trick-or-treating

We went trick-or-treating with the Williams family in their neighborhood this year. It is the perfect neighborhood for us, other than a few houses with quite a few steps... Before we even got to our car, a neighbor stopped us and said she made cupcakes for the boys. She is so sweet.

Then more neighbors from across the street said they made bags of goodies for the kids too. So the boys went trick-or-treating in our neighborhood a tiny bit...  We have such great neighbors.

Here are all the kids at the Williams' house.  Left to right are Petal as a giraffe, Hawken as Bumblebee, Dries as a rocket ship, Matix as Optimus Prime, and Lullaby as a bumblebee.  These could possibly be the five cutest kids ever.

Paul and Charla dressed up too. Paul was "the crazy train" He even had a whistle. :) Love him.  Peter and I were the party poopers.  I was too busy chasing kids and taking pictures to care anyway.

A few pics of the trick-or-treaters in action. 

We visited the "haunted holidays" houses and the boys loved all the scary stuff. Skeletons, witches, and zombies, oh my! There were interactive pads near a lot of the halloween creatures and when pressed would make them move or jump or scream.  A giant spider jumped at me and scared me half to death, but Matix loved it and wanted to make it jump over and over again.  They were made for nights like this.

Lullaby had no idea what was going on and was just carried around the whole night.  By the end, she was CRANKY, holy cow.

After a lollipop and some kisses from daddy and mommy, this little lady got a second wind.

Then she played peek-a-boo with Petal and was loving Halloween. Who knew, all she needed was some CANDY!

election day

Well, after registering for my voter card months ago, then spending almost an hour on the phone with various government employees, it was discovered that I cannot vote this time around. Crap. They did not have record of me in their system... What? I voted last election (in Arizona) and I was happy with my choice (President Obama).  This time around, I decided that I would vote for Governor Romney.  Georgia is a decidedly republican state as it is, so my vote would have been one of many, although I have been loving all the "Obama Y'all!" signs I see everywhere.  This presidential campaign has been less than exciting for me. All the griping and political facebookers have been driving me crazy. Neither candidate is perfect, or even near perfect for all the things I think should be happening in our country, but this time at least, my vote is with Romney.  Yes, a republican, shocking? I don't want to hear about it.  No, I did NOT chose him because he is also LDS, that actually had nothing to do with my choice.  Romney is good with money, obviously, he has said plain and simple how he could begin to balance the budget.  Cutting funding in areas that make him less popular, but smart.  I think right now that is a big deal.  However, if President Obama wins (and I have a feeling he will win) another term I still think he will continue with the good (education funds, loan forgiveness, etc.) and hopefully learn a bit from this campaigning season and change some of the bad stuff (Obamacare, Libya incidents, etc.)...  We'll see how it turns out.  Right now I can't stop watching the polls.  I just want to see how it ends.

entertainment

What to do in the hallway for entertainment...  Try the yoga position "downward dog" with a sibling.

Bang on the washing machine repeatedly and giggle each time.

Entertaining, no?

Matix's artwork

I love getting little things home that Matix worked on in school. He made this leaf and completed the sentences; I see_yellow leaves_. I hear _a storm_. I feel _happy_.

garden

I love that on Halloween, our garden is still producing lots of vegetables. Before trick-or-treating, we picked a bowl of green beans. Yum!  Everything is a group event at our house.

Matix found a caterpillar, brought him to show Paul, and then set him free in the bushes (not the garden, in case it was hungry...) Matix loves to find little creatures.

dinner

This is the only pasta that the boys will eat without first complaining.  They usually say, "Paaaaaaassttaaaaaaaaaa?! We don't like paaaaastttaaaaa!", then they taste it and like it, BUT, this pasta, farmer's market fresh herb tortellini in roasted red pepper alfredo sauce with a tiny bit of basil pesto mixed in and fresh tomatoes from the garden cut up on top... THIS pasta, they say, "YES PLEASE!" No complaining and they devour every bite. I wish all meals were this pleasant. :) (This was from one of the many nights Paul isn't home for dinner. Large bowl is mine, two blue bowls for the boys and one tiny bowl for Lullaby, since she thinks she needs a bowl now too.)

Lullaby

When Lullaby helps me unload the groceries I find things like this:

She is so helpful!

friends

Last week I got to watch Arianna and Gabby again. They are such cute little girls. It was short notice so I didn't have a chance to return our library books before they came and they were due that day. Since the girls were staying the whole day, they got to come with me. It was quite the challenge to get the 5 across the street to the library. I was so glad we live so close. This is what they looked like all attached to the stroller so I would lose my mind with nerves.

The walk over went really smoothly, all 5 behaved very well. They picked out a few books to read and we stayed for a while.  A whole couch FULL of kids. Two 4 year olds, two 2 year olds, and one 1 year old...

Later on in the day, we painted, as per Arianna's request. For the first time Lullaby watched and copied what the big kids were doing with the paint brush. Even orienting it correctly in her hand so the brush tip would be pointed down.  I was impressed.

card

The kids got this Halloween card from Grandma Stacy!  They wanted to do spooky eyes for the picture. Pretty spooky, right? 

puzzle

Matix worked on this puzzle and it's tiny little pieces over and over and over again until he figured out how to complete it without any help. He was So proud of himself. He asked for his picture to be taken, but wouldn't tear his eyes away from it for the picture. Good job Matix. :)

trunk-or-treat

Trunk-or-Treat at our church's Halloween party was the Saturday before Halloween and a few hours after Allie's birthday party, see, busy day. The kids were excited to get to wear their costumes again. At the party, there are no masks allowed (I don't know the reason why) so we got to try out face paint. Both boys wanted paint, but neither would sit still very long, especially when I was attempting to do some details... Oh well, they liked it, and that's what matters. We borrowed the bumblebee costume from the Williams family and Lullaby looked just edible in it! Originally they were going to be Optimus Prime (Matix), Megatron (Hawken), and a bumblebee (Lullaby), but it turns out Hawken liked the Transformers Bumblebee costume better, so he decided to be "bad bumblebee" for some reason he is obsessed with all the bad guys...  Here they are.

The night was filled with tasty food, cake walks, friends, costumes, and of course, CANDY.  Perfect night.