Lots of Treats...

Tonight we went over to Kelsey and John's for dinner and trick-or-treating. Thanks Kels for the yummy chili, cornbread and goodies. Everything was delicious. Here are some of the little ones ready to go...

Sam and Kaitlynn on their way to their first house...

Spooky house... This was the first year Sam has been really into Halloween. At each house my normally shy boy was yelling "Trick-or Treat!" and was so excited to collect his treasures.

Mmmmm....look at all of those treats to choose from...

Sam running from house to house ahead of the pack.

The monkey got tired after a while but was right up there with the big kids at each house. He even put some of his treats in one lady's treat bowl. :-) He tried to go inside several houses and kept saying "Happy Halloween!"

Papa and Mimi stopped by with some wind up teeth... A bit hit!
We had a great night - It was so much fun watching the kids enjoy themselves and get so excited. Brian bought 3 bags of candy and since we were gone most of the night we didn't have any kids! So not only do we have all of Sam's loot that he doesn't really eat... we have a giant bowl of chocolate - oh my.

Moms and Monsters

Ready to party...A fireman and his trusty sidekick... the monkey.

My girlfriend Laura hosted a Moms and Monsters Halloween Party this morning. The kids had a great time and are currently crashed out after all of the excitement!

Here are most of the monsters...

Games included finding a treat in a cauldran of cold spaghetti. The littler monsters thought it was lunch time and started gobbling up the spaghetti...

Looks like this Snow Princess (Sam's buddy Kaitlynn) has a crush on the Fire Chief....

Diego, Pirate, Buzz and a friendly Dragon...

Kristi turning from Mommy to Mummy...

The toilet paper was a hit...
Finding Sam's fire hat...

Laura put on such a great party - the Halloween decorations, treats and games were too cute. I wish I had taken pictures of some of the food - witches brew, eyeball cookies, mummy trail mix etc. Super creative and so much fun!

It will be here soon... the rain that is.

I'm not ready for the rains to come... not yet. I have loved every minute of the sun this week! Yesterday while we were waiting for Brian to get home we went out to play. I swept a bunch of leaves to the side of the driveway...and of course where did the kids want to ride bikes? Yep - through the leaves! They played speed racer though the driveway, garage, around my car and giggled and squealed up a storm.

Pretty soon these gorgeous red trees will be bare...
And the rains will come... and it will be dark by the time Brian gets home!

A Toy Story

Woody and Buzz. Buzz and Woody. Woody and Buzz. We have been hearing a lot of that around here lately. The kids played with Woody and Buzz all day. Ben carries Woody around and takes his cowby hat on and off..and on again...and off. Sam flies Buzz around the house and yells "To Infinity and Beyond!"

Today when Sam hopped in bed for his nap he had Woody perfectly positioned on his sleeping bag. He leaned over, kissed his nose and said "Goodnight Woody." Silly kid. He has been watching Lizzie put her babies to sleep for years.

Sam slept with Buzz tonight and Ben with Woody. Ben laid in bed saying "Reach for the Sky"...and "Gimme a high five Woody... Hi Woody... Hi Woody."

I'm sure they will have more adventures tomorrow.

Halloween Pre-Funk

We got together for our yearly pumpkin carving, dinner, kids run around with glowsticks and costume party. Brian and Ben scooping the pumpkins out for us....

More scooping...

Cute cousins.

Scary cousins.

Sam wore this monkey the last 2 years... now B gets a turn.

This is the first year Sam has been into the carving. The original plan was to have spooky pumpkins. Sam wanted all of the pumpkins to be "happy and laughing"... This little one grew in his garden.

The big kids informed us tonight that when they are lit up the are called jack-o-lanterns. They reminded us of this over, and over and over...

Big Mac

Mac had his follow up appointment today with the surgeon. It turns out he has a blown ACL in his knee. During the exam they also found what they believe to be cancer on his elbow joint. Just gets better and better doesn't it! They could do both surgeries together for the small price of $5000... (that is not a typo). We could choose not to fix the knee although he would eventually develop painful arthritis. If we opt for the surgery there is a 50% chance that his other knee could go out. He is only 7 yrs old which makes it such a hard decision. So not a very uplifting visit with the vet. As you can see Mac looks a little bummed about the whole situation.

Enjoy it while we still can...

The kids have been feeling a little cooped up...can ya tell?

So we decided to head outside for a while. It has been CHILLY here in Portland this week – in the 30s overnight... But not too cold to play outside. The kids had fun watching airplanes, running, jumping, sliding, spraying the hose, riding bikes and just being boys.

Did I tell you how much I LOVE my neighbor's tree this time of year?

Happy Birthday to you!

Today Grandma Mary celebrates her 79th birthday!

She is an amazing woman. When I was little, my grandpa once told me that she would do anything for one of her kids or grandkids... He was right. She is also a fun, stylish and hip lady who travels, exercises and has a busy social calendar! We love you Grams and hope you have a wonderful day. You deserve it! xoxo

Annual Outing

We headed out to Baggenstos Farm this morning with the Adams/Whitings for our annual pumpkin patch outing.

Ben is feeling so much better today. Lots of energy, smiles and giggles.

Cockadoodle Doo

Sam found a great pumpkin this year. He usually goes for the green, flat, no-stemmed pumpkins. This year he went for big, round and ripe!

We didn't plan to be green. :-)

Sam and Lizzie discovered pumpkin bowling with Papa.

Everyone came over for lunch before Aunt Susie and Uncle Dennis had to hit the road!

A Crazy Day

Ben woke up this morning with a fever and throwing up - lovely! Poor guy was miserable... just wanted to be held and snuggled.

Here is Sam trying to figure out how to take his temperature too.

We had a special treat this weekend - Aunt Susie and Uncle Dennis drove over from Bend for a visit. We had dinner over at Ellen's tonight to hang out and celebrate her birthday a few days late. The kids LOVE Aunt Susie - they played school and taught her all kinds of new songs, dances etc.

Blowing out candles on the very "orange" cake...

Ian loved the frosting...
Miss Lizzie - always playing dress-up...
Here is Colin. This has something to do with his role in The Signing Christmas Tree... Not sure how this started tonight but we all got a good laugh. Sam busted out with some new dance moves tonight that we didn't know he had! He performed this over and over - Enjoy!

Goodnight! xoxo

All things Ben...

Ben had a busy day today. Sam has preschool on MWF mornings...which leaves Ben trying to find things to occupy his time. No big brother to follow around...

We dropped Sam off at school today and headed to the rec center for Ben's kindergym class. The parking lot was empty (never happens) and I knew something was up. Turns out all classes were canceled today - Grrrr. We had fun playing at the park instead.
I'm looking for trouble... Weee! Ben loves the trampoline and "being a monkey" as he calls this move.

I was making lunch so he pulled the blender out and started filling it with treasures.

This kid loves water. He fills and dumps cups, spoons, bowls etc. When that gets boring he dumps the water onto himself! Brian let him play here tonight and didn't realize he was wearing socks. Ben thought it was rather amusing. Feeling guilty about wasting water, I ran the dishwasher on quick wash tonight...and will again tomorrow. :-)

Here is my little burrito after bathtime tonight. Sam preferred being a taco. Off to bed!