Darth Vader in the Clown Wars

The boys (Robby /clown, Caleb /Darth Vader) with their Grandma Schmitz.  See that bag of candy in Robby the Clowns hand?  That's the size of the bag they get from my mom's retirement village!!  We could literally do T or T'ing in a one stop fashion. That's plenty of candy for each kid!

But we didn't. As is our custom, we went over to my sister Dianne and her husband Derek's house to do further damage to our teeth and waistlines.  Sam is the black ninja, Jonah is the red ninja and little Zoe is the butterfly. 

Punk'in Carv'in, 2014 edition...

With the acquisitions of pumpkins, comes carving the bad boys. 

This was a great joy of childhood which I indicated in last years post, which sadly, includes Uncle Frank who  is no longer with us...

Today, this is not much more then a messy chore.  That's where my sister, delightful Aunt Doris, comes in!

She is wildly artistic in life as you can experience one creative outlet here, but also is a great aunt who likes to be involved in her nieces and nephews lives.  She enjoys carving pumpkins and as such, likes to do so with our boys.

The varmints, cleaning out their respective gourds from the pumpkin patch.

The deed being accomplished with Caleb, who was eager and willing, and Robby who was more interested in describing what he wanted to Doris and then approving her work during a commercial in the football games.  He'll make a great manager some day!!!

Aunt Doris and her subjects for a day.

Robert James with his pumpkin.

Caleb RongBo with his pumpkin.  I really truly love it when a camera gets the rare opportunity to actually capture the mood of the moment.  In this case, pure joy!

Pumpkin' Patch Kids

Another Fall has brought another trip to the pumpkin patch. For a few years in a row now, we've fallen prey to the most local of the patches since we usually spend 2 - 3 hours there and some of them are roughly an hour away.  That eats a significant portion of a Saturday, real quick.

So this year, as well as the two preceding it, we ended up at Giesler Farms which is located between Bondurant and Elkhart, immediately East of Ankeny, Ia.

The corn maze is always fun, that is, if you've slept the previous night!

They have many other "things" there that are fun for various ages.  Robby, I have a feeling, is beginning to discover that he is "aging out" of the pumpkin patch excitement somewhat, but he still had fun.

The beginning of the maize maze, Robby and Caleb are "leading" us at this point.

Having located one of the 20 numbered posts, they're punching their cards to get their free gift once you find all 20.

Robby pondering how to cross one of the muddier sections...

After the corn maze, the boys enjoyed themselves on the very large, and new this year, slide.  This thing is awesome.

The corn pit.

These are the kinds of go-carts kids should have. Pedals!!

Trying to race, but Robby wasn't have much success on keeping his racer moving.

Into the tumbling device!

The great pumpkin...

The boys, posing with their very large pumpkins after Robby got himself folded up into the wagon.  I was pulling them back to the area where we pay for our gourds, and I said to a giggling Caleb, "Dad needs a rest.  Let me get in there and you pull me.".  To which he replied, "Daddy, that would be difficult". 

And so another year has passed...

Next up, carving those bad boys with Aunt Doris!

Creative Use Of Bleacher Seats

It's sort of hard to figure out whats going on here, but Caleb is on Dad's new bleacher seat, laid on it's back, playing his kindle (Minecraft) using a waterproof Nerf football as his pillow.

Your 2014 (SEP) Superbowl Champions!

So it would seem in a season where Robby went from uber-excited to practice and play, to tentative, to wanting to quit, to tentative, to excited and finally, to actually start to get it, his team lost one game which was technically a tie, but the other team had more yards in OT, so they were awarded a win.  

They ended in first place and were therefore, the #1 seed in the Superbowl.

Who'd they play?  The team who beat them on the tie!  

That team has one of Robby's best friends on it, Noah.  It also has two other boys who always play football with Robby and Noah at recess during the school day.

So, with bragging rights on the line, they squared off again.  Oh, and understand in no uncertain terms that we allow NO bragging whatsoever and figuratively smack his mouth around to the back side of his head if I ever hear it.

Morrison's Rams, Robby's team, won this game 8 - 0.  It was a defensive battle all day long and save for one busted defense in which our teams speedster went 40 yards for a TD, we would have been in OT again!

Not many pictures of the day as I took several videos, but here is one where Robby is lined up on the D-Line.  It's hard to see him, but he's got on bright green socks and is in the 3-point stance.

And a shot of the Superbowl Champs after their hard-fought victory.  That's Robby in the front row, second from the left.

Mans Best Friend, Fishing and a Goat

This fella was in front of me one day on my drive home.  There's no window in the back of the van, which is convenient for the fishing poles to stick out.  The passenger side front window is rolled down in which the small dog is hanging out of.  But best of all, is the goat in the back seat.  That's its head with horns that you can see betwixt the seats.

Class Character Caleb, The hat trick!

The boy has done it again.  

Honestly, I'm not surprised because he is a model student/human being while at school.  His teacher has remarked about how he hasn't had a "count" against him in the first month of school, the only student in her classroom to achieve that. Little did she know, that he hasn't had a count against him either year in Kindergarten as well!  

We told her that at conferences and she was blown away.

I asked Caleb if he's ever had a count, and his reply was, "No daddy, 3 counts and you get letter home. I don't like that."!

That's my boy!!

Calebber getting his 2014-15 CC dog tag.

His teacher congratulating him.

They always have games after the ceremonies and Robby was selected from the 4th grade class to participate.  I'm not sure what that girl in purple is doing to him, but he appears to be listening intently!

The first part of the race, the sitting on your butt, scooter race.

After going underneath the anti-hurdles, a student had to spin around three times with their forehead on the top of the bat.  The dude in the 73 jersey was hardcore in his counting which meant that every team that drew his row, lost the race.

The final stretch!

In past posts about his "characterness", I've included a photo that had the dialog that his teacher wrote about him.  Since I did not do this post immediately, I seem to have lost that piece of paper...