football's over party #1

last night we celebrated a great season for ben's football team
with a year end pool party



it was QUITE crazy ...
since all the brothers and sisters were there too!



BUT ...
we - as in the adults - survived ;)
and the kids had a lot of fun

ben got awarded with having
'the quickest feet'
largely based on our game with the crawling team ...



it was a GREAT season ...
i'm actually kind of sad it's over ...
BUT
definitely looking forward to next season!

way to go, ben!

winning their hearts young

you may remember me mentioning that ben's teacher is a HUGE twins fan!

well ...
at the beginning of the year
she had each of the students write a letter to the twins player of their choice.

ben wrote to justin morneau
his favorite player



my favorite part being 'you are a beast hitter' ;)

and included a picture of he and gardy from his classroom ...



this week ...
THEY HEARD BACK!!

you can see the response under ben's letter above
obviously not from justin - but he didn't care!

they also sent a few 2012 schedules, a twins sticker,
and a bunch of large baseball cards



it didn't matter who wrote it
or what they said ...
the fact that he heard back AND got a few goodies ...
completely made his day!

a sweet night

by 6pm last night ...

the pumpkins were carved ...



lit ...



and had found their places.

we had 3 very anxious trick or treaters READY to go!

we had our light up alien

pictures do his costume NO justice
but in the dark it is very cool ;)



our party rock anthem groupie

our toothless football player

and a bunch of their friends!

ben even found another LMFAO groupie ;)

together they made their way from house to house ...

raking in the sweets

AND ...
the adults ??
well .. we didn't do so bad ourselves ;)

my favorite house didn't disappoint ...
this year it was hot chocolate and pumpkin liqueur ...
mmmm ...



when it was all said and done
just stacey, the 3 boys, and i brought in ...
19.8 pounds of candy
and
2 reusable coffee mugs

not bad for 2 hours work ;)

we are the champions

yesterday was the exciting end to football season

drew's team ... the lions ... were in the championship game



he was PUMPED



they got to play on one of the high school fields



they got to be announced over the loudspeaker
AND
introduced onto the field
and for whatever reason drew skipped his entire team
and headed straight for paul hargrove
where he was greeted with a chest slam ;)

they've grown SO much as a team this year
and deserved every minute of the special attention they got!

the game started out with a lions touchdown by tony strand



we played a strong first half ...
but we were up against an undefeated ...
very tough team

we went into the 2nd half with a 6-6 tied score
and VERY high nerves

BUT ...
when tony caught an interception
the momentum changed

it seemed like we were on fire

we had some great tackles

and some great plays
this being one VERY good play that was SO close-
but just not close enough!



we raised the score with a surprise linebacker touchdown



AND extra point

but with a minute left, they came back
and made the score 13-12.
it was BEYOND intense

the longest 1 minute of my life

BUT THANKFULLY ...
our defense held them
and we WON THE GAME!!

and as if that wasn't enough to make these boys happy ...

their coach had championship banners made ...



FOR EACH PLAYER! ...



we ...
not just drew ... i really mean WE ...
have been SO blessed to be on this team
it is a GREAT group of boys
and
it is a fun group of families

the boys have learned so much ...
not just about football ...
but about having pride in your team
and BEING a team
on AND off the field.

you deserve this championship, lions!



we are SO proud of you!!

a corny day

on friday our friends from wisconsin came to visit
and
we decided to spend saturday at the corn maze



in previous years we've gone down to severs
but this year we decided to try out the twin cities corn maze
because it is closer



and because really ...
i knew that as long as they had a corn pit
the boys would be thrilled

and they were ...

we all were ...

but some of us more than others ...

if you see stacey ask him what being an acrobat feels like the day after ;)

i still believe that a corn pit in my backyard would provide endless entertainment

but i'm also sure that this ...

might get old pretty quick ;)
:  :  :
after convincing them to leave the corn
we wandered off into the maze

throughout the maze there were questions about the twins to be answered

it's safe to say we were not the winners of the trivia contest ;)
BUT ...
we had fun trying

AND

although some of us are better map readers than others ...

we made it out!