ALMOST Halloween!

I'm still blogging our pre-Halloween festivities. One of my friends said that Halloween is the new Christmas. The activities last for a full month leading up to the actual day and things are crazy busy. I've tried really hard not to allow craziness to infect our lives when the kids are still little by limiting our activities, but some craziness is already starting to affect us. With the kids being in school, we have parties, field trips and other activities associated with school. I actually helped plan the Halloween party at their school this year, so it made for a busy week.


The party was held during the school day and the kids were SO excited about it. They knew that I was helping to plan and decorate, so they couldn't wait to see it. They were also excited that I'd be at their school that day. I wonder if they'll be so excited about that in 5 or so years?? Maura and Tristan were both pumped about wearing their costumes to school that day. When they came down to the party, they both had HUGE smiles on their faces. Here's Maura sitting with Addia and Gracie. Tristan hung out with his buddies Caleb and Campbell. I thought it was funny that the kids naturally sat down with their friends from church.

I think the highlight of the party for both kids was decorating their own cookie! Tristan took his decorating job seriously! Maura was just excited to eat hers!

The next day was the Halloween celebration at the library. We got there late(of course) and I was busy situating Bennett and when I looked around Maura and Tristan were gone! I went looking for them, only to figure out that they'd wound all through the audience to find two seat together with which to view the Halloween books. So independent! I took the opportunity to enjoy some snuggle time with my favorite lion.

Miss MaryAnn charmed us all with her books. They had such a cute little program for the kids. I LOVE LOVE LOVE our library. They truly enrich my children's' lives. We've been enjoying story times at the library since Maura was four months old! Our library buddies were all at the special story time. Maura, Lily, Sarah and Tristan loved checking out each other's costumes.

Maura, the proud Pegasus, kept up with her little cousin, Alex. She's taken on a big sister role toward Alex and Alexandra actually seems to like it. The other day, Alex got so excited to see Maura get off the elevator. She couldn't wait to run around with the big kids and she cried when we left. Love that baby girl! I'm glad that Maura has a close relationship with her baby cousin, because she will most likely not have any sisters to have that sort of relationship with. I pray that they can always be close and we'll always have as much fun as we had this Halloween.

Relief

Relief. That's what I feel now that football season is officially over. I felt as though I was hanging by a thin thread during football season as I tried to be a single parent to my children. Brent's schedule was such that he would only see the children for 45 minutes to an hour a night before it was bedtime. My two active preschoolers and needy newborn were almost more than I could handle some days. I am SO glad to have him back. So glad. He gets home every day before 5 o'clock and enjoys having dinner with us. It has been wonderful. We can even do activities in the afternoon before or after dinner. One sunny fall day, we all decided to go out and rake leaves so the kids could enjoy some leaf jumping. The kids had a blast running through, throwing and kicking the leaves.
Yet another reason I'm glad he's home and was able to come with us--I didn't want to rake up that big pile of leaves! He had to keep on raking too as the kids scattered the pile. So much fun! I remember doing a lot of leaf pile jumping as a kid. I just don't remember the ground under the leaves being so hard!

Tristan had a ball. Maura kept wanting to bury him in the leaves and he kept letting her, but I knew that he was getting leaves in his hair, eyes and mouth. Maura posed for me in her pile--in between throwing handfuls of leaves in the air. I thank God for these strong, healthy kids and for the fact that we had this gorgeous fall day to enjoy.

Maura and Tristan are playing together very well these days. We do have the occasional spat, generally when Maura is getting too bossy, but for the most part they love each other so much and love playing together. They tend to get really crazy when they play together, so I often have to intervene and direct them towards less rambunctious games!

Below: Three little sweeties, or two sweeties and one sourpuss. Can you guess which one is which? I'll give you a clue...he's not holding Bennett, which was why he was mad.

Sometimes he just has to wait his turn, something he's not great at!

Below: He's great at borrowing his sister's dress up clothes, though, much to his father's dismay! That's a hefty little princess...er, prince!

Bennett Boo is getting so big these days! At four months, he's just the sweetest thing. He's super smiley and will smile at anyone who speaks to him. He's found his voice and loves singing and he'll talk back when you talk to him. The other day, I looked over at him on the changing table and realized that he'd found his feet. So cute!

Not a great photo because of the lighting, but he was SO excited about those feet! Four months is my favorite age. They love everyone, are interactive, are on some type of schedule and they can't move around! Love it! I could eat this little chubbo up!

Trunk or Treat

That's right, folks! We've got to go ALL the way back to mid October so I can get caught back up. Nothing like premiering the kids' Halloween Costumes in mid November!! Our first costume activity for the season was our church's Fall Festival. We had it at a farm this year and I thought it was one of the nicest ever--but maybe that's because they offered free babysitting for the kids while the adults went and listened to a comedian! It was AWESOME to not have to run after the kids all day. Our fabulous children's ministry took care of all the fun events for the kids and therefore made it even more fun for the adults!
I LOVE fall and the fantastic photos ops that come along with it. Unfortunately, Tristan is in his two-year-old camera boycott stage. Oh, well, that's a cute profile. You would think that he couldn't wait to get away from the camera, but a second later when we were trying to get a shot of just Brent and I, you couldn't get him OUT of the photo.

My big kids enjoyed crawling all over the tractor. Tractors are still Tristan's best(most favorite). Whenever I need Brent to take him out of my hair for a while, I always suggest that they head up to the tractor dealership. Brent lets him climb all over the tractors and some even have keys in them that Tristan likes to "pretend" to turn. They haven't been chased by any mean guard dogs yet!

I couldn't wait to get the kid's Halloween costumes on them for the first time. Unfortunately, it was 80 degrees. In October. We have fleece costumes. The kids were a bit warm. We still dressed up and got super cute photos with Rachel and Audrey. Bennett is only six months younger than Audrey. I loved posing with all three of my cuties: Pegasus Maura, Dragon Tristan and Aslan Bennett. My three magical creatures charmed my heart!

Our Praise Parade of costumes. So much fun to see all the kids in their costumes. My favorite costumes of the day had to be our triplet friends who were dressed as a banana split!

The kids were inspired to do some fall activities when we arrived at home. Despite the fact that Halloween was more than a week away, we decided to go ahead and carve pumpkins. The kids were really excited and Maura got right to work scooping the goop. We sang "The Pumpkin on the Vine." Right now, my kids think I'm funny when I sing songs like that to them. Someday soon, though, they're going to start rolling their eyes at me!

Tristan and Maura were both super proud of their finished product despite the fact that they did none of the carving. Tristan's jack-o-lantern was supposed to look like the one on his shirt and Maura's was an original design.

We couldn't wait to display our Jack-o-lanterns. Unfortunately, the warm fall weather took it's toll on our Jack-o-lanterns and they were truly scary by Halloween night!

Fun with Fall Crafts

In the fall, more than any other time of the year, I get inspired to do crafts with my kids. I think we spend so much time outside during the spring and summer that when the weather starts to turn a little we finally find ourselves inside with some time on our hands. This year, we've already completed our leaf pictures, where you iron fall leaves between sheets of wax paper to make a faux stained glass picture. We've also done fall wreaths and pumpkin and bat pictures for our Halloween decor. Maura is my little crafter. She's always up for an art project. I can keep her occupied for hours with some markers, a glue stick and a pair of scissors. Tristan, on the other hand, could care less about art projects! He generally abstains from any and all crafting. Because of my experiences doing art with him, I have been pleasantly surprised this year to see some of his art projects come back from school. Either he is succumbing to peer pressure or the art teacher is doing his project for him, but he's doing a great job! He may be a little artist after all!

One day just a few weeks ago, we invited our friends to join us for a little creativity. We had a little play date and I baked some chocolate cupcakes to let them decorate. It is always a messy production with the under 4 set, so I just braced myself for a messy kitchen and I wasn't disappointed!

Lindy and Jack and Leah and Carter were up for some playtime and chocolate cupcakes! Yum. I loved that we were able to have some fun with our culinary creativity, that the kids had a great time playing, and that I had the chance for some girl talk!

I watched Alex that day for a few hours and I'm not sure if she knew what to make of all the commotion! There was a LOT of commotion. What a glorious mess these kids are! I thank God for them...and their mess because it means that they're healthy, happy and active. We love our friends.

Bennett has quite a way with the ladies! I don't realize how dark his skin is until I see him next to another baby. He's my swarthy boy! This is Annabel--Bennett's girlfriend! They're only six weeks apart and so cute together! He's so smart--already reading.

LOVE my sweet boy. He's already starting to look so grown up. I caught him holding his own bottle last Sunday and almost cried. My baby is growing up TOO quickly!

Below: We decided to continue our fall crafting extravaganza that evening by constructing our very own Halloween house. I can't take too much credit for this. I bought this kit on super clearance after Easter and my kids have been bugging me to use it all summer. I finally bought some Halloween candy and we went to town. The kids were SO excited!!

Tristan with a little "see" food. He was really more interested in eating the candy than in sticking it to the house, but we eventually got down to the business of exterior decoration.

The kids loved the finished product. Pretty spooky, huh? I especially loved the little ghost by the door. He's actually a bunny for the Easter house, but he doubles as a pretty convincing ghost too! The kids loved this activity and are already bugging me to buy another kit! It may be awhile before we make another, though. I find the kitchen chair frequently pulled up the the counter so that they can snack on our house! Maybe we'll do another house when they obey better...basically never!!