Halloween Party and Other Fun Things

That time of year is starting. We have something or several somethings on the calendar every weekend. It's always fun and a welcome change from our usual Costco, laundry, mow the lawn and clean the house. We know how to live it up!

Aunt Pam came up for the night. Her and I went to lunch and Costco. I can't escape that place. She brought holiday themed gifts for the kids.


It included masks:

Ben was in heaven.


And funny suckers.

Then, Pam read them some books and acted goofy.

Then, Noah got a fever. Uh oh, this is always the worst when it happens around holidays. The next morning he had another fever and found a patch of sunlight to warm himself in. He's like a dog.

I took Emily and Ben to a Halloween party at our friends house. Noah stayed home with David.

Shannon did a great job with the decorations and food.

Those are supposed to be witches fingers on the left. I called them Frankeweenies. HA!
Emily and her friend Alanah.

Bobbing for apples the hygenic way.

Ben made a spooky hand.

Shannon had grown some pumpkins, so the kids got to pick one. Emily grabbed this baby one for Noah.

The pinata was a hit. Pun intended.

Then, Emily came home and consummed all of her candy from her pinata. And threw up all the candy from her pinata. Lesson learned. I put a little twix in her lunch today and she asked if she had to eat it. I guess that's one way to ensure more candy for me!

I have a wedding to go to for my cousin in Phoenix Thursday night. I'm going solo since David will have to watch the kids. Then, we have a family get together since everyone will be in town at my Dad's in Phoenix on Saturday. Oh yes and trick or treating tomorrow! It's Ben's favorite holiday, and he could care less about the candy. Busy, busy, busy, but such fun!

Gina's Beauty Parlor

Does anybody call a hair salon a beauty parlor anymore? Is that really old school? I think it is. In any case, my beauty parlor was open today. Everyone got a hair cut.

Noah's hair is still so thin, but we decided to use a 3/8 inch guard on the trimmers. It is really short! But it looks good.

I think he liked it. He said he looked beautiful.

Emily's hair looks so nice after I cut it and she let's me fix it. It's a struggle every morning with her complaining about me even combing it. So everyday, it's in a barret or a headband and looks like a half straight, half curly missmash.

I'm vowing to start doing her hair nicer no matter how much she complains.

These two crack me up.

Trying to get a good photo of all three is almost impossible. I had 20 that look like this.

And this was the best one in the bunch of my monkeys.

Now, Gina's beauty parlor is closed for 3 months.

Proud

We went to an awards assembly for Emily today.

I wasn't sure what award she was receiving as her teacher just sent a note home with the assembly date and time. David and I wouldn't miss whatever it was.

Third grade is the first year of grades instead of O's and S's, etc. So, they start doing Honor Roll and Pricipals List at 3rd grade. Emily typically gets all A's, but she had a few B's and I wasn't sure if she would even make honor roll. But she did!

I couldn't get the camera to focus right. Urgh. The principal messes up her name every single time.

Last year, they had student of the month, which I thought was good as 20 kids would get recognized at some point throughout the year. They've changed it this year and now it's only Student of the Quarter! They give out 2 per quarter, so only 8 kids get it all year. Emily was one for the first quarter!

Her teacher wasn't there, so another teacher gave out her award.

We are so very proud of her. She is always such a great student and tries her best in school. Great job Em! We love you!

Around Our House...again

I've fallen off the blog wagon. It happens sometimes. I decided to get caught up before the week starts. Plus, I know my Dad will be calling any day going, "Hey, what's going on? Where are pictures?" So, this ones for you Dad.

Let's just start with last Monday. I went in to Ben's class to help with a pumpkin carving project.

It looked all neat and organized first. Then chaos struck. Each parent had their own table. We had to measure and weigh our pumpkin. We had to talk about 15 adjectives that describe the pumpkin. Then, we counted the seeds. All 527 of them. Then, we carved the thing with pumpkin carving knives that were duller than a q-tip. It was quite the task. In the end, we had Spookily the pumpkin.

And I smelled like pumpkin all day. My elbows were orange.

I came home and found The Hulk had just had too much and could no longer smash.

Noah dresses up all the time. I love, love, love that he's taken after Ben. My favorite thing Noah says lately is, "Ben come play with me..." So cute.

Noah comes in our room everynight between 1 and 2 and climbs right into bed between David and I. We know we should kick him out, but why? He just goes to sleep and he's so small it doesn't matter anyway.

Speakin of beds...one night last month David was out of town for 1 night. I decided to let all the kids spend a little time in our bed before I tuck them in. We watch a little Amazing Race, Survivor or XFactor. Now, they insist we do it every night. Seriously, it's been going now for about 45 days. We end our day with "family lovin" as we call it. Some nights I just want to put them to bed early and go watch my favorite serial killer, Dexter. But, the kids keep wanting lovin', so love we must. I'll take it why I can as I know one day, they won't want family lovin anymore.

We had a great weekend. David and I had a date consisting of good Chinese food and a good movie. Thank you Canton Dragon an Argo. Thumbs up and up.

We went to the zoo today with our friends. Here's Emily and Alanah on some rocking bumble bee.

Noah on a frog.

Josh and Ben with a llama butt in the background.

Ben and Noah fascinated by the pig, who was pooping.

Ben and Miss Quilber the porcupine.

Ben and Noah as Spider and Boy.

It was a fun morning. Then, I did 5 loads of laundry and made meatballs while my husband made sauce.

Happy Dad? Come back tomorrow...we have an awards assembly to go to for Emily. Not sure what, but I'm sure to do a another post!

Around Our House

Since we got home from vacation, things have been busy and I caught a cold.

We also celebrated my birthday. I made myself a cake. Emily was supposed to help me frost it, but she was more interested in licking the spoon.

My Dad and Suzy came up to visit the kids. The boys watched The Avengers with my Dad.

My Dad asked who the other superheroes were, so I said, "Black Widow and Green Arrow". To which Ben replied, "Mom, that's not Green Arrow, it's Hawkeye. Green Arrow is DC. The Avengers are Marvel." I started cracking up. One that he knew that and two that I knew what he was talking about.

David and I started watching 24 a few weeks ago. We have 8 seasons to watch. We had 3 episodes left of season 2, so David and I were having a Jack Bauer marathon in our room. The kids were left unattended. This could've been dangerous. Instead, they wrote and acted out a play about the 3 little pigs. It was genius.

They even had a set designed and everything.

I thought I had seen the high point of my day when Noah ran into the kitchen earlier today and told me he did a big snake in the potty. That's code for poop. Sure enough, he put his toilet seat on the toilet and did his thing. I was beyond thrilled. We have about 6 pullups left and I will not buy anymore.

But, my something trumped Noah going to the bathroom. Our friend came over and hooked up a monitor to our computer, so that I will have 2 monitors to do my work. So, I can pull up an ad on the monitor on the right and work on the other monitor. Oh happy day! I usually use the lap top, but when David takes it on overnight trips, I'm left tabbing back and fourth and it takes me twice as long to do an ad. I'm thrilled!

School starts back up tomorrow for the kids and we'll be back in our normal groove. Before fall break, they were in shorts and no jackets. Now, they will go to school tomorrow in pants and wear a coat. What a difference a week makes. I'm ready for fall!

Vacation Day 7, Our Last Day

Last night, we took a walk down on the pier. The internet here is dreadfully slow, so I didn't add any more pictures last night. So, here they are.

I have to take 27 of Ben to get 1 good one.




There was a bronze seal at the beginning of the pier and you are supposed to rub his nose for luck. So we did.

The flowers here are just gorgeous. I don't know what this is but wow!

Today was our last beach day. The guys took the kids for a walk.

The kids spent hours in the water.

Noah spent hours in the sand.

Until David insisted on taking him in the water. Noah was freaked out.





I'm pretty sure that little episode will cost us a few thousands of dollars in therapy somewhere down in the line. I got Noah out and Emily wanted to cuddle with him.

Normally, he wouldn't go for it, but I think he was just grateful to be on land.


The sky looked like this almost all day. Awesome.


Ryan's brother met up with us for the day. The guys all went out to play, proof that they never really grow up.

Free play for Ben means running up and down the beach. If this kid isn't on some sort of track team at some point in his life, I'll be shocked. He runs and runs and runs.

We spent 6 hours on the beach and came home and got in the hot tub. We had some delicious pizza for dinner. It was the perfect ending to a wonderful trip. We are vowing we should do this every year!