Halloween Madness!

What a fun, chaotic evening! Evan enjoyed it the most and if we hadn't run out of houses, he would have gone all night long. He was mad when it was over. Brynn was excited to go, a grump as soon as we went, and about a half hour into it, well, see the pictures below...

Here is the gang right before the much anticipated start time...


The more the merrier! Ready, set, go...


Carter and Brynn, the envy of all the walkers, adults included...


I thought Carter was a princess, not a pillow!

The life of 3-year olds...

I know this story won't translate as well into text but I need to write it down… it was way cute in real life.

We had a great time at a friend's Halloween party yesterday. Near the end of the night there was a back door visitor… a relative of the party host and the large horse she rode to the party. Many of the kids jumped at the chance to pet the horse. Evan said no and ran back inside but after a while, told me he would like to. At that point it was just the horse, rider, Evan and I since everyone else had gone back to the festivities inside. Evan pet the horse and then boldly asked the rider how the horse got to the party (his desire to process something in his mind was greater than his tendency to not speak up around strangers). "He rode here," she answered. "How did you get here?" he asked the rider. "I rode here too," she answered. Very loudly and clearly amazed and confused, a wide-eyed Evan replied, "How big is your car??"

On another note…

This morning Brynn and Evan, dressed nicely for church, decided that they both needed to wear their Washington Nationals hats so they matched and each carry a stuffed animal bunny. How could I say no?? It was so cute to see them getting along so well… they even fussed because they could not sit together in the car (they are separated because the adults in the car finally had enough of their fighting a few weeks ago). Often I question our thought process when we decided to have "virtual twins" and the effects doing so have had, and will have, on the two of them, but at least for today, well, for those two hours, it was all good!

A joyous reunion...

It's been two months since Evan's beloved blankie went missing. The adjustment to it being lost didn't take long, though once in a while a slight "I miss my blankie" whine would come out. Well today, an excited Evan emerged from his room clutching his most prized possession... you would have thought he found a $1,000,000 winning lottery ticket in the dark depths behind the bunk beds.

He hasn't let it out of his sight since but I know there will be days to come where we frantically have to search every crevice of the house to find his well loved, could-be-mistaken-for-a-rag, blankie again. I will have to revisit this post to remind me that the search is worth it.

What makes me laugh is Evan has not sucked his thumb since the day after his blankie went into hiding. And about an hour after he found it, the thumb was in his mouth. Evan, the blankie, and the thumb... three old friends reunited!

What color is your light saber?

It's been very busy around here for the past week... work wise and play wise. So no new this-week pictures. I was reminded this weekend (thanks PaPa) that I never put up pictures of the older boys on the day the Halloween costumes arrived so here are a few. Caleb is Obi Wan Kanobi and Price is Annakin Skywalker, for those of you that aren't up on your Star Wars trivia. At least these two are on the good side!

A trip to the pumpkin patch...

The preschool headed to the pumpkin patch today... lots of animals, beautiful pumpkins, terrible directions, great weather and fun with friends! What a great day!

Three silly kids forced to pose for their parents when they would rather be eating or picking pumpkins or playing at the playground.

The rope swing in the barn... Evan loved it, Brynn did not.

Well, you know the ones closest to the tractor are never the best mom... you gotta go a mile back in the patch and pass 1,000 identical orange pumpkins to truly find the best one.

The hayride back from the patch...

I can't explain why she chose yellow instead of orange (then again, that's Brynn for ya') but I am sure she picked the smallest pumpkin around so mommy wouldn't struggle carrying it to the car! :)

Halloween Preview!

Evan's costume finally arrived today so the little ones finally were allowed to try on their halloween costumes.

First is the costume I planned for Brynn... Dora the Explorer... inexpensive, simple, cute.

Brynn had other ideas when she saw the catalog of costumes so here she is.... "Wonna Whoa-man" (or Super Woman when she can't remember the Wonder part).

From simple to bright pink, lots of shine, a bouncy purple skirt, and "thigh high" boots (which to my delight, and I am sure her dad's too, are actually butt high on Brynn). She has the pose down well don't you think?



And lastly, here is my baby boy. From a cute little baseball player last year to the dark side this year. Sniffle, sniffle. But he loves it. Sigh.

Sweet Treats!

Here are a few of my favorites for this week's Loving Lydia photo challenge, Sweet Tooth...Brynn at Price's party in March, Brynn helping me make brownies this summer, Evan when he first discovered the joys of unlimited candy for breakfast on Easter morning, and one of my favorites of them all on one of the first days after Brynn's adoption. I am guessing that when I only had two kids and was a newbie to motherhood, I had the time and need to feed my family healthier so that is why I have so few "sweet" pictures of the older ones... HA! More likely instead of taking pictures I joined them in eating the sweets and now I have to share with too many people so I fill my hands with the camera and plan when I can selfishly sneak sweets when no one is around!

What makes them who they are...

This week's FFFF Challenge from Loving Lydia is "Personality Shots." I dug into the S archives for some of these but what fun it is to visit back in time!

Brynn = Smiles and Silliness:

Price = Loving

Evan = The Serious Thinker (now old enough to ask the zillion questions behind those eyes) and Determined

Caleb = Creative

School Picture Day

Last night we carefully picked out Price's outfit for school today since today was picture day and these would be his first school pictures. And as much as I hate to admit it (it so pains me to type this), I paid to have his pictures "airbrushed" because they are his kindergarten ones, he has a huge scrape under his nose, and he is the most "appearance conscious" of my kids. Caleb's picture, on the other hand, will proudly display his cheek scratch and his black eye.

Today Price came home from school proudly wearing the "prize" he picked from the treasure box in his class.

Should I be worried? At least his new nose covers the scrape, but in that case, I wasted $6 on the airbrushing!

Kate