The Choice is Yours! kind of.....

Fall is my FAVORITE time of year because to me fall means HOLIDAYS.  I LOVE LOVE LOVE holidays.  All of them.  Yes, I've posted about this before.  My all time favorite holiday is Halloween, which starts our our string of holidays.  I have so very many fond memories of Halloween.  When I was young it was getting to trick or treat with my cousins Chad and Courtney.  Once we tried to trick or treat on the 30th, telling our neighbors that we were not going to be home tomorrow so we were doing it early.  It didn't work out so well.  Turns out people aren't really ready for trick or treaters at 4:00 on October 30th!  Then when I was in elementary school I remember playing "Pass the Witches Broomstick" in gym class with Mrs. Ellis, singing "H-A-double L- O-W- double E-N spells Halloween", and of course the fun Halloween parties!  When I was in 4th grade I was a vampire.  I got to go home for lunch where my mom put on my make up and slicked my hair back.  When I got back to school no one knew who I was or if I was even a boy or a girl!!  It was a great costume!  I also remember my last year of trick or treating.  I was in 9th grade but went with a bunch of friends who were in 8th grade and on my cheerleading squad.  Yes, we were ALL too old to be trick or treating but it's just so hard to give up.  Anyway, one of the girls brought 6 beers (1 for each of us) and we put them in our trick or treat bags.  We did not drink them, or even intend to, it was just our way of being "bad"!  Luckily we weren't caught, looking back that was a really stupid thing to do, not to mention it made our trick or treat bags heavier than they needed to be!

Now, as an adult, we start planning our halloween costumes in July!  This year Riley is being "Billy the Exterminator" from his favorite show on A&E with the same name.  We are piecing together his costume and I'm making most of it.  However, my FAVORITE years for my kids are the years where they are too young to decide on thier costume themselves and therefore I get to do it!!  YIPPEE!  I have been searching for costumes for Kyler and have narrowed it down to a few I really like.  Vote on your favorite!!  You can vote on here, e-mail me your vote, FB me your vote, or text me your vote!  I cannot say for sure that the costume with the most votes will win though, cuz I'm going with whichever I decide :)  Afterall, I only get to choose 2 or maybe 3 times for each kid!!

Running myself Ragged update

Some of you may remember a fairly recent post regarding me getting a third job at Swimtastic Swim School.  When I wrote that post I was in training (their training program is about 30 hours, 15 of book work, and 15 of water work), which was all to be done in ONE week WHILE I worked my normal full time job and ran my family.  Needless to say that week pushed me to the edge!  I was teary, tired, and troubled!  I ended up with a horrible bout of Vertigo and in bed.  However, I have now gotten through the training and started teaching my own classes, which is what I wanted to do all along. While I am still not entirely sure why I have done this, I am having a lot of fun doing it now and I love my classes.  I am teaching Saturday mornings from 9-12 and Monday evenings 7-8 right now but adding another class at 5:45 in October.  My desire to teach at Swimtastic comes from having Riley there from 8 months to 4 years old.  Many of you know, he is a fantastic swimmer but he also had a blast at Swimtastic and I feel that it helped his confidence a lot too.  Overall, we liked the atmosphere.  It is very kid friendly and family oriented.  As an employee I still feel the same way.  The owners of Swimtastic are very nice people.  While I feel that parents pay a LOT for swimming lessons at Swimtastic, I think they get what they pay for.  So, while I don't NEED this extra job, I do love it.  Plus, it gives Ryan some much needed DADDY time alone with the boys.  OK, I admit, giving Ryan some alone time with the kids and doing the whole "kid routine" was a MAJOR part of my desire to be out of the house for awhile!  He's doing well and so am I.  All's good in the O'Toole household, for now.....

Goodbye Summer

One of the reasons that I chose to work for the school district is so that I could have my summers off to spend with my kids.  In my opinion, it is a great schedule.  I feel that I get a little taste of being a stay at home mom while still working full time and enjoying the adult interaction at work.  I have said many times that I would not want to be a SAHM and I never have.  So, my summers are my special time with my boys.  We try to do something fun every day.  We had a great summer this year and I'm already thinking of things to do next summer!  However, by the time August rolls around I am usually pretty ready to get back into our "school routine" and get back to work.  This year was no different.  We are now fully into the swing of the school day routine and we are all doing well.  Our mornings are now going smoothly (except when Ryan is our of town) and we have a semi-regular evening routine.  With that said, it is time to say good bye to summer 2010.  "Good Bye Summer! We will miss you!"  Now onto my FAVORITE season: FALL!

Here are some pictures of the things we have been doing during this late summer:

                                                    A family trip to the zoo

Acrobat Riley at the Balloon Festival

Camping in the backyard!

Grandpa racing his Corvette

Riley at Festa Italiana having a cookie kabob

Welcome to Blogspot.com!!

Ok, so now that Vox closed, I have moved our family blog to blogspot.com.  If you are here, you know that!!  Welcome.  I am going to try to keep up on my blogging better.  Thanks for following us!  Soon to come: Riley's birthday party in the park, Ky's Halloween costume vote, and more!