Friday, October 31, 2014

Happy Halloween!

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What a Wonderful Halloweeny Holiday!  

And of course, as usual, we were celebrating from the very beginning, very busy all day long.


Jacob had Kindermusik first thing this morning.  And I thought, if he was in a good mood, we might do some day time trick or treating afterwards.  I packed this Roo costume in the car... just in case. 
It was Christopher's first Halloween costume, that I ordered very large.  And this year it's the perfect size for Jacob.  Turns out the library was having its very own Trick-or-Treating session.  


So we stopped and did some trick or treating. :) 

Then we went over the elementary school to have lunch with some sweetboys.  :) 


I actually got to see both my sweetboys. I ate lunch with Chris, did some copying for Sam's teacher. And it was a good visit.  I got to see Sam in the hall, and it made Chris's day to have lunch with me.  Makes my day too.  

We had to take some cheesy selfies. :)


One of the things that I was doing, aside from having lunch with Christopher, and making some copies.  I made a pinterest treat for Sam's class.  I saw this online, and thought it was a great idea, to color Jack-o-lantern faces on cuties oranges to make them festive.  I stopped and picked some up at the store, along with more candy, (I was worried) on the way back from the library, then sat and drew faces.  I had to use a sharpie.  Had to use more than one, because the skins are so oily (hooray for orange oil!) that a regular pen just won't work.  


On my way home from the school, I saw flurries.  
Yep, Snow.  On Halloween.  
They've been saying it's gonna be a nasty winter, I hope this isn't just the First Sign. 


Aunt Teri would have liked to see the snow.  


Boo!  It's our Boos.  
We had the Julius girls come over for supper before starting our Trick-or-Treating.  


Eric made chili.  He makes a wonderful chili.  He uses V8 as a base, and adds Grandma Pat's chili sauce, amongst other special secret ingredients.  This time was a little different, building up in layers with the meat on the side, but it was still so tasty.  And perfect for a cold snowy day. 


My Pirate Crew! 

Chris is Captain Hook, Sam is Peter Pan, and Jake is Jake of the Neverland Pirates. 


Giving my children swords may or may not have been a mistake. 


All the kids all set up and ready to go! 


And there the boys go with their swords.  Sam's had already broken once, all that we asked was that they made it through Trick-or-Treating.  They did.  


Eric and I got dressed up a little too.  I was Wendy, traipsing around in my blue nightgown.  
(Handy that I have such a great love for Lanz de Salzburg flannel nightgowns. :) ) 

Eric was Smee.  We found him a striped shirt and a goofy cap.  Not too shabby.  Except that he was Cold.  It was really Cold outside.  


We trick or treated at our newest neighbors house first.  The boys remembered that last year, we went running through the lot next door to meet up with some friends, but this year, there's a house next door.  So we stopped there first. 


Wendy and Jake. ;) 


We took over the street. 
There weren't as many folks out as last year.  So the kids just plowed along.  We only went next door, and only made it about a half an hour before getting too cold and needing to come home. 

But I had hot cocoa at the ready, and we had important priorities of things to do at home, like watch Charlie Brown and the Great Pumpkin. A Must See.  Then we watched Hook, since the boys were working a common theme.  They lasted through the whole movie...except Jake, he didn't, but that's ok.  And we only got interrupted a few times for the doorbell.  I need not have bought a second bag of candy.  We only got about a dozen people total.  That's a lot of leftover candy for me to take care of.  Lucky for me, I chose chocolate mixes this year, so I know I'll eat All our leftovers. 


Who can sleep?

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Sometimes Jacob fights going down for his nap.


So I pull him into my bed.  He seems to sleep better there.  
Except when he doesn't want to sleep at all. 


Then sometimes it rather becomes a game.  
He wants to play on me, climb around, get into trouble. 
One of these days, I bet he'll fall off the bed. 


He hasn't yet though.
Instead, he thinks this game is fun.


And it's hard for me to lock him down and get him to sleep when he's looking at me like this.  
But then he finally will sleep.  


And often his position is like this, biscuits up.  And he'll fall asleep like this.  
And I wake up to this face.  


Thursday, October 30, 2014

Trunk-or-Treat

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My Boo.  
Get it? His shirt says Boo. :)  

Well, he was cohort in crime yesterday, so we didn't take much time in getting ready for Trunk or Treat at our church.  My friends L and J put it on every year, and they always go bonkers.  The kids have such a wonderful time.   I try to keep up, but fail miserably.  Honestly, this happens to me every time.  Every year, I get distracted, and don't bother doing anything with my car's trunk until minutes before we leave.  This year I got lucky, with the blanket and pumpkin bucket I grabbed, I grabbed the chain of pumpkin lights that I bought in college.  Those things have worked for 20 years, I didn't think they still would.  But they did! 


So we had the Pirate Crew at our car.  It was getting really chilly, so I put long sleeves under their costumes, and we were all still quite cold.    Chris was Captain Hook.  Sam was Peter Pan, and Jake was Jake of the Neverland Pirates.  


Captain Hook initially didn't want to go around for candy.  he wanted to help me give out candy. 
He was a good helper... except hooks are not he best for handing out candy. :) 


We had a great time seeing friends, and they were all so kind giving the boys all kinds of great candy. Sam was even good about asking if things had red 40 in them.  


This was one of my favorite moments of the evening - a duel of Hooks.  
The two Captain Hooks had to take each other on! 

It was cold out, but we all had a wonderful time.  

A Lovely Fall Evening

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It's supposed to get cooler and the weather nasty as the week progresses, so the boys wanted to make the most of playing outside afterschool this afternoon, and we had a bit of time between dinner ending and Cub Scouts beginning.


Sam wanted his training wheels back on.  And since we've only got a couple good weather days left in the season, I'm not going to fight him.  So, next year, we'll work harder on getting him to ride. 


Meanwhile, Christopher is really enjoying working on riding more and more. 
He's finding his groove. 



He's really taking off, he loves to ride his bike all the time now, at least as much as school and schedule will allow.  



My cohort in crime. :) 


Our Dawn Redwood is starting to turn.  
My favorite part of fall in the new house is the leaves changing, and this tree is so nifty.  


Gorgeous.  


However, I do enjoy some beautiful maple leaves in the glowing light of sunset.  
This was natural light, I didn't fuss with it at all.  
Maple leaves just glow I guess.  Maybe we need some maple trees too. 

Switching it up

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I usually take Chris to karate on Mondays.  Frankly, he likes seeing me watch as I work some sort of yarn project while I watch.  But to be fair, I'd never gotten to take Sam to his Kindermusik class.  I wanted to do this too.  The downside is that Jake is bonkers at the dojo, and so Eric says he's better playing in the children's section of the library.  So I decided to take my turn, switch it up and take Jake and Sam to the library.  Yeah, Jake's a maniac.  It was definitely much more exhausting to chase him all around.  I mention to Eric that Jake figured out how to pull books off the shelf.  Oh yes, he said, he'll also climb the shelves.  I guess I was so on the Chase, that he didn't have a chance to do that. 


He did have a good time. 
But Sam was crazy in class, but Mommy was exhausted after chasing all the crazy all over.  Done. 
At least he's cute. 

Tuesday, October 28, 2014

Big Stuff

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Sunday was a Beautiful Fall day. 
The kind of day that make me want to play hooky.  
And actually, we did play a little hooky.  We sent the boys to Sunday School, then came home.  We didn't think we'd have enough time to go to Church, and have lunch, so we came home, to have lunch, and the boys wanted to do some bike practice.  Their friend Emily just learned how to ride her bike with no training wheels the day before, so partly out of shame, I decided to let them give it a try. 


Sam was the least inclined to get his wheels off.  But he did try.  
Brothers love to watch and help.


 Initially Chris Freaked Out.   We suggested that he give it a try with his toes, like he does on his scooter.  He acted like a goofball, but he practiced it a few times.  


For some reason, that Clicked.  
He started getting so good at force with toes, that he could glide a bit, so we were yelling, "PEDAL!"



Then we moved to the street, so he could have a bit more length than the driveway.  
We had a mess in the garage, so the cars were in the driveway, and we were getting worried about him dodging them. 




Finally, I moved him to the street, and gave him a push to get him started while he pedaled.  
This was how far he took off once I let go, his first run.  
Yeah, I call that "being able to ride a 2 wheeler." Officially.  


Then he rode back to us.  
Getting started took a little push, but he was getting it! 


Yep, he's got it!
Most successful 1/2 hour of biking practice Ever!

So we went to lunch at Scotty's to celebrate, and then on to his piano recital.  



Since it was right before Halloween, he opted to dress up for the recital. 


Don't worry, he was Captain Christopher in time for playing, not Captain Hook.  
The hook was left behind.


Ever have one of those moments, when all the things that you threaten your child with come true? 
That was me during that recital.   He hadn't wanted to practice.  He certainly  hadn't practiced enough to make them sound 'good' in my mind.  And when he got up there, the first song, he cracked. I knew he knew the piece better than that, but Miss Laraine had to come rescue him.  It was like time stopped. I was so afraid he would burst into tears, or have a freakout.  But he didn't.  He pulled it together.  He kept trying.  His teacher came up and played the measure he was having trouble with, and then he finished the song.  



By the second song, he rocked it out.  
I was so proud of his perserverance. 


After the recital, we went to Ryan and Amy's for Kaylee's 10th birthday party.  We were running late, and arrived just in time for her opening presents. 



I got the chance to have some girly talk with friends and family, and it was a great end to the day.


Oh, while Erica and I were chatting, Jake and Cole went to look out the window together. About 20 seconds after this, Jacob lost his mind because Cole was using him to stand on, and he was not down with that, so he turned and Cole fell down. But for this one fleeting moment, they got along sweetly. 


After Kaylee's party, we were all ready for dinner.  So we  went to Pit Stop with Mom and Dad W. 
The boys were having fun playing with her phone, just like old times.  For a moment they were getting along sweetly too.  And all was right with the world.  


Game Night

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Who is that masked man? 

Why, it's Batman. 
We had the opportunity to go to a Game Night with friends Saturday night.  
It had been probably 6 months or more since we'd been.   And one friend recommended making it a costume party.  So when Daddy borrowed one of the boys Batman masks for his costume, Jacob did Not know what think about that.  


He was making the most adorable thinking face, at the same time he wanted to smile.
He was the cutest little smirker of doubt you ever saw.  

Of course, the hesitation didn't last.  After 10 minutes at our friends house, he hit the ground running, and was climbing on tables, and stealing other kids' foods.  I was suprised he was just eating chinese noodles and anything else he could get a hold of.  The kid waits 15 months to eat solids, and now he eats everything and anything.

And like I said, he has no fear.  It's a little blurry, but here's Jake playing on a chair in A's playroom.


This one is also not the best, but it was when Chris and Sam started to lose the battle.  
Peter Pan was watching Lady and the Tramp with Captain Hook and prima ballerina, and Green Lantern.  


Now that Jake is older, Eric and I actually both got to participate in Game Night this time. 
We got play Bang! with dice, and Eric played some other thing I'd never heard of, that was supposed to be quick, but wasn't.  And sme of the older kids wanted to play too.  They are finally getting old enough to join us.  We stayed pretty late, it was a great time.  And what a wonderful opportunity to play with friends we hadn't seen in Ages.  Hooray for Game Nights!  May there be many more.