Yesterday there was a lot of ice…and the “invisible” kind too which is the worst. I had gone out to help Brian put something in his car and thought that the driveway was just wet, but I slipped a little and realized it was all frozen. Later that day, Aiden, Brady and I were supposed to go meet some friends, including Logan who was with his buddy, for an afternoon at the local inflatables jumping place. Aiden needed me to help him with something, but Brady was ready to go. I was JUST about to warn him about the ice, but he went out before I had a chance to say anything. About 20 seconds later, he came tearing into the house screaming that he hit his head. He had run out on to the driveway and SMACK – fell down and hit the back of his head on the concrete. He was VERY upset, confused and couldn’t see very well. He asked for water, forgot what he had asked for and asked for it again…even though he was holding it. It became obvious after about 5 minutes that he needed to go to the Emergency Room. Brian and I packed the boys into the car and left.

Here is my facebook post from today:

Conversation yesterday in the emergency room after Brady slipped on the ice and sustained a concussion:
Nurse: can you point to one of these faces to show how you are feeling right now?
Brady: points to the happiest face
Me: That's how you're feeling baby??!!
Brady: well, I'm happy....my head just hurts a lot!

We were taken back quickly thanks to a phone call from a friend who works at the hospital (my hero of the day!) They did a CT san on Brady’s head to make sure there was no bleeding. After an hour and a 1/2, we found out that his brain looked good…definitely a concussion, but no bleeding. Phew!! He is supposed to take it easy, EARLY bedtime for a week, very limited TV and video games, no reading, no running around. He came home and couldn’t stand lights so I set him up in my room with the lights down. He fell asleep around 6 and pretty much slept until 7 this morning. I was with him in our bed while Brian was with Aiden in the guest room (because of course poor Aiden threw up around 11pm…he was the last man standing who hadn’t gotten sick. I’m still the only one who hasn’t puked in the last week!) Logan was thankfully sleeping at his friend’s house and got to miss the whole thing!

Today Brady is acting totally normal. We are being cautious, but he seems good. He hasn’t had a headache, he’s back to being able to tolerate lights and is eating. I downloaded a few audio books (Diary of a Wimpy kid etc). He and Aiden lay on the couch this morning for a while just relaxing and listening to them. As I am typing, he ran in to update me on something they are doing in the living room. You would never know…but we’re still going to be on high alert!!

Sleeping it off in the ER while we waited for the test results. We had to keep him awake the whole way to the hospital and only let him fall asleep after the doctor said it was OK.

Chillin to an audio book this morning…drinking his 3rd of 3 Gatorades we purchased…doctor’s orders. 

He took sunglasses to run errands with Daddy.

Yet another installment of “how I slacked on blog posting this year”!

Brady was “an archer”. This is him at his class party with the girl he simply adores, Amber.

Logan was having difficulties deciding on a costume so I suggested that he “dress up” for Halloween. He loved it, owned it, and confused many many people that day. I got the suit from Once Upon a Child for cheap. Anyone need a ring bearer? We’re ready to go!

Logan dancing in the costume parade.

Aiden was a blue picmin. What’s a picmin you ask???

It’s this guy. He’s from a video game that Aiden was playing at the time. They pick flowers with giant numbers on them to produce more picmin and go on missions. The blue ones can swim in water. Don’t ask…this is the kid who dressed as a lightning bolt last year.

This has nothing to do with Halloween, but it was on my phone with the Halloween pics. It’s a giant Amber Brady built in mindcraft. He’s smitten.

House decorations.

I used my paper cutter to do the letters on the pumpkins. Gotta remember that one for next year!

Here are a couple fun things we did this fall:

Brady and I did the annual Juvenile Diabetes Walk with our team Krazy for Kate. Logan and Aiden had too much sports stuff that day so I got some special time with my littlest man.

It’s a great cause…plus Joel and Kristin always bring donuts!!

It was in a new location this year…very scenic! The weather was phenomenal as well.

Brady somehow convinced Mackenzie to give him a ride for a good portion of the walk!

Brady and his posse: Carter and Jackson (brothers)

Pics from our trip to the corn maze and pumpkin place:

This is Aiden running the “kids maze” after we did a small (easy) portion of the real one. Brian told him to look at the grass (which was worn down along the path that gets you out) so Aiden decided to RUN it and set….um…a record or something.

I love these crazy big statues with pumpkin heads. The lighting is bad, but there is a boy in front of each one.

They also had some apple picking…in like the most GIGANTIC clover field ever. I think Aiden and I found at least 5 four-leaf clovers that day.

Logan is getting a big too big for the riding toys, but they paved the track this year (or last maybe…we didn’t go to the same place last year). He is dying laughing at how big his legs are and how hard it is to peddle.

My boys admiring goats.

We decided we were only buying 1 big “family” pumpkin for carving. Everyone picked a pumpkin and daddy set them up randomly for judging.

Here we are gutting the winning pumpkin. Sadly, we never got past the gutting part…it was a faceless jack-o-lantern. We’re really phoning it in this year all around (as is evidenced by the fact that I’m documenting this on December 21st!) Selling the house and building a new one has proven time-consuming to say the least :)

So I’ve very very clearly been neglecting the blog lately. This is the time of the year when I start thinking about having it printed as our “year in review” album. Um…ya…I have a LOT to post. I just made a list

• Fall Stuff
• Halloween (!)
• Brian’s birthday (40th!!)
• Brady’s birthday
• Houckmas

So…I’ll be…um…catching up…in reverse order!

Fun Run: a school fundraiser where the kids collect pledges and then run around by grade level while being cheered on by parents and teachers. The head of the fun run (one of the great parents at our school) uses a microphone and instructs the kids to do silly stuff like “run with a buddy” or “skip” etc. I volunteered during the kindergarten, 1st and 3rd grade allotted times. Logan and Aiden both individually grabbed me for the “buddy run” – I was touched. Date of this year’s Fun Run: October 25th. It was the first time in the history of the school (now 6 years old) that the event was held outside! It was a bit chilly, but at least it wasn’t raining like usual.

Aiden running with the 1st graders

This is Logan’s class with the Famous Dave’s Pig (they sponsor our Fun Run). The gym teachers took turns in the pig costume and they were DYING. They kept sneaking behind this big truck to take the head off and asked all the volunteers repeatedly if we wanted to take over!

Logan rocking the 3rd grade run

Brady is in a grey coat and a rainbow-striped hat

 

Brady in his standard pose – arms victoriously in the air!

That same day, from 6-8, our school had it’s annual Fall Event: Family Game Show Mania. I have been involved with this event since it’s conception because my good friend Susan heads it up (organized doesn’t even begin to describe Susan!). This was our 4th year and the thing pretty much runs like clockwork at this point (thanks again to Susan who reorganizes everything meticulously before the event each year). I wanted to take lots of pictures because 1. this is the last year we’ll be at our school and 2. Because I spent HOURS the first year making all these signs that I’ll probably never seen again (sniff sniff). I used metallic markers for the borders and words and sparkly black, white, gold and silver sticky foam paper for all the “pictures”.

The whole school is set up with various TV-game-show events. This is “Deal or No Deal”. Susan made these awesome “briefcases”

Jen and Dave are amazing at wood-working games. They made this spin the wheel and a putting green (we all get to store these things in our houses every year)

Again…I make signs :)

We decorate the hallways the Thursday before the event and then finish set-up Friday after school.  

Susan runs to check out game set up

The kids earn money at each game and can take it to the Community Room (aka: Southbury Store) and buy prizes. You may not recognize this young man because he’s covered in “prizes” ;)

The last time I posted soccer pictures, I realized we had none for Logan. This past season, L was on 2 different teams for the same club. It was hard to juggle 20 games in 12 weeks along with Aiden’s 10, but we did it (we hardly did anything else, but we did it!)

So…I’m not sure how they chose the game ball, but it always ends up being one of ours. The yellow one is Logan’s. These pictures are from 2 different games, but they used his ball for both. Maybe he offers it up…I’ll have to ask how that works :)

Oh…and while I’m here talking about soccer, I’ll post the pictures of the boys in the Italy jerseys Memaw and Grandpa brought back from their trip. The boys loved them so much, they all wore them to school the day after they got them. It made the crossing guard (a great TA at the school who we love) giggle to see them all coming in their matching shirts!

This was right before school…obviously taken when it was still nice and warm outside!

This was also the afternoon that the boys got excited about fall leaves and wanted to rake up a pile of them (this ended with Aiden, Brady and 2 of the neighborhood girls “de-leafing” our trees with a rake so they could get a bigger pile)

I found Aiden up in this tree with a drink in his hand (?!) I reprimanded him, but told him to stay put so I could get a picture.

The kids have all read a book at school about being “bucket fillers”. I believe it’s called “How Full is Your Bucket?” It’s a lovely message about how doing nice things for others puts a drop in their imaginary bucket (full bucket = happy person) and how making others happy adds a drop to your bucket as well. The opposite? Bucket tippers!

I’ve realized that brothers (possibly siblings in general) do quite a lot of bucket tipping. It’s becoming a problem lately as they keep tipping my bucket as well (and by this I mean that they are making me quite angry and upset with constant bickering!)

Logan’s teacher had each of her students make a paper “bucket” at the beginning of the year. They are all mounted on a board and the class is encouraged to drop off “bucket notes”. Logan’s notes say things like, “I like your shoes” or “I like you because we play together at recess”. Last week, I decided we needed buckets at the house as well.

The first day the boys got their buckets, there was a flurry of nice-note writing to each other and they ended up spending about 2 hours forming their “Bro Ko” which is a club including brothers and the dog (Ko for Kona). They made a giant sign for their room.

It’s been about a week now and I have to remind them about their buckets, but when I do, they will stop and write notes. It’s a work in progress. Has the fighting stopped, no. However, I’ve been throwing around a lot of, “you’re being a bucket tipper” and that usually motivates them to at least say sorry. :)

The first night of bucket notes was so successful that they all decided they wanted to sleep in Logan’s bed together. It took them a while to fall asleep, but I was so pleased by their “brotherness” that I let it slide…and snuck a picture of them and Kona later that night.