Pumpkins and Feline Photo Bombs

This year the boys took a much more active role in our annual pumpkin carving event.  Although neither of them enjoys the stringy mess of cleaning out the pumpkin that must come before the much anticipated carving!

Pictures are worth a thousand words.....

Mitchell was very excited to actually do all of the designing and carving of his pumpkin...with a little help form dad of course.

 

And of course Collin thought he was big enough that he should also be able to do all the carving on his own.

The finished products!  The best part of this picture is the creepy photo bomb going on in the background courtesy of Leo.  He never likes to be left out of the action! :)

8 weeks

I have now ran 5 days a week for 8 weeks! And this week I logged the most miles in 8 weeks as well. About a month off from the 5 mike Turkey Trot in Kearney on a Thanksgiving!

We were so proud of both the boys at fall parent/teacher conferences. They are both doing well and both had glowing reports from their teachers!

They spent a long weekend in Nebraska with Grandma and Grandpa Bunger. They had a great time and even got to visit a pumpkin patch north of a Grand Island while visiting.

Chad and I got to go to the KSU game yesterday and had some amazing seats!

And I think everyone will agree that Chad is a true wildcat fan walking the 1+ miles into the stadium from our tailgating site...on crutches! 

He is ready to get into his walking boot next week and already talking about his training plan once he is released to do so in about 5 weeks.

Too Quiet

Thursday afternoon while the boys were all playing downstairs, it had gotten very quiet.  Soon after the adults had made this comment, I heard the boys coming upstairs and Chad's muffled laughter and the words "oh, and that's permanent" before Collin rounded the corner into the kitchen looking like this.....

He said he wanted to look like Hawkeye from the Avenger's. 

Lucky for Collin (who hates to have his face washed each night during bath) we learned that permanent marker comes off quite easily with eye make-up remover.  Oh my.  What will this boy do next?

Cousins, Snow and Swim Team

We were so excited to have Aunt Amy and Daniel here to visit for a long weekend from Minnesota!

And it worked out well with both our school schedule as the boys had Friday off. Thursday afternoon we took advantage of the gorgeous weather after school.

Which was good because Friday it was raining, cold and was even SNOWING in the afternoon.

Saturday the weather came back from Crazy Town and we went to Peabody to visit Great Grandma Craney.

And of course we took her to Braum's for lunch. And yes, she had a double hot fudge Sunday. :)

We were sad to see Aunt Amy and Daniel leave this morning, but had a great time together during our fun fall visit.

And this afternoon it's time to cheer on Mitchell in his first swim meet!

Negative Splits

I can tell the fall weather has finally arrived (and stayed consistently) this week....my running has improved dramatically with the cooler temps!

And yesterday afternoon after I got Chad settled from his foot surgery, I  was able to achieve negative splits on my 4.35 mile run....it's the first time in awhile I've been able to start with a strong pace and actually have the second half of the run go faster than the first. 

Wednesday Chad finally was able to have a bone spur removed from the back of his ankle that had been bothering him since before his cardiac event this past summer.  He will be out of commission work out-wise for the next 6 weeks but will hopefully be back to start training with me for our next half marathon and he will be pain free!

500 miles

After my weekend run I have now run over 500 miles in 2013!

509.7 miles and counting.  I have also finished 6 weeks in a row of running 5 days a week, completing a minimum of 3.1 miles at a time.

And the boys got an unexpected treat at church on today as every child got to pick out and take home a pumpkin after church service. Now to give them "faces" as Collin would say.

9+5

While climbing our huge cottonwood trees in the backyard during a gorgeous fall Sunday afternoon, I was able to snap this shot of Collin.

What a cute little 5 year old!!!  And knowing it is nearly impossible to get these kind of pictures where either boy is looking AT the camera AND smiling....I thought I'd try my luck with Mitchell later in the day.

Not a bad shot of this 9 year old at all!!!  Then I went for the home run ball.....both boys together.  This one usually leads to several pictures of eyes closed, looking away from the camera, strained smiles....and one exasperated mommy.

 We settled on this picture as "good enough".  Both looking at the camera, one not torturing the other and both looking somewhat happy.  9+5= 2013 Fall Bunger Boy's.