Yesterday was another fun Halloween for everyone at the 554. All three boys enjoyed a costume parade and party at school followed by our usual neighborhood gathering, trick-or-treating and hanging with friends until…oh…just a little after “real” bedtime. This year Logan went as a lacrosse player, Aiden wanted to be “a bolt of lightning going through a rain cloud” and Brady was, for the second year in a row, a ninja…but a RED one this year – different from the black one last year!

One pretty cute story: last night before leaving the house to join our friends, I called the boys over in a stern voice and said that I had some specific trick-or-treat instructions to give them. When they all looked up and came over, I said, “now remember boys…mommy likes snickers, twix and twizzlers”. They giggled, I laughed. Later, at the after-party, Logan appeared next to me with a hand full of mini snickers saying, “here mommy…these are your favorites so I got them for you.” I found out today that he was in the basement of our friends’ house, trading stuff from his bag for snickers from the other kids so he could give them to me. Isn’t that the sweetest thing?! The other boys, including Brian, made sure to share some of their treats with me as well. I had a pocket-full of stuff that was being handed to me all night by my four sweet men.

Here are a ton of pics!

Nana and Papa sent some last-minute Halloween fun. Here are the boys carving pumpkins and making spooky cookies on Halloween-eve

Sometimes, when extreme concentration is required, it’s best to stick out your tongue…according to Logan :)

 

Brady recently inherited some new PJs from cousin Jack and is QUITE fond of the snowmen fluffy ones. He is standing on the counter because he knew where there were some orange sprinkles from last year…and thought it would be best to just get them himself.

Aiden made his spooky pizza cookie look like a monster with arms

Kona and Logan display frosting beards…yes, the dog had a little sugar too I guess

Red Ninja Brady getting ready for his parade at school

 

Aiden in his costume and coat for a cold outdoor parade around the school. He took the “cloud” off because it started to fall apart. Pictures only cloud…that’s what it became :)

Here comes Logan’s class…he’s far right in the white helmet

 

I volunteered for Aiden’s classroom this time. His very first elementary school party!! He’s way at the bottom

I got wrapped up in the “mommy / mummy” wrapping

 

Getting ready to head out – Kona had a little Halloween flair…it’s actually meant for a cat, but it was the only thing I could find that was small enough for her.

A mid-trick-or-treat candy break

Here are some of the moves Aiden utilized to display his “lightning-ness”

Brady ended a little early and slipped into something “more comfortable” before we went back and had dinner with friends. Crunch bars are his favorite!

Last weekend was kind of nuts. On Saturday, Brady and Logan had soccer and lacrosse respectively in different locations then Aiden and Logan had soccer games at the same time in WAY different places. Brian and I split up as we have many times this sports season. It was Brady’s last soccer game so Brian took the camera. That day (and Sunday) it rained and rained like crazy off-and-on. Most of our events, including family portraits, actually happened on Saturday (except for Logan’s game because the other team was a no-show in the rain). Logan had another soccer game Sunday morning while Brady, Aiden and I went on our 4th annual Walk for Juvenile Diabetes with the neighborhood crew in support of our friend Kate. Hopefully the rain will stay away this weekend and we can get pictures of Logan at lacrosse and the big boys playing for their soccer teams.

Brady was SO pleased to get his very first sports medal. He always tries to steal the ones his brothers get…now it’s his turn! :)

Brady is in the black hat with red flames

Look how little his hand is in his coach’s!

Go Salmons! (yes…Salmons)

Soccer is tiring for Brady…and daddy too I guess

This is a “mommy take my picture” picture of Aiden’s block stack. We use these blocks for math stuff…and building stuff  

Kona went to the groomer’s today…she does NOT like her bows. I took a quick picture with my phone before she went outside to roll around and get it OFF! She’s always so soft after the groomers…and they put some like puppy perfume on her too…so elegant. ha!

Speaking of Kona, she’s currently taking a puppy class on Monday nights. Last night, Logan wanted to come with me (and then repeatedly told me how bored he was while we were there). I gave him my phone…which he used to take a video of “play time”. He asked me repeatedly to put it on YouTube…so here it is! Brian and I love when he says, “Ok…and this is a puppy mess” when they crawled up on his lap.

For the fifth year in a row, we packed up the kids, the mini van (and the SUV) and headed over to our favorite camp site for the kick off of the Halloween season. This year, the kids were all expressing a desire to sort of be “their own thing” instead of doing a group costume so the moms came up with the concept of the US Olympics Team…year 2024 (which would be a summer games when our kids are between the ages of like 15-21). Most of the kids are in a sport currently so we thought they could still have a group costume, but personalize it in their own way. Brian and I spent some time learning how to prep a silk screen to make shirts. Jen from down the street and Auntie Denna (who came for a visit the week before we went camping), helped me put the ink on the shirts!

As always, a great time was had by all – roasting s’mores, dressing up, tie-dying pillow cases for trick-or-treating, the camp ground costume parade etc.

Here are pictures of our little (future) Olympians.

Logan was a lacrosse player (thinks that maybe this sport will go global by 2024 and be added to the olympics), Brady was the torch-bearer (took his job verrrrry seriously!) and Aiden was a tennis player (seen here before a serve)

  Little kids on stage…4-6 yr division (we lost in the most creative to a kid dressed as a construction worked and his friend dressed in a box as a building…totally fair)

The big kids on stage: 7-12 yr group. They lost to the two Indians on the left. The “vote” was by audience applause…we were chanting “USA – USA – USA”…we better ditch our standard back-row seats for front row seats and yell louder next year! No matter…we all got to go get loads of candy right after this and we got lots of compliments on the group effort :)

Fierce!

Sweet!

On Fire!

We have been waiting for over 6 weeks to pick up our new puppy. We caught the bug and wanted a dog back in July, but we had so much going on this summer (like our 10-year anniversary trip) that we wanted to wait until closer to the start of school. We found our shih-poo girl (part shih tzu and part poodle) about 6 days after she was born on a breeder website. The breeder was GREAT – she sent us pictures of our baby girl every week and kept us updated on her activities (when she first tried puppy food etc). Last weekend (Monday, Labor Day to be exact), we drove a couple hours away from our house the breeder’s daughter’s house (long story) to pick her up. We named her Kona like the Hawaiian Kona Coffee because she is black and brown like coffee. She is only about 2 pounds right now, super sweet and getting used to her new home. Of course we have lots of pictures of her! Oh, and we are thinking her full-grown weight will be somewhere between 5 and 10 pounds.

Back home after our 4-hour round-trip.

She chases feet!

Look at those ears flopping around!

I think she believes that the boys are her puppy brothers. She likes to cuddle up next to them for naps.

Adorable collar and tag – check!

She matches the carpet!   

Brady loves her – we need to teach her not to bite noses though!

 

Logan resting with Kona on the couch

My “lap dog” crawled off my lap and on to the desk while I was working on the computer. Look at that sweet face!

Brady headed off to pre-K last Wednesday. He was very proud that he finally got to go to school like his brothers. Of course today, the following Tuesday, he refused to get out of the car because, “school is boring and I want to be with Kona” (<—see next post) and had to be pried out screaming. Poor baby. This happened a few times last year so hopefully he went in and is doing fine. At least he was excited the first week – haha.

A few weeks before school started, I was getting the boys’ backpacks and bags ready. They all have little things they hang from the zippers or sides for fun. Brady took a GIANT bunch of keys he “borrowed forever” from Grandpa and put them on his bag…

I’m pretty sure no kid could possibly walk for long with a backpack dangling that much stuff. It was fun for a day, then I convinced him it wasn’t the best idea :)