Halloween

I figured since I put my Christmas tree up yesterday, that it was probably time to document what happened two holidays ago. We did our annual pumpkin carving. This time we let Erin have her own, since she didn't need as much help with it this time, then the boys had one and Marissa and I had one. They all wanted to do monsters so none of them ended up with two eyes. Erin's had one eye...

Alex's had three eyes...

and Marissa's had four eyes, with eyelashes of course. Hers was a girl.

They did all the designing. I have to say that doing things like this is so much easier than it used to be. My kids can do so much more by themselves so it makes this stuff pretty enjoyable, as opposed to it sounding like a good idea until we actually try it and it ends up being so much more stressful than fun. See? It even looks like Jared is having fun.

All lit up.

Hallie, as always, was a good little baby who stayed in her swing the entire time. She didn't even mind getting treated like a rag doll (see photo).

We had a ward trunk-or-treat the night before Halloween, which allowed the kids to get oodles of candy with very little effort. Erin went as a cat (easiest costume ever).

Marissa went as a fairy. Do not make the mistake of calling her a princess like some people did, because you would be completely wrong--and Marissa would have told you so. I think she was supposed to be a fairy named Rhapsody from a super annoying show called "Meet the Fairies", which I eventually had to ban for my own sanity.

 

Connor was Woody, partly because I was too lazy to get him a real costume of his own that wasn't already in the dress-up box, and partly because he refused to put anything else on. 

  

He loved the lollypops (I am so glad our candy is all gone now!)

 

Hallie sort of had two costumes. The first was a pink poodle that looked more like a sheep and that was two sizes too big for her. Look at her little arms poking through that giant costume.

The second costume was a cat hat and cat socks, which she wore to the school Halloween parade and trick-or-treating on Halloween night.

Alex was Batman just like last year because, again, I was too lazy to get him something new. It still fit him. Here they all are before the Trunk-or-Treat.

They ended up going out the very next night around the neighborhood to double the amount of candy they had from the night before. And yes, they were getting candy from the exact same people that had given them candy the night before. So dumb. Overall, I'm sure we got a net gain in candy. I used to love it as a kid, as I'm sure my kids do too, but as a mom it is so annoying to have that much candy around. We were lucky that the weather was so nice that day so that we didn't have to bundle up too much. Reminded me of Florida. Until next year, Happy Halloween!

Happy Birthday Alex!

Alex had his 6th birthday (over a month ago). October was busy and flew by, mainly due to our new little bundle of joy, a family reunion, Halloween and a birthday. Remember how I said I couldn't have any more birthdays in June because of all the craziness, cakes, parties, presents, etc.? Well, now Alex and Hallie have birthdays 10 days apart, so it looks like we'll have two kind of crazy times of year. I was not exactly up for throwing a birthday party just after giving birth, but that is what Alex wanted. There are so many boys his age in our little neighborhood that I had to limit the amount of boys to 8 (there could have been at least 3 or 4 more--sheesh!)

Jared had just made a rocket launcher to take to our family reunion, so I thought it would be a hit with these kids at the party. The only hard part was helping all the kids make their own rocket (thank goodness our neighbor decided to come and help). Here they all are with their rockets--minus Marissa, her friend Aurora, Connor and the baby. Erin got to have her friend over too.

Here they are shooting the rockets. It was a hit! And nobody got hit by a car either (although some of the rockets hit our neighbor's car--sorry!)

He said he wanted a Cars cake, and since I think I am the cake boss I always decide to create it myself. I kind of like this one. My neighbor thought we had bought it. Ha!

After eating cake, and half the kids eating under the table (because I told them that if anyone eats before the birthday boy they have to eat under the table--that may have backfired since they seemed to enjoy it quite a bit), he opened presents. He got so much loot! What a lucky kid. We got him a basketball and the game Apples to Apples Jr. He really wanted this game after playing it at his cousins' house. He kept trying to get his friends to play it with him later that week, but I kept telling him that #1, you need at least 4 people to play and #2, you have to know how to read to play this game and not many of his friends can read that well yet. Our family enjoys it though.

After that we had them go into the back yard to play tag and running games. It got pretty wild and loud with 13 cray kids yelling and screaming. Luckily there was no school the next day (fall break). I think they all had fun. This is what Hallie did the entire time. What a good little one!

I am so grateful for Alex in our family. He is a sweet, kind, easy going boy. He loves trying new things, which include rollerskating and basketball this month. He loves playing with his friends and Erin. His best friend is our next door neighbor Orion. He loves playing the piano and reading. He has started to show his sense of humor a lot lately. He really is growing up. He has only held Hallie a total of three times, and that was only because we made him. I can't really get to the bottom of why he doesn't want to hold her, because he says he likes her. I think he just doesn't know what to do if she cries. I love his quiet nature, probably because I can relate to him. He is generally obedient and doesn't fight much with the other kids at home. He is happy when he comes home from school, which makes me happy. I asked him if he was the smartest in his class and he said, "I don't know if I'm the smartest, but I'm the goodest" (meaning he is the most well behaved). That I believe. His teacher confirmed that at his parent teacher conference. He wants to be a builder when he grows up, and not a garbage man anymore (because that's really gross, but it would be fun to ride on the back of the truck). I love you Alex! Happy Birthday!