Nice Day to Play

We took advantage of some amazing 70 degree November weather to clean up the yard one last time. Well, Daddy and I cleaned up.  C&G took the opportunity to play camping and make a big mess out of the hurricane swamped sandbox!

The kids sitting around the "camp fire."


Colin wore his pirate patch ALL day.  For about three days.  In the middle of his forehead.


More campfire time.


And sleeping out under the stars?  Maybe?


The camping was WAY preferable to slopping in this (in my mind, at least):

Finally Some Trick or Treat!

Our Trick or Treat this year was postponed by that lovely weather system Sandy.  We did not have any dangerous weather, really, just a solid week of rain and a bit of stiff wind one evening.  But, actual Halloween was very wet and very chilly, so it worked out that it was postponed until November 3.

So, on the third, we headed out with our costumes.  And since it was a Saturday, we had a bit of extra time to go see Aunt Cedes and Uncle D before heading to Miss Laura's for official Trick or Treat.





Gillian wasn't quite feeling the whole "trick or treat" thing just yet.  Despite being quite adept at it last year, she seemed reluctant to participate at Uncle D's house!  Fortunately, after a HUGE pizza dinner, she perked right up and got in the swing of things!

Waiting for pizza...YUM.




When we got to Miss Laura's there was all of this fun:







And then we were OFF!









After about 15-20 houses our  buckets were full, our noses cold, and the kids were tired.  So we headed back to Ian, Julia, and AJ's house.  And then it was PARTY time!  Mr. AJ's birthday happens to fall on Halloween, so Miss Laura and Mr. Kenny had invited all the neighbors (and us, the neighborhood crashers) for cupcakes and drinks post-trick-or-treat! 

Look what Miss Laura made!


Birthday Boy!  The big TWO!


Recharging after all that work.


Buzz needed to check out Thomas.


And then it was time for cupcakes!


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What a fun, fun night! And a LATE one!  Colin and Gillian certainly enjoyed the heck out of Halloween this year!  Candy, skeletons, ghosts...LOVED it all.

Fall Fun at School

The week of Halloween the kiddos had a "Fall Party" at school.  Their school doesn't dress up in costumes.  Apparently the church that houses the preschool made that choice about ten years ago.  FINE BY ME.  When I worked in preschool before C&G were born, we did dress up for Halloween.  And it was TORTURE.  Helping kids in and out of costumes, some kids didn't want to wear a costume, some kids didn't BRING a costume, some kids were scared of the other kids' costumes, someone spilled red juice on their costume the day before real trick or treat.  NO THANK YOU.  A "Fall Party" sounds perfect to me.

The parents were invited to the parties, that started about 45 minutes before the end of school.  Now, I have TWO parties to attend, I guess!  Colin, Gillian, and I talked it over and we decided that I would go to Gillian's party first and then move on to Colin's party.  The next time they have a party, I'll start with Colin and switch half way through.  Very fair, I think.

So, in Gillian's room, we all got settled and then made a cute scarecrow craft.



After the craft, one of the other Mommy's read us a Halloween story.  She read very well too! She had a great FROGGY voice!  As G's room was getting ready for cookies, I headed down the hall to Colin's room!

Miss Lanna was happy to see me, I think!  I think she was relieved to have ME pick Colin's "peanut/nut free" cookie and not her!  Luckily, there were oreos and one of the Moms made lovely, promised-nut-free ghost cookies!



After snacks, Miss Lanna had the kids sing a few Fall songs just for me!  They sang them at the beginning of the party, but I missed them!
 

Then we read a couple of Halloween books and collected our treat bags!  Then Colin and I were off to collect a very happy Gillian!  All in all, a fun Fall Party!

The FINAL Birthday Celebration. Finally.

Ok, need to wrap up this birthday stuff and move on to Halloween and November!

The Sunday after the kids' birthday we had Dickiedoo, Noonie, Uncle Willis, Leah, Uncle Stevie, and Aunt Emily over for lunch and to celebrate!

So nice to have pictures of people with their mouths full of food.


We FINALLY made it through lunch and onto the important stuff....presents.




Colin was really excited to try out this voice modulating Transformers mask thing from Uncle Stevie and Aunt Emily.   YAY??





Uncle Willis working on some Barbie goodies.


Noonie and Dickiedoo finally get some pictures with the kiddos!



Then we had some treats! I made this very ugly pie.


The kids wanted none of it.  Oh well.  It might have been very ugly, but it was the best tasting apple pie that I've ever made!

C&G picked ice cream for their treat!





Phew.  I think we'll consider four well celebrated!  Thank you to ALL of our family and friends.