Happy Halloween!

After 4 days of putting on costumes for various school, church and friend parties, we finally dressed everyone up to go trickertreating...only to have it pour rain on us the whole night! I guess it was still fun, and since there weren't many kids out, most of the houses took pity on us and gave 2 or 3 treats each! Here is Jack the Heifer, as all babies are in our house, because mom made this costume and it WILL be worn, dangit! Henry loved his muscle padded superman costume which got even more muscles added to keep him warm. Then it got a bright yellow raincoat over it so no one could tell what he was anyway! Poor Henry won the "Ate too much candy, must vomit" lottery for the night and was sick a few times. When I asked him if he was feeling any better, he told me his belly felt like it had just eaten a big bowl of salad and then POP! It exploded! O...Kay...whatever!

Clara was a can-can dancer, only she also had a really cute headband with a feather sticking up that she couldn't find on Halloween, of course. So she was a little "NOT" in the Halloween spirit when I took this picture.

Ethan chose to be a Zombie, complete with stick on scabs. Gross. We did have fun ripping up the old shirt and rubbing it in the mud though!

And Bennett was the BEST nerd around. Put his own costume together, slicked his hair down and stuffed himself into really small pants for the night. We laughed and laughed! He even did this annoying little nerd laugh that Evan told him to stop doing! Actually, he looks a lot like my dad's senior picture!!! Love you, dad!

YEAH BENNETT!!! ARROW OF LIGHT!!!

Bennett will be 11 in December (*snifff*) and he has been working so hard in scouts to earn everything he needed to for his Webelos Badge, and finally, for his Arrow of Light. At Pack Meeting last night, he was honored and received his Arrow of Light patch, pin, certificate and a nifty Cub Scout arrow. He's such a great kid. Very obedient, kind, helpful, courteous, loving...boy, these sound like all the things a scout should be! What a great oldest child we were blessed with! Good Job Bennett!!!

Pumpkins!

Tis the season for Pumpkin Carving, which is messy and gooey and makes my arms itch, but boy do the kids love it! They did their homework and dishes so fast you would have thought it was Christmas. Nope, just Halloween, which is a close second in my book. Jack had no idea what was going on, but loved poking everyone's pumpkins with a pencil. Clara hated the cleaning out of the pumpkin, which I really can't blame her for. We wore rubber gloves and the boys made fun of us the whole time. Oh well. She made her own design and cut the whole thing out herself!
Bennett's pumpkin was so thick inside that Evan had to get a hammer to pry the lid off. He did a pretty intense design that I started helping with, but he actually did a good job himself!

Henry just liked poking designs into the lid, then the back of his pumpkin, then the guts, etc. He enjoyed himself!

Ethan's pumpkin was so scary it turned his hair white. Not really, we were trying costume hair colors. He wanted to have a "guess how many seeds are in each pumpkin" contest, but he kaboshed that idea after we told him he'd have to count them all. We did save some to roast though!

And the finished products, with the product makers! Jack was too cranky to stay up any longer, so he is just represented by his Jack pumpkin. Henry does the most awesome picture poses. The kid is a genuine ham.

And of course, with the lights off! Ethan carved that wolf himself! Pretty good! Henry added two ears to his pumpin, but on one side only. Clara's pumpkin did lose a tooth in the carving processs. Overall, Pumpkins FANTASTICO!!!

Last Minute Fall Camping

Evan could probably camp every weekend if he could, and he just had to go one more time before it got cold...so last weekend we packed up the van and headed out to Skull Valley (aka middle of nowhere) for a lovely camping trip!!! The boys are getting really good at setting the tent up. I actually had a great time, I did nothing. No packing, no cooking (okay, I mixed some brownie batter, but I like that), no setting up, no taking down. Evan and the boys did it all. I even had a wicked cool cot to sleep on. It was the best! The weather was great- no wind, no rain, mild temps, fine night for Fall Camping!Jack had a great time wandering around, getting dirty, eating spent shotgun shells (yeah, I know, fabulous mothering on my part, but I got tired of chasing him down and telling him to stop...they were all over!!!) This is the banana before it fell in the dirt...and he kept eating it. Awesome.
I can't figure this guy out. Henry is HILARIOUS! Whenever I take his picture, he always does something funny. He told me the other day that when he grows up he wants to be the Costco food sample lady. O....Kay......

Again, the boys are getting good at starting fires! And it's a fight to light the match.

And then we woke up in the morning to the pitter patter and pounding rain! We laid around in the tent for awhile before braving the rain, which wasn't too bad, but it sure turned the dusty campsite into a mud pit. So we backed the van up to the tent opening and tossed stuff in! Drove home, cooked our bacon in the garage and finished our campout at home. It was the best end to the season!!!

Dear Liz, you may be famous, but we are SUPER!!!

Super rip those clothes off Evan! Super stick your neck out really far so you don't have a double chin Sabrina

Super Awesome BennettSuper Studly EthanSuper CUTE Clara!

Super Fly Henry!

Super old pajamas Jack!

I couldn't leave out the Super Fetuses!

So, there you have it. You don't have to be famous to be SUPER!

Cricket, the Rooster-Loving Dog

This morning I went downstairs to wake up Henry thinking he'd be excited to get up because we were going to Willy and Kimball's house. Here's how the waking up went:

Me: Henry, time to wake up! We're going to Willy's house!

Henry: (opening just one eye and speaking very sleepily) You can call me Cricket. I'm a dog. Go on, say it. Cricket.

Me: Uh, okay...Cricket, doggy, time to get up to go visit Willy...

Henry: (opening the one eye again) You have to say Cock-a -Doodle-Doo. If you say Cock-a-Doodle-Doo, then I'll wake up.

Me: Cock-a-Doodle-Doo, Cricket! It's time to wake up!

Henry: (sitting straight up in bed with both eyes wide open) GOOD MORNING MOM!!! I'm ready to go to Willy's house!!!

Note to Self...

Trying to boil an egg in the microwave does not work. Really, I should know that! I'm not sure where my head was. Actually, my head was pretty lucky, because it happened to be downstairs with the rest of me getting spaghetti sauce when the egg bomb went off. Otherwise, I dare say I may have ended up with a broken nose. I had previously been standing at the stove while my eggs were boiling nicely, and as I observed when I ran upstairs after the massive BOOM, water had been sprayed halfway across my kitchen floor, the cup the eggs were in was actually in my spaghetti pot below the microwave, and the 2 eggs were obliterated. The microwave door was still shut, however, which makes me think the force of the exploding eggs popped that door so hard it hit the end of its opening swing and slammed back shut. That's a little bit of power, which my face was glad not to be involved in. Not to mention burning hot egg matter splatter! Everyone so far has really laughed hard at me, and I agree, I know better. But really, what is the difference between eggs boiling in the microwave and eggs boiling on the stove? I would never just put an egg in the microwave!!! But I thought the boiling water would cook the egg... We still enjoyed a nice salad that night, sans the hardboiled eggs, and the spaghetti was very good, though Evan found a few peices of egg shrapnel in his. At least now I know!

Jungle Book Jr.

Bennett and Ethan were in their Elementary School's musical last month. They did Jungle Book Jr. and it was one of the most fun activities all year! Bennett was cast as Mowgli and Ethan was little Mowgli and one of King Louie's monkeys. They had practices twice a week for three months and then finally did their performance in April. It was singing and dancing and acting and the boys had a blast. The only thing they didn't like: stage makeup! "We look like girls!!!" they said. "But I can see your eyes from the audience!" I told them. I won, of course. This was Bagheera the panther and the boys
Mowgli and "Monkey 1" after an awesome performance. The scenery was really neat, can you tell!

This was the little baby elephant who wanted to get a picture with Mowgli. She was adorable and sounded just like the elephant on the cartoon, which my kids had never even seen. They finally watched it a few days before the show and kept saying, "Hey, this is just like our show! They sing the same songs!!!" Bennett was asked for a few autographs and a hug I think. He did really good! Some great acting from both boys- I was pleasantly suprised!

The fans after the show...Henry was hilarious- he watched the whole thing from the edge of his seat and would burst into laughter on the funny parts and sing along with some of the songs (he'd heard them multiple times over the last three months!)

The best part- Grandpa Great even made it to their show. He kept saying how wonderful they were and how he couldn't believe they could get these young kids to sing and dance like that! They were truly amazing! Way to go boys!

A Year already???

This post is in reverse order: Messy Jack after he devoured his birthday cake of chocolate deliciousness... poor kid, he's got the worst grandpa hairdo around!!!

Jack enjoying his scrumptious chocolate frosted delicacy! I have a friend who only gives her babies a slightly sugar-sprinkled cake- sans frosting- because her first little girl took one bite, rubbed her eyes and got frosting in them and cried the rest of the night! Not so at our parties! Irritated eyes or no, we go for the CHOCOLATE!!!

Jack and Will are best friends because we say so... Will was born 2 weeks before Jack, so we make them play together and stuff...so of course we had a little birthday celebration together too!!! Happy Birthday Guys!

True Love

This is why I love being a mom!

I'll save this for when she's sixteen and wants a different mom...