Crafty Kids!

Saturday night the boys spent the night at Nana and Papa's house while Dan and I went to a friend's house for an outdoor movie night! It was seriously cool as they had a huge movie screen outside!

Anyhow, Nana and Papa took them to see "Where the Wild Things Are." Luke was a mess during the movie (his first one!), Jack loved it, and my little Nicky D cried, not because he wanted to go home or didn't get his way, but because he was sad about the ending...how sensitive!

Sunday morning they woke up and made origami cats on brooms for Halloween. Yep, you did read that right, they did origami! The boys came home to show me their great creations and asked about other crafts. Thankfully I had some fall Oriental Trading items to make (thanks to Brooke, the special ed. teacher at school for passing her extras along to me!). All three boys got in the action in making a candy corn magnet and a "Happy Fall Ya'll" scarecrow sign!
Here is Nick in action!
And Luke too...don't ya love the tongue hanging out and the fabulous candy necklace for Halloween!
Jack models the finished product!
And Luke tells Dan, "No more scarecrows!" as he leaves his work station!
The boys LOVE this kind of stuff and it really is great to see them work happily together, sharing and actually bonding, and not wrestling with each other! Thanks to Dan for helping, even when Sunday football was on!!!

To Carve or Not to Carve!

So, I am definitely a lucky lady as I still get the opportunity to hang out with my girlfriends from high school every now and then!

One tradition is our annual pumpkin carving party. We always gather at Cara's house (she has the cutest little place...and no kids so it is nice and QUIET!!!). She makes her delish broccoli cheese soup and we bring lots of other edible goodies!!!

Once we finish eating, we bust out the pumpkins, well, at least some of us do! Initially we ALL would carve pumpkins, now, not so much. This year, Cara, Tonya and I were the only ones that opted to wield the knife and do some decorating.

Here is Cara getting her pumpkin ready...
Tonya's "shape" pumpkin, as she called it! Unfortunately we all got a good laugh at it...Tonya stayed true though and expressed only love for this "interesting" jack-o-lantern!
We were chatting about facebook and blogging and my two dear friends, Greta and Cara, who do neither, refused to get their picture taken for fear of it ending up, well, here!!! :) I attempted to snap a few and this is the best that I got!!!
Katie is a facebook fanatic! She was happy to pose for this goofy picture!!!
Our conversation, carving and cheesy broccoli soup were amazing, but the best part was that the six of us were able to get together without husbands and kids and enjoy a comfy night. Months may pass when we rarely talk to each other, but we always have such a great time when we get together, almost as if time has stood still!!!

Here is our group...me, Greta, Sharon, Tonya, Cara, and Katie posed with our pumpkins...mine is the one on the right - with polka dots!!! Love you girls! Can't wait until our next night out!

A Chilly Day for Outside Adventures...

Dan took off Saturday so we could spend a little family time in the great outdoors, well, as outdoorsy as we get - the Pumpkin Patch near our home! It was an outing for Children's Hospital's Cochlear Implant Support Group, of which we are obviously members! :)

We met the HUGE group - 2 tractors full of deaf children and teens along with their parents...some spoke, some signed...but we were all there together...in the COLD! Honestly, I don't think the temperature got above 50 degrees. I think the pics from our last year's pumpkin picking outing included us in shorts and t-shirts!!! What a difference a year makes!

We all loaded on the tractors and headed out to the pumpkin patch!
It may have been cold, but this picture captures the day...it was amazing!
The boys were running all over the muddy patch (and tripping on the vines!)...
But they did stop for me to take this picture! These aren't their actual pumpkins, I know this because Luke picked a super cool green one! Unfortunately, it fell off the wagon (ha!) on our way back to the country store. Thankfully one of the audiologists was on our tractor so she called another audiologist, still in the pumpkin patch, who brought Buka's great green pumpkin back! It was a bit bruised up, so those quick thinking audiologists brought a green replacement back and Luke was none the wiser! Thanks to our audiologists who take care of Buka's ears AND his green pumpkin, Jamie, Jerricha and Janet!
Here are my boys and I with the sun in our eyes...I was never so happy to see the sun, it added about 5 to 10 degrees to the cold, chilly day! Nick and Jack couldn't see because of the sun and Luke wanted to keep searching for his pumpkin...great pic, eh???
While we were waiting for Luke's green pumpkin, Dan and Nick had some apple cider! Nick LOVES the stuff!!!
After the pumpkin purchase we opted to make our own scarecrow. And that is REALLY what we did. We were given a paper full of directions and all the supplies we needed. Thanks to Dan and the boys for creating our scarecrow friend!
Here is Dan with all of the men of the Morra household!
There were ton of great photo opt places all over the farm. The boys indulged me a bit with the pics, but once they saw the fun corral and the bouncers, it was all down hill from there! Look at this HUGE pile of pumpkins!!!
After we put our scarecrow in the car we of course had to run over to the rides...Jack and Nick each chose to use their two tickets on the Jurassic bouncer, while Luke used one ticket for the Scooby Doo bouncer and one for this airplane ride...
We left the farm around 2 and headed to lunch, at the Golden Arches, of course! We then headed out to search for the boys' Halloween costumes. Nick and Luke found costumes quickly; however, Jack couldn't decide. Unfortunately, we didn't have too much time before Jack's 3:45 soccer game so we had to end our search and head to the soccer field. Jack played a great game, but poor kid, he was FREEZING, as was all of the spectators!!! Honestly, I took refuge in the porta potty, well, at least for a minute or two!

After the game we continued our search for Jack's costume and luckily he found one at the first shop we stopped at! We then headed home after a long, chilly day outside. After their baths/showers, the boys wanted to try on their costumes. They were even happy enough to pose by our new scarecrow and pumpkins for this pic! Here is a Halloween preview...my two Power Rangers and Cat in the Hat!
All in all a great day, but WAY too cold for all of the outdoor fun we had planned!

Our SHINING (Rock) Star!

As you all know (I think!), Luke has been going to Central Institute for the Deaf (CID) every Wednesday and Friday morning for his nursery class. Yesterday I got to join Luke and Dan there as it was a special day. After his class at CID Luke had his 18 month post cochlear implant mapping for audiology and speech evaluation at Children's Hospital. Typically the researcher is also there, but she was in Hawaii (poor, Ruth!). Anyhow, Dan and I were both a bit worried about how such a long day would affect Luke's test results, as CID runs from 9 - 12 and then his appointments began at 1 p.m. (they told us to be prepared to stay there for about 4 hours!) We must have forgotten that we were talking about our little rock star, because all he did was SHINE!

For all my SLP friends out there, Luke was given the PLS (Preschool Language Scale) and he did AMAZINGLY well!!! I will spare everyone all the standard scores and such and just tell you that on the Auditory Comprehension subtest he tested out at 3 years, 7 months and on the Expressive Communication he did even better at 3 years, 9 months!!! So basically, according to this test, normed on HEARING children, he is performing better than a 3 1/2 year old hearing child!!! She also conducted other tests, all of which he did amazing on as well (but I know others don't get as excited as I do about speech test scores!!!)

Anyhow, after the speech component was completed, we had about 30 minutes so we headed downstairs for a little ice cream treat. Then it was back upstairs and into the booth with our fabulous audiologists, Jamie and Jerricha! Luke once again put on a show. There was a little discrepancy from last time (in July) as he was performing about 5 - 10 decibels below where he previously was, so they changed his microphone (the magnet that is on his head) and sure enough, the scores went back up! He again is RECOGNIZING speech (and repeating it back to the audiologist!) at 20 dB...that is normal, people!!!
When all was said and done, we were heading out of Children's around 4:45 and Luke was already sleeping before we left the parking garage!!! What an awesome day yesterday!

You know, I often think back to the first time we were at Children's on February 28, 2007, just 2 weeks after Luke's birth when we found out of his severe to profound hearing loss. It was a day I will unfortunately never forget as one of the hardest I have had to face. I was grieving for my son and wishing that I could somehow take the deafness from Luke. Now I flash back to yesterday and remember the feelings of excitement and amazement. If only I knew then what I know now, that this diagnosis, the one that involved this word that was once a very hard word for Dan and I to even utter aloud (deaf!) has turned out to be a pretty cool thing. Luke is stronger for it, as is our entire family! We have always called Luke a rock star because of his love of music, but now I have no doubt in my mind that if he ever wants to be an actual "rock star" he will do nothing but shine!!!

Pick a Pumpkin, PLEASE!!!

I had the opportunity to go pumpkin picking with Nick and his kindergarten class - that's right, two field trips in almost as many weeks!!! Only three of the kindergarten classes went - this made so much of a difference...no more chaos!!! Here are Nick and his buddy, Tristan on the bus!
The orchard was so organized. When we got there we divided up into three groups, each class went with a different "farmer." Our first stop was feeding the animals!

Nick actually fed the cows! We fed them the leaves from the corn stalks...who knew???
Here's a close up of the cows, Red and Brown.
We moved onto feed goats and chickens and then it was time to jump on the tractor! It was SO cold and sitting on top of the tractor made it even cooler; however, check out Nick's face...he was super psyched!The pumpkin patch was HUGE! The boys loved running around in it (plus, it kept them warm!) The only rule was that they had to find a pumpkin they could carry (or mom could carry!!!) :)
Decisions, decisions. Nick kept bringing me more and more pumpkins! We FINALLY settled on one though!
We got back on the tractor and headed back to try some apple cider. Get this, Nick actually drank it...the whole thing! He even said he liked it!
The last stop was the play area! Nick was too busy riding the tractor, playing in the corn seed box, and climbing on the huge straw bale to stop for a photo! He did though want to have his photo taken with the big pumpkin...he is SO trained for photo opts!
Before we hopped back on the buses, I grabbed another mom to snap this quick picture of Nick and me together! We had such a blast today, running through the pumpkin patch. I hope Nick enjoyed this memory making day as much as I did!

Fall Fest is FUN!!!

Sunday morning all three boys woke up and their pink eye was gone (see post below!) The day was beautiful...not a cloud in the sky!!! It was a perfect day for our church's second annual Family Fall Fest!!! I made two crock pots full of chili and some funfetti cupcakes and we headed up to enjoy the sun!

This year one of the town's fire trucks was there for the kids to climb in and out of! Here are the three boys enjoying the view from inside the big red truck!
From a very big truck to this little train! I absolutely LOVE this picture of my three little Yankee fans sitting close and comfy to each other in the blue train car!
They had hit all the vehicles so it was time to do some jumping in this HUGE fire dog bouncer! Luke even loved it...my how my little guys are getting big!!!
The next stop was pumpkin painting! All three pumpkins have found a happy home in our front yard!!! They really did a great job!
We were sitting down eating some chili and munching on hot dogs when I happened to look up and see our church's steeple high in the sky. From my perspective on the ground it looked awesome, I just had to snap a quick pic!
After we had enjoyed all the yummy food, games and of course, candy prizes, we headed home to catch the Yankee game! It truly was a great day as the Yanks won the division series!!!

Tough Guys Have PINK Eyes!!!

This LONG four day weekend was supposed to be FABULOUS! We had plans Friday night to babysit Baby Henry and then Saturday night we were going to go over to our friend's house for a pizza and beer night until Jack got a fever Thursday night! We dealt with that all day Friday (thanks again to Nana for babysitting him while I presented at our county wide teacher's institute!). But then, Saturday morning he wakes up looking like this!!! PINK EYE!
This picture was actually snapped around 3 in the afternoon after he had many doses of eye drops to get rid of it...don't you just love the pitiful face too???

All three boys had those rough scratchy eyes, but Nick refused to be photographed!!! Here is our baby Luke!!! I snapped this quick pic after lunch. Can you tell he had ravioli???
Luckily, Daddy ran up to the pharmacy Saturday on his way home from work and picked up more drops! The whole family were on these...Luckily the meds worked and we were all good to go again by Sunday morning!!!

Soccer Saturdays AND Sundays!

If you are ever looking for the Morra family on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon in late August, September or October, I would recommend you check the soccer fields for Jack's games! Sorry to our friend, Luke, who had a Fabulous FIFTH birthday party on Saturday that we missed...due to my goof up on the time of the game! (SORRY JENN!!!)

Jack has been on the same team for three years now! This year they have red shirts and they opted to name themselves the "Cardinals!" Here are a few pictures I have taken over the past few weeks...

Here is Jack - far right...behind the green team member with the ball!
And here is Jack, our goalie!!! I must say that even in a second grader soccer game, this mom was just a tad bit nervous when Jack was going after the ball...he had no fear!!!
Goal kick!!!
The program is great, as they don't count goals (although the boys always do!) and truly focus on improving the kids' skills and making sure they have fun! We only have two more weeks and I think I actually might miss our crazy weekends!

Happy Birthday CID!!!

Last Wednesday, Central Institute for the Deaf, the oral school in St. Louis, that has totally changed both Jack and Luke's life, celebrated its 95th birthday! Luke was at school on Wednesday, so he and Dan got to participate!

CID went all out, having a magician to entertain the children! The kids then sang "Happy Birthday!" (a feat in itself for a school full of deaf children!) and enjoyed cupcakes! Ms. Beth, Luke's Deaf/Hard of Hearing Teacher who comes to our house, made sure to send extra cupcakes home with Dan! Luke also came home with a CID tattoo for himself and each of his brothers!

Check out Luke's eyes staring at this cake!!! (How fitting that he is wearing his "always hungry" shirt!)
Here is Nick's tattoo...it is the cool CID logo!!!
Happy Birthday CID! I don't know what we would do without you!!! For anyone who may want to read up a bit on it, here is their website...cid.edu! AND, I'll also put in a plug for their fundraiser there...Luke is selling Entertainment Books for $25. They sound pricey, but you get coupons for $50 off your total at Shop N Save! If anyone is interested, let me know! :)