Apologies...

...for the brief hiatus.
Daddy has been away to Los Angeles for the Notre Dame-USC game ...


..though as you may be able to tell from this second picture, the good people at USC didn't give us the greatest of seats.

Our football players

Email from Mama this morning:

The boys were just in the playroom with that nerf football, and Aidan
yelled, "I'm Brady Quinn! Catch, Bryce!" So I said, "Does that make
Bryce Jeff Samarzdija?" And Aidan yelled back, "NO, Mom, he's Darius
Walker. That's my player!"

"Swift Bear"

It's the week of Thanksgiving, of course, so the boys are each getting to celebrate the holiday in different ways in their respective classrooms. Bryce really took the cake today, though, when he came home dressed as "Swift Bear"... and it only took him about 5 minutes to figure out how to open up his little shaker to find out that there were beans inside...

Charlie!

Today, Aidan got to go to school dressed as his favorite character from a children's book..
He chose to go dressed as Charlie from the Charlie and Lola books.
Here he is with his friend Andrew-- who apparently is a fan of the Hitchhikers' Guide to the Galaxy books (I'm actually not sure who Andrew was dressed was)...

"I want to be a Daddy"

The subject of occupations came up this week-- a conversation that I, frankly, think is long overdue-- and Aidan made no bones about his intentions:

"When I grow up, I'm going to be a Daddy."

But what do you want to be for work?

"I won't ever go to work"

No?

"No. I'll just get to stay home and do whatever I want to do."

Bryce then interjected an idea for himself:

"I'm going to be a necklace."

Oh Olivia!

Friends from Paducah, Dudley and Gail, came for a visit today with their kids, Olivia and Connor. The kids had a great time playing all afternoon.. in fact, they hardly stopped playing long enough for me to snap this picture of them!

Afternoon in the Park with James (and Jake) (and Aidan) (and Bryce)

Good friends Miki and Tom and their little boy James visited this weekend and we also had Aidan's friend Jake as an overnight guest on Saturday..

So what better way to spend the afternoon than to run around a playground for an hour or two..

James has really grown up so much since the boys saw him last November and we had a great time visiting with Miki and Tom, amidst all the kid-chaos! We will have to make another trip to Knoxville sometime in the near future to see them again soon!

More Halloween Pictures

Had a little trouble posting pictures the other night.. so here are some more pictures of the boys with freshly carved pumpkins, in their Halloween Costumes, and sorting through their candy..