Panic, Pancakes, and Pumpkins

I have 3 stories for ya...so this might take a while... But if you stick with it, there's pictures at the end :)

Panic:
We just had our back porch closed in to become a play/sun room. It has 4 windows and French doors. The contractor did everything but paint. I said I'd do it to save some $$. He finished on Thursday so I need to wait till Friday to let the caulk dry. So when I laid Brayden down for his nap I decided to get started. I painted till it was time to go get the kids from school. So I went out the French doors to the backyard to rinse out my paint brush. I closed the door behind me so that no additional flies would get into the house. When I was done I went back to the French door to find that it was locked. Unbeknownst to me, this particular set of French doors will lock, but still let the handle turn completely (from the inside). Unlike the other doors in my house that once you lock the door the handle won't turn but just a tiny bit (from the indside). So..I'm locked out, baby's in the house and I can't get to him....sound freakin familiar! No it's not a car this time, but I'm feeling just as helpless. I run every scenario thru my head as to how I could get into the house. The garage is closed with the truck in it. No phone outside. I'm barefooted. No neighbors in sight. No unlocked window or door. My only option is the one option I kept wanted to avoid, but a lot of time has passed and I've walked laps around the house and nothings coming to me...I gotta break a window. "Lucky" for me, when the windows were delivered, one of the panes in the double paned windows was broken and is to be replaced. So...smash... Ugh, I hated to do that and I sure hated to do the clean up...which I'm STILL finding pieces of glass! But I got to my baby and my kids in time after school.

Pancakes:
Anyone who knows of my cooking abilities...knows they are VERY limited. I've tried pancakes in the past, but have failed miserably. But after finding out that certain brands are made without eggs, I knew I needed to give it a try cause the choices for Brayden's breakfast are very limited. So Saturday morning I gave it a shot. They actually came out pretty good. Jim gave me a thumbs up and the kids seems to like them too. They were a little burned in a few places, but I'll get better with time :) Woo Hoo. Major accomplishment and I had to show that I wasn't a total flop as a Mom after the locking out incident!! Which FYI...I've now hidden a key outside :)

Pumpkins:
Natalie informed me while in Walmart on Saturday that it was time to buy pumpkins. Oops, Halloween has really snuck up on me this year! So we picked out the biggest, most round pumpkins we could find. Sunday afternoon after I finally finished painting, Jim and the kids headed outside to carve pumpkins with the new carving kit we'd bought. It' was a lot of time and work, but I think they all did a great job...


Jim did the carving for Brayden's pumpkin...















Here's Nat with the eewwie gooey :) I think she loves it as much as I do!













Matt doesn't enjoy it as much and asked me to do it, but I'd finally gotten all the paint washed off of me and I wasn't up for being messy again.















Brayden was very curious about these seeds on the ground...















And he found out really quick that he didn't like them and that he didn't like the eewy gooey on his hands.















Once he decided that he didn't like the seeds he figured he see what Marbles thought.

















Matt hard at work, Brayden "helping".















Matt's 1/2 concentrating 1/2 goofing :)















Nat taking this way too serious, but it did pay off cause here pumpkin looks great.















Here is Nat's pumpkin














Here is Matt's pumpkin...

















And here is Brayden's pumpkin (Dad's handy work :))















Jim took some great pics at Matt's game last Saturday and hopefully he'll post them on his blog since he knows what to tell you happened in each picture.

Also, thanks for those who always comment. And for those who sneaky peeky ;)... I'd love to hear from you too :)