Thursday, October 31, 2013

Halloween 2013

It's always a long, crazy, memorable day.  Drop Isaac at school.  Drop Ethan at school 5 minutes later.  Drop Miles and Isla with my visiting teacher 10 minutes later.  Grab bags and run back to Ethan's school.  Just in time to catch one shot of Ethan walking by in his school parade.
Run Ethan's homeroom class party.  I always dread my kids eating nothing but junkfood all day so since I was in charge of the party, I let the other moms lead games and crafts while I did a "healthy" snack group.
Mummy bagels with cream cheese and olives.
Pumpkin bread cookies and jack-o-lantern oranges.  Not pictures are the banana ghost we made with chocolate chip faces.  Mostly healthy and lots of fun.  This kid thought his pumpkin orange needed to be sick.  3rd graders are entertaining. What can I say?
A class picture was needed.
Then I was off to pickup Miles and Isla and finally Isaac at Kindergarten.  And then on to Taylor's work party.  First stop for trick-or-treating:  at Grandpa's office of course.  It's so nice these guys get to live so close to one set of their grandparents.  They love him and he loves them and I know he'll always look out for them.
Isla took a while to learn how to trick or treat.  Opening a bag and actually getting the candy IN can be tricky.  And that's if you even WANT to put the candy in the bag instead of in your own mouth.
You can't beat trick or treating indoors when there's candy bowls every few feet.
Ahh, she's figured it out now.
Yep, look for the bowl, reach for the candy, candy goes in bag.
And then I get to eat the candy.  How cute is Isla.  I really struggled to decide on Isla's costume this year.  The only girl Avenger is black widow who just wears black so that wasn't much fun.  So then Isla was on her own for a costume.  In the end, she's obsessed with dogs and I had this costume from when Ethan wore it.  Add a pink bow and we're done.
Oh and here's Isla's twin Oscar.  So cute.
Taylor's sister and brother in law came in family costumes.  Oscar is Eyore but you can't see from the picture.
After lunch and a bit of candy eating it was time to drop Isaac and Miles off at preschool, pickup Ethan from school, then home for a quick nap for Isla and then off again to watch the spanish school parade.
There's Miles.
Ethan was excited to get to pass out Halloween pencils to all the paraders.
And then back home for a quick healthy dinner- spaghetti with meatball eyes.
And then finally on to the neighborhood parade and chili dinner and finally (after much begging from Isaac to be done with talking to neighbors)- trick or treating!
And then since there was no school the next day they all got to stay up and gorge themselves on candy and chocolate and watch a movie.  A perfect day that's finally over.

Avenger Boys

In August I walked into Costco with Miles and Isaac and was surprised to see Halloween costumes already.  They were instantly begging to be avengers.  And it seemed easy enough so we went for it.
Ethan joined the group theme and was Captain America.  Sadly this was the only time he got to wear his mask since they're not allowed at school and I won't let him trick or treat like that.
Doesn't matter though.  He's cuter without the mask.
Miles wanted to be the Hulk.
His favorite moment from the Avengers movie?  Hulk SMASH!  Yep, he spent the day acting that out.
And Isaac was Thor.  He was pretty set on striking this pose every chance he got.
They're ready for a fight- or maybe just some candy.

Saturday, October 26, 2013

Cornbelly's

Even though we've been kind of overwhelmed with football and soccer and scouts and school lately, we just couldn't miss a chance for a family outing on such a beautiful fall afternoon.  There was bouncing on the air trampolines.
And climbing through inflatable mazes.
And going down giant slides.
And even a haunted house maze- just dark though- nothing scary or gory.
Not pictured: much more fun on hayrides and giant slides.  And finally a few more giant slides.
There were only 3 slides across and since Isla was too small and tired to ride, I stayed at the bottom while Taylor took the boys to the top...
And then had to ride down ALL... BY... HIMSELF.  Good times!

Shark Soccer

This little rugrat has been so happy to be a big boy and play soccer on his own team.
Ethan helped me corral Isla on the sidelines.

Not sure why these little guys like to give "head fives" instead of normal "fives".
I got lucky and caught a great drive on my camera.  Out in front.
All the way down.  And goal!
So proud of himself!
And so excited to go tell dad all about it!
It warms my heart to see Taylor have these opportunities to bond with his kids.  He works really long hours and misses a lot of the everyday moments I get to be a part of.  Miles is so full of life and personality.
It's fun to be a part of his little life.
An informal team picture?  Yep, it's like that.
Come on, these are 4 year olds. Would you expect them actually to look and smile?

Snake Soccer

The end of another soccer season is upon us.
It was fun.
It was fast.
The kids improved.
They ran fast.
They kicked hard.
They scored goals and they were happy!
It's fun to be on the sidelines with these cuties.