the sidlingers

Our field trip was alot of fun and we picked the two most perfect pumpkins they had!

Last night I asked Daniel if he was excited and he said he was.  He then asked if he had ever been to a farm before and I reminded him that they went to one last year.  He said "No Mama, that was a pumpkin patch, not a farm!"

And this really was a farm, it was huge and they had lots of neat activities for the kids.  I’m hoping to go back sometime soon or at least go to the "patch" they went to last year to pick up a few more pumpkins.

Here’s the pictures.

It’s field trip day!

Pictures and updates this afternoon.

Here’s a link to last year’s entry about the trip to the pumpkin farm.

Today was the first day of the Honeycrisp season!  If you have no idea what I’m talking about then you must immediately find a grocer that sells them and go get some. Now! The official season is from September 15-October 10, but today was the first day they were available at the Fresh Market here in Nashville (or rather Brentwood, but you get the idea).

If you are still confused, the Honeycrisp is the most perfect apple in the entire world.  It is crisp and juicy and sweet and tart and red and green and tastes exactly like fall.  Made from a cross-pollination of Macoun and Honeygold, I discovered them last year and have eagerly been awaiting their arrival this year.  I checked last week and had no luck, but received an email last night saying that they were indeed here and we enjoyed our first one of the season tonight.

They are a wee bit more expensive than regular apples (about $2-3/lbs), but well worth it.  I plan on stocking up this year before the short-lived season is over.  I’m also planning experimenting with some kind of baking or preserving or something to stretch the season out a little more.

Today when I picked up Daniel at school:

Ms. Debi: Daniel actually slept at naptime today, we had a hard time waking him up, he was out cold.

Me: Yeah, he does that every now and then.

Ms. Debi:  He snores.  Loud.

Me: Yeah, I know.

I just realized that I posted about Daniel’s various injuries and ailments and then never updated.  Sorry about that.

His foot is better, it was just a little bruised and his hand that had the splinter is back to normal.  His "allergies" are in full force though, but nothing too bad.

We’re going out jacket shopping a little later this afternoon because a) his one from last year is way too small and b) we have a field trip to the pumpkin farm on Friday morning and it’s supposed to be a little cooler! 

Another busy week ahead, but I will try to stay up to date here.

It’s been a busy week and today was no exception. 

Wednesdays are karate days and so in the afternoon I pick Daniel up from school and we go directly to his karate class.  Today on the way, Daniel informed me that he had a spot on his hand.  After closer inspection I found it was a splinter.  I had no way of taking it out in the car, so I told him to leave it alone and we would deal with it after karate.  Except, today was a physical training day which meant that the kids had to run.  The mother sitting next to me commented on how she was surprised no one ever gets hurt when they do these runs, because let’s face it, 20 four and five year old boys running in a circle is probably not the best of ideas.  Not three minutes later a little boy pushed Daniel and Daniel landed on his own foot, really hard.

He usually gets right back up and brushes off, but this time he was really hurting.  We stayed for a few minutes, but every time he tried to walk back onto the floor it would hurt his foot.  We left early and came home to ice it down and keep an eye on it.  Right now it’s not hurting him unless he walks on it for a few minutes.  He is also limping a little.  If he’s still hurting or limping in the morning, I’m taking him to the doctor to have it checked out.

Because of the whole foot situation, the splinter kind of became secondary.  That is until after dinner when I remembered that I needed to get it out.  I am not kidding when I say it took me an hour.  This is only the second splinter I’ve had to remove and both time it has been the most horrible ordeal.  Daniel screams at a level that I did not know was possible and he fights every move you make and squirms around to undo any progress you might have made.  I am truly surprised that social services did not show up to find out what in the world was going on.  After giving up and telling him that we would have to go to the doctor and have them do it and him begging for just one more chance, I was able to finally able to maneuver it out.  I think tomorrow I will send him to school with gloves on so he can’t get another one.

To top it all off there is a case of "allergies" going around his class.  I’ve never known allergies to produce the amount of snot and coughing and fever some of the kids have had, but their parents swear it’s not a cold!  Daniel doesn’t have the "allergies" yet, but is starting to get a little stuffy.  Hopefully his really are just allergies.

See what good in-laws I have?  They bought and wore orange for the Tennessee/Florida game today.  They even stayed until the bitter end of the game (Florida won 16-7).

Look what Daniel brought home from school today.

This is Ron Stoppable*, the class hamster.  We get to keep him for the weekend!  When Ms. Debi announced that Ron would need a home every weekend, most parents didn’t seem to be too enthused, so we might have Ron alot on the weekends.

It should be fun to have a little pet for a few days.  We even have a hamster ball so Ron can run around and keep Negley on her feet.

Today was also Grandparent’s Day at the preschool, Daniel took Grandma and Buddy and showed them his classroom and sang songs and gave them doughnuts and apple juice.  A fun time was had by all.

The Sidlinger’s are off to Cookeville this evening to go to a Cookeville High football game with Austin, so look for pictures of that soon.

Tomorrow some of the Kansas Sidlinger’s are coming in for a quick visit, so we’ve got a fun weekend ahead of us.

Have a great weekend everyone!

*Ron Stoppable is a character from the Disney channel show Kim Possible.  All the kids in the class came up with the choices Ron Stoppable, Darth Vader and Mr. Fantastic and then voted.  Ron Stoppable got the most votes with Darth Vader getting two and Mr. Fantastic getting one.

…you were wondering what Daniel looked like with a moustache.

By the way, when donning the moustache, he prefers to be called Picasso (I’m not kidding).

Yesterday while trying to find something to do other than housework, I decided to check out the new thrift store close to Daniel’s school.  It’s a large store, but they didn’t really seem to have any good finds.  I browsed a while before I came across an old piano.  I tapped a few keys to see if it worked and went on with my day.  Later in the afternoon I started thinking about the piano some more and emailed David at work to see if he had any objections to it.  When he emailed back to say that I should go ahead, I rushed back to the store and purchased it.

For $15….well, $16.33 with tax.

When I got home last night I did some research on the maker and found out it was made by the Bush and Lane Piano Company of Chicago.  Bush and Lane made pianos from 1901-1930.  They were not able to stay in business during the Depression and that is why they were only around for 29 years.  In the piano world, they are well known and sought after pianos.  Restored Bush and Lane pianos can go for quite a bit of money, although ours is quite a ways from that.  I was able to find the serial number and now I know that it was built sometime between 1915 and 1920, I plan on doing further research to pinpoint an exact year.

So we are all very excited.  Maybe in a year or so we can actually start taking lessons, but until then I will have a wonderful time restoring it.

I didn’t snap any shots before the move, so I don’t have one of just the piano.  I was really just sticking my camera in there and trying to see better.  I’m going to start the cleaning tomorrow, so maybe I can take a quick picture of it all put together.

Click here for the photos of my $15 piano!