their own things. We've sure missed those beautiful girls!

We've also had a little fun at Grammy and Grumpy's...

Ready to fly?

Lookin' good! For those that have asked about Ben's eyes post-surgery, they're doing great. We've been really pleased with the results, although we don't know yet if his vision has improved much. The redness is almost entirely gone and his stitches should be dissolved. He was never really in pain or uncomfortable so everything really was as easy as we could have hoped.

The best part for Ben is that he's finally able to go swimming again! Couldn't risk a public pool with open incisions in his eye muscles so now that he's all healed up we've made up some of his lessons. He was signalling me to take his picture.

I've never seen Ben so full of smiles! Probably 10% due to the fact he was back in the pool and 90% because this was about two hours before the long-awaited reunion with Brynn.

Weekend Away

Matt's new position at work requires a lot of travel and we just learned that one of the perks is that occasionally it might work out for me to join him! He was in between meetings in London and Grandma K was available to watch the boys, so I hopped on the plane for a weekend with my hubby. It was wonderful!!

The best part for me - flying ALONE. Nine hours to do whatever I wanted, carrying only stuff for myself in my bag. I slept, I watched movies, I read an entire book, I went to the bathroom all by myself. That alone was worth the trip!

The next best part - Matt and I have each been to London before and only had a short list of things we absolutely had to do. The weekend filled up, but we slept in, relaxed in the parks in some gorgeous weather, and lingered over our meals. We were in no hurry and walked everywhere. Such a change from daily life. I'll share a few highlights.

First stop - Buckingham Palace. We happened to catch the last weekend the state rooms were open to the public while the queen was away for the summer.

Couldn't take pictures inside (boo!!!) but the best part for me was seeing Kate's wedding dress on display. I still remember Princess Di's dress as a kid and I was just as excited to watch the royal wedding earlier this year, so I thought it was pretty cool to see the dress and veil in person.

Had to see Big Ben, of course.

We enjoyed the passionate people at Speaker's Corner in Hyde Park.

Neither of us had been inside St. Paul's Cathedral and it was really beautiful.

Absolutely gorgeous ceilings...

...and incredible paintings inside the dome.

We took the staircase all the way to the very top of the dome and enjoyed the view all the way around London.


It was so nice to enjoy a sunset and savor the moment at a rooftop restaurant. The weather couldn't have been any nicer for us.

It was wonderful to get away for a few days and enjoy some time alone together. We love our kids but we also love being a couple every now and then, too. I flew out early Monday while Matt went back to work and I was pretty happy to see two little faces when I got home! Thank you, Grandma, for taking such wonderful care of them while we were gone!!

Priceless

We love Alex so much. He is charming, funny, creative, and incredibly strong-willed. There are days he makes me want to pull out my hair. Here are a few more photos that are worth remembering:

(yes, he's just showing me his band-aid, but I'm sure we'll need this picture again one day!)

"Mama, I sad."

His self-designated time out area for times when life just doesn't go his way.

Ahh, never a dull moment with this one. But on the flip side, when he's happy he is SO happy! Check out his ABC song that somehow morphs into Chicka Chicka Boom Boom.

Coldplay

Matt and I were fortunate enough last week to win FREE tickets to a Coldplay concert in Austin. Not the Austin City Limits Music Festival (which I was tempted to try, until I saw the last minute 1-day passes were almost $200 each) but a taping at the ACL Live venue for a show that will air on new year's eve. We didn't care anything about the fact that it was being taped...to us it was an intimate concert with our favorite band in the world with an added bonus of watching in on TV in December!

This is not zoomed in at all. We were about 10 people back from the stage so only a handful of people were in between me and Chris Martin. I looked everywhere for Gwyneth but she was nowhere to be seen.

They said no taping or photography at the concert but everyone was doing it so I couldn't resist a few clips. I didn't want to spend too much time fiddling with my phone so they're not great but you get the idea. Here's my current favorite, their new single Paradise:

And my all-time favorite, Fix You. It was fun watching Chris dance around on such a small stage after seeing him in two huge arenas.

We got to hear several new unreleased songs from their album due out next month and even got to count down to 2012 for the TV event. What an amazing night! And for FREE!!

Ben's Surgery

We've known for a while that Ben would require surgery to correct his lazy eye and the big week finally arrived. On Monday we went for the pre-op appointment. Looking at Ben in the chair, I was wondering exactly how much the surgery could improve his vision - enough to realize the outfit he picked was terrible? I didn't have the heart to tell him his silly socks and crocs were an eyesore so we just went with it. (but to my credit, he didn't go to school so only the doctor got to see this gem of an outfit)

Alex enjoys these appointments, too, because it's become a little bit of competition as to who can identify the letters first. Ben has the advantage of knowing his entire alphabet while Alex has the advantage of 20/20 vision and a chair much closer to the screen.

While we were waiting, Ben serenaded us with an original song. I had no idea how lovely it would be until I was already recording.

The doctor got all his measurements and answered all our questions, then at 6am Wednesday morning we were headed in for the procedure. This is the new West Campus that is less than half an hour from us.

We love Texas Children's so much! Each waiting area had toys, bikes, games, puzzles, and even Wii's for the kids.

Ben was pretty excited about his new pajamas but asked to be able to stay a dragon on the bottom.

When I broke the news that Mama and Daddy weren't going in the room with him Ben began to get pretty nervous. He mostly watched SpongeBob (a treat since it's a show we don't watch at home) and enjoyed himself but got pretty anxious during the commercials.

One last look at the turn in his left eye. After hugs and kisses, the anesthesiologist carried Ben with his Puppy and blankie into the OR with her. I was so glad they let him take his buddies with him for comfort and even more relieved to know the first thing he would get in there would be cotton candy flavored happy gas. Our little guy didn't feel or remember a thing. I'm not sure he even realized he had an IV.

About an hour later, the doctor told us everything went really well and he was pleased with the results. We'll go back next week for a follow-up to see if his vision has improved and if the eyes are working together. (There's a decent chance he may need another surgery or two to fine tune the alignment but we won't worry about that yet ) In recovery, our little rock star was waking up and enjoying a popsicle and gatorade. Once he had stabilized and the nurse was pleased, we were already headed home.
He cruised on the mini cooper to the car! We were all done a little after 10am.

Back home our little guy was worn out and slept most of the afternoon. When he was finally up and around to play with his new toy I finally got a good look at his eyes. Definitely puffy.

And definitely red! But they look much better when he's not making silly faces. He's really concerned about how red they are so hopefully it won't last too long.

Today he's completely back to normal and not in any pain but I'll keep him home through the weekend just to make sure he's not rubbing his eyes or going anywhere dusty or dirty. We are so happy that everything went well and Ben is already feeling fine. Thanks everyone for your prayers!

In the Groove

Everyone has settled nicely into our school routine but I can't believe how fast the weeks fly past. Alex still misses Ben during the day but he's surviving because he gets me all to himself. No frowns on this face!

Ben loves school but complains that he doesn't get enough time to play at home. He really doesn't have more than a couple of hours each day (what happens when he starts getting homework??) so we try to make the most of them. We've had some really beautiful evenings lately, a little taste of fall, and Ben has loved riding his bike around. This is the park-to-be, just behind our house and two lots down. Can't wait to play here when it's all finished! And those are NOT clouds in the background - that is smoke coming from last week's wildfire in Magnolia, about 60 miles from here. Even from that distance we still got ash falling here and could smell the smoke. Thank goodness it's finally under control and we even got some rain to hopefully put it out completely.

The boys both go to swim lessons after school one day a week and they're both doing really well. The difference between May and today is incredible. But sometimes I wonder how they learn anything when they're constantly playing with each other over the ropes.

Matt got invited to a duck hunt last weekend and came home with four teal. Our boys were pretty interested in the loot, but our neighbor Thurman was even more excited.

No, they're not toys but these boys didn't seem to mind! Thurman's parents are not hunters so hopefully we didn't do any damage to our neighborly relations by exposing him to dead animals in our garage. No matter what, they sure tasted good!

I wouldn't be a good mom unless I had at least a few blackmail pictures of my kids, right? This one isn't too bad...Alex wanted to borrow Ben's glasses, only his head is a tiny bit bigger so they don't exactly fit.

This one has me almost in tears every time I look at it! Putting it in his senior yearbook for sure. As long as all his business is going in the potty, I really don't care what he's doing in there. Life is so wonderful without diapers :) I think I can actually downsize my purse again.

Poor Ben picked up some kind of stomach bug yesterday and spent the entire morning throwing up. Amazingly, it's the first time our kids have really had something like that so we considered ourselves very fortunate and were happy to see he perked right up after a nap on the couch. I still kept him home from school today just to be considerate to the other kids but we're enjoying a little "Ben holiday" together.

First order of business - dig out the rain coats and boots and enjoy the morning's rain! I bought these coats over a year ago and they've been worn just a handful of times. That is how much rain we've seen over the past couple of years. A record breaking 18-month dry spell in Perth (which usually has very dry summers anyway) and then this historic drought in Texas. I never thought I'd be so excited to hear thunder.

Now we're just enjoying a quiet afternoon together and then a visit to Ben's ophthalmologist. He's scheduled to have surgery to correct his lazy eye on Wednesday so please say a prayer for our little guy!