Halloween~Warning, Picture Heavy!

I'm pretty sure this is the first time in YEARS that Caleb's helped with the pumpkins.

Isaac and Elias cleaned their own pumpkins.

Even Jude attempted to de-goo his!

Jude really wanted his pumpkin to smile so that everyone else would smile when they saw it too.

Silas made up his own design.

On our way to the neighborhood Halloween Carnival

As we were walking out the door Isaac decided he wanted a costume...black eyed peas it is!

 Jude waiting in line to make a spider lollipop.

 Caleb found his kindred spirit. Both have been wearing this same t-shirt for years. Caleb is a Halloween Scrooge!

 The older boys helped Jude play the games and make the crafts.

 Silas found his classmate Scott and played with him ALL NIGHT!

 Trunk or Treating...absolute CHAOS!

 Jude came up with this costume this morning all on his own. I can't remember what crazy thing he called it.  I'm calling it Scuba Steve.

Tonight we had the missionaries over for dinner.  I declared a cupcake eating contest.  Jude ate the most with 3 and Silas the least with none.  You might think Jude would have won but Silas is the true winner for listening to his stomach that told him he'd had too much sugar today already! It's now 9:15 and we've had NO trick or treaters.  Kind of nice! Happy Halloween!

Pizza Oven

Last month we decided to finally get a pizza oven built. It was finally complete are ready for use yesterday. This is the Chicago Brick Oven before it was mounted.

Under construction. The thing on the bottom is a wood box.  The boys really thought we should be able to build fires in there. Sorry, no chimney.

Setting the oven in place.

All done! We had to let the concrete set for few days first.  We tried it out last night and it was awesome.  We made lots of mistakes so hopefully the next use will be better. The nice thing is that it's an oven, not just for pizza. So if we lose power after a hurricane we'll still have the ability to cook.

Last nights recipe winner was a sliced mozzarella with fresh tomatoes on sun dried tomato pesto sauce!  This was Isaac's birthday dinner choice.  Be sure to see his Birthday pix below.

Isaac is 10

Isaac is 10 now which means that the Zimmerman birthday season is finally over until July. Hooray!

We took Isaac and a couple of his friends to Main Event for some Laser Tag and bowling.

The boys kept thinking we should have the bumpers put down but I'm pretty sure they would have had 90% gutter balls without them.

Being the sweet brother that he is, Silas made this Birthday card for Isaac.  Isn't it wonderful that he's learning to spell? (Translation: Suck Isaac, Isaac NO, Isaac Suck).
Isaac managed to have his birthday festivities last for days. Friday, cupcakes to school and party with friends. Saturday convinced us to let him open gifts from us a day early. Sunday, actual birthday, special meals and cake. Monday morning...singing and blowing out candles~somehow we never did that on the other days. Oops, more my fault than his. For some reason blogger isn't letting me upload the pix of him blowing out his candles this morning. Must be some sort of punishment for my forgetfulness! Oh well. Happy Birthday buddy!

Roasted Lemony Veggies w/ Couscous

I made this dish for dinner last night and it turned out awesome.  It was a great way to incorporate a ton of fall vegetables into our meal.  I highly recommend it!

Ingredients




1/4 cup lemon juice

2 tablespoons chopped basil

1/4 cup chopped parsley

1-1/2 teaspoons salt

1 teaspoon black pepper

1/4 cup olive oil

2 large tomatoes, seeded and cut into 1-inch chunks

1 small butternut squash (about 1 pound) peeled, seeded and cut into 1-inch chunks (about 4 cups)

1 pound sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1-inch chunks

1 pound red-skin potatoes, peeled and cut into 1-inch chunks

1 cup baby carrots, halved

1 cup couscous

Directions

1. Heat oven to 375 degrees F. In a small bowl, stir together lemon juice, basil, parsley, 1/2 teaspoon of the salt and 1/2 teaspoon of the pepper. Slowly whisk in olive oil; set aside.

2. In a large bowl, combine tomatoes, squash, potatoes and carrots. Sprinkle mixture with remaining 1 teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper. Drizzle with prepared lemon dressing and stir well to combine.

3. Pour vegetable mixture into a 13 x 9 x 2-inch baking dish and cover with foil. Bake at 375 degrees F for 35 minutes. Remove foil and continue to bake another 15 minutes or until vegetables are tender.

4. When there is 10 minutes bake time remaining, prepare couscous according to package directions. Remove vegetable mixture from oven and carefully stir in couscous. Serve immediately.

Super Six/Sick Silas

Silas is 6 now...finally!  He just couldn't stand being five.  He wanted to be 6 like Maddie.  I haven't had the heart to tell him Maddie is 7 now.  Our schedule on Tuesday (actual date of his Birthday) was crazy busy so we celebrated the night before.  On the day of his Birthday I got a call from the school nurse 5 minutes before school let out saying that my Birthday Boy had just barfed.  Ugh! Good thing he was already able to enjoy his cake and presents.

He ripped through his gifts so fast it was a whirlwind of flying paper and bows.

Silas made my life easy by wanting a rainbow chip cake that he wanted to decorate himself.

We love Silas so much and have been so proud of his efforts and advances in school. He's been stubborn about learning and has wanted everything to be on his own terms.  In addition to being stubborn he's very competitive.  On the Meet the Teacher night Silas noticed some kids in his class reading.  He was initially intimidated but quickly decided to get serious about school.  We've been playing flashcard games with his numbers, letters, sounds and sight words everyday after school.  In the last 7 weeks he's gone from knowing about 10 letters (uppercase only) to sounding out and reading his beginner reader books to me every night.  He loves school and has really given his all to do well.  Happy Birthday Silas!

Weekend of Sports

Pre race jitters

 Elias had his 3rd Cross Country meet on Friday.  We've decided that CC is so much nicer to watch than football.  The races last less than 20 minutes and when your child is done racing you can take him home.  Caleb noticed that in general the parents of runners are much thinner than the parents of football players.  Guess we don't fit that requirement but Elias is still thin.  His time at the second meet was better than this one so we won't talk about that (other than to say that his coach had him run 6.5 miles the day before...ummm that's not how you prepare the day before a 2 mile race...hello).

 This was at the beginning of the race when he still had steam.

 Almost done... now he looks winded.

Silas had his first soccer game on Saturday. His team only had one 20 minute practice the Wednesday before so they were not very prepared.  The ages for his team are 3 to 5 so he's the oldest on the team.  Sadly, this is his first time ever in an organized sport. I know GASP!  Last year was a rough year for me which put most extracurricular activities on hold.  Well it didn't matter that it was his first season cuz he rocked it.  The kids all get equal time on the field so when he was out the other team scored like crazy on us.  When he was in he scored like crazy on them.  There are a lot of cry babies on his team which drove him crazy.  Parents were literally shoving crying little kids out to the field so they could stand in one spot and not move.  When Silas came out and was watching the other kids have their turn he said to me. "Why are my teammates just standing there? They're not even trying to get the ball." Even a 5 year old noticed.

 Pregame picture.

Silas throwing the ball in from the sidelines.

Sweaty boy at halftime. It was 90 degrees at 10am.

Pep talk...love the little girl in pink shorts.

Coach's wife spraying the kids down to cool off.

September

Elias got braces...I took a photo with my phone and magically deleted it somehow.  He only has bracket on the uppers for now.  They will be adding the lower ones later. He chose alternating blue colors to show school spirit...GO EAGLES! Elias was originally going to play football this fall but joined the Cross Country team instead.  He's never been a runner so this was a shock for all of us.  He's stuck with it though and showing great improvement.  He ran a 7m30s mile the other day for his personal best.  Caleb had me buy a stop watch so he can challenge to a mile race on Sat. morning.  We'll see how that goes.  Elias tried out for Off Season Basketball and made the team as well.  This was a REAL shock to us but we couldn't be any prouder of him.  He seems to have adjusted really well to Junior High.

Isaac started and quit a YMCA soccer league last week. We signed him up for the 8/9 yr old team.  His first practice was last Wednesday where he was the only older boy and had little teeny girls as young as 5 on his team.  Ummm that's not safe and for sure not ok.  As we walked on the field he got a look of his team.  Sharing the field was a tackle football team with boys about his age.  Yeah, pretty sure playing pansy soccer with the fru fru girls while watching an intense football practice wasn't going to work out.  It's too late to join the football team but he wanted off that soccer team whether or not he had any other sport for a replacement.  I don't blame him.  He's doing awesome in school again this year and has amazing teachers.

Silas began Kindergarten and we all had our fingers crossed that it would work out.  The first 2 days he wasn't buying into the structure and rules but by day 3 he decided he loved it.  He's done really well adjusting to his new life and complains every Saturday when there's no school.  I got a voicemail on Friday from his teacher letting us know how great he's been YAY! Then I got a note yesterday that he "spanked" another boy who'd been naughty to him. He's just a living example that for every action there is an equal or greater reaction.  Maybe Jake won't dump Silas' chips out next time.

Jude's 1st day of preschool.

Blowing out his candles.

Feeling pretty awesome with his weedwacker toy.

Ready for his surgery.

Jude turned 3 and was pretty excited about his Birthday.  I had planned on making his dessert for our Sunday celebration of his Birthday.  At about 8:30 Saturday he told me he needed a race car cake....ut oh...He was expecting a character cake of some kind.  Oops.  Caleb and I put Elias in charge and ran to Kroger and bought a sweet dragon cake that met his needs. While he were singing to him we had to keep lighting his candles.  Guess he didn't know that you're supposed to wait til the end of the song.  Yesterday was finally his inguinal hernia repair surgery.  Luckily we got bumped to the 1st case of the day so we didn't have to keep him fasting for long.  They gave him some medicine that made him tired and amnesic so he wouldn't remember being wheeled away from me.  He was like a wasted, drunk 3 year old. He was hilarious. The best thing he did was hold his hands right in front of his face and turn them back and forth and asked me with very slurred speech, "Mom, why are there no toys in my hands?".  They went in to repair his hernia and explore the opposite side to be sure it looked healthy... Sure enough they found a second hernia as well.  So grateful we waited for a Pediatric Surgeon!  The one we were seeing in Idaho wasn't going to check the opposite side.  He's recovering very well.  He's refusing all pain meds today and is happy and getting around.

Taking Jude on a "choo choo ride". Good thing he won't remember what they were really taking him for.

Snuggling Dad in the recovery room.  He was SO agitated waking up from the anesthesia.  He was angry, screaming and thrashing around for 20 minutes.

I just got back from my weekend in NYC with my bestie Kris and had an amazing time.  We were so proud of ourselves for being in charge of all our own travel without an agency and getting around like pros.  Kris wrote a great post with all her sweet pictures so I'll put the link to her post here for you to check out our trip. http://herewecomevietnam.blogspot.com/2010/09/260-breaking-it-down.html