Halloween

The kids all looked great in their costumes tonight.
The rain didn't come!
Lots of candy was consumed.
It's all over for another year!
Success!



A few things I want to remember:
- Cooper and Hudson went out on their own with a couple of Cooper's friends. At first he didn't want to let Hudson join them but with a little (lot of) pressure from me, Opa, and Nana he made the right choice and let him come.
- Tag got tired after about an hour and Tony took him home. Reagan could have gone for two more hours. When candy is involved she doesn't give in easily.
- our Disney pumpkins were a big hit. Lots of compliments and people even took pictures of them.

- our friends Rich and Leslie joined us with their daughter Sophie for the second year in a row. I think it has become a new tradition.
- another tradition is potato soup, we have it every Halloween.
- Reagan got lots of comments and compliments on her Alice costume. She loved it, so all the sewing was worth it.
- I said that next year I won't do costumes that require so much work. But I know that come next year I will have forgotten that and do it all over again.

Now I'm off to raid the candy bags for the good stuff for a quick bedtime snack.

I guess when you're Woody, you are allowed to sit on your desk. Thanks Julie for capturing this little moment.

A great day of costume parades and treats for all their classes.


These white chocolate dipped strawberry ghosts were definitely the biggest hit. Will have to remember this one for next year.
Photos of all the costumes still to come. Stay tuned.

Splitting myself into three

That would have been the perfect way to be in all the places I wanted to be today. Lots going on at school and I wanted to be part of it all.
Milk jug skeletons in Hudson's class. Lots of cutting and hot gluing. Lots of hard work but such a cool looking result. A very cool project.

Caramel apples in Reagan's class. What can I say....yummy!

Rolling and cutting out Halloween cookies in Tag's class. They will decorate (and eat) them tomorrow.

So thankful to be a stay at home Mom that can be there to do this stuff with the kids. After school we put some final finishing touches on the costumes so they are ready for the morning. Then we went to work on creating some treats they can share with their classes. More on that tomorrow.
Cooper, who normally loves being at middle school, was feeling a little nostalgic for his elementary school days, when you get to have a costume parade and parties with fun home-made treats. As he helped me package them up tonight I made sure he got his share of tasting in before he headed off to bed.

Shaking things up

Something had to give...stress in the house seemed to be at a way-too-high level.
So...today we had ice cream sundaes for breakfast. When in doubt...eat ice cream.
For a few minutes the kids were in shock...then they dove right in. If nothing else, it gave them a fun and silly start to their day.

Guilt

Not the most healthy of motivators, but nonetheless it is guilt which has me posting here today.
I am in a blogging slump. Not seeing anything worth posting in my day to day lately. I know that it's there but I'm just not seeing it and the camera has been collecting dust. I don't like it at all and I feel angry at myself...so I guilted myself into posting. And I have vowed to post every day this week. I'm committed.

We have been really busy around here. Not enough hours in the day to fit in all that needs to be done. Tony has been working long hours and that makes my day fuller as well. The to-do list keeps growing. But one thing got stroked off our list this weekend. Tony and I both really wanted to make sure that we took the kids to the pumpkin patch before the season was over and gone. Last week the weather was so beautiful and I would have loved to go one day after school but Tony just couldn't get home from work early enough. So we hoped for good weather on Saturday. And even though they called for rain all week it held off and we were able to go. The kids were excited to go and so was I. This was the boost I needed to dust off the camera and get into a groove again.





So we did the hay ride, the bouncy pillow, the petting zoo, the corn cannon, Reagan took a pony ride and of course, we all chose pumpkins. In keeping with the busy-ness of life Reagan and I had to leave early while the rest stayed. She had a commitment to sell hot-dogs for a skipping fundraiser that afternoon.

Feels good to be back. More tomorrow.

Stuff

Taggart saw the eye specialist last week and though I was fully expecting him to write the prescription for glasses that day, he surprised me by saying that he thought glasses may not be the way to go. So for now, he has to wear a patch every day for 3 hours. He doesn't like it very much but he is been getting better about it every day.

And on a different note...
I didn't feel at all ready for Fall to be here (Summer was way too short) but it's here nonetheless. So I decided to welcome it with a few decorations around the house. It always feels good to do a little changing and rearranging.

Disneyland 2010

I have really been wanting to get this post done. But trying to decide which of the photos to share with you all has been just about impossible.
So I am narrowing it down to things that I really don't want to forget.

I always want to remember:

- how overwhelmed Taggart (and the rest of us) were that first day. We had been up for way too many hours the day before and our first day in the park felt like a little bit of a disaster. We didn't have a plan and therefore we sort of felt like we were just treading water all day. It made us re-think the next day and they all went uphill from there.

- how fun and exciting it was to see the characters. Even though we mapped out our days with things we wanted to do that day, every time we saw a new character everything stopped for a meeting, photos and autographs.





- how hot it was. I don't think we could really forget this but I thought this should be documented nonetheless. I tried to keep a count of how many frozen lemonades we consumed but lost track after the second day. Monday was the hottest day, 44*C. We decided to skip the park that day and hang out at the pool instead. This was the thermostat hanging on the wall pool-side.



- how tired we all got. The heat contributed to this, I'm sure. Lots of sitting on Daddy's shoulders for Tag, especially at the end of the day as we headed back to our hotel.



- how much I enjoyed watching all the kids play in the waves at Huntingdon Beach. They were all happy in the pool that morning and would have just as soon stayed there, but once they got to the ocean and saw what California beaches had to offer, they realized why Tony and I pushed them all to go. The weather was perfect and this day was one of my favorites.


- how you all looked in your Mickey ears.

- how Taggart had to put his Woody costume on the minute we bought it. Woody is definitely his favorite right now. I also want to remember how Reagan kept trying to encourage him to give Buzz Lightyear some attention too so that he didn't feel left out. So funny.


- how different you all were about going on rides. Reagan and Taggart would go on anything with no fear at all. Hudson surprised me completely when he went on California Screamin' but then didn't want to do Splash Mountain. Cooper is a cautious soul and doesn't like to be scared, just like his Mom. :)

- the looks of wonder on those sweet faces.

I'm back

We have returned from our visit with Mickey and friends, exhausted and refreshed at the same time.
Today was filled with laundry and unpacking and sorting and cleaning. Unfortunately all of that left no room for uploading or editing of the 700+ photos that we took.
But there's some great ones and I promise to share. Soon.