My November “fun day” for Nolan’s class went off without a hitch, but you’ll have to wait for the details of that day—including some awesome singing video footage.

Hmm…I think we left too many blank spots on Nolan’s home decorated turkey, what do you think?

Now for a recap…

For a slightly early birthday present I bought Kelly and Nolan Badger football tickets.

It turned out to be a whopper of a game—check out the score board (oh, oops…you can’t see it. Well, it was Badgers 49 and Austin-Peay 3 at half-time.)

Rockstar parking for the game—oh yeah, that’s my crazy kiddo too.

Kelly and Nolan also had a special father/son day (in Oct.) as they traveled to Milwaukee to see the band Muse and spent the night in a slightly fancy hotel. (sidenote: The band just recently won an AMA for best alternative rock band– yeah!) I heard the concert was great…

although the pictures make it look like the hotel was great too!

While in Milwaukee Kelly and Nolan checked a few of the kid friendly museums…like the Discovery Science center. You are looking at a tunnel in the acquarium.

They also found some climbing time on my favorite museum…and the decorative sails have changed! Cool photo, Kelly!

And of course they also found time to conduct the local symphony, check out the Les Paul guitar exhibit, take a self portrait and make a few phone calls… :)

Somewhere between birthday, Muse and Halloween Kelly also made a trip to Japan. This is downtown Osaka.

He had no problem mixing business with pleasure…I mean who doesn’t dream about eating Eel every day??? (ewww!)

Uhm, I’m speechless. Just to clarify: yes, that is the floor and (miraculously) it can flush!

Somewhere in there Kelly turned another year older too. That (4-0) milestone keeps inching closer any ideas on what kind of torture he should endure?? :) (p.s. Yes, those are fleece pj pants that look like money!)

Way back when…(while I was sick of course) I hosted my first ever Pampered Chef party. It was a blast and even went a little x-rated. Who knew how hot a bunch of moms and friends could be???

Well, this certainly helped with the mood. My good friend Heather (she is Nolan’s buddy Kyle’s mom) got up to try out the chopper and well, she had a little problem hitting it hard enough to make it chop! She said she was going to work on getting stronger at home. ;)

Nolan has certainly grown up a lot in the last 5.5 years. I am hoping to do some kind of special recap post again for the end of the year. I hope you will all come back and view that too. We hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving!! See you next time!!

That’s it…I’m taking over this site. No more words Nolan speak…it’s all coming straight from me. So, when all of you were younger was there a mom at your school that seemed to appear every time you turned around? Art projects, field trips, musical shows, etc.? Well, I’ve been dubbed “that mom” and although I can probably give some instances where that’s not exactly true, I do fit the bill 85% of the time—and that’s perfectly fine thank you very much!

Although I do have to say…I think Gran’Mary was ready to go home after her second trip here because she needed a vacation! Really…the Oriental Trading people lied…we needed 3×5 pics not 4×6 and so we just HAD to stay up until 11:30pm resizing photos and frames–that wasn’t the original plan!!! C’est la vie, n’est pas?

Okay it’s photo time…let’s review some of the past three months all at once! Follow closely!

Nolan thinks Kindergarten rocks…and is completely exhausting. I’m sure all of you have heard of those “abs of steel” type work-out videos. Well, they’ve missed their mark. Nolan’s abs from excessive monkey bar swinging are hard as rocks. Who knew…that we all just needed to go play on the playground some more!

Nolan has found his niche in the lunchroom as well…among new and old friends.

This is that moment where you see for your own eyes…that it’s no longer as cool as it used to be to eat lunch with mom. “Mamaaaaaaa…everybody’s looking!!”

September in Kindergarten meant an excessive use of paper. In fact, I think we might have to add on an additional room to store all of the paperwork that has been coming home. Of course in living up to my “that mom” title I have kept EVERY single piece thus far—even the duplicates. I will figure something out…I just know it! (The pencil words says “the hamster”…yes, we have a jokester on our hands!)

During her second visit to Wisconsin this fall Gran’Mary was able to sneak into Nolan’s classroom and read some special books twice. The kids love having “mystery” readers! Anyone else wanna come up and read?

We visited the ultra spooky/haunted house again this year (while Gran’Mary was visiting) in nearby Cross Plains.

There is stuff in every nook and cranny around the yard…

and even in the bushes!

and this year they got Papa good!! (Hmph…and he says no one can ever scare him!!)

This year we all dressed up as characters from Avatar: The Last Airbender (not the blue people Avatar). In case you have no idea what we’re talking about you can view the movie info here or the book/cartoon info here. The movie was only ok—the special effects were great, but the acting was very rusty, but the books and cartoon are amazing. If you like Japanese anime check ‘em out!

We dressed up and celebrated Halloween at the Reuhl family’s annual Halloween party.

More abs of steel!

We even had a visit from Queen Amidala from Star Wars!

Someone somewhere had this great idea to relay race with green slime…

however, after one look of the slime…I was able to pass by claiming photographer status. My hands, fingers and nails were very grateful!

Running across the grass with an egg in a spoon was a little more my style…

and wrapping things with toilet paper…well, what can I say other than that comes naturally!

And apparently Nolan is going to grow up and be an amazing bowler! One pumpkin, 6 bottles and two strikes!

Sorry it’s a little blurry, but in case you weren’t sure…this airbender can ice skate!

Round two for Halloween parties…

and this airbender, Aang, has got some moves. (Maybe even abs of steel part 3??)

And maybe a gut of steel too. Yes, these are chocolate cupcakes that the kids were then allowed to decorate with marshmallows, candy corn and m&ms!! Seriously! I think this is why these things are always served just before the kids go home!

“Mama…Halloween is only once a year!!”

And then there was trick-or-treating of course and this time…

they got Mama AGAIN! (The coffin opened as a real person was hiding in there!) I think I might stay in the street next year! I hope everyone had a great Halloween. Stay healthy, watch out for lingering spooks and hopefully we’ll see you again soon!