Feed the Ducks!

I'll admit it. For the most part I am lazy on weekends, and I don't plan much for us to do. But this one weekend, I had to get the kids out of the house. We had been couped up all day watching tv and doing a whole lot of nothing. So I made the kids get dressed at 330 in the afternoon (ok fine I wasn't about to drag out a fight with Elijah, so he's in his pjs- the other ALWAYS wants to get dressed so that wasn't a problem), put on some coats because the weather has finally changed and there is a strong chill in the air and off we went to feed the ducks.

It took a little investigating to finally find the ducks in a sheltered inlet on the bay. However the location could not have been better. There was a quaint little path that backed up some water front apartments, that provided a great throwing angle for bread in to the duck filled water below.

The seagulls found us in about three minutes, but we made a game of trying to throw the bread to where the ducks would be able to reach it first.

Elijah's new tag line for the gulls: "Those are NASTY little birds." Repeated from yours truly.... oh well, it could have been worse.

The GORGEOUS coloring of the bay that night. 

Proactive & Procrastinating- Hello Christmas Season

Let's just get this out of the way first: I have been a naughty girl and have not posted in the last month. Its terrible, but by now you have come to expect it. So in an effort to be proactive, after much procrastination, you will find today's post is actually from today, and the posts following will be pretty much the past month's events. So check back daily for the next week to get some updates. And then keep your fingers crossed that I am not putting you on the back-burner, like I am my Christmas cards at this very moment....

Today, while Lucas slept, Elijah and I enjoyed, for the first time together, an ancient tradition i like to call "Putting up the Christmas Village."  He was much more interested in it than I thought he would, especially with his video game running the background music for our assembly date. But he made it, all the way through the setting up of the village.

Like me, when I was his age, he may have enjoyed the little people the most. He played with them and imagined with them. It was so sweet to watch.  He directed where each house was to be plotted and put all the trees and light posts up (okay okay I may have moved some, as they may have been placed on top of buildings etc....)

My dad walked in as the finishing touches were going up and I think his heart was warmed by the continuing tradition that was in the makings. Mine sure was.

Merry Christmas....28 days and counting.....I think.....

K

Harvest Festival

Our church had the brilliant idea to put on a harvest festival 12-3 on Halloween. And since Halloween fell on a Saturday the kids (and parents) really needed something to curb their excitement for the evening trick-or-treating.

It turned out to be about 80 degrees - crazy hot- but the kids had a great time, that never bothered them (just me HAHA).  They jumped in the bounce house, ran the obstacle course, went fishing, picked up rubber ducks and painted pumpkins. Did I mention they got a lot of candy too? OY.

Elijah met mickey!

Lucas met mickey!

Vampire teeth!

Lucas at the bean bag toss

Duck Hunt

School Parade

Once again, Elijah is growing up. Where last year at his Halloween parade he refused to wear his costume, this year we didn't have any problem (except when I dropped him off in the morning and he stood in the corner and cried because he didn't want anyone to look at his costume....oy). He walked the whole school next to his best -bud Matthew and proudly wore his costume.  What a sweet boy and finally a successful parade!

The class coming around the bend

Our ninja turtle

Elijah and Matthew and Abigale

Reese and Elijah Buds!

Pumpkin Decorating

I was at the dollar store and found these great stickers that the kids could decorate their pumpkins with. I thought, if it worked, this would be an amazing alternative to pumpkin carving. I just didn't really have it in me to do that this year and if we were to get our pumpkins out on the porch in a respectable amount of time, this would be ideal in accomplishing that. So I proposed it to the boys and they were all in (not that they really know the difference). So We had a pumpkin decorating session that lasted about 15 minutes before they lost interested, AND got the job done. I think we will do that next year, until they start asking to carve again!

Going Back a Week

A week ago Saturday (Oct 24) the main street in town did a Halloween walk for all the kids. They got to trick-or-treat in the main street shops and have a little practice round in their costumes.  It was darling!

The boys dressed up and did so well, though Elijah wouldn't take a picture with me, even though I was his side-kick April O'neil.

We had a good time with all the friends, and thanked the good lord for Extra hands like Kris K. and Kaitlin's parents, because we needed it.  I think i definitely prepared the kids and got them even more excited for Halloween.

I made Lucas' shield out of one of Aaron's frisbees!

We ran in to my Second Cousin Elaine and her little girl Alexandra (who Lucas goes to daycare with). Super cute little baseball players like that from the movie A League of Their Own

The Gang

 

Then we thought we would say "Hi" to Gigi:

Afterwards, we all went home for naps, and Lizzie came over to have some play time with Elijah.

After nap, Kaitlin and Erin brought the rest of the kids over so we could have some organized chaos and the kids could entertain themselves by playing with each other. We fed them pizza and then at the end of the night.....

Erin getting some snuggles out of her not-so-snuggly McKenna

Dinner Time

This happened....

The Morning After Halloween

This morning when I was getting ready the kids decided that they needed to practice trick-or-treating. Mind you this is after-the-fact....Halloween was last night. It was so cute though. I had to capture it and share it with you. So enjoy.

Halloween!

I have a couple of posts that should have happened before Halloween, but I got busy, and lazy and didn't post them. So we will do the current, and anticipated, Halloween post now, and then in the days to come (check back daily for about a week, I should have enough to fill the week) I will post all that has happened in the last two weeks.  We are also headed out to Phoenix for Aaron's cousin's wedding, and a 2-birds-with-1-stone, and fairly selfish visit to see Jess and her family, which we have not seen in at least 3 years (ugh, we are the worst).

So Halloween!

First off I would like to say that Elijah wore his costume (though threatened not to, but decided that getting candy, was again worth dressing up).  Lucas, was all too enthusiastic to wear his, no problem there.  However, the funny thing was when last week Elijah refused to take a picture, this week Lucas refused to take a picture, unless it was with Daddy. So be it.

The kids did a practice round and trick-or-treated for dad, it was so cute!

Elijah dressed up like a ninja turtle and I in-turn dressed up as the ninja turtle's side-kick April O'neil.

Lucas was Captain America, and Aaron was himself. HAHA.

We had a great time trick-or-treating with our close friends and family - all ten kids. It was a little chaotic, but fun at the same time.  By the end of the night Elijah and his new friend Eddy (Kaitlin's nephew) were best buds racing the other kids to get to the "jolly Rodger" a.k.a. the double stroller I brought along for tired feet. It was really cute.

Left to Right: Cousin Jack (spiderman), Cohen (the pancake), Jackson (Neo from Umi Zoomi), Emma (Digust from Inside Out), Colette (butterfly princess), Cousin Lizzie (Rapunzel), Eddy (Peter Pan), Lucas (Capt. Ame.), Elijah (Ninja Turtle), Ryan (racoon).

We came home and had a few pieces of candy, let the two boys run off the energy and sugar and then went to bed, hating the fact we knew there would be a couple of early risers due to the time change in the morning.  Elijah was up at 5:40 and Lucas at 6:40. Oy. Happy Standard Time Savings. ;)