Happy Halloween

I trust you all had a Happy Halloween? We did too here in West Lafayette and the weather was extremely kind to us. The girls’ weekend started off on Friday with a day-trip to The Children’s Museum in Indianapololis. Brooke braved that trip with Anna and Frida together with Kaitlyn their nanny. I think they all had a great time. (Thanks again Brooke).

The kids then started their “Trick or Treatin” off early with Lorraine and Randy at their house on Friday evening coupled with a sleep over with their grandchildren. Lynne and myself even got to go out for a very relaxing dinner for two the following evening whilst they watched all three children. It was just the two of us on Saturday evening; what a treat (thanks again).

Halloween started in earnest this morning (well that is subsequent to fixing a toilet leak and Isabel being sick, but they’re two separate stories). We carved pumpkins and rustled around in the leaves for a while. We went for a little more effort this year with the pumpkins. This afternoon the girls and I watched “How to Train Your Dragon” and after dinner we all headed out around the neighborhood.

I Miss You.....

Lynne is away at a conference in North Carolina since yesterday. It’s a short trip, as she’ll be back tomorrow. I asked Brooke this morning to have the girls draw a “I Miss You” picture. She did better and made it an art project (thanks Brooke). Connor really looks like he misses his Mummy……we all miss her. 

I have been a little spoiled these last two nights, Randy and Lorraine brought dinner over both nights. Thanks to you both as always!!

First Tooth

Whilst we celebrated Randy’s milestone birthday today, Anja had her own little milestone. She lost her first tooth. It has been loose for quite some time and of course she couldn't resist wriggling it. Today, however, whilst not paying attention when continue to wriggle it, it came loose and flicked across the room, never to be seen again. Many of us combed the room from top to bottom for it but the elusive tooth escaped our attention.

Luckily this happens a lot and it has come to our attention that the Tooth Fairy leaves double the deposit if the tooth isn't actually present. Now that’s inflation for you :))

Happy Birthday Randy

Today we celebrated Randy’s 60^th birthday. Happy Birthday again Randy, it was a pleasure to celebrate this milestone birthday with you. They had a party at their house with lots of guests. We actually celebrated the recent birthdays of four people, Randy, Karen, Dinorah and Kavin. We chilled out all day and as usual stayed late into the evening for dinner and baths. All are soundly tucked in bed now though.

I did take many photos as usual, one of the four celebrants, but my favorite is the one below of Isabel. She and Anja were really excited this morning to be able to wear a pretty frilly pick dress, they thought long and hard about which one to wear. Of course then as we were leaving she paid no attention to which shoes she wanted but the boots took her fancy. She looked cute walking round in this all day.

Connor's New Haircut

We chilled out today for the most part, although we still managed to do quite a few things. I mowed, raked leaves, organized some timber for the winter, shopped and trimmed a major bush out the front of the house. Lynne baked a cake for Randy’s birthday, cooked a great lunch and dinner and cut Connor’s hair this morning. She hit it with my old beard trimmers. Let’s just say that this first time round was a training run!!

I have a photo below of his new haircut and a cute photo of him with both Lynne and Brooke, in addition to a shot of Isabel the moose (she is feeling much better by the way, many thanks to all of you who wished her well).

Isabel Sick Again

We’ve had a slightly rough start to the week here. Isabel is at it again, another trip to the doctor this morning with pains in her ears. Both girls have had a rough time shaking off a nasty cough over the last week or so but last night Isabel was suddenly in a lot of pain. Turns out she has an infection in both ears, sinuses that are all blocked up and a rattle in her lungs. 


More antibiotics were started today coupled another round of nebulizer treatment and a steroidal nasal spray. It never ends. The doctor has now noticed that she gets these a lot, more than she should anyhow, so after she has been cleared this time around we are headed to an EN&T doctor with her. 

Neil Armstrong Hall of Engineering

The girls and I took a stroll down to campus this morning. A couple of weeks ago, as we were leaving from swimming lessons at Purdue there was a really beautiful full moon out. I started talking about the moon with the girls right as we were passing Purdue’s newest building, the Neil Armstrong Hall of Engineering. He is arguably one of Purdue’s most famous students, graduating in 1955 with a BS in Aeronautical Engineering. Obviously I was able to tell the girls all about Neil Armstrong and his walk on the moon. They were quite intrigued. We even took a look at a few videos on line of that famous event, possibly the highlight of the last century. They now both want to be astronauts :)

So we wondered around the new building this morning, saw a statue of him, the girls were able to see the concrete steps they have in the plaza and they even have a real lunar capsule hanging in the atrium. Apparently they have a sample from the moon but we could'nt find it anywhere. We all had fun but I think the hot chocolate we had afterwards in one of the campus cafes was probably the highlight of their morning. I had fun though!! 

Kids Pictures

As I look back over the last four to six weeks, my blogging has lagged a little. Sorry. We have been quite busy here, it never seems like we have enough spare time. I'm writing now since both Connor and Isabel are napping. Thanks for bearing with it and you have if you’re reading this.

Anyhow, shown below are a few pictures of the kids from the last month or two. I wanted to show one of each but I couldn’t resist the second one of Connor…..in dress-up clothes. They have clearly moved on from dressing Daisy :)) The girls are really starting to interact with him since the ultimate play pal is someone to dress in pretty clothes. So much more interactive than their Barbies.

Pumpkin Patch

Last week we all took our annual pilgrimage to the Millennium Farms pumpkin patch.  It’s a mixture of pumpkin picking, petting zoo with lots of animals, picnic, hayride and other fun stuff for kids like pony rides and bouncy castles. The kids love it and for the last four years it has started our autumn off. It was a little cold this year but fun nevertheless. I have a few pictures, including one very close up llama shot!!
As usual the Mauer family, Lisa, Brad, Reina and Aulden joined us on this trip in addition to Marcia, Brad's mother.