Every October or so the PTA at Alex’s school runs an art contest where students create a piece of artwork related to some theme. This year the theme was “Beauty Is…”, last year it was something like “Wow!”. They can choose from composing a song, choreographing a dance, painting, multimedia presentation, drawing, photograph, and the list goes on. Each year Alex has decided to do the photography and frankly I much prefer that since its much easier option then the other choices.

We went down to the Dallas Arboretum because they have a big Halloween setup each year and we figured that it should be easy to find something related to the “beauty is” theme there.

We got there, gave him the camera, and told him to go ahead and take as many pictures as he wanted that he thought related to the theme. About 60 seconds later I find he’s wandered off the path and has found his first picture….

Very nice. Not exactly what I think the contest promoters had in mind.

He eventually decided on the picture of the koi pond since the white fish had a red mark that look exactly like a question mark.

We heard this week that he received an honorable mention.

Andrew is really into taking pictures and for being only four years old he seems to have quite the eye. This is one that he took of the pumpkins and gourds that were on display.

On our recent trip to New Orleans we stopped at a Cracker Barrel restaurant for lunch since it’s the kind of place that we can sit down and spend some time off the road and it gives Caroline a chance to stretch her legs and a place for us to easily feed her.

If your familiar with Cracker Barrel restaurants you know that to get to the eating area you have to walk through the “Old Country Store”. Before going in we always have the discussion with the boys that we are here for food, not toys, so just forget about it. You can look but that’s it. Andrew has a little problem with this and he’s always trying to angle for something.

After eating lunch we were walking around the store and the boys were looking at stuff and Alex started in with the whining. “I want a toy,” “I really wish I could just have this” holding up something or other. Of course we weren’t moved by this and were slightly annoyed but then we came across a bunch of the Invisible Ink activity books. They would be perfect for working on during the rest of the drive.

Jen showed Alex a couple of the them and even offered to get him one if he wanted. He got a really long face and complained some more how he wanted to get a toy instead so Jen told him that if he wasn’t going to appreciate the book then we didn’t have to get anything.

The whole time this was going on Andrew was watching and looking at some toys of his own. He picked up an old fashioned battery powered metal horse racing set and walked over to Jen and said,

“Mom, I would really appreciate this if you got it for me.”

I give him a perfect 10 for style points but he still didn’t get the horse racing set.

As we have for the last couple of years we went over to a friends house for Halloween and we all went trick-or-treating through the neighbourhood.

Jen worked her magic again this year and got the boys and Caroline dressed up. Andrew started the ball rolling about a month back and said that he wanted to be Teddy Roosevelt from “Night at the Museum.” Alex kind of waffled back and forth for a while but in the end decided he wanted to be a Astronaut. Jen decided to keep the Night at the Museum theme going and dressed Caroline up as a little Sacajawea and I got to be Larry Daley, night watchman.

OK – I’ve gone and done it…something I said I would never do… put a BIG BOW in my baby’s hair… I just couldn’t help it…not sure what exactly came over me…I was even against putting a little bow in her hair…and there I was in Dillard’s and just plopped it on her head…pulled out the credit card and said “No bag for us! She’ll wear it out of the store!”…she seems oblivious to it…her brothers like it…and her daddy is worried it will lead straight to dating…and frankly, I love it…my cutie patootie in her first bow…hmmmm, what color will her 2nd bow be? – Jen

Just so you don’t think that Caroline always makes a sour face when we take pictures here’s one with a great big smile.

Jen found a ad in the paper the other day advertising that Buzz Aldrin was going to be at the American Airlines flight museum promoting his new children’s book and his memoirs. We bought two tickets for Alex and I as a surprise for him.

When it came time to tell him Jen asked, “Guess where you and Dad are going today?”

“I don’t know.”

“You guys are going to see Buzz Aldrin. You know who he is?”

“Ya, He’s the second guy to walk on the moon.”

“That’s pretty impressive, your going to go see someone who has walked on the moon.”

“He was the second person, Neil Armstrong was the first person and that would be even more impressive.”

There’s just no pleasing kids these days. We went out to the museum where Buzz read from his book and then signed copies for everyone that was there.

Buzz reading from his book.

Getting our book signed.

We’ve had two bananas on the counter since the weekend that are too old to eat and need to transformed into banana bread. So tonight I decided to make it and since the boys like to help with the cooking I thought they could help me, that plus they also like to eat the majority of it.

So I called them over to help and Alex said

“No, we don’t want to help.”

“What!? I thought you like helping cook.”

“No, we don’t want to help cook it, we just want to eat it.”

And with that he and Andrew ran off to play.