Jack-O-Lanterns!

Last night was pumpkin carving night at the Rogers' household! During the day the boys decorated paper pumpkins at Kim's and they wanted their Jack-O-Lanterns to look the same.. so we did the best we could! Cora's I decided to make into a little girlie pumpkin.. why not right?!

This year it was Cole who would not touch the pumpkin seeds. Caden was hesitant at first but then dug in pretty willingly once he saw me do it. All in all it was a fun evening Caden was totally into it and hopes everyone is really scared by his pumpkin on Halloween!

Digging right in!

Messy, messy, messy!

Cole points, but will not touch!

Bllaaaaahhh is all he kept saying

And here is Miss Cora with her very first Jack-o-Lantern!

BOO!

8 Month SIbling Comparison

I should have waited and added this to the last post! Here are each of the kids at about 8 months old! Enjoy comparing!

8 Months... The Gates are up!

Tuesday Cora turned 8 months old! Time is still flying by! and Cora is still happy as ever! we have really lucked out with this little girl! As of today Cora has 6 teeth! And this morning Cora had pancakes with her breakfast! Finger foods here we come! Her hair is growing slowly.. it's still pretty short everywhere except for the tuft on the top of her head which is about 2" long, and the only way it lies is straight up! She's our little peacock! Her dimples are becoming more prominent as she gets older.

Happy all the time is an understatement! She never cries.. if she starts getting a bit cranky we know it is time for a nap. If she does cry we rush to her quickly because we know something is wrong! Usually it is because Cole is sitting on her or poking her. He's in for some trouble once she's big enough to fight back!

Cora loves to play peek-a-boo! She plays with us with her bibs! or any clothes lying around on the floor! She'll lift it over her eyes and then put it down with a big smile and a laugh! She also absolutely loves her brothers, she laughs and laughs even when they are doing something we'd rather them not. Trying to tell them it's not okay while their little sister is laughing hysterically at them doesn't help drive the message home!

Cora is making strides towards crawling! She began by pulling herself around with her arms a week and a half ago, she's now graduated to pushing off with her legs as well.. tonight even she sort of started keeping both knees up and her belly off the floor! We'll see if she continues tomorrow. The first of three gates is up.. at the top of the stairs. she's not quite mobile enough to need the others yet.

Enjoy the video of her early stage crawling... I'll update when we have officially reached the big milestone! we'll be in big trouble then!

Head of the Charles - 2009

Last weekend we headed to Boston for the Head of the Charles. Every year we go on Saturday to spend the afternoon on the dock watching the races and chatting with all our friends whom we used to row with.. our generation of alumni crowd gets thinner every year, but we'll keep going back as long as there is someone there! We can't wait til the kids get older so we can go up to Week's Bridge to watch the crashes! Rowing was such a huge part of Rob and my college life we want to make sure the kids know all about it! And looking at the genetics they will probably be great candidates for the sport!

This year was Cora's first Head of the Charles! Out of the belly at least! She had a grand old time watching all the people,and of course she was the cutest baby there sporting her BU colors! Next year we'll be chasing her around making sure she doesn't run off the dock!

Caden looks for Padge as he rows past the starting line!

Cole helps find Padge!

Cora is a natural on the erg!

Who is that cool kid? Obviously a future rower!

It was a beautiful day on the Charles! The kids really enjoyed "the boat races". We dropped the kids back with Grammy and Grampy and back to Boston we went to get beverages with gang at Crossroads. Every year it is a great time.. it brings back all the memories of the good old college days!

Corn Maze.. in the Dark!

Last Friday was a chilly evening, but we bundled ourselves up to head to one of the local orchards to try out the corn maze.. in the dark! We've done the corn maze every year in the daylight, I'm not sure if it was the dark that made it harder or maybe it was genuinely harder.. but we didn't make it out at the end. We were doing pretty well for awhile, then we must've taken a wrong turn at some point because suddenly we found ourselves only a short distance from the VERY BEGINNING! What!? I of course did not want to admit defeat, but it was approaching the kids bedtime and Caden was tired of walking, while Cole was already being carried.. alas we went back out the in and headed on home.

I can now relate to all those movie/tv scenes when someone runs into a corn maze and the killer or whomever chases after them and they get all confused in the corn. Well.. everything they portray is real! The corn is so tall you barely have a grasp on where you are and as the wind blows the corn rustles so you think someone is in the corn. I definitely would not want to be in the corn maze or any corn field for that matter by myself!

Rob ponders the path choices ahead

Another Year for Daddy!

I have soooo much catching up to do! Today I had the craft fair at work.. for the past 2 weeks I have been doing nothing but crafting after the kids went to bed.. so the blog got neglected, so now I have to play catch up!

We made a jack-o-lantern cake we saw in a magazine, but since they don't sell all orange M&M's this season I had to go with Reese's Pieces because it has the largest orange ratio of all the candies. The cake idea actually had a recipe for a scrumptious looking pumpkin cake.. but since I wasn't sure how pumpkin and peanut butter go together I played it safe and just made a mix.. but I think the cake recipe it called for was used for a reason! More cake to put a mouth on! Oops! No matter no one turned down cake! Still quite tasty!

Rob and the boys give their best jack-o-lantern faces!

The Colors of Fall...

There is something I love about each season, which sounds silly as I'm sure everyone does! Spring I love the smell.. that and the growing bulbs as they first peep through the soil. The summer.. what's not to love about summer? But I love getting up in the morning, and it is warm already, and you can stay outside late into the night.. and.. it's still warm! Sadly I think what I love about summer is the feel of a beach day, when you pull into work get out of the car and walk through the parking lot there are some days where I think "Damn! THIS is a beach day!" which is really funny because we rarely go to the beach nor do I particularly love the beach! Winter my most favorite thing is when we get the snowfalls when the snow sticks to everything! Every branch has a layer of snow, the telephone wires.. you name it! But back to the season at hand!My favorite part of fall is obviously the foliage.. but more importantly the sound of the leaves! I am in love with the sound of the crunching leaves beneath my feet as I walk through them. One of my most vivid memories of my late Grampy Pyndo is taking walks and crunching through the leaves, walking on top of the stone wall on the way to the Mill Pond... every time I crunch through leaves I have that memory, it makes me smile!

So anyway! We see foliage everywhere we look.. the hard part is capturing it into a photograph that you want to look twice at.. as are all nature shots. Nature photography (or whatever you call it!) is definitely my weak point.. I need lots of practice. Kelly is really good at it and she called a couple of weeks ago during a clearing on a drizzly day to see if I wanted to go take pictures! We walked around the neighborhood with Cole (S.) and Caden on their bikes and clicked away.. the hardest part is figuring out what to take a picture of! Well.. I guess making it look good is the hardest part.. heck it's all hard! I like people much better!

Last Saturday morning Rob took Caden to the grocery store with him. Cole was not happy.. he wanted to go somewhere too!! So I decided to load him and Cora into the car and take some pictures of some pretty fall things I'd seen on my drive to work!

Unfortunately by the weekend all the leaves had fallen off of this tree which had been full of orangey yellow leaves at the beginning of the week!! Maybe I'll catch this one next year!

On my way to work around 7 AM the sun is hitting this tree perfectly and it is as if it is on fire!! Unfortunately the sun was in and out when we were driving around.. mostly in.. and since we were parked on the side of a busy road I decided not to wait until it came out! .... Again! maybe next year!

Normally when I drive by the flea market (this long stretch of white fence) it is during the week so the flea market is closed, but on Saturday morning things are in full swing!! So the flags were up and flying out straight on the windy day! The flags definitely added a nice touch.. although the Exit sign and Parking sign in the background aren't as picturesque!! You win some you lose some I guess!