::halloween 2013::

Some fun stuff from Halloween day.
Sandy all dressed up at work so he could show off to all his friends there.


A group photo of all the employees at the Rodeo office. I was pretty impressed with everybody's hard work. They all look great!

Here's a group photo from Max's class party. Lots of goofballs. The kids had a blast.

And of course the requisite goofy face picture.

And last, we went trick or treating to that one street in the neighborhood that does it.

Emily was Alice in Wonderland, and she really does look lost in a strange wonderland in this photo, right? Strange monsters all around…


One last terribly blurry photo because it was getting too dark and that concludes the festivities. Sandy had a total blast trick or treating, even though we probably only went to about 8 houses. It was dark and windy and freezing. But at least we got to go at all. We were pleased to have happy kids after all the fun.

::carving::

Last Sunday we got home from church and Sandy almost immediately puked all over me. We're still not sure why. He was a little miserable that afternoon, but never really actually sick, and was just fine the next morning.

Anyway, this is a little beside the point but it explains why Sandy is in his PJs while pumpkin carving.





He didn't really hold up for too long--we actually had to go take a break in the other room while Kris and Max scooped out all the pumpkin guts.

Blech, he said. And the guts were a little too reminiscent of pukes for me, so we escaped for a bit while the boys did the hard work.

When we got back they had started on the faces.







Sandy and I finally got his little guy all finished. Happy with sharp teeth was the request.



Finished product.

::pumpkins::

When we lived in Raytown, MO we used to go to a real pumpkin patch not too far from our house--in fact it was between our house and Super-Target, so naturally I drove past it all the time.

Anyway, it was a real true pumpkin patch. No frippery, no bells and whistles. No corn kernel ball pits or hay rides or corn mazes. You went out there with a wheelbarrow and picked out pumpkins--snapping them off the vine--while avoiding snakes of course.

It was really fun. We really enjoyed it. When we moved to RI we tried to find a similar experience, but the best we found was a place that consisted of a hay ride that took us to a spot where somebody had placed bunches of pumpkins in a row for people to choose from. It was fun, but just not as "organic" an experience.

Anyway, of course this all leads to what we do for pumpkins now, right? Well, this is New Mexico where things don't just grow, so it's not like there are pumpkin patches right and left. Max's first grade teacher's husband is the Pastor of a church on the way to downtown. His teacher loved him and as a result of that we loved her of course. Anyway, every Halloween they have a big pumpkin sale there to benefit their youth program.

So after all that story what is comes down to is that here, we go to a church, walk around rows of pumpkins somebody laid out for us to shop in, and just buy some.
And that's gotta just be ok. The kids love it anyway. Especially Sandy was excited because he never remembered doing it before.






Love the juxtaposition between Max's MEGA pumpkin and the teeny ones behind him. He always has to pick a huge one.

Sometimes it's just a blessing to be able to find a time to do something like pumpkin buying and jack-o-lantern making--even if the time has to be planned and scraped out. It's stuff like this that kids remember. (old links to pumpkin posts, just for fun: http://lifekunst.blogspot.com/2008/10/pumpity-pumpkin-patch.html http://lifekunst.blogspot.com/2007/10/punkin-patch.html)

::trunk or treat 2013::

Last weekend was the ward trunk or treat--always a fun chance for the kids to dress up and have people ooh and aah over their costumes.

Sandy had the idea months ago that he wanted to be Mike Wazowski, and he wanted Max to be Sulley. Well, to tell the truth, for a long time he couldn't decide which monster he really wanted to be. I finally got him to commit to Mike, and when the costume arrived in his size he was sold.

Max's costume was really hard to find. Lots of Sully costumes exist for kids under 7 and big men that are very large, but not much in between. Nancy helped me find these funny japanese PJs that are also a costume--they didn't look to promising in the online photo, but in person the costume was great, fit well, and
Max loved it because it was soooooo fuzzy on the inside.


They're a pretty cute pair. I will have a full photo of them later. I forgot my real camera of course, and so somebody else did me a favor and took a few.

Max enjoyed the little costume parade, but Sandy did not. He was crabby because he wanted to explore the gym, and after he closed himself in a classroom and had us all frantic that he was lost, was not allowed exploring freedom anymore.



(It even has a hood that looks like Sulley's face!!)

And a cute tail.

Sandy decided he wanted to be Peter Pan instead of Mike for a while and stripped off the Mike tummy.

The trunk or treating was fun and fast as always and then we got to go home, which is one of my favorite parts. I never used to like trunk or treats--not even the idea of them. But now that we live far away from all the other ward members and there's very little trick or treating that goes on, I appreciate the event much more.

::messy::

This funny little guy used to be so fastidious about staying clean. When we gave him a big slice of cake for his first birthday, he insisted on using a fork to eat it, although he couldn't even really get any cake on the fork.
He was the neatest eater I had ever seen back then.
But then, everything changed. He's now almost three and everything's a little bit different.

You really can't get the full effect here because it was a little bit dark, but he's got cookie frosting and paint all over his shirt.
His face--up to and including his nose is all crusty with old yogurt because he tried to drink his little yogurt tub instead of taking spoonfuls.

Nowadays I have to threaten to take away drinks because he's too busy splashing in them to drink, and anything that can be spread on the table can turn into an off-road track for toy cars.

He's just messy now, that's all there is to it. Maybe someday he'll come back into his original tidiness, but maybe not. We'll see. In the meantime he's cute.

::old photo shoot::

This summer Kris and I were out in San Diego for our anniversary. A surf store there was having a wetsuit giveaway which involving posting a picture on facebook of somebody cute wearing on of their shirts. So of course we bought a kid sized shirt and went home to try our best. And since we don't have a beach or much water or anyplace where a surfboard could be stood upon without it being ruined, we did our best.

We tried to get some iconic Santa Fe scenes in the background.








The one we finally ended up submitting:

Of course we didn't win because they changed the contest from the best photo to the one with the most likes at the last minutes. We couldn't compete with the cute little teenage girl that won, but we put up a good fight, thanks to nice friends on Facebook and parents who asked for extra likes. But anyway, it really doesn't matter. We just had fun taking the photos. They're cute boys.

::vacation shenanigans::

When we were in San Diego last week for our big family vacation we stayed at this really cute little house. One of the biggest perks of the house as far as the boys were concerned was the fenced backyard--with GRASS!

They were rolling in it and playing in it and just generally glorying in it.







They were inspired to many goofy activities and spent lots of time out there, which was great. All the screaming and the running stayed outside, which was also great.

Time for massages. Max says, in all seriousness, "Sandy gives the best massages!!"


He certainly gives FUNNY massages.




Hilarious massages actually.




Fun stuff.