Hall-o-wee-n!

The boys were so excited about going trick-or-treating. They couldn't wait. Our tradition is to trick-or-treat with our neighbors, the Guidry's. It's always fun to go with them. The girls take the boys trick-or-treating and the husbands stay behind to pass out candy.

Here's our neighbor, Dave, and David waiting for the trick-or-treaters. And Will going through the Guidry's stash. They typically start out outside and then move inside and just leave the candy out. They wanted to watch the Rangers game and of course, there was beer to drink : )

Nice garage, huh? We did some remodeling on our house and haven't cleaned up the wood and mess from it  yet. I guess it's time to do that. Except we're about to start working on replacing our fence now. 

Here's our little trick-or-treaters.

Andy - as Buzz Lightyear - of course. He's completely obsessed with him these days.

Will - as a werewolf. He went through probably 5 costumes before he decided to be the werewolf.

Our neighbors son, Jacob - as a zombie. So cute! His mom made it for him.

Ben - as a Ninja. He's not real picky about his costume. He at first wanted to be a Grim Reaper - but chose this from Target.

Buzz Lightyear 

Ninja

Our neighbors always have this "BOO" sign up. So we traditionally take a photo in front of it every year.

Jacob, Will, Ben & Andy

There's a family at the end of the street whose son was dressed as Woody. They asked for a photo w/Buzz. He's so cute and only a few months younger than Andy. So cute!

Andy asked to take a picture (as he always does). He loves using the camera. So we let him take one of David & I. Although a bad picture of me - I am glad he did ..... since it's the only one of me in the evening.



All in all, it was a great evening. The kids got a truck load of candy and really enjoyed themselves. I was really impressed with our neighborhood this year. At least half of the houses passed out candy. So fun for the kids : )

Happy Halloween Everyone!

Some Quirks about the boys...

Ben (8 years, 4 months)

• He loves basketball and loves playing with the neighborhood kids.
• He's not picky about his clothes. He'll wear whatever.
• He has 2 huge pillows and a soft white blanket that he sleeps with.
  
  William (6 years, 3 months)
  
  • He prefers to be called William, not Will.
  • He likes wearing long-sleeve pants and shirts all year round.
  • He loves costumes.
  • His clothes must match and be 'cool'.
  • He likes to always be playing with someone or to play at a neighbors house.
  
  Andy (3 years, 6 months)
  
  
  • He must wear pants (instead of shorts) and they have to have a button. "button pants" he calls them.
  • He loves milk, but only if it's chocolate.
  • He still drinks out of a sippy cup. "baby cup" he calls it.
  • He loves all things Buzz Lightyear
  • He prefers to sleep without a pillow

Creepy Crawlees

Andy had his "Harvest Party" at school today and the theme was Creepy Crawlees. Total Fun! Since I am the room mom - I was in charge of the party. Which was alot of fun getting all the 'party decor' for the classroom to surprise the kids. And the pizza for lunch.

A Creepy Crawlee theme also meant he needed a costume. I mentioned to our wonderful director that Andy would probably wear his Buzz Lightyear costume (because he loves LOVES all things Buzz) and she said "oh - you gotta make something Creepy Crawlee." I guess that's what I get for giving her my Christmas cards every year. She thinks I'm creative. Ha! Well - I took it as a challenge and decided to try and make something. I searched the internet for ideas and came up with an easy costume to make "A Fly."

I got a pair of black pants and a hoodie from Walmart. I got one large sytrofoam ball from Hobby Lobby, cut it in half and painted it red for the eyes. I got white nylon and fabric stiffener to make the wings. I enlisted David to help me. I made the eyes, and he made the wings.

Here's David making a pattern for the wings. You can see the eyes are finished and on the hoodie.

Never any pictures of mommy in action : )

Here's David drying the fabric stiffener and the wings so they'll be nice and stiff.

Well, actually he's drying Will here - but he did dry the wings :)

And here's our little Fly.

Andy loved his costume and was so proud of it. He woke up the morning of his party and said "I'm so excited to wear my fly." It made it all worth it : )

Of course he loved it so much that he wore it all of 10 minutes. Well - at least he got to show it off alittle : )

Cute sign made by the ladies in the office to show off our theme.

I got to the classroom early while the kids were in music so I could decorate. I went with green, black, white and red. I got little bugs in those colors to put on the tables. The kids loved them. It made it so much fun.

Our awesome teachers (Mrs. Lisa and Mrs. Tammi)



The kids eating their pizza. Andy's in the front on the right, in the red shirt : )

I got the Pizza from Cosco. It was $10 for a large pizza and they cooked it. Totally a great deal and yummy pizza!

He loved the buggies :)

and he loved his pizza :)

he was excited to use the plastic knife to cut his pizza. good thing the teachers didn't see that : )

yes, i know ... we do let him cut his food at home w/a knife. It's a kids knife - it's okay.

It was a great party and the kids really enjoyed it. I think the decorations turned out great and the party was a success! We have great mom's in our classroom that love to help out : )

Boys ....

I have wanted to and needed to take photos of the boys for quite sometime. I have lots of frames to fill around the house with updated photos. But as you know - getting 3 kids (especially boys) to cooperate for a photo - is quite a challenge.

I managed to bribe the guys to get them to let me 'try' and take some photos. And even a bribe didn't guarantee me a long attention span. Benjamin would not smile and there was a father and son fishing in the pond next to us and they were much more interested in that instead of having their picture taken. They would give me this cheesy "cheeeezzzzz" while looking at the father/son fishing.

I am not 100% happy with these - but they'll do. They can fill the blog and I'll try again later to fill my wall frames.

Will, Andy and Ben

Ben, Andy and Will

David thought this would be cute. Didn't totally work - but it is cute : )

Andy, Will and Ben

David's arm is in this one. He's holding the light meter. My settings weren't quite adjusted yet - but they were all sitting together - so I snapped the photo. Not great exposure - but all 3 of my boys looking at me : )

Andy, Ben and Will

Andy

Ben

Will

Ben and Andy

Sweet boys!

Will, Ben and Andy
Remember the cheesy "Cheeeezzzzz" I mentioned? Will and Andy have it down : )

Andy

Andy and Ben

Ben
My boy is 8! I can't believe how big he is. I wish for time to slow down .....

I don't like the shadow on this one - but Ben looks sweet : )

Will

Andy

Will

Andy, Will and Ben



I am alittle worried about my Christmas card I will have to soon make. I hope to catch them in a much more cooperative state or it may be bribe time again : )

Neighborhood Fall Festival

Our neighborhood has started the tradition of having a Fall Festival in October. It's a great time and it's right in front of our house. We live at the back of the neighborhood in a culdesac so it's the perfect place. We built our house 8 years ago and we were the 2nd house in our community. So everyone whose on our street and around us - we know.

Our homeowner's association puts the festival together. We have a hayride, a dunking booth, a bounce house, a cake walk, pinata's for the kids, popcorn, and lots of hotdogs and drinks. It's a costume party so most people dress up and that makes it fun.

Here's Ben in the bounce house ....

 Andy in bounce house

Andy loves LOVES monster trucks - so imagine his excitement to find out the bounce house was a monster truck. He was thrilled!

Will : )

me and Kuma in the background

Kuma and Andy looking at the festivities

Kuma's dressed as a skeleton. Isn't she cute : )

David said Kuma would be humilated in this costume.

She wasn't humilated - she was pure sweetness : )

Kuma, Will, Andy and I

Kuma, Andy and David on the hayride

Will and big spider

We typically have 2 pinatas. One for the little kids and one for the big kids. First one: Spongebob.

Here's Andy taking his turn : )

Will taking his turn : )

 Ben taking his turn at knocking Spongebob down : )

Still around the pinata's. But funny, all 3 of my boys are in this shot : )

Some candy fell out. All the kids coming to get it.

2nd pinata: A red powerranger (well half of it anyway :)

Andy

Me and Kuma walking back to the Festival (from home)

On the hayride: Will, Scott and Jacob

Ben's taking his turn at the dunking booth. He threw his ball and it's in the air next to the kid in the gray shirt.

Remember me posting about my frontdoor being ditched knocked at 11pm at night about a month or so ago? Well - see the kid in the gray shirt? Yep - it was him! Doesn't even live in our neighborhood. And the good news is .... later - he was on the hayride w/me .

And believe me - he won't be doing that again.

Kids bobbing for apples.

On the hayride (in motion). I am in white shirt and sunglasses and Andy's in orange and white striped shirt : )

Ben in the dunking booth. He's brave ....

and he's hit.... there he goes : )

And here's my wet boy - still happy : )

Hayride and a view of the festivities ...

William : )

Going home: This is blurry - but I thought it was funny b/c this is the way Andy hangs onto me. Not by holding my hand - but by always grabbing the back of my shirt.

The party was fun. All the kids enjoyed themselves. They didn't dress up this year -which was okay. Ben wanted to do the dunking booth and Will wanted to play in the bounce house - so we opted for no costumes.

All the work that our neighbors/HOA put into it - was Awesome and Much Appreciated! Thank you guys! We all had a great time (as usual). Can't wait for next year!