Happy Halloween!

Today was filled with many festivities! First Allison had her school parade and party in the morning. Both kindergarten classes as well as the preschool classes paraded around the cafeteria. They all loved waving to the spectators! Since I'm not a room mom for Allison's class, I wasn't able to attend the party.

In the afternoon, Jacob had his school parade and class party. First the parade - we had such a beautiful day!

Then the class party - lots of food and games!

The trick or treating in the evening kicked off with a neighborhood parade! One of the town's fire trucks lead the parade down to the lake and lots of snacks! We trick or treated our way back to our street gathering an obscene amount of candy!

One Busy Sunday!

Somewhere I remember that Sunday was supposed to be a day of rest. That was not the case in the Fueger household today! The day started by attending church, followed by the kids choir practice for the kids choir. We hurried home to get Allison ready for swimming lessons. While Allison and I were at swimming, Eric and Jacob ate lunch and prepared for Jacob's soccer game. As Allison and I returned home, Eric and Jacob were just leaving for soccer. The girls ate lunch and got ready to go watch the game. After a very COLD game, we all came home briefly to get ready for the evening's activities.


For the first time, we participated in our church's Trunked Treats. All the mini-churches (aka small groups) got together for an evening of tailgating. After eating some dinner - in our case pizza and chips - the kids all went around the parking lot trick or treating to all the parked cars! They had a blast hanging out with all their friends and trick or treating. They got enough candy to actually forget about the real Halloween trick or treating - think we can pull that one off - I think not! It was a really cold night but a beautifully clear one! We are really glad that we gave the event a try and will try to make it a yearly tradition!

Cards for Soldiers

The kids are participating in our children's choir at church. They had the opportunity this week to do a service project and we jumped on board. They were asked to make cards for soldiers that are serving overseas. The cards will be paired with a care package and sent to them in time for Christmas! The kids had a great time serving and putting their creativity to work. They did a great job and were very proud of their efforts. Eric and I were very proud of their efforts too!

Pumpkin Painting & Poker!

Today my cousin's baby celebrated her first birthday! Happy Birthday Madelyn! Unfortunately the weather did not cooperate and all the festivities that were supposed to be outside were moved inside. The pumpkin painting and face painting took place in the garage. The kids had a great time painting pumpkins and helped to pass the time while the grown ups socialized.

After a while of no interruptions in the adult conversation, I wondered where my kids were and more importantly, what they were doing! I found them with my cousin Tim learning Poker! Thanks Tim!

Halloween Kickoff

Tonight was the kickoff for our families Halloween festivities. There seem to be a great deal more costume related activities this year than I remember from previous years. We will definately get our use out of our costumes this year!


The kids had their annual Halloween Dance/Party at the school tonight. Abby was here to see them off! Allison choose to be a pink unicorn - possibly the easiest costume we've had yet - and Jacob is Anakin Skywalker (for those of you not quite up to speed on Star Wars - that is one of the characters in the newer movies).


The party was a bit crazy filled with pre-schoolers through 5th graders. It was in the cafeteria complete with a DJ and lots of snacks. We were no sooner in the cafeteria when Eric won a door prize - a school t-shirt. I wouldn't characterize us as being a family who wins lots of things, except when it comes to school. There doesn't seem to be a function that goes by that we don't win something! They had a "craft" table set up which consisted of rice krispie treats on a stick that you decorate w/ icing and all sorts of goodies - skittles, m&m's, marshmallows, etc.


The kids had a great time while the parents were quite too excited to be coming home! :o)

A Little Perspective!

Well, the day has finally arrived - moving out
day :o( It's been a rather frustrating and emotional week and it's only Wednesday! Anyway... although I'm really not happy with the circumstances of life right now and what is happening with our house and the huge inconvenience this is I've gained a little perspective this morning. As I sat in the corner of my kitchen in a lawn chair I watched the Today show as it covered the stories of the California wild fires. Nothing I am going through right now can even come close to compare with the devastation and despair that the thousands upon thousands of people in California are experiencing. In a few short weeks we will be back in our house living life just as we did just as we did before this saga began. Many in California have narrowly escaped these fires with nothing more than the clothes on their backs.

Thank you Lord for a little perspective!

Apple & Pumpkin Picking

This post is long overdue, but with the the craziness of life the last 2 weeks, it never got posted! So better late than never!

It's become a yearly tradition to go apple and pumpkin picking each fall. Eric's family is usually here when we do this and this year is no exception. Eric's family arrived on October 4th and we wasted no time in getting to the pumpkin patch! The kids were off school the next day so we all piled into the van and off we went! It was a really warm day for October but a pretty day. Abby was also visiting with us so we had quite the crew!

We rode out to the fields in a covered wagon.

Our first stop was the apple orchard to pick our apples - which were absolutely the biggest apples I have ever seen! They will not even come close to fitting in my apple slicer so we will have to cut them the old fashioned way! I'm seeing a few apple themed desserts in the future! :o)
The next stop was the pumpkin patch! The kids were allowed to pick a pumpkin only as big as they could carry!

After our return trip in the wagon, Aunt Laura bought the kids some soft serve icecream - perfect ending for a very warm fall day!

An October Swim!

Yesterday our good friends, The Davis', invited us over for a quick swim in their brand new pool. This was the inaugural dip even for them. So under normal circumstances, the middle of October would be crazy for a swim but we've been having unusually warm weather and it was about 80 degrees yesterday. The kids were completely excited about the prospect of going swimming and the date on the calendar meant very little to them!

Even by kid standards, the pool was freezing! Although the water temp read 70 degrees, they all had very blue lips and lots of goose bumps! The inaugural dip was only a short one. We all voted we will come back when they are able to run the heater in a couple of weeks!

Packing

So the day has arrived for all of our earthly possessions to be packed. In just a couple of days all those boxes will then be hauled off to who knows where for about 1 month while repairs are made to our house.

So, here I sit watching complete strangers pack everything! This is so against my character to just sit here like a sack of potatoes but there is nothing really for me to do. We moved all of our things out yesterday so what is left is left for them to pack up. Besides, I'm so tired that I don't think I could pack anything w/o an emotional breakdown.

As I sit and type this I'm just reminded how completely absurd this whole situation is. Really, who does this? I just keep thinking - this is nuts - really nuts!

So, we will keep you all updated on this process. I'll be at the house all day today and tomorrow and then on Wednesday as they move things out. We are hoping and praying that we will be back regular life in a month!

A Giraffe!?

As I was putting some things away in Allison's room today, I thought that I noticed a cold draft. I called to Eric to come see if he thought there was a draft in her room. Not knowing that Allison was around, she came running toward her room, exclaiming...."What!? There is a giraffe in my room?!" No matter how clearly I kept trying to say "d-r-a-f-t", she kept interpreting "g-i-r-a-f-f-e" - just typing this makes me laugh!

The 1980's

This morning was the first really chilly morning for this fall. We didn't have anywhere to go so the kids stayed in their pj's a little later than normal. Both wanted to put their slippers on since it was cool enough! Jacob came down the stairs with his suggestion as to how people in the 1980's could have made slippers! He said "You know the people in the 1980's could have put pillows on either side of their foot and tied them with a rubber band to keep them on!". He was so proud of his invention for those who lived way back in the 1980's!

In Love!!!!

Today while Allison and I were eating lunch, she made a declaration that I must say took me by surprise! She announced "I'm in love with Ryan!". Ryan? Ryan who? What do you mean you're in love?! Don't you mean he's just cute?! She clarified for me, she was in love with Ryan from school and he isn't just cute, she is in love with him!

We will be keeping a close eye on this one! Let the fun begin! :o)

On The Move!

Things are a little crazy around here. We found out on Monday that we need to move out of our house for a month beginning in a week! It's not that we just need to move out, all of the entire contents of our home must be moved out as well.


We have some structural repairs that need to be done by the builder and consequently, we must move out. The builder is hiring a mover to pack us, move us out, and then move us back in and unpack us.


It's a bit overwhelming to think that the entire contents of our house will be out in just a few days. Under normal circumstances, there is a level of excitement as you are normally moving to a new home! This is just a little outside the scope of normal.


We will be living with my parents during this time. We are supposed to only be out for a month therefore moving back just before Thanksgiving. Time will tell. Despite the assistance of movers and all, there is still a level of preparation work we need to do to so we are in super fast clean out mode.

We will still have email and I think we are having all of our call forwarded to my parents house so contacting us should be pretty normal. We will keep you posted on things!

AWANA Club

Jacob and Allison began attending AWANA's this year. They are having a ton of fun! After the first meeting, the kids had so much fun that they wanted to know if they could go back again sometime! And so they will go back - just about every week! Tonight was "parents night" which gave us a chance to see what happens during club time and participate with the kids during game time. We had fun watching them and playing the games!