Costume Parade

This afternoon the kids' school had a costume parade. Peter and I bundled up and walked to the school to see it, and then we got to bring them home early. It made for a fun afternoon.

David and his good friend, Landon. These two are peas in a pod, and they have so much fun together. Of course they were walking next to each other in the parade. Well, less walking, more goofing.

We got home and I got dinner finished. It was a vegetable, chicken, tortellini soup. Of course the kids hated it. I thought it was perfect for such a cold day. Oh well. Can't win them all. After dinner my visiting teacher came over. It was good to spend some time with another adult. I really needed it this week. :)

Trunk-or-Treat

The kids and I went to the church's Trunk-or-Treat last night. It was fun, the kids were admired. I threw together a Professor Sprout costume the night before and slapped a label on an IKEA plan. It worked. The label read: "Caution! Devil's Snare - DO NOT TOUCH!"

The event was also a chili cook-off. There was a lot of chili, but my favorites were a bacon chili and a seafood chili. SO yummy. The kids had hot dogs and were satisfied. They came home with even more candy, and now the big jar I have all of their candy in won't fit the lid on top. They are pretty possessive about that candy...

After the awards were handed out for costumes and chili they announced the start of the trick-or-treating. The two big kids disappeared. I just kinda figured they'd come and find me when all of the candy ran out or they got too cold. I was right, they did. I took Peter around once, then took him to the movie room to enjoy Charlie Brown while I helped clean up (I was on the planning committee for the night, so clean up was one of my duties). David and Andi wandered into the movie room after all of the candy was gone and all three devoured as much as they could. Made for a fantastic sugar crash at bedtime. Weeee! They also reported that they were totally warm. Good. Two layers of fleece had better have kept them warm! I got gloves for them for Saturday, it is supposed to be pretty chilly during trick-or-treat hours on Saturday. Oh, but next week we warm right back up to low 60's for our high. Definitely different from last year! A good kind of different, too. :)

Jonathan called tonight! He had exactly seven minutes to talk. It was so good to hear his voice. He has only been able to write one letter, which we received last week, but it isn't for lack of trying. Every evening he's supposed to get 45 minutes of personal time. Unfortunately others in his bay don't know how to pick up after themselves and get the whole gang in trouble at inspection. He and many others spend the 45 minutes of personal time trying to get things ready for that inspection. They are often "smoked" for their efforts anyway. He passed the practice test of the field test he's taking this Saturday, so he thinks he'll get it done on Saturday with flying colors (crossing fingers!!!!). If he does he'll be able to call us on Sunday for more than 7 minutes. That will be nice because Andrea was devastated that she couldn't talk to him longer. Boy are the kids going to be glad when he gets home. One month, nineteen days. We can do this.

But I could really use some prayers, guys. Tensions are high, there's been too much sugar and too little sleep.... Short tempers and sadness make miserable people, and even grumpier miniature people. We could use some good vibes here in our little corner of the world.

Farmer Pete

With the big kids in school, Peter and I have a lot of time to spend together. Today was gorgeous, and after a pitstop at Walmart I was itching to spend some time outside. We took a detour home and stopped at the farm center at Kensington. That is always a big hit. So me and my shadow spent a while pretending to be farmers and looking at all of the fun animals.

 That's my favorite shadow.... :)

 Peter told me all about what the chickens were doing while we were there. There was one laying an egg, that was fun.

Letter home

We got a letter from Jonathan today! He is very busy, and he's working hard. He told us to look up Victory Tower on youtube. He also said it is much taller in person than it appears in the video. We found him a few days ago on his battalion's Facebook page.

It was a nice thing to see him, we are really missing him. At least the kids haven't been asking that he come home tomorrow. We're all settling in to a good routine, and at least this last week we haven't had meltdowns from the kids (specifically Andi, who is very good at throwing them).

David was invited to a friend's home for a Halloween party. I worked way too hard yesterday to get his costume finished. Fortunately I figured out a good system and was able to whip through the littles' robes and have them finished for tonights Halloween event in the town.

The kids came home with so much candy. Halloween isn't here yet, and already we have more candy than the kids should consume for the rest of the year. I wonder if I can find any dentists in the area that do the candy-buy things. That always seemed to be a big hit with the kids in the past.

We have the trunk-or-treat at Church and then Halloween night. So much candy.

I have long had a dream of seeing my kids embrace Harry Potter and become big fans. I knew it was a special story that I wanted to share with them. So imagine my delight when, this summer, David started reading the books. And when you give a kid a Harry Potter book, they might ask you for a pet rat. And when they name their pet rat Scabbers, they might ask to be Ron Weasley for Halloween. And when they want to be Ron Weasley for Halloween, their little sister might determine she wants to know more about this Harry Potter thing, and then she will want to be Hermione because Hermione is an amazing role model. ;) Yeah, I'm really kinda happy my kids are loving Harry and his story and adventure as much as I did as a kid. It is like introducing them to a life-changing friend, and then watching that friend change their lives, too. It makes me happy.

That and David hates Umbridge too.

My baby turns 3!

Peter had his first ever family birthday party! While we were all in Texas for Kirsten's wedding we went ahead and had a big bash for him. It was also a great excuse to get together in a no-pressure, no-stress zone after the wedding. It was great to visit with everyone for a few hours and just relax. And Peter had a great birthday!

 And of course he had a Poopy Hat cake (Poopy Hat = Darth Vader. Hoarsly whisper "pooooo-peeeee" a few times and you'll see why Peter calls him Poopy Hat.).

 He was so excited about those candles he blew them out before we'd finished singing to him.

 I had promised Jonathan I would get as many pictures of myself and other people as possible. That was a HUGE promise, I HATE pictures of myself. But I did it. See! I do exist!

 Emma was our unofficial designated photographer. She took some AMAZING pictures of the night. Hopefully she'll share a bunch of them on her blog so I can steal them and post them here. Or maybe she'll just send them my way? *hint*hint*

 At the very last second I told the kids to hop on the couch for a cousin picture. That's all of them on the May side! Look how big they are getting. I can't handle how fast they are growing. Nor can I handle the cuteness. Could there be a more cutely crowded couch??

 These girls were best buds all weekend. At the reception the night before they found each other, grabbed plates of food, and sat at a table together and had giggly girly conversation all night. It was just adorable.

And the aftermath:

 Emma's going to kill me for that photo, but it accurately describes how tired we all were after the evening was over. Haha!

 I can hardly believe that my baby is such a big boy. Three is HUGE!! We've been through a lot over the last few years with him. I am so glad to have him in our family. He is such a happy, jolly little character. He makes me happy all the time, and makes me laugh just as much. He flashes his dimpled grin and I have a hard time saying no to him. I'm so incredibly grateful he is healthy and that we aren't spending so much time in hospitals and with doctors. He scared me so badly last summer. It was a terrifying time, and there are some moments and feelings I never want to repeat. I am so glad he is well! I am so glad he is growing, even if it is so fast! I am so glad he's climbing, and jumping from jungle gyms, and swinging so high, and showing me how strong he is all the time! I am so grateful he is here, my happy, dapper little dude.

Happy birthday, Peter Pumpkin! I love you!