Happy Halloween!

The kids had another fun and candy filled night of Trick-or-Treating, which around here was last night instead of tonight (to avoid kids out on a school night I assume). Aubrey was very willing to dress up and participate in Halloween this year, and we only had one incident of scary candy givers that made her cry.

I had the cutest little Witch and Ninja around.

Here is Aubrey's Good Witch pose.

Trick-or-Treat!!

In addition to the traditional Trick-or-Treating fun, we took the kids to the Storybook Forest last week, which is a really cool Halloween event here at a lake/park. They set up scenes from traditional stories along a lighted path in the trees, and the kids follow the path to get candy at each scene. They also have hayrides and games, and then afterward there are fire pits to drink hot chocolate by and roast hot dogs or s'mores. We had done it once before 2 years ago, and loved it. This year it was packed, so we didn't stick around to do much of the extra stuff, but the kids had fun.

Entering the Storybook Forest...

The Old Women Who Lived in a Shoe...she wasn't around but she left some candy for the kids!

Aubrey getting candy from Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater's wife.

And the dish ran away with the spoon...

October in a Blur

This month has sped by as fast as the previous months and is a hazy blur to me already. I am in shock that there are less than 2 months until Christmas.

Here are the highlights of this month:

-Austin's baseball team went 6-3-1, and Austin was a superstar. His best little friend Kaehler played with us and he and Austin are a force to be reckoned with when they play together. The last few games Austin played at pitcher and Kaehler at first. After one spectacular play where Austin fielded the ball and from his knees threw the runner out at first, the home plate umpire asked if this was a little league team or the Texas Rangers. It was a lot of fun. The season was tainted slightly only by another coach's hissy fit, but in the end it turned out well. (Long story short, the other coach was the coach of another team in the spring, who we combined teams with for the fall as neither of us had enough players. He has 3 kids on his team who repeatedly asked to sit the bench and who have no interest in playing, doing cartwheels in the outfield, sitting down, picking grass. One of those happened to be his son. They got benched at least one inning per game, and this coach felt like Brian was only benching his players and none from our Red Sox team. So he quit with two games left trying to take all of his players to leave us short so we couldn't play. We were able to fill in with neighbors/little brothers to play anyway, and played well).

The boys like getting their drink tickets for a soda after the game almost as much as playing.

-We took a few trips to the zoo (our favorite outside place to visit). We enjoyed beautiful weather, saw our favorite animals and even got some exercise. We only had one minor mishap where Aubrey fell pushing her stroller (which she would rather do than ride in it) and scraped her elbow. We came home and put a band aid on it, which made her day. However, the next day daddy was home with her, and her band aid came off and it started bleeding. He put on another one, and told her to keep her arm up. Which she did. Until bedtime. And it took me 4 days to coerce the band aid back off.

Pushing her stroller. We could do this at home...

-We did our annual Race for The Cure (breast cancer) walk with our good friends. It is always so much fun, and such an emotional day for me. There were tens of thousands of people downtown who came out to walk/support the cause. We walked and then had our traditional greasy burger and fries.

Aubrey and her best little girlfriend holding hands during the walk.

-We got ready for Halloween fun by doing our annual Painting of the Pumpkins. The kids love to do this, and I love to watch them.

Both kids concentrating very hard on creating masterpieces.

-We went to the cheap showing of Back To The Future, which was at the theater for two days only because it was the 25th anniversary of the movie. Back to the Future is one of Brian's favorite movies, and has fast become a favorite of Austin's too.

Great Scott!!!

You Know You're Tired When...

-You start getting ready for bed at 8AM.

-You start thinking things like, if I put my contacts in inside out, would I be able to see backwards?

-You get out of the shower and dry off only to realize you have shaved only one leg. Or still have soap in your hair.

-You go all day wearing your undies backwards and don't notice.

-You get to work and can't remember the drive there, or if you have dropped off your children at school/daycare. Or even where your children are.

-You have no energy to eat (HUGE deal in my case).

-Your 15 minute power nap turns into 4 hours.

-Even the thought of getting off of the couch exhausts you.

-You let your children have Doritos and gummy snacks for dinner, because they can reach them.

-You don't have the energy to change the channel on the TV, even when you are holding the remote.

-You find popcorn in the couch and just brush it on the floor with the plan of asking the hubby to vacuum soon.

-You sit on your daughter's donut at church, EVEN though you are the one who put it in your chair during the standing up singing part, and EVEN though you swore you would remember it was there (PS, not a happy little girl after that, and Aubrey was pretty upset too).

-The makeshift coffee IV you have made does nothing to keep you awake.

-You forget what you are saying in mid sentence.

-The promise of an afternoon nap is the only thing that gets you out of bed.

Way Back Wednesday #15

Austin's first Porsche...3 mos old

Haircut

Before...

This picture doesn't do him justice, he had just gotten out of school and was all sweaty and disheveled. His hair was getting pretty out of control though. I do love his hair longer. However, he has been wanting it cut for a while now so he can 'spike it', so I finally gave in.


After...

I was very sad to see his curly locks go. But he is a handsome boy either way...

Way Back Wednesday #14

Austin at almost 2 years old, refusing to eat.

Huh. The attitude started this young.