carving pumpkins 2011

Mary Beth's: a mousie

Jeffrey's: a racoon

Mickey's: a power-up

(apparently this is something from Super Mario Brothers?!?)

I guessed an upside down ghost...

John's: an angry bird

Mine: a scared jack-o-lantern

love them!

extra special pizza & movie night

we did pizza & movie night last night to make up for missing it on Friday :)

pepperoni & jalapeno pizza:

special treat: pumpkin marshmallows for roasting

popcorn(of course):

and ANOTHER special treat: rainbow licorice!

and our annual screening of my favorite Peanuts movie: The Great Pumpkin

John even brought up the projector so we watched it on the wall- the kids love this

I have to say... it was one of the best pizza and movie nights yet!

Dakota Zoo- Bismarck {part 2}

GORGEOUS weather, FUN animals, GREAT day!!!!

And of course we had to eat at the China Star(so I could get my fav: Mexican Chicken!) before we headed out of town! YUM. I miss you Bismarck!

Dakota Zoo- Bismarck {part 1}

it was good to visit our old zoo again... we did all the stuff we always did there... so many happy memories at this zoo... when the kids were little peanuts :(

more pics to come!

Bismarck- "The Dinosaur Museum"

Yesterday we hopped in the van right after school and headed to Bismarck for a few days. John was attending an administrator's conference and the kids and I were taking the opportunity to visit our old neighbors/friends. On Wednesday night we went out to eat- just the adults!- and our friends' oldest babysat. Since John and I never go out at night without the kids it was a real treat! They took us to a new pub downtown call The Blarney Stone and we had some pints of beer and split the fish and chips- YUMMY!

Then this morning the kids all swam at the hotel pool for awhile while Tracy and I visited- we stayed at a newish hotel: La Quinta and it had a pretty nice pool with basketball hoops and a slide so the kids really enjoyed it. Then we went to the our friends' house for lunch followed by our mandatory trip to "The Dinosaur Museum"- it's really called the Heritage Center but when the kids were really little and we were living in Bismarck they always called it the dinosaur museum- so we still do!

Because it's cute.

And funny- because I think there's only one dinosaur there. :)

We kept reminiscing about all the memories we had associated with the place... it was sad for us because we really really loved Bismarck and miss the town and our wonderful friends so much. I kept telling John I wanted to move back!

They had closed the children's section, which the kids were really upset about. But we ended up finding some of the kids stuff scattered in different areas of the museum so they cheered up a little. I would always take their pictures on these horses when they were little so I did it again to compare. Then before we left we made sure to go to the top floor to see the geese and press the button to make them honk. Mom- do you remember all the times we took the kids here when they were little? And we'd meet up with John on his lunch break? And the time little Mickey crawled into the tee pee that no one is allowed in and I had to go get him out?

Now I'm crying... :(

We had a great day... even though I kept feeling really nostalgic the whole time. And the people who bought our house changed the porch and even though it looks better I was still sad to see it different. We have so many wonderful memories in that house and town... plus I didn't really like the people we sold our house to so that doesn't help... I have to go stop crying now.

Tomorrow is the zoo!

{these pics aren't that great because I was using my phone}