A week in pictures

What do you do with 27 empty toilet paper rolls??
Well, a "Marble Drop"! of course!
The boys had been saving EVERY empty t.p. roll for weeks JUST to make this amazing creation. I even caught Ethan "speeding up the process" by pulling on extra t.p. and putting it in the garbage can in the bathroom (well, at least it wasn't in the toilet where it would've caused me to put on the "plumber hat", I already have the pants ;)

Mr. Adorable turned 5 months old.
I almost forgot and I really wanted his picture taken every month exactly on the 23rd
I took these pictures right before bed on his month-versary.
How do I love thee! Let me count the ways...1, 2, 3...

Isaac's LEGO creations. He was so pleased! And so was I!!!
His imagination is one of the neatest traits he's got and I love to see it daily.

This Shell station he made totally amazed me!
The sign on top of the building spins, it has a security camera mounted on top of it.
The people in line have little credit cards in their hands.
There's a pump and the person standing at it has a credit card also, the actual pump has a meter on it too.
The parked cars have that block-thing on the concrete in front of their parking spots (ya know, so the cars don't go past a certain spot)

What do you do when Daddy is out of town and the neighborhood kids start knocking at your door asking if we'd like for them to mow our lawn?
We say YES!!!
Best $15 spent all week!
And the kids were so entertained by these guys, that it gave me time to...

...do THIS!!!

Ethan ate SOOO many of these kiwis that well, let's say he saved a couple more empty t.p. rolls for another project :)
Thank you Scott and Christie! They were delicious!!
(By the way, you eat these with skin and all, no fuzz, no peeling, just perfect.)

My flat loaf of cinnamon raisin bread.
(I don't know what I did wrong, I even bought brand new yeast!
It's gotta be the bread machine, next time I'll let it rise and bake it in the oven.)
It would've been super yummy, had it not tasted like a brick of old play-do...

Have I told you I LOVE the Fall!?
And food?
All kinds of food!
Like baked stuffed apples

And Acorn Squash with brown sugar, butter and maple syrup.
The boys LOVED it, this was the main course.



We dragged Davin's tired butt to OMSI on his only day at home this week. The bonus part was that there was a Robotics competition going on
And then there was the free U2 Laser Show where we got to hold hands and pretend we were alone...until Toby shouted "Naaawsss!" the way only Toby does, right in the middle of "Mysterious Ways".
We had lunch in the van and went right back inside to see all there was to see, including the white snake and the millipede Toby is holding; and the interactive swing Gabe and Isaac are on.
The Mind Bending Puzzle exhibit is super cool, unfortunately, we didn't get to finish solving the puzzle. Toby had gotten lost (surprised?) and we had to do a "divide and conquer" search operation the older Petersen boys are so used to.
We found him standing on the counter of the main entrance...with the OMSI staff looking very relieved they weren't going to have to keep this one at museum closing time. Lord knows how many they have in the lost and found already!
After OMSI, we went to Grandma's house. You see, Grandpa lives there too and he had surgery last week, so we stopped to see him and love on him for a while.
After that we went to the Mongolian Grill. I'm surprised we hadn't been there since Toby was a couple of months old and with his wobbly head did a face plant on Davin's hot right out of the grill dinner plate.
Toby seemed to like it much better this time and loved every bite of it. :)

After that, home to carve the pumpkins.


Didn't Davin do an EXCELLENT job on them???
Thank you hunny!!! You're such a good Daddy! And I don't tell you that enough.

Gabe's Darth Vader, Isaac's "Frankenstein" (not really, but he insisted on it being Frankenstein like)
Ethan's Good Ole Jack, and Toby's Mickey Mouse.
Toby kept saying to Davin "Don't hurt Mickey Mouse, daddy!" as Davin so carefully carved the miniature pumpkin into Toby's favorite morning friend.


My sweet friend Brienne came to brighten up my Monday morning and the boys built forts on the play structure.
That's my Isaac! Nothing a little bit of painter's tape can't fix!


Noah and Toby were playing so nice, it was worth a picture :)


I will have to keep a log of how many HOURS Toby spends EVERY DAY playing with this little R2D2 toy.
"My Robot" has taught him all his shapes, numbers and letters!!!! I wish I could take credit for it, but no, George Lucas takes it all.

And last but not least...
I call this "My NEW addictions"
Thanks to Brienne, I got hooked on dark chocolate York Peppermint Patties. She's my dealer...shhhh!
And on the other hand, some Gazebo blend from Starbucks and Hazelnut biscotti creamer.
These two should come in I.V. form, they would've been GREAT during my first 3 boys' natural labor.