The Annual Keiper Halloween Bash 2012

You might remember the last time we went to the Keiper Halloween Bash back in 2009.  I cannot believe it has been that long.  But in 2010, I was impregnated.  In 2011, all we did for Halloween was take pictures of Tommy in his costume.  But THIS YEAR, we went and we partied!

If you read the 2009 post, you saw THIS picture of the 5 Party People.

Here are the 2012 party people...

Desi and Brandon were French Kiss (get it???).  Andrew was the Race to Find a Costume Guy, or the Miller High Life guy.  He worked hard on that costume. :) Adam was a bloated Ninja Turtle.  Ha! Mom sewed that amazing costume for him when he was like 8 years old.  It's still amazing.  Then there's me.  I was Japanime or Japanese Anime.  Andrew and I decided we weren't going to buy anything for costumes this year so we had to come up with stuff in our house.  I think we did ok.  :)

I even had white socks with sandals. I got that kimono in San Fran wayyyy back in the day and I've never worn it.  It was about time!

My costume won an award for Least Comfortable! Hey, it's an award! Yay for winning!

The award I thought I might get actually went to the two Indians, Danielle and Matt.  They won Most Racist.

Andrew deserved The Least Prepared Award but another person came as themselves (with no costume) so the award went to him.  Adam deserved Least Comfortable because that dang Ninja Turtle head was so incredibly hot.

Someone brought a pretty fun game.  First you would drink the "poison" (take a shot).  Then everyone put truth or dares into a bowl and you would have to draw one.  I drew "Dare: Breakdance."  So simple and yet I dominated! In a kimono, nonetheless! Adam had to repeat everything Brandon said for 5 minutes.  Someone had to run through the house screaming, "They're coming to get me, Barbara!!"  The picture above is a dare.  The dare was let the kids stamp you with Halloween stamps for 30 seconds non-stop.  What a good sport she was! The kids really stamped the crap out of her.

 We took some more group pictures.  This is one of my favorites.

 I had to post this one because of Brandon's face.  Cracks me up.  My niece Isabel is in the front.  She won best costume but she isn't wearing it here.  She was a peacock.  It was definitely the winner.  I wish I would have gotten a picture of it.

As is tradition, we played Spoons once it got late enough.  Or MurderSpoons as we like to call it. The very first game of the second round we played, someone got four of a kind and we all raced to grab a spoon.  After scrambling, we all looked up at each other to see who didn't get a spoon.  We realized that we all had spoons.  We had put too many dang spoons on the table like dummies.  We laughed so hard because we were being so intense playing the game.  It might be one of those things where you had to be there but we were cracking up.

 Another late night activity was karaoke.  Andrew is singing in this picture.  I sang Faithfully by Journey.  Turns out, I don't know that song as well as I thought.  Also, I did not know how many Woh oh oh ohs were in that song.  Still awesome though!

The Annual Keiper Halloween Bash was, as always, an incredible success! Thanks for having us, bro and sis.  We had a great time!

Saturday with the Goldmans

We went down to the Goldmans to watch the Purdue game on Saturday.  The Purdue game was nothing to watch so instead we watched the boys play together.  Tommy and Max were hilarious.  

 They were truly two peas in a pod.  Both were wearing orange...

They ate together... 

They drank together...

 They said CHEESE together.  (This is probably my favorite!)

They played Cars together.

They helped each other up when they fell down.  

They rolled around on the floor together. 

Tommy had a great time on the rockin' rocking horse. 

 They were so stinking cute together.  Like brothers from another mother or something. They had so much fun.  So glad we came down.  We'll have to do it again soon! :)

Boo at the Zoo 2012

Friday night we decided to brave the cold and go to Boo at the Zoo at Columbian Park.  It's fun fundraising event they have for 3 days.  Instead of going during one of the first two days when it was 75 and sunny, we went on the last day when it was 50 or less and windy.  Smooth move, Thornburgs! 

We washed Tommy costume and didn't check it before we put it on him that evening.  All the stuffing had bunched up in two places and it looked like giant softballs in his pockets.  

 He still looked super cute even with the stuffing issues.

 There is a little tractor outside the barn area set up like a little play set.  He loved it even though it was metal and freezing.

 Tommy was much less afraid of the animals this time.  Yes I do realize that I basically took a picture of Andrew, Tommy and a tiny horse's ass.

The World's Largest Drum was at Boo at the Zoo so we just had to bang on the drum and get a picture. :)

It got dark and much colder very quickly.  Tommy rode a zebra in the park but it was too cold to touch (and he has awesome parents that forgot his gloves).  So he rode it without touching it.  Another way we made the poor kid look awkward that night!  Try as we might to make him look silly, he actually got a lot of Aww's as we walked around.  He can look cute in anything apparently! :-)

 We got a picture taken at Boo at the Zoo.  It was a fundraiser. I do understand this.  But this picture was $4.  We only got the print and they cut off Andrew's head.  You would think for 4 bucks, they could center the pic a little better.  But I shouldn't complain, it's for a great cause.

When it got dark, it became nearly impossible to take any pictures with my iPhone. All my pictures after that point, looked like the above.  

But hey, just throw some instagram effects on there and act like you did it on purpose right? Lemons into lemonade! :) 

We had a great time at Boo at the Zoo for the short amount of time that we were there.  Can't wait to go back (maybe a little more prepared next year) when Tommy can enjoy more of the activities.  

Where Are You, Bunny?

Tommy and I scared off saw a bunny as it dashed off frightened hopped away into the woods tonight.  If you're having trouble understanding what he's saying, here is the transcript below. :-)

Where are you, bunny?
Bunny, come here.  Now! 

Goofball

Oh Tommy.  You are such a goofball sometimes.  I just don't know where he gets it from. :) 

Here's Tommy in a diaper and plaid boat shoes.  I'm not really sure what he's doing. 

This picture doesn't quite fit with the blog post but I thought it was cute.  We saw Harper at lunch today.  She enjoyed touching Tommy's face.  Tommy didn't seem to mind too much.  

 Then he decided to show her his belly.  He has been (even more) obsessed with his belly lately.

 "Hey Harper, check this out!" She's totally impressed. :)

 He also likes to randomly push his belly up against things. It cracks us up.

We really shouldn't encourage him but it's so funny. 

We have no idea why he does it.  He's a silly goober.  I love it.

Firetruck!

Last week was Fire Prevention Week.  Apparently there is a Fire Prevention Show in Lafayette that I'm just now finding out about through my googling.  They have characters and live music.  Awesome!

We missed that show but Tommy did get a visit from the firetruck at school.  No, not for a bad reason.  I received this email...

Parents,

We had a visit from the Lafayette Fire department today. We got to see the fire truck up close. They also showed us how they got dressed!

Attached is a picture from our day!

 LOVE this picture.  It is so darn cute.  So funny too! I love that my kid is the one wearing the dino hat with orange spikes while everyone else wears plain colors.  Also, my poor kid's gloves have no thumbs so he looks a little robotic.

We asked Tommy about the firetruck visiting.  He said it was red and loud.  Love it!

Happy Fire Prevention Week! :)

Football Saturday vs Wisconsin

On Saturday Purdue played Wisconsin. Andrew, Andrew's dad and I all went to the tailgate/game. 

Some friendly tailgaters offered us some drunken bears.  Genius idea.  Instead of using vodka, she used Malibu which made them taste even MORE like candy.  YUM-O.

The same tailgate also had a "passed out girl".  She was probably up too late the night before studying so hard.  She was obviously very tired.  When we came back from the game several hours later, she was STILL sleeping in the same place.  Impressive.

 When we went to the game, I tried to get a picture of someone sitting close to us but my husband is 13 year olds still.

 There! I got him.  This is the infamous Wendell Wolka.  If you are Purdue fan, I think you need to read this next little passage.

At first, people might not get the connection between Boilermakers and Pharaohs. Known as “The King,” Wendell Wolka wears a giant gold-and-black Egyptian Pharaoh hat to each contest to show his true colors.

After missing Purdue’s stunning 1974 upset of Notre Dame in South Bend because he didn’t think the Boilermakers had a chance, Wolka vowed to never miss another Purdue football game.

Wolka has kept that promise, now 415 games later. The streak almost came to a halt in the 1990s when he was required to show up in Texas on Saturday for a business conference. So what did Wolka do? Naturally, he drove from Milwaukee to West Lafayette for one play, got back in his car to drive to Indianapolis and then caught a flightto Houston.

Before he got married to his wife in 2007, Wolka made sure to ask her if she was prepared for 12 football games a year. Was she ever. The two rented the Boilermaker Special train mascot as their limo for the big day and now when Wolka attends each game in his Pharaoh style hat, she is at his side donning Cleopatra headgear.

Here's the pic from the article.  He was voted number 9 in the top 20 college football super fans based on their passion, loyalty, flair and celebrity status on campus.  I've seen him at every basketball game too.  He's truly a super fan.  

We were having trouble being fans at all that day.  It started raining. I was the only one smart enough to bring a raincoat.  The Thornburg Men look none too pleased. 

 Then we raced around at halftime to buy these super awesome ponchos.  Yes I bought one too.  My lap was getting soaked so I guess the raincoat wasn't THAT smart.

 After the game, we went visited the tailgate where my brother was chillin'.  Look at that tasty looking Purdue P cake. It was only in the rain for a little bit.  Yikes.

 I'm in to taking self-group portraits (is that a thing?).  So here's Adam, my fat face, the other Adam and Drewfus.

We came back home to Thomasaurus and Gaga.  They had a grande ol' time.  

Oh, my sweet little bucket head.

  

Then it was time to chillax and watch the evening foozball games.  Tommy takes this position on the couch now every single time.  It's hilarious.  He's so comfortable.  I wonder who he's imitating. ;-)

Why Have We Not Been Taking Advantage of This?

Sunday morning we went to the Columbian Park Zoo.  We thought we had better visit before it closes for the season.

One thing I didn't know about the zoo is that it's free.  Sweet!

There are tunnels where you can peak your head up like a prairie dog.  I'm not sure that Tommy is impressed.

 Even Dada went through the tunnels with the Tommy Hawk.

 We saw a 100-hundred year old turtle.  She had to nudge him in the rear to get him to move.  One hundred years old? Think of all the presidential elections he's lived through and gave absolutely zero craps about?

We saw some kind of dog species.  Tommy was a little freaked out until he realized there was a glass window in between him and the dog.

 Here's another example of Tommy not being too fond of animals. I tried to take a picture of him with a wallaby.  There was no glass window.  He was outta there before I could take a picture.

 Things were going well until the "goat incident" (a goat walked near him... THINGS WITH FUR!! AAHHH!!! Plus goats are a little devious anyway) so we stuck to the non-furry activities.

 They have a little area with specific playground equipment for his age and he LOVED it.

 He also loved (and his shoes matched) the swings!

 Then we took a $3 choo choo train ride.  Highlight of the day! You can see how excited he is! (Maybe he's scared of dad's enthusiasm in the background.)

 There's a smile! As we were walking to the train, he kept saying, "Chug-a-chug-a-chug-a-chug-a-CHOOOO CHOOOOO!!!"

 The train took us all over Columbian Park and most of the ride was by the water.

 This is one of my favorite pictures. Andrew is trying to tell Tommy something and Tommy is giving someone or something the side-eye.

Even our stroller got to ride on the train. CHOO CHOO!

WHY have we not been taking advantage of this place more often? Until next season I guess.