The Shark and The Pirate

The shark, the pirate, and their mom made their way to the Johnson Street Businesses Halloween Extravaganza. This was the perfect Halloween Trick or Treat experience as it was held in the daylight on one block of Johnson St. and not at 7 pm, in the dark and cold. We were on the same path as a very scary Grim Reaper who had the ability to make Quinn scream inside every store. Quinn has a difficult time with what is real and what is not. He also had a hard time with all of the masked monsters coming to our door. I suspect he is watching too much Scooby Doo with his brother and his imagination runs wild with thoughts of monsters.

Starting them early

Quinn, Zoee and Xavier are lined up at various gambling machines at Lures n' Beer or Lured Away or something like that, a bar in Weyerhaeuser, Wisconsin. We were celebrating Martin's 38th birthday. When we arrived Xavier exclaimed, "This is perfect grandma. This is beautiful." The bar/restaurant was full of smoke and scantily clad ladies on the screens of the gambling machines. I spent a fair amount of time in these sorts of establishments growing up, and I survived. This is small town life and also not unlike what I saw in several European countries. Kids go where their parents go. We had a good night and ended up seeing a bunch of my cousins show up with their children. :)

Quinn Deere

Quinn asked that I put this one on the 'puter.' Quinn and John Deere are tight.

Soccer Star

This is Xavier in the middle of a fast-paced preschool soccer game. Notice he is just standing there. We got plenty of the just-standing-there shots. During all games he was either too tired to kick the ball, needed a hug, or was thinking about watching Scooby-Doo. Once he was even able to get his shirt stuck over his head mid-game. Now soccer is over and he is involved in something much less competitive--yoga. At first he didn't want to try yoga because he thought it was girly(I don't know how he picks up these things) then I talked him into it because Grant (a boy) was also planning on taking it. After his first class I asked him if he did downward dog, child's pose, etc. and he said yes but he also did a stinky butt pose. Hmm haven't heard of this pose.

Oops this one is newborn Xav

I can't believe I posted Quinn's newborn photo as Xav's newborn photo. You'd think a mother would be able to differentiate between her boys. Apparently not and this photo still looks like Xavier today, a little puffy with a strawberry on his eye and above his lips but still Xav. Quinn's newborn photo, however, doesn't look like him at all.