Footie Jammies

Who knew big kids still liked footie jammies? Well, Kendall has always had a pair or two of them, but I thought (wrongly) that Braden had outgrown that stage of life. He REALLY wanted a pair...actually he wanted 2 pairs...of pajamas with feet on them. I told him since Daddy was out of town I would get both he and Kendall new jammies and Ice Age 3: Dawn of the Dinosaurs. He was super excited for last night's festivities. When I picked them up from daycare I had jammies and the movie in the car. We drove to Little Caesar's (my fav) and grabbed a pizza and crazy bread (yum). After dinner we took what I like to call a "fast bath" and then went downstairs (always a treat) to watch the movie. It was a great night and I enjoyed being able to spoil the kids...and snuggling on the couch for a few hours didn't hurt either! Here are the kids in their new jammies:

This is November, right?

What a beautiful November day! Daddy is out of town on his annual "Manly Man's Hunting Trip," so Jaycie was gracious enough (and smart enough) to think of a great plan to have a picnic at the park. We don't actually have any food in the house since I haven't gone to the grocery store, so our picnic was Happy Meals. The kids liked them! We ate a quick lunch (since the kids were SO excited about getting on the playground) and headed over to the swings. The kids had a blast and thoroughly wore themselves out. They are napping, which is why I can finally catch up on my blogging! Here a just a few snapshots from our fun day!

Happy Halloween...again, and again, and again...

Halloween is one day, right? Well around here it lasts FOREVER! Braden had his preschool party on Thursday, on Friday both kids had their daycare party, that night was trick-or-treating in Edwardsville, on Saturday they went up to Dustin's mom's to help pass out more candy, and on Sunday we went to my mom's to trick-or-treat. I was exhausted after that weekend! The kids enjoyed it and I was glad they were able to get so much wear out of their costumes.

Braden is officially addicted to candy. I'm not kidding. He has a meltdown if he can't have as much as he wants...which is like a piece a minute. I actually had to get rid of all the candy so it wasn't on the counter. Much of it went to school, to Dustin's hunting trip, or it's in a secret hiding place(Momma needs a piece of candy every now and then!). If that doesn't work soon, I'm going to have to have a real intervention. We'll call A&E and get that guy to come and do a show on addiction with Braden and we'll all write letters about how we aren't going to support his problem, and then we'll ask him if he'll receive help today. Hopefully we don't have to go that route!


On the 30th we traveled to a neighboring subdivision to visit some friends' houses and then we came back to ours to visit our beloved Miss Crystal, who works at the daycare and preschool. The kids love to see her outside of work. The Rodgers Family went with us, and by 8:30 the trick-or-treating was done, and by 10:30 we were getting ready for bed. It was a long night, but the kids and adults all had lots of fun.


Here are my darling spooks:

Venom and Snow White

Venom and Snake Eyes

Snow White and Abby Cadabby

No one looking. Why am I not surprised?

I'm not touching that!

In the grand tradition of pumpkin carving, I had to do ALL of the gut removal. Both of the kids wanted to carve them, but I was the only one who would stick my arm in the goo. I guess it was for a good cause. We had fun carving them. I tried to get creative with our big one and make a bat, but he's flying a little too vertical. Braden and Daddy did a nice job on the traditional jack-o-lantern face. Here's the proof:

Picking Pumpkins

So, I'm really behind...again! This will be a quick post about picking our pumpkins a few weeks ago!


We went to Eckert's in Grafton for the 5th year in a row with our friends the Rodgers Family. We set off around 3 to head down the river road. The view of the leaves was beautiful, but they were just beginning to turn colors. We were able to pick pumpkins with the other million people who ventured out on that lovely October day. We picked one larger and one smaller pumpkin to carve and two tiny gourds for the kids. After the wagon ride and pumpkins, we traveled to the Fin Inn in to have some down home fried fish. It was delicious! We look forward to this each year, and each year it gets better and better!

You have reached the Riechmanns...

I feel like we haven't been home in over a month! I know it's been longer than that since I've made a post about us and the happenings in our house. We have started the school year (obviously) and we are in full school/routine mode. This fall has been super busy with school (which seems to take more of my time each year...I thought it was supposed to get easier), graduate school for me, Dustin's new website, and of course, hunting season. I promise to be better about blogging in the weeks to come...it is my favorite season of the year! We are heading to the pumpkin patch and the Finn Inn tomorrow, so hopefully I'll have good pics to post soon. In the meantime, we are alive and well (with the exception of the normal "daycare colds") and busy enjoying the daily grind. Hope all is well with our family and friends! Here are a couple of pictures to tide you over...

Kendall Grace in her Princess snowboots

Braden rockin' out at Bobby's last month

Dustin's Latest Blog Post

Dustin wrote a funny post about something that happened during our camping trip this weekend. You can read it here at Engaged Marriage. He also changed the color scheme of his site to be more friendly to the eye (and not seem too manly).

Also, he wanted me to remind you that if you like anything or have suggestions about his blog, please let him know and leave comments on there. If you want to get the posts emailed to you (or sent to an online reader if you know what RSS is), you can sign up by putting in your email address or clicking the big orange button at the top of the page (for the RSS subscription).