Happy Halloween!!

from Beastboy, Cyborg, and our little monkey. Have a spooky night!

Fall Festival at School

Aidan and Sean's school celebrated their Fall Festival today (they don't "do" Halloween, but it sure looked like a Halloween party!) The kids didn't have to wear their uniforms, instead they could wear jeans and an appropriate favorite tee shirt. Ella and I arrived to attend the party right as all the classes paraded out to the playground to show off their favorite shirts to each other. The principal led them in a game of Instigator, which they all seemed to enjoy.

When we returned to the classroom, Sean's teacher warned the class that there was someone strange hiding in the room. The principal joined her to see who was inside. It was a witch! A narrator read the kids the book Humbug Witch while the witch acted out the story.


All the kids were so quiet and attentive!


Ella got very scared of the witch and burst into tears so I held her until the story ended. Now when she looks at the photos, she says, "Ella cry!"


After the story, the kids got to drink a glass of the witch's brew and eat the pumpkin cookies they made earlier.


His teacher had a couple of games planned for them to do, so Ella and I walked down to Aidan's class to see him. We showed up just in time to see him have snacks. Then it was time to pack up and go home.


When we got back to Sean's room to get him, the were playing a Hot Potato game using mini pumpkins. Sean did not like the happy laughing and music, so he was sitting alone with his hands over his ears. :( My poor baby. I sat with him to try to relax him and another mom said, "He is just so cute! When I saw him on the first day of school, I said I want to scoop him up and take him home!" (Uh, thanks for the warning, lady!) After the game ended, Sean's teacher gave him a mini-pumpkin to take home and that cheered him up.

The boys brought home lots of fun goodies and candy from the party. They are super pumped to go trick-or-treating!

Making Jack-o-Lanterns

Pumpkin Pickin'

One of our favorite parts of fall is the fun and excitement of Halloween. The choosing of costumes and the picking of pumpkins. For the last several years, we've enjoyed making a trip to a local farm for our pumpkins. The kids have had so much fun at Harvest Farm in past years, that I think we all look forward to our day there each October. This year, Doug and I had to make the tough decision to cut it out of the October budget, in lieu of the fact that we had several other out-of-town trips and expenses to cover instead.

That didn't stop the boys from being excited about selecting pumpkins this year. Every time Sean's seen them at the grocery store, he's been asking for us to get some. He got a pair of flannel jammie pants with pumpkins on them and has insisted on wearing them every night. His last four books from the library have had pumpkins in them. He picks pages with pumpkins to color first in his coloring books. He has me drawing pumpkins on his MagnaDoodle daily. He has a fine eye for spotting pumpkins on other people's porches.

So, yeah, the boy wanted pumpkins. Doug and I took the kids to do something I never thought we'd do....

we went to Wal-Mart for the sole purpose of selecting pumpkins. Not quite the photo op I had in mind, but we thought we'd take a couple anyway. There was a huge stack of hay bales, which of course my kids climbed up.




Only to be immediately told by WM staff to get down for fear of injury...

Sigh, well, they might not have had all the fun they are used to at Harvest Farm, but they did pick out 4 big pumpkins to bring home and it saved us a good $50. I'm hoping to hold off carving them till Sunday afternoon, so they don't look rotten by Halloween.

A Halloween KISS

We started our celebration with pumpkin carving. Usually, this means mommy does the cutting and tries to get the boys to help scoop out pumpkin seeds. This year, Doug did one and I did one. The boys messed around with the pumpkin seeds a bit, but then decided it was entirely too gross. :P





Finally, it was time to get everyone dressed to trick-or-treat. The costumes I spent the week making turned out great, I think. :) I had guidance from my KISS fan husband and the KISS costume fan site. Aidan's Gene Simmons'costume is circa 1974 and Sean's Ace Frehley costume is circa 1975. The important part was that the boys LOVED them and had so much fun wearing them. Doug did the make up, while I dressed them and did the wig hairstyles.






When I took Aidan with me to buy his boots (which I found in the girls' clothing department) he had a moment of doubt. He loved the rock boots, but asked me why they were in a box with a girl on it and why they had hearts on the soles. My answer, "Because these boots mean you love to ROCK!" When we went through the check out, the mother-teen daughter behind us said, "those are cool boots!" I replied, "thanks, they're his" pointing to Aidan. They said, "Really?" He proudly told them, "Yep, I'm going to be Gene Simmons for Halloween!" LOL

Ella dressed as a little Pumpkin' Rocker and looked cute as can be. Unfortunately, she decided to take a dive off the front steps seconds after I took her photo and ended up with a big scrape on her face. I told Doug she got rough in the mosh pit. Poor sweetie!



Our first stop trick-or-treating was a church Trunk-or-Treat, where people had no idea what the costumes were. We got several, "You are scary little girls!" Oh boy!

I threw together a Groupie costume to wear with them and Doug carried the camera around as our paparazzi. Ella and I went along for a few stops, then stayed home to hand out candy. Sean lasted till about 7:15, Aidan and Doug finally came home at 9.

Can't wait for Halloween!

Halloween has always been my FAVORITE holiday. I just love putting together costumes and now that I have kids I get to pass on that love to them. Doug and I have planned out their costumes for this year and I am hoping I have the time and skills to pull them together the way we want. I won't tell you yet, so it can be a surprise!

For fun, I thought I'd share some old costumes that Doug and I did before we had kids.



And one I made this summer for Aidan to wear to a friend's Princess Birthday party.



Only a few more weeks till the big night!

What a Rough Weekend

Ever take a trip somewhere and end up telling yourself several times that maybe you should of just stayed home? Yeah. Had one of those weekends.

Aidan had been super excited for weeks about spending this past weekend at my mom and dad's house so that he could go Trick or Treating with his cousin Adam. Adam is ten and to a five year old boy, he's about the coolest kid on the planet. Friday evening went okay, we got there early enough that Aidan was able to go T or T-ing shortly after it started. Sean was too excited about being at Nana's house that there was no way he was going to get his costume back on and go. No problem, I have issues with him T or T-ing anyway since he doesn't eat the stuff. Aidan had fun, but got upset when Adam had to go home for the night.

The main reason Doug and I planned to go there this weekend was so that Doug could help my Dad with his deck. We found out Friday evening that the materials they needed were not going to be delivered on Friday like my parents had planned. In fact, they found out that night that the delivery wouldn't even arrive until Nov 6. Great. We drove two hours with three young kids for nothing. Not that we don't enjoy seeing my family, but we were just there two weeks ago and we had to say no to several other invitations this weekend to go there. Sigh.

Saturday, Doug decided that he could work around the missing materials and still make some progress on the deck. My mom and I thought we'd take Ella and Sean to the mall so I could look for school shirts for Aidan. Aidan was eagerly awaiting Adam's return. Then Aidan got attacked by a wasp in my mom's basement. It apparently flew in his shirt and stung him 4 times! Aidan has always been terrified of bugs, especially wasps, so he was hysterical. I mean truly hysterical. We managed to calm him down to quiet sobbing while we held and ice pack to the stings and gave him Benadril. Doug headed downstairs to try to kill the evil wasp. Sean some how got into the garage, where he stepped on another wasp and was stung! I called Poison Control because I didn't think he could have Benadril and wanted tips for treating his sting. He was stung on the top of his toe and it swelled really fast. Got him taken care of and decided that we were not likely going to the mall.

We attempted to take a lunch break and had to go to three places before we could find a place to eat. First place had an hour wait, the second place had a flooded playground. Things just were not looking good for us. I didn't get Sean to take a nap until after 3. My mom's dinner wasn't ready to eat until after 7:30 and Aidan was getting very hard to handle. He does not do well without frequent meals. He had another meltdown when Adam had to go home to sleep. When it was time for bed, he saw another wasp in the room he was supposed to sleep in, so he ended up kicking Papa out of his bed so he could sleep with Nana. He was ready to get in the car and go home at that point.

Sunday, I hoped to make the day go better. I got everyone motivated to get out of the house by 10:30, My mom, sister, Sean, Ella and I headed to the mall. Doug, dad, and older boys got to work on the deck. Ella almost made it all the way to the mall without crying, then I realized the mall wouldn't be open for another hour. Craptastic. She was a screaming, sweating mess by the time I got us to WalMart to waste time. Did I mention she hates riding in the car?

We poked around Wallie World, then decided to get some lunch before going back to the mall. By the time we got to the mall, I was only up to checking a couple places before giving up. Sean needed a nap and Nana was worn out from chasing him. I didn't get any shirts for Aidan, but did get a present for his birthday. We thought Sean would nap on the way home, but Nana was being too entertaining for that. He took another late nap.

Before we could sit down for dinner, Aidan and his cousins had a huge blow up fight and my sister decided it was time for them to leave. It put a big damper on dinner, so we got finished up and left shortly after. Aidan ended up falling asleep in the car. He had a very emotionally exhausting weekend and I think all of us were just glad to get home.

It really bites when you want to have a good time and all goes against you.

Oh yeah, SuperMom...

I forgot to include a photo of my Aidan inspired costume! Here I am, ready to wipe butts, soothe tears, and spoil children with a purse full of candy.

Who's ready for Halloween?

My boys are!

I had high hopes of winning on ebay a Captain Feathersword costume for Sean to wear this year. Unfortunately, I just couldn't bring myself to bid over $20 for a used costume. So Sean is going as Woody from Toy Story and he is equally happy about it. He has taken such a fondness to Woody lately, he will play with the Woody doll we have for over an hour. Yesterday he wouldn't let go of him at naptime, so Woody slept with us. Sean thought it was terribly funny to share "milkies" with Woody, even made lip smacking sounds as he held Woody up to my boob! Eventually, they both took a nap and I headed downstairs. An hour later, Sean apparently woke up, saw Woody & pulled his string a few times (we could hear him over the baby monitor) then he went back to sleep!

I tried talking Aidan into being Buzz Lightyear since we thought it would be so cute for them to co-ordinate. Instead he insisted on a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle costume. Doug and Aidan went to a Halloween party at the United Methodist Church Sunday evening and had a blast. Aidan's costume fit perfectly, which is a first. Doug said they loaded up on candy and pigged out on it right away. Aidan quickly made the discovery that lots of candy on an empty tummy is not a good feeling.

Wednesday the preschool is doing Trunk-or-Treat and I volunteered to help hand out candy & run the games. I also have to put together a costume to wear. I was thinking about going as a farmer, but alas I somehow gave up my jean overalls from college. Might have to visit the Goodwill. Aidan said I should wear a cape and my sparkly eye mask and be SuperMom. He's my schmoopey boy!