The Elusive Pluto

Since his birthday in June, Jack has really gotten into Planet Heroes. I mean, really into them. He saves his allowance up just for them. He has pictures of them all over his bedroom walls. He has magnets of them. He is a (little) man on a mission to have them all.

Early this fall he had almost all of them. Every time we went to the store we would look through them and he would think about which one he would save for next. And I started noticing that even though I had seen him earlier in the summer, we were never seeing Pluto (actually, his name is Shiver, but I'll stick with his planet name for any novices out there) anymore.

I thought maybe I'd better check online and order Pluto since he might be hard to find. That's when I found out he had been discontinued. And he was on Ebay for $60. Plus $16 shipping. Yeah.

Jay eventually found a new one on Amazon for $50 total and he has been stored away in the closet for Christmas. All the while we have been building it up, telling Jack about how they don't make Pluto at all anymore and he's really rare and if we ever see him we'll definitely buy him--he won't even have to pay for it himself.

So what do we find at WalMart Friday afternoon? The new Metallic Squad Pluto. Yeah. A whole new line of Planet Heroes, just in case nine (plus the other assorted heroes and villains) weren't enough for you. Now Jack is thrilled to have him and we are left with the original Pluto in the closet. I am going to confess that we have engaged in a bit of trash-talking about metallic Pluto, just to build up original Pluto. Yes, we'll do that around here. And I'm taking comfort in the fact that the new Pluto is already on Ebay for way more than the $8.97 we paid for him, so maybe we lucked out.

Jack's portrait of Pluto:

Doesn't that orange just look too OSU? I mean, really. Really. And he looks like an infant when you put him in the shuttle. Too bad metallic Pluto doesn't come with a ship just his size--like original Pluto does...

Election Night

We actually started our election yesterday, with an early vote on what we would have for dessert tonight. Each of us had a ballot and could choose between ice cream with toppings (my vote) and brownies (the winner). Poo.
This morning Jack said, "You know how you were sad that brownies won? Well, tonight I will vote how you're going to vote so you're not sad anymore."

Tonight when Jay got home from work, we voted on dinner: Taco Bueno vs. Domino's. Jack was telling me that he was wanting Taco Bueno, but I told him I wanted pizza. When he found out Jay wanted pizza, too, he changed his vote because he didn't want to lose. When we were eating dinner he said that it was the best pizza in the world, so I guess it was all good.

On the real election front, I took Jack with me this morning and it took us about 40 minutes, start to finish. He was very well behaved and picked the biggest sticker they had when they told him he could have one.

Spiders

For a while I had been thinking that at the end of October we would learn about spiders. Then I had my lovely close encounter of the nasty kind with the spider (family) on the front porch and I suddenly was not so eager to learn any more. It turned out to be a pretty busy couple of weeks, so I kept the spider theme, but we downsized a lot. And we kept it to cute ones, like these cookies we made.

Halloween 2008

Every year Jay takes Jack around the neighborhood while I stay home and hand out candy. At first he didn't seem too eager to go, but as soon as the first trick-or-treaters showed up at our door he was ready to get his costume on!

Jay said that Jack seemed impressed that everyone knew what a ninja turtle was.

Spooky decorations

After an hour, the boys dragged in the door with a pumpkin completely full of candy. Jay kept trying to convince Jack to just finish up a few more houses, but Jack wouldn't do it. He was exhausted.

And what fun is Halloween if you can't put a shell on your cat?

Happy Halloween!

2004

2005

2006

2007

Jay and Jack just set out for trick or treating--pictures to follow soon!

The Pumpkin Patch

This morning we went to the pumpkin patch. The boys had a hard time waiting to go in.

This year...

...compared to last year.

They have lots of animals there!

Sliding

You'll notice that there is a slide over to the side. There are several others all around the pile. But what does Jack do? Flings himself off. Repeatedly. Since he broke his leg before stepping down less than a foot, it takes every ounce of restraint I have to let him do this. So far, so good.

Inside the hay maze we found some cool horse swings.

Ready for the hayride!

This is the pumpkin Jack picked. Tomorrow night is carving night!

Fall Fun

Last night we went with some friends to their church's Trunk or Treat. Jack had a blast. I was exhausted by the time we got home--of course, he wasn't.

Jack would live in an inflatable if we would let him.

Getting candy--We already have a whole carrier full and we aren't even to Halloween!

They had big and little animals to pet.

Trying to get the kids together for a group shot was hard, even with just three of them!

Tomorrow we are headed to the pumpkin patch!