Trick or Treat

"Knock on door, say trick or treat and get CANDY"

Eli had the process down pat before we went out tonight. I had such high hopes and great visions in my head of how fun this Halloween was going to be, turns out I had fooled myself. Eli didn't last too long and was in a mood. He wanted to do his own thing, not hold one of our hands in the road and just overall be fussy. Also, to top things off, apparently we started too early and not that many folks had their lights on and were ready for Trick or Treaters. We made it around the neighborhood in an hour or so. Once we got home (about 7pm), everyone else was out. I walked a bit farther with Eli and our neighbor Amy. Eli loved walking with the big boys. Eli was very cute and don't get me wrong, we did have fun. The fun was just mixed in with some stressful defiant moments. Hope everyone had fun and got lots of good candy!

Painting pumpkins after nap time

Our little Train Engineer - ready to go

Our pumpkin bounty - we ended up with 9 pumpkins this year!

Eli and Cole - the Train Engineer with his Baby Thomas the Train

Trick or Treat - Eli's very first trick or treat stop ever

Walking away with some good loot

Such a cute shot - too bad it was him lying down in grass in someone's yard after a mini-tantrum!

Me and my Boys

Off to find more candy

Happy Halloween

Cole's art for Halloween

Trick or treating, fun, pictures, maybe video later.....Happy Halloween everyone!

Parade of Costumes and Halloween parties

Today was the Parade of Costumes at Eli & Cole's school. It is always so much fun watching the kids and seeing all the different Halloween costumes. Saw several Snow Whites, baseball and football players, Nemo, mermaids, Bam Bam, princesses, pirates, firemen, pilots, train conductors, spiderman and oh so many more. After the parade through the parking lot, it was party time in the kids' classrooms. So much fun....and lots of chaos!

Eli's class - he's the train conductor in the middle of the picture

The position of his hat cracked me up. He put it on himself!

Cole's class - such cute babies

Cole - the Baby Thomas to go with Eli the Train Conductor

Yum, chocolate pumpkin shaped cookie - it turned his mouth and teeth black!

"Look Baby Cole, I got a bag of candy. You want some?"

A room of chaos - Eli's class

He is VERY good at cheese on command

Mommy's big boy - I love being able to go to his school for events

Eli made us laugh when he ran around with his hat on backwards

Thursday - 2 days to Halloween

Headed to school in Halloween gear - my two cute boys

Mommy's little pumpkin

Daddy and Cole - perfection

Fun at the Pumpkin Patch

Warning: LOTS of cute pictures ahead....

Today was such a fun day. Grandma & Pop-Pop C came to visit and we all went to the pumpkin patch. So many things to do and Eli loved every minute of it. I'll try to narrate through pictures.

Cole sporting his new hat from Niki - "Baby's 1st Boo". So cute!

Eli watching Monster trucks with Pop-Pop. I remember MANY Saturday mornings watching cartoons with my Grandpa. Grandpas are so special!

The height is a little off but he is definitely bigger than last year!

Cole not quite sure about the corn kernel house

Corn kernel fun with Grandma and Pop-Pop

Eli had a blast in the kernels. We must have played there for half an hour or more. The funniest part of our entire day was when we went to change his pull-up before leaving and we discovered a ton of corn in there. He had been carrying it around all morning!

HE'S SAFE!!

It rained off and on so I hid out in the tee-pee to feed Cole.

Eli running through the hay bale maze. Last year I think we could barely see his head!

Shooting out the tunnel slide with Pop-Pop

Jump Jump in the hay house

"I think I'll take this pumpkin"

Family photo op in the pumpkin patch

Can not believe he has gotten so big

After the pumpkin patch and lunch, everyone was tired. Eli fell asleep in his chair with Pop-Pop. It's amazing how much Dads change when they become Grandpas (for the good!).

Tim opening up one of our pumpkins

Time to carve - get the guts out

Our (ok my) creation - a Thomas the Train pumpkin

A Happy crew

A little play time with Cole - can your abs handle two blocks?

Two little monkeys jumping on the bed

Tonight Kara, Owen & Faye came over for Thursday night pizza night. Eli & Owen had so much fun playing together and, as you can see, jumping on our bed. Fortunately, no little monkey fell off and bumped his head.

First dentist appointment and bye-bye paci

This morning I took Eli to his first dentist appointment. He did as well as could be expected for the dentist looking in his mouth for the first time. He fussed a bit but the dentist said it was exactly what he expects on first visit. We go back in 6 months for another check up. Good news is that we're doing a pretty good job of brushing (have room for improvement though), he has all his baby teeth and we're doing great in the no juice / no soda department. The only question I had was about the pacifier and when we need to stop it. The answer was just as I expected - as soon as possible. Ideally, the dentist said, you stop it by 18 months so that it doesn't affect growth and development of the mouth. For Eli, he said there is a slight "V" starting on the roof of his mouth instead of the natural rounding due to his night time pacifier use. Me, being mean Mommy that I am, decided that since we're already not sleeping much that we'd just go cold turkey and stop using it. Tonight Eli & I addressed an envelope to a little boy who needs a pacifier ("papi") and put the three pacifiers that we could find in there. He said bye to them and we sealed the envelope. That was all well and good until bedtime and he said he wanted them back. Tim & I both held our ground and told him that we gave them away and that they were gone. Eli kicked me out of his room and only wanted Tim. He gave Tim a hard time asking for "papi" a lot but he finally settled down and went to sleep. I think that relatively speaking he did well tonight and as long as we don't let him have his pacifier back, we'll get through it hopefully this week. Wish us luck!!

Worked out great that we saw Lucas, one of Eli's school mates at the dentist office. Eli loved looking at the fish.

Best shot in the dentist chair. He was more interested in everything around.

Our envelope to the little boy with Eli's "papi"s

A lot

of doing this weekend and a lot of pictures to show for it!!

Our weekend started with really only one thing planned and we managed to stay very busy. Saturday morning, I took the boys to the Y and Tim went on a bike ride. Later that day, we headed to our friends Brad & Tia's house (daughter Maya) for a pig pickin'. It was great to see all of them again - has been entirely too long - and hang out outside by the fire listening to the Kudzu Ramblers. Eli had a ton of fun running around playing on Maya's swingset and riding her bikes. Maya was such a great mini-hostess sharing all her toys.

Sunday morning, it was Eli's big adventure to see Cranky Crane. My jobsite was erecting a tower crane this weekend so we piled in the car to go see it. Eli was so excited and kept telling everyone "Look, it's Cranky Crane" a million times. It's a good thing Eli was there because I'm not sure anyone would have noticed a 200' tall crane! =) He had such a great time walking around in his orange Bob the Builder vest and hard hat. He fit in with the guys so well. He talked about it all day.

Other than those big things, we filled our time with naps (the kids not us), errands (grocery store), house chores (laundry) and trying to keep wild man Eli occupied (without tv). All in all it was a fun and tiring weekend. Funny how you can have 2 days off work and still not get enough rest!!

Playing on Maya's swingset and slide

Making acorn soup with Maya - mini hostess with the mostest!

Kudzu Ramblers

Riding Maya's bike - surprised?

Baby Cole enjoyed being outside

What is this?!

Out of my desperation Sunday morning, we tried rice cereal with Cole. He hasn't been eating much of his bottles and I was worried / freaked out thinking he isn't getting enough to eat. The doctor told me that Cole wouldn't let himself starve but I thought maybe he would rather have something to eat instead of drink. I was wrong. He didn't like it too much.

Look, it's Cranky Crane!!!

Cole checking out the scene snug in Daddy's jacket

Eli and Thomas being silly

Eli with Shane, Benny and Thomas - just one of the guys

Cheesin' with Mommy

Watching them install counter weights with Daddy

Playing Monster Trucks with Daddy - a slight Monster Truck obsession in our house right now

Hey Cole!!

The tickle monster came to get Eli

Would you like a monster truck with that cheese?