Halloween and more...

Halloween 2010..an event that spanned two weekends!! Starting with trunk-or-treat at Gramma's church. That meant that we had to have costumes ready a whole week before Halloween! A BIG HUGE thanks to Aunt Mo for helping make that happen. (Warning: this post has TONS of pictures!)

Here's Woody ("Reach for the sky!") and Buzz Lightyear!

"To infinity..and beyond!"

Fast forward to Halloween weekend...Xander and I took off for Emerald Isle with Lisa and Kennedy. Saturday morning's breakfast was a picnic with biscuits in the back of my car.

Lowes Foods was letting kids decorate pumpkins for free!

Festivities at the campground included horse rides, a costume contest, trick-or-treating, and a pot-luck dinner.

Love this one!!

Waiting so patiently for our turn to ride the horse

My Little Cowboy!

Trying to scoop out pumpkin gunk, but he REALLY didn't like it.

That's our ghost face jack-o-lantern

with Xander's name on the back!

Sheriff Woody and Mrs. Potato Head

Mrs. Potato Head and Cinderella (I really didn't want my picture taken. We used purple eye shadow and eye liner to try to make Mrs. Potato Head. I don't think it worked as well as I thought.)

A dead bear! Yes, it's real!

This was a trick hand in the bowl. It grabbed at you every time you reached for candy. That was the one thing that Xander kept talking about for days.

Taking a walk to the beach

"Give Eli a kiss!"

Finally...

two kids fast asleep.

While Mommy and Xander went to the beach, Daddy and Zack went on Zack's first ever camping trip--Tent-or-Treat with Cub Scouts! They played sports and went fishing, carved pumpkins and went trick-or-treating. Here's a look at their weekend.

Such focus and determination

The complete Buzz Lightyear Costume (the other one was missing some buttons)

This was a collapsed cottage of some kind that Mark and Zack found on their hike (when they got lost!). Zack really loved telling about it.

Making faces like their pumpkins

The last of our festivities happened the day after Halloween. I planned a classic fall activity and a spooky meal.

Before dinner (you know, as an appetizer), the boys got to bob for apples. Zack sort of got the hang of it--he figured out that he had to trap the apple on the side before he could bite into. Xander, well, not so much, he ended up using his hands. But they both still had fun!

He thought it was funny putting his face in the water.

And here's our spooky meal: mummies, mummy brains, and mummy thumbs!! I couldn't be too fancy because of the little picky eater in my house, and I wasn't even sure he would eat the green mac & cheese. But everybody loved dinner...

...and the owl s'mores for dessert!

A Little Look at Eli

Baby's Profile
3D--He has his left arm up by his face. He looks like Xander!

Looking at the "camera"

A video of some of Eli's movement

I was going to post a belly picture, but it just turned out horribly. You can definitely tell I'm pregnant now, though. We'll work on getting a good picture.

Mischief and More

So was I flipping through pictures on my camera, deleting some that were already uploaded, when I came across this:

So that's why all the movies were pushed back in the cabinet. I'm still waiting to hear the story on this one!

My attempt at a creative lunch: a cheese, wheat thin and carrot train, the conductor and choo-choo chex mix. Too bad he won't eat much of anything else.

This is Kung Fu Panda. I was going to give him noodles, but Xander informed me that pandas eat bamboo. We also made Master Shifu with just carrots. The panda is made from a grilled cheese sandwich.

And oh look, a Tiger Cub Scout! He now has his immediate recognition badge/emblem thingy on his pocket for knowing the Scout sign, salute and motto: Do your best! Tonight he also demonstrated that he knows the promise and the law, which means he's on his way to getting his Bobcat badge and neckerchief. (I really hope I have this right.)

A Mother of Boys

So now that I know I will be the mother of boys for the rest of my life, I have to figure out God's reason for it. I also just have to make the most of it. I may not get to buy cute little pink things with flowers and butterflies and ballet slippers. I may not ever get to play with a dollhouse, have a tea party, go to a ballet recital or help my daughter plan her wedding, but there are plenty of things that I will get to do or have in my life that mothers of just girls probably won't.

1. Not worry about them being dirty--they're boys!
2. Have matchbox cars and monster trucks lined up down the hallway
3. Dress them as their favorite superheroes for Halloween
4. Have people that will always kill spiders for me
5. Know the names of all superheroes, villians, transformers, Cars and GI Joes and be a super mom because of it
6. Watch them earn their Eagle Scout badge (if they make it that far)
7. Have Transformer fights and wrestling and tickling matches on the living room floor, with the coffee table moved out of the way, of course
8. Let my husband think that we will one day have a rock wall and zip line over out living room--yeah, he's crazy!
9. Not freak out when they fall down, or even if they are bleeding from the head. Been there, done that--head wounds bleed a lot!
10. Listen to his hopes and dreams as he grows up and falls in love and decides to propose to a girl
11. Have a daughter-in-law
12. Dance with my boys at their weddings--with Zack to "What a Wonderful World," with Xander to "My Wish," and I haven't figured out Eli's yet.
13. See my children become fathers, hope that they can do as well as their Daddy is doing.
14. Not have to worry when we are outside and they have to pee
15. Have boys that will always love me because I am their mother!!

Wordless Wednesday (a day late)

Alphabet Adventures: H

H is for...horses, heights, hopping, hot and heavy (on pictures)!!

Yes, this post is quite heavy on pictures, so I'm going to try to make it light on words. The first set was at Knightdale Community Day. The highs were in the upper 80's and we walked to the park for the festivities, making the hot part.

Heights--Mark and Xander at the top of the slide
Zack climbing up, posing and hopping down the slide

Horses--Xander saw them and told me he wanted to ride the horses. I told him they were ponies, and he said, "Actually Mommy, we can call them horses."

Hot--can you see it on their cheeks?

Hopping--Zack was waiting in line for the rock wall with Gramma and Daddy, and Xander wanted to visit the bounce house obstacle course thingy.

Heights again--gearing up for the rock wall. He was so determined that he was going to push the button at the top, but he slipped off at about 8 or 10 feet. He was having a hard time finding good foot holds, or he was too short to reach him. We were proud that he gave it a good go!!

Hello animals--petting a fox (some kind of fox, maybe pygmy)

Hello millipede, which he actually touched--the thing was about a foot long!

Hello tortoise!

Hello opossum! Hero--Xander and Zack the firefighters!

Our next stop was at our church's 8th Annual International Food and Music Festival. I guess the h word here is hungry? We tried food from the Philippines, Jamaica, Italy and some cajun stuff. I had jambalaya for the first time and loved it!! Here's the boys playing a few games in the hot, Indian summer sun!!