Pumpkin carving party

All is not lost with Hallowe'en yet. We went to Joan and Charlie's pumpkin carving party on Saturday afternoon. We were late because we had been over in Illinois in the afternoon, so Sam did a simple design. The kids wanted an Angry Birds pumpkin this year....

This was the clear winner this year, "Pumpkin Pie factory"

I really liked this cat, I thought it was the best one when it was lit-not scary though!!!

Every year, the number of kids seems to grow exponentially.  This is a group of the older ones sitting on the swing.  How appropriate that their eyes are glowing with the flash!!!!

Trip to Pere Marquette

As part of Greta's exchange program, she has to meet with her coordinator and the other students once a month. We went to Pere Marquette State Park last Saturday for her October meeting. There is a bigger group than usual this year, there are 11 students altogether.

We hiked up to the overlook after lunch, there was a great view of the Illinois river.  Maggie hiked with the exchange students, they took a less steep route than the one we took.  They said she talked the whole way!!!

Ben was quite impressed with the view

The students successfully made it to the top!!!

Hallowe'en appears to have left our family!!!!

Months-long Hallowe'en years appear to have passed us by!!  Goodness, Ben used to be obsessed with this holiday, now it's going to be over in a few days and we have hardly paid any attention to it!!!
We did put this decoration up in the yard last weekend, but all the others are still in the basement.  Ben has tested the fog machine, but now it lies abandoned in the garage!!  What on earth is going on?  Ben is definitely growing up, there are all kinds of things that he doesn't want to do any more and it's making me sad....
Ben doesn't have a big party at school any more, but Maggie should have a parade on Wednesday.  At this rate, she will be the only child in the school without a costume!! Maybe I can get her one today..

80 degrees, clear blue skies and Shaw nature reserve...

We had a perfect Fall day on Sunday, so we headed out to Shaw Nature Reserve and walked down to the river.

I love taking pictures of the kids walking away from me.  I told Sam maybe it's an unconscious hope that they will leave home one day!!!!

Greta loved this!!!

Ben took pictures of us when we got to the cabin at the trail head.

The kids had a great time in the river

When we got back, we played with the football

and had a picnic by the lake

Once a gymnast....

This is what happens when you let a gymnast loose!! Ben had to perform his mushroom routine on this soccer ball!!!!

Then he had to be completely goofy with his frog pose....

and perform this amazing feat of strength!!!!

SHOW OFF!!!!

Maggie's last soccer game of the season

Well, the soccer season is already over. It was pretty quick and short, only 7 games, but Maggie enjoyed it. Of course some games have been better than others for her.  I saw her have a brilliant game a couple of weeks ago.  I think she would be good in defense or even in goal if she kept her attention on the game.  She looks like a professional player in this photo.

This is the coach giving the girls a pep talk during half time.  He takes everything very seriously

I don't know what happened with the team photos, but apparently there was some kind of mix up and we aren't getting any!!!!  At least we managed to get a few after the last game.

The coach handed out trophies after the game.  The girls won 5 out of 7 games, so they did really well.  Maggie loudly proclaimed that it was her first trophy EVER!!!!

Here's Maggie's team with their trophies

The girls from Hudson standing together.  Maggie, Neva, Taylor and Tori

Aren't they so cute???!!!!

GO MAGGIE!!!!

New lab

We have moved our new lab to the medical school. It was a difficult decision to make, but the pros outweighed the cons, so we made the move. Now we have moved, I am so glad that we did. We have so much more privacy and it just feels better.  This is my new office.  I was lucky that someone had abandoned these cabinets and the maintenance guys used them to maximize the space that I have.

We have now unpacked everything and we are ready to get started on experiments again!!!