Happy Halloween!

Our Halloween fun started early this year with a party at Nick’s school. The younger kids paraded through the hallways and into the gym in their costumes and then headed back to their classrooms for a little Halloween party (afternoon snack). I have pictures, but don’t want to post since some of Nick’s school friends are in them. Nick got to leave school with us so we gathered up the other boys and headed home for a quick dinner before heading out in the neighborhood. I once again tried to get a picture of my boys in their costumes and once again failed at getting everyone to look at me and smile. Hey, a mother can dream right?

First, Nick tried to put Ben in the pumpkin. Speaking of pumpkins … there are the pumpkins we carved this weekend. Cute, eh?

 

Then Zander gave me his strong man pose.

Then they tried really hard to give me one good picture so we could get a move on with the real reason for the night.

We never got it, but I did make Mike take this picture.

And then we were off. The boys did a great job of saying “Trick-or-Treat” and only had to be reminded to say “Thank you” at about every fifth house.

The boys gave us the play-by-play of everything they got at each house. I think that is what Zander is doing here, but it looks like he is doing something else entirely. I cracked up when I saw this on the computer.

We saw our backyard neighbor. She is in Nick’s grade at school but is Zander’s size.

Zander made it through to the exact furthest point from our house before deciding he was ready to call it quits. His biggest complaint was that his bucket was too heavy. I carried it for him for awhile and I can’t say I blame the kid. Mike thought we could sneak through a backyard and get home quickly, but a mean looking dog told us otherwise. Instead, Mike gave him a ride for the rest of the night. 

Ben snuggled up in the Moby and fell asleep just a few houses in. He’s getting so big now though that it is hard to keep his head from flopping when he is asleep.

At home the boys quickly sorted through their loot.

Because of Nick’s allergy we have to be extra careful on nights like this. He is really good about it though. He dumps his candy out and sorts it into three piles: Yes, No and Maybe.

Mike or I have to check all the maybes to see if they are actually safe or not.

Zander decided he wanted to help pass out candy to the approximately three kids who came to our door. He looked so cute sitting there waiting for someone to knock.

And then they went to bed. And we scared the crap out of Nick. I’d show you the video but someone might call protective services on us and that would be bad. The quick synopsis: boys are sounding all cute playing with their new flashlights so we go to tape them. The door was shut and Mike opens it just enough to stick the Flip in the crack. Nick sees the floating red light and screams in terror. I laugh. Yeah, I’m that mom. And you can hear me on the camera. Mike laughs, too. You can’t hear him, but you see the camera shake. That’s him. Laughing. Hopefully it won’t end up costing us thousands in therapy bills.

Totally safe

Nick thinks because he is as big as some 10 year olds he can act like one, too. Lately, he has taken to moving Ben around wherever he so chooses. It looks a little something like this:

I’m sure it is totally safe, right? Right? And then Ben looks at me and asks me to save him.

Gooey fun

Mother Nature smiled down on us again today. After a cold start to the day the sun came out and we were able to carve our pumpkins outside. I still can’t believe it’s October and we are outside in sweatshirts! Anyway, the kids are usually super excited to carve their pumpkins … for about the first 10 minutes. They will help pull the pumpkin guts out for a little bit then bail, leaving us to finish up the task. This year was only marginally better. This is about as close as Zander got to helping.

Mostly though, he just watched.

Nick was simultaneously grossed out

and amused by the goo coming from inside the pumpkin. He took special pleasure in scooping and flinging the stringy pumpkin guts across our driveway.

This guy is still too little to be much of a help. So, he just sat around being his usual cute self. Until it was time to eat. Then, he was my excuse to go inside. It might have been sunny and unseasonably warm, but the insides of those pumpkins were still cold! I was happy to have an excuse to warm my hands up!

However, that means I didn’t get a picture of the final masterpieces. This was the first year we used the carving sets instead of just free-handing it. We stuck to the easy designs and they didn’t turn out too bad. Maybe next year we will get a little more adventurous.

He’s back

Mike spent the last week in San Jose. Thankfully, his time away always goes by quickly. Between work and school there just aren’t many hours left in the day. But, that doesn’t mean the boys don’t miss him and we aren’t all ready for him to come home! Looking at Nick though you’d think Mike’s plane had been delayed several hours. Really, we’d been waiting about 10 minutes. This kid is bored all. the. time. Unfortunately, that’s karma coming back to bite me in the butt.

This guy was just happy as a clam, even though it should have been time for a bottle. I only hope he stays this mellow when he gets bigger.

It will help offset the crazy that is this child.

Yeah! Dad’s home!

An early Halloween

The boys got to dress up for Kindermusik tonight (remembered my camera for the first time all semester only to realize I didn’t have a memory card – this happens more than I care to admit). Anyway, the boys were all dressed up and even though Kindermusik nights are already late nights I decided to take the boys to my parents house since they will be gone on Halloween. My mother is a holiday person and feels it necessary to buy her kids (though not so much anymore) and my kids a gift for the holiday.

Here’s my boys: Nick the motocross racer, Zander is SWAT (though he has no clue what that is) and Ben is Tigger. My mom bought this costume on clearance the year Nick was born. It didn’t fit Zander but it fit this little guy. I’m just glad we got to use it!

Doesn’t Nick even look like a motocross rider? I’ve never seen such a smiley SWAT guy though.

The loot: a Halloween plate and cup, glow-in-the-dark skeleton gloves and a book for each of them.

Zander loved his sparkly cup.

And had to show off everything to my dad!

Both boys needed help getting their gloves on.

Ben spent some time with Jamie, who wouldn’t give him up all night.

And then there is this. This is why I love my dad. If I were still a teenager I might use this as blackmail, but since the chances of me needing it are slim I figure I might as well share it with the world anyway.

The person behind the camera

That’s me. If you look through my kids’ baby books (well, assuming they had them that is) I would most definitely be absent from just about every family outing. Sometimes it’s intentional. I’m definitely not happy about the way I look these days (it’s my own fault). And sometimes it just that I’m the one taking the pictures so I’m never in them. That, and my big ol’ camera scares away most people so unless I can find something to set it up on it’s tough to be in pictures (holding this camera at arm’s length is pretty difficult). But, I am going to make a conscious effort to try. Consider it my end of year resolution. I’ll start with these.

Happy Anniversary

Eight years. Thirteen if you count all the years we dated. We’ve been together quite a long time by today’s standards. Our relationship is far from perfect, but it’s pretty normal. Mike’s in San Jose today so we didn’t get to celebrate (not that dinner with three kids in tow is really a big party or anything). However, he did send me a dozen roses to commemorate the day. I have to admit I was quite surprised (in part because I had forgot it was our anniversary until he called that morning – I had a few other things on my mind, what with getting myself and three kids out the door). I do believe this is the first, maybe the second, time he has ever sent me flowers at work. I can’t blame him, though. From the beginning I made it clear I wasn’t a flower kind of girl. I let it slide today, mostly because it was nice to know he was thinking about me even though he wasn’t here. Happy Anniversary, honey. Here’s to many more.

Isn’t he sweet?

Even in a pukey bib this little guy is sweetness defined. And that cute little hat … my co-worker made it for him. I can’t wait for his six-month pictures so I can get some real pictures! I just have to find something that will match!Sounds like a good excuse to go shopping to me!

Just another day

Sometimes it’s nice to have pictures of my kids just being kids instead of doing some specific task or craft or event (all of which are getting fewer and farther between). Mike was gone this week and we spent a lot of time just hanging out. The safest place for Ben (though he loves scooting around the floor) is still his swing. I worry though that his days in there are numbered. I have to crank that baby up pretty high just to get a little swing going. It seems like only a few days ago I had to hang a blanket off the end to keep it from going too fast on the slowest setting. He does like the swing, he had either just woken up or was just about to fall asleep here.

Nick was hanging out in his “office.” He is way too big to be sitting at that little table (you can see his knees are on the ground when he sits on the chair), but he loves having a place to do his work.

And Zander was finding his own version of fun in the computer room. He was stacking finger paints on top of the extra diapers here. This little boy, when not being bothered by others, can find fun just about anywhere.

Too soon

Ben is growing up too fast. My tiny little baby is long gone and in his place I have a little boy who loves to scoot all over my living room and melts my heart every time he smiles or giggles. In the last few days he’s really been doing some growing and now I can say I officially have a sitter. It started a few days ago at Kindermusik with him “sitting up” but not really. He was officially on his but, but he was bent over so far at the waist he looked like a from. Then, he would sit for just a couple of seconds on his own. And now, I can pretty much put him down and leave him. And he’s just fine. And getting way too big for my liking.

 

Go Panthers!

My friend Joni had the crazy idea of taking ALL of our children to a UNI football game, just the two of us. There are five boys between the two of us, including two infants. I told her she was nuts. However, I figured if I left Ben at home with Mike we could manage the rest of them on our own (someone needed to have their hands free at all times was my thought). So, we did it. And we survived. But, I don’t know that we will ever willingly do it again. At least until the boys are a little older. Like old enough to give them money and they go get me a snack.

Here is a quick rundown of our day told mostly in pictures.

Our stairstep children: Nick, 5; Dalton, 4; and Zander, 3. Don’t mind that Zander and Dalton are the same size (OK, Zander is actually a little bigger than Dalton, but like any good athlete I’m sure Dalton will fib a little about his size). And I’m really mad that my camera settings were off and Dalton’s face is out of focus. Of course once I fixed it I couldn’t get the three of them to look at me again, let alone all look at me at the same time.

Dalton’s favorite part of the game is the entrance.

They spent a lot of time doing this.

Mostly because of them.

They did watch a little bit of this.

Can you find the ball? I circled it for you.

And even got to see one of these (right in front of our seats).

The team celebrated.

However, when the other team scored, we got treated to this. He is his father’s son after all.

The boys also kept their eyes out for TC. My boys were excited to see him (though Zander was only happy because he was on the other side of the bleachers). Dalton watched for him so he could get away.

I had to get a picture of the littlest guy on our outing.

And of course a great picture of Joni and her boys.

And a really not-so-great picture of me and my boys (and Dalton).

For what it’s worth her picture was taken before the game started. This was taken at halftime, just moments before we left. Oh well, at least there was proof I was there. Thanks McDonoughs for the invitation. We’ll have to do it again sometime. Or not.