HalloweenX3

 Our costumes this year were all about yellow. Minions of course. Between my lack of time, Asher's love of yellow, and recently watching the second Dispicable Me movie it just made sense. I found this costume and thought it was perfect. Some yellow sweatshirts, overalls, felt, goggles, black pipe cleaners and we were set. It took a tad more time than I thought it would be the end it was definitely worth it and now we have some sweatshirts and overalls to wear!

We went out three times this year. Once to the mall with Paisley and family. Once around our neighboorhood. And once in Waukee with Mel and Aidan. Our neighborhood has hardly any lights on and you may walk an entire block and only have one light. I wanted the boys to see streets lined with lights and all the kids laughing and running from house to house. That is just what we got on our second third night out.

Between handing out candy and our three trips out we had way too much candy. But we had just as much fun as we had candy so it was worth it. :)

Homemade Minions

I have always loved having awesome halloween costumes for the boys. I find it so much fun. Well, it is at least fun the day of halloween. But the month leading up to it it is stressful! The first couple of years my awesomely talented friend Maryann helped me (did them for me) and they were some of the best ever. She made the sock monkey and ipod. the Ipod even made the news, it was that good. So the next year she gave me some sewing tutorials and off I went making the ninja turtles. It took me the entire month of October and I was beyond overwhelmed. The end product was awesome though so I knew I would be stressing out over costumes for many years to come...

This year, with Asher's love of yellow, it seemed like an obvious choice for him. A minion of course! Luckily for me Jaxson wanted to be whatever Asher was so it was two minions for me! All I needed was a couple of yellow sweatshirts, black pipe cleaners, some felt, and a couple pairs of funny glasses. Easy right?!

Yellow sweatshirts don't exist apparently anywhere. Unless I wanted to buy a Michgan University sweatshirt for $50. Dave was not having that idea. So I bought white sweatshirts and some dye. Whew.... problem solved! Until I read the bottle that it says it can't dye anything 50% or more polyester. You guessed it, the sweatshirts were indeed 50% polyester. So I googled my heart out and found a "recipe" of sorts. I had to dye the shirts on the stove keeping the heat exactly between 160-170 degrees (yep, I used a thermometer) and also mixing in a certain amount of salt and dish detergent to help the dye adhere to the polyester.  But the fun part... stirring constantly for 60 minutes. And even more fun, in my case it was twice.

But hey, at least I found funny glasses at the dollar store! That part was at least easy! 

In the end the boys loved their costumes and now Asher has a yellow sweatshirt to wear anytime he wants to wear yellow. Which is everyday.

Pumpkin Carve-Off 2013

Tonight we carved until we could carve no more. And now it is up to all of you to decide the carve-off winner for 2013. For those of you who have never voted, Dave and I decided to carve pumpkins the first Halloween we dated. And because we are naturally competitive we had his mom decide which was better without telling who carved which. She said she loved both (as any mom would of course) but ultimately chose mine as her favorite!! Then the next year Dave wanted redemption, and the tradition was born. This is the 8th year we have had the competition! In 2008 when we started the blog we let everyone vote for their favorite. This year is no different.

Pumpkin A: 

Pumpkin B:

The person that carved Pumpkin B used this picture of Jaxson as a template. Please don't let the subject of the pumpkin determine your vote! We know you love Jaxson even if you don't vote for the pumpkin with his picture. ;)  Still vote for whatever pumpkin is your favorite. But we were getting alot of questions as to what pumpkin B was so we wanted to answer them.

Previous years to save you some time if you are curious what we have done before. Or just want to see how bad we were in the beginning!

2012
2011 
2010
2009
2008

Another Year at the Patch

We all piled in the car and headed out for our yearly trip to the pumpkin patch. There is always so much to do in the play area that we can't usually get it all in. Maybe in a few years when nap times is not of concern we can just sit back and let them play all day. We hit up all our favorite spots including the big slide and the tractors.The slide is really pretty big and super fast. Asher couldn't decide on his first trip down and after his second knew he was a fan. Jaxson was on his own this year and loved it. I think Dave will miss the big slide when the boys are able to do it all on their own.

Asher seemed to be a bit of a grump based on the pictures although I don't remember thinking he was in a mood. His poutey face is just about as cute as his smiling one. I am biased though...

Circus Circus

No, we didn't make our way to Vegas but the Ringling circus made their way our way recently. It timed perfectly with our friend's little girls birthday so we bought a group of tickets and took her along for her birthday present. I love getting kids experiences rather than toys for gifts. Most kids in my life don't need let alone have room for another toy but there is always a need to spend more time with their parents and people in their life, meet new people, and experience new things.

On circus day we got together for dinner and piled into our car (yep, we all fit now that we have a 3rd row seat and it is AMAZING) and off we went. The kids were in awe. I hope Miss Lilah enjoyed herself and I know that Jaxson and Asher had a blast. On the way home we asked all the kids what their favorite part was and the response was a collective "all of it!"

Cat Got Your Tongue.

Jaxson has been learning letters and all the sounds at school. They have a new sight word each week they learn to write and recognize when they see it in print. He has been so excited about learning to spell, read, and write words lately. It is just as exciting for me to watch him as it seems to make him doing it.

Last night we were reading our James and the Giant Peach chapter and after he was constantly finding every 'the' 'and' 'like' 'see' 'we' 'I' and all the other sight words he has had so far. Afterward I grabbed a easy reading book with big letters and easy words for the beginning reader.

I would pick out a word and we would work on sounding it out to figure out what the word was. We came across CAT and I told him this one he was going to do all by himself. He wasn't thrilled. He is always so worried about getting the answer wrong. Something we need to work on.

But this time he didn't get it wrong at all. He sounded out each letter, began to read the sounds together quickly over and over and over again. Then he looked at me and asked, "Is it cat!?" 

When I said yes he was so excited he started giggling and cheering for himself. So CAT is the first word my little man read all by himself. Then we stayed up much later then bedtime because he wanted more words to sound out saying that reading was "awesome" every time he got one right.

Road Trip!

We had our bags packed and got on a plane headed for Nevada early October. It was the first time Asher has been on a plane and Jax doesn't remember it well when he took a trip at 1 1/2. One of my favorite parts of being a parent is getting to watch their excitement of new things. It was like experiencing flying for the first time all over again.

We spent the week with Elaine who recently moved there. Dave's sister and brother-in-law along with their sweet twins  joined in the fun and we celebrated her birthday while there. We painted pumpkins. Tie-dyed shirts. Played golf. Watched movies. Ate. Ate. And ate some more. And of course celebrated Aunt Mimi's birthday with loud noise makers my sister-in-law and I stuffed in an over-filled cart during a rare child-free trip to Walmart. For me a child free trip to a store is fairly rare and I think having my littles in tow might actually save me money not being able to wander aimlessly down aisle after aisle.

Our four days seemed to fly by and our trip home we knew would be more eventful. We would be driving home from Nevada. We had it planned. Leave by at latest 430am, drive for several hours before they would wake, have breakfast in a cooler on ice ready as soon as they opened their little eyes. We had movies in the car (a very special treat), stopped when we could, and brought along electronic device galore. How did parents travel for long distances before the ipad? I also had several brown lunch bags stuffed with activities for the moment they whined those dreaded words "are we there yet?" They didn't know what was inside and it saved us at crunch time.

Thirteen hours in the car and we made it to our halfway point. Vail, Colorado. Finally! I am not sure I can say I have ever seen a more beautiful area. For at least 60 miles driving into Vail I was in absolute awe. How lucky for every photographer who lives in that area. They probably can't even get to all the amazing locations if they went somewhere new everyday. I am beyond envious and if I ever have the ability to have homes in my favorite places, Colorado is most definitely on my list. We spent two nights in Vail to stretch our legs and let off steam. It was the best idea we had yet.

Our day in Vail was dreary with a mix of rain and snow. I tried to snap a few photos but felt a bit bummed I didn't have a beautiful day to run around with my camera. My boys probably preferred me having to keep my camera protected in the backpack so they didn't have to have their photo taken all day as we walked around and visited shops and the scenery. Even though I don't have that many photos to look back on, I enjoyed being a part of the day rather than just watching their day through a camera lens. It is a fine line to walk. And I am not always the best at walking it.

Driving up to our house 7 long days later was such a relief. We had such a great time but were wore out to say the least. I have heard, and might agree, that it is called a vacation when it is kid free, and a family trip with the littles are in tow. And more than that, I agree you need a vacation after a family trip!