happy halloween!

Dora and Diego had a great time trick-or-treating. It's so nice to go around base and you don't have to worry too much about cars or strangers or the kids running ahead. People generally aren't trying to scare the little kids or wearing crazy costumes that send the kids running away. The kids enjoyed walking around and seeing the numerous princesses and superheros that were running around. There were no other dora's or diego's that we could see. Heather and a few friends ran from house to house for about an hour then walked for another half hour. Charlie got through some pictures and one house then ditched the mask (which we attached to a baseball hat so he wouldn't have to wear it), backpack, baby jaguar, and pretty much anything besides a white vest that barely qualified as a costume. He still got candy so he was happy. He was pretty brave about marching up tot he houses after the other kids had gone through and waited his turn while they sprinted by after getting their candy. I'll try to get pictures up tomorrow when i get a chance.

the itsy bitsy spider

Today I was making an apple pie (the real thing I wanted to write about!!) and as I was paring the apples a spider dropped down from above my head into the sink. I was a bit surprised but was still able to grab the squirter thing and squirt it down the dish disposal. I love living in the south!!!

Jeff finished up another pumkin today. To go along with the kids costumes we have dora and diego sharing a pumkin with swiper in the back. If the light shines right you can see Dora and Diego from teh front and the shadow of swiper on the wall behind. It's pretty cool. We still have a few pumpkins but I'm not sure if they'll get done or not.

halloween is in the air!

Halloween is around the corner and it's all the kids can think about. We went to a halloween party last night and the kids got to try out their costumes. The had a good time getting all the accessories together and trying them out. unfortunately I think that by the end of the night Jeff and i will be carrying backpack, rescue pack, boots, diego, a few masks and other extra costume makers and our kids will just be a girl in a pink shirt and orange shorts and a boy in blue shirt and shorts asking for candy :-)

On the potty front charlie is doing pretty well--telling me twice yesterday when we were not in the house that he had to go potty. He doesn't want to use the potty seat and wants "pivacy" when he goes to the bathroom so I'm waiting for the time taht I have to fish him out of the toilet because he fell in. Otherwise he is doing well and doesn't have to m&m's EVERY time to motivate him.

sick has started

Well we've started the back to school sick rotation. Heather has a fever and has been glum all of the most beautiful weekend we've had yet. We really missed out on some nice weather after a pretty rainy, lousy week. On the other hand our flowers are growing and we got some Halloween decorations made. Now that Jeff's back days are less eventful and more normal.

Charlie has decided to start letting us know when he has to go to the bathroom. We got some "diego" underwear but he does better in pull ups since he remembers 75% of the time before really going. 50% of the time he goes a little, then 25% of teh time he actually tells us when he actually has to go. The other 25%...well we're still working on that. I'm really pleased with how well he's doing and how willing he is to try. Hopefully this is not a passing stage and we can keep moving forward.

dora and diego?! for now

After the lure of a purple backpack with 10 (albeit cheap) games in it Heather has decided that next year she can be a princess, butterfly or unicorn but that this year she can be Dora. This will make for yet another "paired" set of costumes at the kids are Dora and Diego (yes we found an orange rescue pack!). this follows up on Peter Pan and Captain Hook and heather and her friends surfer/hula girl duo two years ago. I will be really sad when we don't get to do team costuming! We also have baby jaguar and a boots on the way. Knowing that all the halloween stuff will be played with long after halloween makes the effort worth while!

We also went to a pumpkin patch yesterday and picked out pumpkins and haybales so that we can be a bit festive. The kids had fun, look at this one! Here's a big one! here's a bumpy one! It was fun although there weren't a lot of pumkins due to a lack of rain over the summer. It's good we didn't wait until next weekend!

pre-halloween haunts

Halloween stress is in full swing at our house. Heather wants to be something different every day bt seems to have settled on Cinderella. The wal-mart Cinderella costume was too small but Heather is convinced it is the way to go. Our neighbor's 2 year old will be wearing the Disney Cinderella dress which is very cute and the same one that we bought. It is likely that there will be twin cinderellas (probably more like sextuplet) out in the area. Charlie seems set on being a wiggle but Jeff is trying to talk him into Diego. Our original idea was Dora and Boots or Dora and Diego but Heather seems to be focued on princess...

Otherwise the kids went to MOPS this week since I changed their pre-school days. Heather was not happy to go and cried and screamed when I left but calmed down right away once I was out of sight. At the end she said that she wanted to go back the next day so I know she had fun...I just can't figure out how to get her not to be scared of new places or things. You'd think I'd left her in bad placeso r something. C Charlie on the other hand walked in like he owned the place and had a great time!

a pretty normal week

We'vehad a pretty normal week with jeff working and the kids in school. Several days were spent with a few extra kids at our house which heather and charlie always enjoy. heather is really enjoying dance after school with the 3 year old teacher. Charlie loves to tell me what he did in school, paint with fingers, sing songs, play outside...although he also seems to love not going and staying at home to play with me. Jeff built a cornhole game so we've been playing outside with that. It's supposed to get up to 90 this week (is october fall?!) so it's still hot. I managed to get two mornings of workouts in which was terriffic! We've enjoyed the weekend and it's nice that Jeff still has one more day off this week to spend with the kids.

Currently the kids are having a corn race which jeff invented. They each got a bucked or corn and a large spoon and have to transfer the corn from one bucket to another. Look out survivor next week they'll be eating the worms we found earlier int eh flower bed. did I mention that they're doing this in the family room??

back to reality

After a great 2 (almost 2 1/2) weeks of Jeff being back he went back to work today and we're back to the "normal" schedule of school, work, groceries...We had a laid back birthday/anniversary weekend and unfortunately did not do anything very unique but just enjoyed the time. Today the kids are playing outside and Charlie has used the potty twice and not wet his pants yet...we made some moderate attempts last week but he wasn't really into it. This morning he went to the potty when he woke us so we're jst going with it. No high hopes (but wouldn't it be great!!).