Happy Birthday, Maddox!

Maddox turned 3 today!

It was so much fun to help him celebate! Since Maddox loves to dress up, Corey and Heidi have planned costume parties the last two years, and we all join in the fun. It was almost cancelled when he was feeling a bit under the weather yesterday, but he rallied and the party was on!

This year, Maddox was Buzz Lightyear. Corey had to assemble the wings and add batteries for sound.

Almost done. He didn't want me to take a picture of the finished costume, and then he got tired of the whole costume thing and wanted to take it off. Oh well. I'll try again on Halloween.

Kyle just came as himself, and Corey was a basketball player. That's Princess Fiona (Grandma Michelle) in the background.

Jenna and Andy wore masks that Andy got in New Orleans - they're all set for Mardi Gras. We thought they should be going out on the town after the party, but they were just heading home to crash after all the party excitement :-).

Here's Corey in his mask. That's a full basketball on his head - pretty funny.

I was a dalmation and Chuck was a deer hunter. I think he should have been a fireman!

Grandpa Rob came as Shrek. I was busy cutting up fruit when everyone arrived so I missed all the photo ops of everyone else, but the costumes were awesome and Maddox had so much fun checking out all the characters!

Maddox got to talk to Phebe, although it was a pretty short conversation. The presents were calling his name!

He got some really cool gifts! We went with a car/truck theme this year and got him this city/road mat and some vehicles to go with it.

Kyle got him a video game system that has old-time games on it.

This Tonka fire truck was the only "noise toy" - gee, I wonder who got that one? Blame it on Grandpa Chuck!

It didn't take Corey long to hook up the video game system. I think Kyle and Corey were definitely more excited to see PacMan than Maddox! He figured out the joy-stick right away. Must be a guy thing....

Time for cake! Heidi and Angie decorated Halloween cupcakes.

Maddox had a ghost.

Mmmmmmmm! Good!

Jenna and I ended the evening with a rip-roaring game of Candyland while Andy helped Maddox assemble a Legos vehicle.

Happy Birthday, Maddox!

Fall in Minnesota

We have a beautiful maple tree in our back yard, and when it turns red, my whole kitchen picks up the rosy glow.

This year, it turned a bit earlier than usual, and then...

I woke up to this! We've already had 3 mini-snowstorms this fall, and we're only half-way through October! What will January be like??

Family Golf

We had our 3rd annual family golf tournament on Sunday, which is a guarantee for a cold, damp Sunday. It rained the first year, but stopped long enough for us to golf, the second year was a total wash-out, although a few of the guys went out regardless, and yesterday was dry, but cloudy and COLD! Chuck, Ted, Pat, and Maddox stayed home to watch the end of the Twins game (and nap), while the rest of us headed to the executive course at Gopher Hills. With just six of us golfing, we decided to do best-ball with 3 teams, and we all went out together (it helps when there's no one else on the course!).

Great form, Corey!

My 4 layers of clothes made it pretty tough to get in my "groove."


Looking good, Jenna!

Smack it, Andy!

Go for it, Joyce!

Way to go, Paul!

High-five after an awesome putt.

Corey had a couple of great, long putts, too.

Team 1 - Joyce and Paul

Team 2 - Jenna and Andy

And the winner is ....Team 3 - Corey and Jane - with a score of 35 (4 pars and 5 bogies)!
My goal was to at least contribute with a few shots, which I did, but most of the credit for that score goes to Corey. He did admit that it helped to watch what my putts did before hitting his own, so I guess I was good for something! :-)

Some year, we'll get a beautiful, fall afternoon, but actually, the weather doesn't matter. It's just fun to get together. Someone suggested maybe we should try a winter bowling tournament. What do you think?