We Tricked. We Treated. And Now, It's A Downhill Run To Thankful.

Halloween this year could easily be put into the 'extra fun' category. We had just the right mix of excitement over the festivities and simple joy that comes with kids so little that EVERYthing about the holidays is SO MUCH FUN!

As far as I know, Rohan has never watched Super Man cartoons, so imagine my surprise when I asked what he wanted to be for Halloween and his answer was an emphatic "Supeeer Man!". Fortunately, after looking at pictures online, Luca became excited about the idea of being Super Girl, and my mom offered to make their costumes.

Other than the shirts, which were purchased at the store for less than it would have cost her to make something similar, she made their entire costumes, down to the fake boots. In a word? Awesome.

They were a hit in the neighborhood and got SO MUCH candy it's almost criminal. Already I squirreled some away to work and have plans to make even more of it disappear.

But before Trick or Treating, there was a preschool party for a certain honey bee:

Yeah, that's Luca again. Nothing says 'diva 4 year old' like a wardrobe change between the party and the outing. We were worried she'd mess up her Super Girl costume, so we took her to Goodwill to get her a witch costume (her request), but instead she fell in LOVE with this bee hoodie. For under $8, we got her that and the black and gold tutu, and she was set. I had plans to get a yellow shirt and put black stripes on it because a hoodie? in Arizona? on Halloween? Not weather appropriate. It was a high of 91 yesterday afternoon. But life got in the way, and I didn't get her the shirt. Luckily, the teachers at her school have all the kids put on 'normal' clothes after they trick or treat on campus, so we didn't have to worry after all. And Daddy dressed as the Grim Reaper (I really need to improve my Halloween make-up skills...he looks sad, not scary!) which was pretty awesome as well.



All in all, Halloween was great, and the kids already can't wait for next year! Tonight as I was getting him ready for bed, Rohan said, "You just wead da book and den we go walk and say "TRICK OR TREAT!" and den bed?" Optimistic little dude. Love him.

Now we are facing down the barrel of a LOT of holiday prep work and fun. We made a decision to pay off 2 credit lines we have open before year's end, as both have interest-free payments until January 1 (they were for major dental work I needed and insurance barely covered), which means money will be tight for presents this year. We're ok with that. We have SO MUCH already, and I am planning on making a few gifts and keeping it simple for the kids. And I confess I am very much looking forward to kissing 2011 goodbye! We've had a hard run of it in many ways, and January is shaping up in such a way that I think a lot of the things we've been stressed over will be resolved. In addition to paying off 2 credit lines, we had one of those life events that knocks the wind out of you when it happens but ends up being for the best recently. Our beloved day care provider, who watched Luca for 3 years and has watched Mo since he was 4 months old is moving a few hours north of us in mid-November. We were sad and stressed and just anxious when we found out, until my mom insisted we let her take over Mo duties through May when Darrick starts his summer break. This is perfect, because it means we don't have to search for a new provider for the next 6-ish months and after summer break he'll move to preschool and Luca will be in kindergarten. It's also perfect because it's going to mean several hundred more dollars in our pockets every month. Add that to getting rid of 2 credit payments a month, and we're finally going to be seeing a change in our financial situation for the positive.

With all this optimism abounding, I am VERY MUCH looking forward to taking some time off around the holidays to be with my family and to keeping things simple and spending this holiday season witha  focus on building traditions rather than building piles of stuff.

Last year, when November came and it was time to pack away the Halloween in favor of pretending it's winter, we created a Thankful Tree. I think we'll do something similar this year and I'm excited to involve both kids.

Welcome sweet November!!

Beauty and the Beast

My husband is a high school teacher, and my daughter is in preschool at the early learning center on his campus. Today, the preschool is having a Halloween party, so the kids all got to dress up and at lunchtime the will Trick or Treat in the classrooms of the teachers who have a preschooler on campus as well as in the library.

In honor of that, here's my husband's costume for the day. I'm no makeup pro, but I'm fairly proud of the skeleton face I created for him.

Sadly, he wouldn't let me get in close enough with the face makeup to really color black around his eyes. Oh well.

*P.S.: "I totally freaked out the whole varsity football team. It was awesome."

Meanwhile, Luca changed her mind over and over regarding how she wanted to dress up. Finally, after debating between a pink and purple puppy or a green pig (...I don't know...) she opted to wear a Fairy Princess dress up costume as long as I promised to let her wear makeup too. Presenting, the Beauty to her Daddy's Beastly costume:

Halloween

November is National Blog Posting Month (or some such variation of that official title), where bloggers are supposed to do 30 posts in 30 days.

This is supposed to mean 1 post per day for 30 days, no doubt. But I am cheating and taking on the challenge but just doing 30 posts overall, since I just found out about this today, the 3rd of November.

Here are some pictures of the little sprouts on Halloween. My mom offered to make Luca's costume this year, and so I asked her what she wanted to be. "A rainbow!" she answered. Alas, here it is:



A yelling rainbow at that.



THIS smile will ensure she gets everything she wants from every male relative in her world for the rest of childhood (at a minimum). And I DO realize the outfit is reminiscent of a gay pride flag. Did my mom, who's 66, realize that? It's unlikely. Furthermore, I figured worst case scenario people would think we supported gay rights or something, which we DO, so...eh. I was ok with it.

My husband and the dad (Matt) of Luca's buddy who we trick or treated with pulled the toddler girls around in a wagon while the moms hung back a little pushing the babies in the strollers and gossiping. About 2 streets into it, Darrick suddenly decided that he and Matt probably looked like the gay couple taking the kids out for the night, and suggested one of the moms might want to start accompanying them to the door. We got a good laugh out of it, and Darrick suggested a 2 year old dressed as a pride flag may be the scariest costume some of the conservatives in the neighborhood would see all night.

I digress.

Rohan, in all his chubby cuteness, was a tiger. Man, I could just nibble those cheeks all day:





The two of them together really hammed it up for the camera:





2/30

Everything a Big Bad Wolf Could Want.

Please tell me someone outside my immediate family is familiar with the song by Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs (of Wooly Bully fame)? No. Well, I invite you to listen to it here, and I promise to post an even more awesome cover version later, when I won't get yelled at by the hubs for 'uploading crap while I'm playing XBox'.

Anyhow, for weeks we have been singing this song because, well, it amped us up for Luca's big debut on Halloween as Little Red Riding Hood. And what a debut it was. The first time we put the cape on her, she moonwalked, all like "Take THAT Michael Jackson! I'm Little Red Riding HOOOD!" I know no one moonwalks anymore, but I'm fairly well convinced that if we all looked as freaking adorable as she did whilst moonwalking, it might just make a comeback.

What you should know about her costume is that, if your kids' Gramma was as cool as Luca's Gramma, your kids may have had a custom made LRRH costume for their first ever trick or treating adventure as well. I pause for a moment when I type out effusive compliments for my mom, since me of 10 or 15 years ago would have shuddered with revulsion to think one day I'd think my mom rocked so much. But the fact is, when we get older we realize our moms aren't so bad after all, and especially when they have wicked awesome sewing skills and love to adorn their one and only granddaughter with niceti1322223ies (ignore the spelling of that...Luca swooped in for a moment to contribute her own commentary to the topic at hand) and cuteness for all the oldies of the neighborhood to 'OOH' and 'Awwww!' over. And Ooh and Aww they did...with one neighbor on the cell phone speaking En Espanol, and all I heard was her mentioning the costume, and while I cannot be certain she was paying compliments to my child, I will run with that assumption.

So, without further ado, I present to you OUR Little Red Riding Hood. I apologize that the quality of the pictures can't even begin to rival the awesomeness of the costume, but the one good thing about a running toddler smearing her way across every frame is that it may have finally convinced my husband we need a SLR. Sweet.

Sweet Little Pumpkins.

Luca and her BFF Melody paid a visit to the pumpkin patch yesterday. As far as pumpkin patches go, the one we went to was fair to middlin', but all we really wanted was the photo op and some outside time for the kids, so it served its purpose. We also left with 2 pumpkins. Darrick had to find 'the biggest pumpkin here', and then we let Luca choose one her size. We finished up the evening by going out for pizza and root beer (that's about as wild as it gets when you have 2 toddlers and 2 pregnant women at the table). Luca had so much fun that she crashed out as soon as she was strapper in her carseat, and slept 12 straight hours.

And now....the pictures.

An early Halloween

My friend, Cyrena (aka The Kool-Aid Mom) invited a bunch of moms and babies over to her house for an early Halloween party, and it was so much fun! All in all there were 12 babies ranging from a few months to over 2 years old. It was cuteness overload for sure, and I made sure to take some pictures for posterity. You just HAVE to admire all the baby cuteness...and part of the charm is that there's not one single picture where everyone is calm and happy. Classic.

Enjoy!


Mady, Madison, Caleb, Lily


Elle, Luca, Katelyn, Mady, Madison, Caleb, Lily, Kristen, Noah


Madison, Lily, Kristen holding Timmy, Noah


Elle, Luca, Mady, Caleb, Madison, Lily, Kristen holding Timmy, Noah


Madison, Lily, Kristen holding Timmy, Noah, David


Luca and Mady


Madison the alien/monster and Lily the bumble bee


Madison, Lily, and Caleb


Luca, AKA the World's Cutest ASU Cheerleader


Monster Madison


Lily Bee


Noah the courageous lion


Luca and Mady


Mady and Luca

Halloween

We celebrated Luca's 1st Halloween yesterday by making her wear a pumpkin outfit and taking about 456 pictures. She helped us pass out the candy. I think she enjoyed seeing the other kids in costumes, although some of them got some funny responses out of her. We had to take her off Door Duty when she got her hands on a Tootsie Roll.....which then ended up crammed into her mouth and gummed almost flat. Her Daddy thought she must have dropped it when he couldn't find it....until her drool started coming out Tootsie Roll Brown. Alas, she's just fine AND we figured out she takes after me more than previously thought. She's shaping up to be quite the sweets-lover at the ripe old age of 5 months.