Happy Halloween!!!

We had a fantastic Halloween! Katie had her costume on at 7:30 this morning, and didn't take it off until bedtime! She loved being Tinkerbell! There was a kid we kept bumping into throughout the neighborhood that would shout to Ryan, "Rock on Buzz Lightyear!" He was thrilled and felt like a superstar! And Claire. Ahhh Claire... everyone just loved her Itsy Bitsy Spider costume. Walking around with all those little legs just bobbing around, she was easily the cutest one on the block!

Claire was a quick study in the art of trick or treating. At the first house she was a little uneasy about walking up to the door with the big kids, but she quickly realized what was happening and grabbed her little candy bucket and shoved her way to the front of the group and held it out for some treats. At the second house, she was first in line and held it out anxiously. When the guy dropped some candy in it, she peered way down in there to see if it was a type of candy that she might enjoy. By the third house, she was helping herself to the candy and putting it in the bucket herself. Later on, when I tried to just hold her at the edge of the sidewalk while Ryan and Katie went up to the door, she fought to get out of my arms and took off chasing after them. As soon as we all got home to unload our goodies and take stock, she was sucking on the candy bars and trying to chew them through the wrapper. Now, mind you, there is no way Ryan or Katie would have had candy bars at this age! They didn't taste the sweet goodness of Halloween until they were 3 at least! Claire is just so persistant and doesn't want to miss out on what the big kids are doing! She did get a few bags of pretzels so that's what she munched on while we were sorting and picking our favorites --along with whatever mushed up chocolate melted and absorbed through that wrapper she sucked.

Here's something fun we like to do with our candy... make a candy graph! Then we can count and see how many different varieties we have and which type has the most and least. Then mommy and daddy snarf down as many as we can after the kids go to sleep! This year I told the kids about the Switch Witch, the little old lady who comes at night to take any candy you want to give to the poor kids who couldn't afford to buy a costume and go trick or treating. She switches your candy for money! And since the kids spent all their money in Disney world I figured they'd be excited to get some money in exchange for all that candy. So that's how we unloaded about half of our stash. Tim will be taking the rest of it to work next week and we can avoid the first pitfall of Holiday weight gain this year! Now if there were some way to make Thanksgiving fat free...

Sibling Rivalry is Rearing its Ugly Head

So far we've been really lucky in regards to sibling rivalry. Ryan and Katie get along great and are somewhat gracious and congratulatory when the other has something special going on. Of course there are the little digs here and there, "I got to have a piece of cake while you were at school." or "We watched a show in the car without you." and my personal favorite, "I got a brontosaurus and you didn't." Surprising how important is the shape of a vitamin! But things really came to a brutal head tonight at dinner and here's how the showdown took place....

In school Ryan can earn a free personal pan pizza from Pizza Hut from reading books, so he earned his certificate for October and off we went for dinner tonight. The whole way there Ryan's excited, jabbering on and on about his free pizza. To the point that Katie is getting jealous. Extremely jealous, and points out that she's read those exact same books as Ryan so why can't she get the precious certificate too? Good point. So we promise her that we'll get her a personal pizza too, no big deal. Until as we're eating our personal pizzas and Ryan continually points out that his is free. Katie's in tears over this. Excuse me, isn't all your food free? Have I ever made you bring your wallet along when we go out and make you pay for your own dinner? If you're going to be jealous about something, can't it be an actual discrepancy in fairness?

So this is why we will continue reading our books, but we might not have the celebratory dinner with the free pizzas anymore!

I Like My Hat

And I won't take it off.

I wore it all day and laughed and pointed every time I walked by the mirror.

I am so cute!

3 little pumpkins

We tie dyed these really cute shirts with my moms group, and drew lots of little jack-o-lanterns all over them. Here's my attempt at getting 3 kids to look at the camera and smile (simultaneously) ugh, I give up!

Air and Scare

Last year Tim and the kids went to Air and Scare at the Space Museum and raved about it all year. So much, that I was really looking forward to going to it this year. Well, word must have gotten out about how great it was because everyone and their brother was trying to get into that place. We sat in line in the car for an hour and a half just to even drive into the parking lot (mind you, this place is about 6 miles from our house) and then waited some more to get into the building. Then, like poor desolate beggars, we waited in long lines at several candy booths throughout the museum for a single piece of candy which we immediately devoured because we were so hot, sweaty, and hungry. There were some cool activities, and Ryan and Katie had fun. I guess that's all that counts, right?

Katie drew a really cool space picture.

Ryan was really good at "Ghost Blaster". Check out his aim, he's quite a sharp shooter.

Ok, maybe Claire didn't have such a great time.
I don't think we even gave her any candy... poor thing!

Halloween Decorations

We decorated for Halloween today, and if Claire was obsessed with being on the kitchen table before... well this little spooky tree with mummies and ghost ornaments ought to keep her up here a few extra hours out of each day.

I can't wait to see what she's going to do with the Christmas tree! Something tells me she'll be rearranging all the ornaments for us.

Mr. Focus

Today was the last T-ball game of the season and we had a big celebration afterward at the Wing Factory with the entire Storm team. I went into the season with low expectations and ended up loving the sport. Our coach was terrific and I hope Ryan can be on his team again in the spring- he was so energetic and fun, and told Ryan he will be a terrific ball player because he already has such great focus. Some of the kids on the team are in la la land half the time... but Ryan really understands the concept of the game- he actually tries to catch the ball and get the other team out.

"Go Storm!!"
The Storm Team
Ryan with Coach Bob and his prized trophy.

We cleared his dresser off to make a special spot for that beauty!

Have a Magical Day

Disney World... it really is the happiest place on earth. I just love going there and I feel so lucky that we have the opportunity to vacation there every year. The kids had so much fun, and Tim and I enjoy reliving childhood through their eyes and experiences. For the weeks and months ahead we're in for many made up games and stories based on the rides and attractions we enjoyed on our trip. I'm already looking forward to next year!

Ryan and Katie wore their ears on the airplane. They met another kid sitting near us who told us his family was taking a surprise vacation, but their parents wouldn't tell them where they were going. Ryan said, "Well you're probably going to Disney world!" I hope his parents weren't too annoyed that their surprise was ruined! The mom shot me a "they just had to wear those darn hats" look.

We got to meet Curious George at Universal Studios- we love his show! They have a really cute Curious George themed playground ~ Claire could have spent all day climbing around and running through the little houses.

We also got to meet Cat in the Hat at Islands of Adventure. The teacher in me really loves the Dr. Seuss area of that park. I would have spent the whole day just in that little section. It really is the cutest place!

The One Fish Two Fish ride was just adorable! There was no line, so we didn't even glance at the sign on the way in warning us that we were in for a soaking! Katie and I were dripping wet when we got off and boy was she ticked! She demanded to go back to the hotel immediately! Just one of her unreasonable demands during the week... it wouldn't be a family vacation without some drama from Katie.

Ready for a fun day at Magic Kingdom with our little Minnie and Tinkerbell. That turned out to be the wrong outfit to wear... it snaps at the crotch and Katie had to use the bathroom about 10 times that day. I couldn't convince her to change out of it. She told me she would change out of her Tinkerbell costume right after we saw Tinkerbell fly out of the castle... during the fireworks show at the very end of the night! Ha! So I struggled with snapping her in and out of that leotard everytime we passed a bathroom!

Here's Claire, wondering who in the world Dumbo is...

Ok, now I'm really losing my mind... did I really take a picture of some bushes? Awww, but look, it's Minnie and Mickey bushes...how cute they are!

We'd been talking about this Jaws ride for months and were very excited to see the shark attack our boat. Ryan loved it! He was so into this ride, he just had to pose for a picture with Jaws!

Claire loved to play with the sand... and eat it! We squeezed in as much pool time as we could... but it wasn't enough, we definitely overplanned our week. Next year, we'll plan for more downtime so we can enjoy the pool more.

Ole! We ate at a yummy Mexican restaurant in Epcot, and couldn't resist all the sombreros!

Pop Pop was selected from the crowd to be Romeo in a street show production of Romeo and Juliet. It was hilarious and he was a great sport.

Here's our only group photo of all 7 of us! Some kind lady offered to take our picture in front of this big globe... then we all had to stand still and wait for the word Universal to rotate back around to the front... We had so much fun with Pop Pop and Nana, and they were a huge help in the airport, especially with some hangups we encountered dealing with security and rediculously unhelpful ticket agents.

My Vacuum Sucks... and not in a good way

It's being held together with duct tape after a nasty tumble down the stairs. What horrible timing, with Roxy being at her grandparents house this week. I'm having to vacuum twice a day to manage those Claire crumbs! I really want to get a new vacuum, maybe a Dyson if I can convince Tim that $500 is not too much to spend on a vacuum. I told him it could be my birthday and Christmas gift, but he doesn't want to be that guy... the idiot who gets his wife a vacuum cleaner for her birthday.

Too bad this vacuum doesn't do the job!

Teddy Bear Picnic

I signed Katie up for a program at the library... bring your favorite teddy bear for a picnic! Doesn't that sound like fun? Stories, songs, games, crafts, right up Katie's alley! Well, have you ever been to a party where they played musical chairs? Was there an obnoxious kid who upon realizing they were "out" started crying, kicking and screaming? Yeah, that was my kid today. There she was, happy as a lark skipping around the circle and when the music stopped there was a bottleneck and everyone else scrambled to get a spot and my heart sank when I realized she was going to be the one left out. My sympathy quickly turned to horrified embarrassment as she was literally on the floor kicking and screaming like a 2 year old yelling NO, NO, my bear is not out!!! We just aren't into those high pressure competititive games yet. And we're working on finding some new coping strategies for when things just don't go our way!

Whirlwind Weekend and a Special Guest

Wow, what a weekend we just had! Grandma and Grandpa came up to watch Katie and Ryan's soccer and T-ball games on Saturday morning, then they whisked them away to Virginia Beach for the Disney on Ice show. Then on Sunday, they went to the beach, the aquarium, and our favorite restaurant (and don't think the kids didn't brag about that) before driving all the way back home. 18 hours in the car in 2 days! My parents must be crazy! But the kids had a fabulous weekend of excitement building memories with their grandparents so it was time well spent. When Ryan and Katie called after the show to give us the full report, they were both chattering a mile a minute about every detail and all the characters that performed in the show. I was super jealous that we all didn't get to go!

We also had a special friend who spent the entire week with us from Katie's preschool... Tiger the class pet got to come stay with Katie and have lots of adventures this week. She took him to ballet class, he cheered for her at the soccer game, and he even got to go to the show (but he didn't need his own ticket, thank goodness!) She wrote and drew the entire story in Tiger's journal and was eager to take him back to class today and share it with her class.

What in the world did Tim and I do with our free weekend? Well, we were up to our ears working late in the basement. We used to have a very large, very ugly kitchen in the basement- it took up a huge chunk of the space down there and we never even used it. We moved the fridge to the garage where now it gets plenty of use, and the oven... well, does anyone need an oven? It's up for grabs. The huge protruding bar area is gone, and the new cabinets were delivered just in time for Tim to install them during our "free" weekend. Well, we still had Claire with us, but I think anyone will tell you when you go from 3 kids down to only 1, it is very easy!

A Dinner Surprise!

Yesterday at dinner Claire climbed out of her seat and walked across the table to where I was sitting, begging and pleading for a bite of my food. I can usually blow her off when she's trying to get bites of chips, cake or other junk food, but she was VERY persistent. She always eats whatever we're eating for dinner, but I've never give her this item because well, with the limited chewing that comes with 4 teeth, I didn't think she could handle it and I didn't want her to choke. Well, she happily gobbled up and gummed all of mine and begged and pleaded for more. Tonight, I made her her own! What is this desired food she just couldn't live without?

You'll just have to watch and find out!
After 5 years of living with Katie, I never would have seen this coming!