Happy Halloween!

This one fell asleep during dinner, and we had to wake him up to suit up.

And at the last minute the boys decided to re-do last year's costumes.

The bumblebee was shy.

And we lasted about half an hour at that before the boys decided it was time to go home.

This Little Guy

that Ben made at daycare, is cracking me up.

It's Beginning To Look

A lot like Halloween around our place...

Full reveal on Saturday.

Boys!

No idea what is really happening here.

Buttons

For children who would much rather run than take care of personal tasks, buttons on 2T and 3T pants are one of the most bone-headed things I can think of. Why would you discourage them from bothering to latch their own pants?

It may be why I don't tend to make Nicholas stay dressed at home.

The Weekend Outings: Bravery

Didn't you just get back?

See ya.

My plan was to just drive around in the new car all weekend with movies playing. But either I realized what kind of gas money I would be spending or I realized that in a short five weeks we would be sentenced to home confinement or get over ourselves and start going. So we headed to the Botanical Gardens, which I really like to imagine are just my own gardens. The crowd was small enough that each kid had their own play house with one to spare.

After lunch, we took the long way to the zoo.

And maybe sat in the parking lot once we got there for a few minutes to finish naps and the movie.

We trekked to the Teton Trek at the zoo, which was beautiful. This would be where Nicholas decided it would be fun to run off on his own. So the camera went away. And for good or bad, I let him wander on the porch while I watched him through the window for a minute or two to let the whole vastness of being lost sink in. We've been talking a lot lately about how important it is that we stick together in every sense of the word.

And then this on the way back.

It was nearly like camouflaging a set of twins.

Mostly I don't mind the attention we get, but I have my days. This had been a long day. We had been at the zoo for about three hours at this point. I was alone in large open space with them for the first time really. So every time I passed someone and they stared at us; every time I passed someone and I heard them exclaim behind us; every time we negotiated a door and someone just stood and stared at us to watch how we do it (with a little quiet help and a smile from a stranger would be nice); every time people felt comfortable just stopping us to chat; every time someone new walked in the bathroom and stopped short to assess how I was dealing with my kids, I looked away. I wasn't in the mood Saturday. I wasn't trying to be rude, I was really just pretending there was nothing to see.

Really, they were so good that we all got ice-cream at the end and stayed an extra half an hour lingering at the zoo entrance area. Because there was no way that combination was getting in the new van.

And wearing them out must have worked because the escape artist and her sister Alida didn't show up at my door until 7 Sunday morning. And they were perfectly happy to do this while I took a shower and poured a cup of coffee.

This Morning

At 4:45,

we could hear Nicholas in the hallway whispering to Elaine,

"Go wake them up."

I got him to go back to bed. The girls just traded off getting put back in bed until I gave up and put them in front of the tv at 6.

Presenting

Wonder

Joy

and Happiness

In My Driveway When I Got Home Last Night

The robot car. Ben immediately started asking where its head and arms were.

With all of the gadgets, I wouldn't be surprised if it transformed and ran off. That would so be my luck. It even has a camera that will show you what you are preparing to back in to as you do it... But hey, if you're going to drive a minivan, you may as well do it with dual DVD screens. Its not mine yet. Patric somehow convinced the dealership to let him drive off for the night with the showroom model.

Even The Finest Camera

Can't fix some things.

Hint, Hint

Serious Camera Envy

In the time it took me to get the anemic little picture of these three playing in the gravel in my previous post, Mark clicked out these, probably while drinking a coke and helping Emily swing.

The Saturday Outing: East to the Kings

East West To the Kings

I am a moron.

We met up with the Kings on Saturday to pick out some Pumpkins.

And take those, um, contemplative pumpkin pictures.


Share a meal, where we behaved pretty darn well if I do say so myself.


Then we headed to a park to show Emily that throwing gravel around is as fun as anything else.

She was all about the gravel throwing, but she smartly held back a little to watch my children sprint for the water and start exclaiming they wanted to go swimming.

Instead we just mucked around in the wet sand.

And then I gave up on my camera in the presence of the King camera, which they used to attempt to get a family picture of the Stubers. I bet you can guess who didn't want to participate.

And on the way home, I got an hour of quiet.

An hour of full quiet.