Showing posts with label halloween. Show all posts
Showing posts with label halloween. Show all posts

A Super Halloween

Sorry for the delay on the Halloween pics (mom’s camera and the computer are not seeing eye-to-eye and I had some transfer problems). So…Halloween was a great success this year. Kristin and Joel hosted the “before” party and The Dietz family took the “after” party. After naps and some pictures at the house, we headed out with our three little super heroes around 3:15. The kids played, decorated pumpkins and had a little dinner before we hit the candy trail. After we made the usual path through our subdivision, we all gathered together for more playtime, more sweet treats and a taco spread for the adults. Perfect!!

I have to say that as of this posting, the kids have already forgotten about their candy bags…mom and dad, unfortunately, have not ;)

Lizard Boy, Rocket Boy and Fly Boy – ready to go! Mission objective: procure sweet treats (ah…looks like they’ve already raided the home candy bowl!)

IMG_0925

By the way, we have some terrible trick or CHEATERS in our neighborhood! We left our candy bowl on the porch with a sign saying please just take 2 pieces. Of course, just like last year, it was totally emptied by 4pm (as reported by a neighbor who stopped by to find an empty bowl on our porch, Anne & Jeff’s porch and on Pete and Susan’s porch). They even took my sign!! <—which I made all cute on the computer too! In my head, they are Jr. High boys…meanies!

Back to the nice stuff….here are the back of the capes on all three boysIMG_0931

Rolling down the street to the Epstein party! We took the wagon around during actual trick-or-treating and, predictably, not one of the boys used it. Chad pulled it for us as it carried a bunch of coats and other “stuff”IMG_0936

“YEAH!” IMG_0940

Susan and Mackenzie dressed as mommy and daughter witches (Mackenzie’s request!) IMG_0946

Here, the kids decorate pumpkins. Logan did his in about 3 minutes while Aiden was the last kid left at the table!IMG_0947

Susan and Holli IMG_0948

Brady snagged his first piece of candy as we left the Epstein house! “I am Fly Boy…I am off to find friends for this lonely piece of chocolate!” IMG_0953

The neighborhood gang. IMG_0955

“I am Rocket Boy….I will destroy your attempts to take good pictures by blocking everyone with my fantastic cape!” I forgot to turn the camera around this year and take pictures of all the parents, armed with various recording devices (cameras, phones, video equipment)IMG_0956

“I am Fly Boy…I refuse to stand still for this picture-taking non-sense!” IMG_0959

“cheese” IMG_0960

“are we done yet?!” IMG_0961

“enough with this mask!” IMG_0962

I think this is the last time I saw Logan. He was quick…and I was on Brady duty…who was very definitely NOT quick! IMG_0963

See…here comes Bray and the other kiddos, save for Aiden, have come and gone! IMG_0967

“I think there is more candy this way!” The feet far in the distance are the dads…who always bring up the rear of our trick-or-treat parade. Bear refused to be carried though and he was having such a blast that I just let him do his own thing! IMG_0972

This is Aiden saying, “mommy! I got a BLUE LOLLI-POP!!” For me, the French phrase “joie de vivre” just pops into my head for this picture. For those of you who did not take French, it means “joy of living”. What could be more joyful than the excitement a little boy takes from getting a BLUE lolli-pop I ask!? :)IMG_0977

“and I’m off!” IMG_0978

At the after party: Susan made the kids these amazing which-hat cupcakes and alien cookies – so cool! IMG_0980

The black part of the cupcake is a frosting-coated ice cream cone. IMG_0981

One of the few things that will actually get Brady to give up his much-loved paci…cake! IMG_0987

I was going to do a separate post on this, but here is Logan with his very first ever homework assignment…candy counting. Logan, Aiden and I worked on this together Sunday morning. IMG_0989 IMG_0990

We counted, grouped, sorted and um…ate the candy stash. IMG_0993

Here is the pumpkin Aiden decorated at the Halloween party. IMG_0996

Here are Logan’s pumpkins. The one on the left is from the party and the one on the right is from school. IMG_0997

The Field-Trippin, Craft-Makin, Kiku-Eatin, Birthday-celebrating, pumpkin-carvin' Post

Oh my goodness! This was a super busy week for all of us. First, Logan's pre-school field trip was on Tuesday. We went to a farm stand which was fun. Luckily, the younger boys were invited along so we all had a nice outing. Brian's birthday was on Thursday, but we celebrated "birthday week" so he got a little something every day ending with a family dinner at Kiku & homemade (yes I did!) carrot cake at home on Thursday night. Work for me is also quite nutty. We are converting to a new system and I have a lot to get done plus a few actual conference calls during "nap time" (this rarely happens...I usually touch base with my boss once a week, but I was on 3 calls last week...while the poor older boys had to watch TV and "not talk to mommy"). I stayed up until 11, then midnight, then 11 again on three consecutive nights trying to clean data. Since I didn't get around to blogging at all...this post is going to be very long and picture-heavy! Let's just dig right in!!

Tuesday: Aiden peeks down from the playground area at the Farm Stand. It's so funny because I took the boys for haircuts right after we left that day. Now I'm used to them with "clean" heads so these pictures look scraggly to me :)
We got to the field trip a little early. The original date (a Friday) was cancelled due to weather and rescheduled to the following week. I must have mis-read the note that came home because the time was ALSO changed from 10 to 10:30. At least we weren't late for a change and we had a while to play around before the main event (a tractor ride, hay-bail maze and feeding the animals). Here's Logan looking through a big tractor wheel.




Each of the boys took my camera for a while to snap shots of their own. Even Brady now tries to grab the camera whenever I take it out. I think Logan took this picture. A view of the playground:

Ok...so now Aiden has the camera. Do you see that little red-coated child running towards the parking lot? (hard to see...middle-ish of the picture) That's Brady

See the mom in the black hooded vest sprinting towards the red-coated child? That's me.
Aiden and Brady took turns stealing my sunglasses and taking pictures of each other.

Aiden took one of mom.

...and then one of him

This is Logan's teacher measuring the boys on the "how tall this fall" sign.

Logan's turn

"I want to play with the camera mama!"

Here we are waiting to board the tractor ride


This is the best picture I could get of the boys in the wagon. During the 10-minutes we were on this thing, I let Brady have the camera. I am absolutely not exaggerating when I say that I deleted over 40 pictures he took...mostly of every one's feet. I know, for example, that the mom sitting next to Aiden was wearing brown tennis shoes with pink laces...and I have over 30 shots to prove it!
Feeding the goats. The boys were so excited for this part.
Everyone got a pumpkin as we were leaving. Logan was convinced that we were going to take them home and make a pie...thankfully he forgot about that idea! I couldn't carry all the pumpkins, plus Brady, to the car so I grabbed a wagon.

Nana and Papa sent the boys the coolest Halloween cards on Wednesday. Brady's plays the Ghost Buster theme song when you open it (all three boys have carried it around and played with it this week). Logan's has a cool bat that looks like it flies when you open the card and Aiden's had "make your own monster" stickers...could that be more perfect for him? I think not :) Here are the finished monsters on the card

Nana also surprised us all with a package of fun Halloween games and crafts. It came at a perfect time too...a day when we were all going crazy being inside and needed some fun activities. Here is a video of Aiden finishing up his card and getting ready to make a foamies Halloween tree.





Our finished product! Logan ditched us 1/2 way through, but Aiden had a blast. He was making the different pieces, like the cat, walk around and "talk".
Daddy's Birthday dinner at Kiku (our favorite Japanese steak house where they cook on a giant grill in front of you). The boys had LOTS of fun entertainment (an onion volcano, big bursts of flame, eggs being tossed all over the place etc). Brian and Carole had probably the best scallops I've ever tasted!
After dinner, we went back to our house for presents, cake and balloons of course...Aiden helped me pick them out that morning. We had a blue for daddy, another blue for Aiden, a green for Logan, red for Bear and orange for me...plus a rainbow "happy birthday" one. I also have to mention these cool candles I found at Michael's. The flames are the same color as the candles so the orange one burns orange, the blue one has a blue flame etc. Neato.
I met with some other moms on Friday morning to plan Logan's preschool Halloween party for next week. I left the meeting with like 3 more jobs than I had originally taken on. One was to make gift bags. Can you believe that I made 12 of these bags with things from around my house? I didn't buy one single thing - how handy that I have so much craft stuff laying around (or pathetic...not sure which one)! The pumpkins were cut using my cricut machine (love my cricut!)

We also found some time this weekend to carve a few pumpkins. Well...the boys pulled the guts out and then mommy and daddy did the carving. Brian bought a cool set of designs that you tape on the pumpkins and trace with a little poking tool.

"Ah! Pumpkin guts!"

I think this face says it all - slimy!

Although he was feeling cranky and out-of-sorts for most of the day, Brady played "scuba" nicely while the older boys did the pumpkin thing (he was invited...but not interested in the goop quite yet).
Snorkle baby!
Here are 2 of the finished pumpkins. The third one was being carved when I started this post (last night), but it's just as cool with a big tree, a ghost and a tomb stone. Brian did a great job!

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Stories about BRLAB: Brian & Renay, two relatively sane parents, and our three adorable, but active boys: Logan - 9, Aiden - 7 and Brady - 6. I started this blog to document our adventures and milestones for those family members who are far away and can't always share the fun in person. This blog has become my way to keep track of everything in the lives of my growing boys - from the super big stuff that seems the most important to the small things that probably really ARE the most important. I always include tons of pictures because I plan to make a book out of the blog on a yearly basis. Time flies by so fast, I can only hope that these posts will help us remember all the wonderful and silly times we have together as a family.