Sunday, November 2, 2014

Halloween

3, 5, and 7 have to be the best ages for Halloween.  They were all so into it this year and we did a ton of fun stuff in October.  The weather has been amazing, so warm and sunny, so we spent a lot of extra time outside. We had a few different Halloween adventures this year.  We went to Boo at the Zoo (pics on previous post), Butterfly Pavilion for "Bug-a-Boo," school parties, and trick-or-treating with friends. 

Here they are getting ready to head to Butterfly Pavilion.  This was the first time of the season wearing their costumes. Emmy was Ariel from Little Mermaid, Zane a skeleton, and Smith was Jake from a show called Jake and the Neverland Pirates.

 They decorated their own little pumpkins.


 Played some games
 Did a hunt for different things inside the butterfly area and we watched them release brand new butterflies from their cocoons.
 On Halloween morning we had ghost and pumpkin pancakes.

 The kids all got to wear costumes to school. We tried to spray Emmy's hair red, since Ariel has red hair, but it turned super pink.
 I helped plan and run Emmy's party. I love school parties.



 Then, Emmy and I headed over to Zane's party.
And Zack took Molly to go celebrate with Smith in his preschool class.
 Later that day, we headed up to Erie, to trick or treat and have dessert with our friends.
We fixed Emmy's hair to dark red.  She loved it.
 Jake!!

 Zane found a fellow skeleton
 Some of the crew
 Trick or Treat!
 Emmy begged Zack and I to dress up as Ursula the sea witch and Prince Eric to go along with her Ariel costume. So, we looked ridiculous but went for it.



We made Halloween cake pops to share.


 Back in time a little bit - Zack took Zane to the corn maze at night.  They brought flash lights and went for it.
 Here are pictures from carving our pics a few days before Halloween.




 Zane made his into a jail for a tiny pumpkin to be locked inside.
 Smith got Batman
 Emmy created such a unique face. ;)






October Stuff

Have I mentioned that Smith loves Super Heroes? He is almost always in some kind of super hero costume and asks me all day everyday to play Superheroes.  We play at home, at the doctor, at the store, at his gym class, at the park, everywhere. 
Smith in Starbucks on a regular day...
 Movie Night!
 Our big boy moved to his big boy bed (the bottom bunk). Zane moved up to the top so his little brother could claim the bottom bunk.  Smith has done SO WELL!!  It was such a smooth transition.  Maybe it has something to do with that we waited until he was 3. You can tell he's the baby of the family.  We also waited till 3 to get rid of his pacifier.  Wow, he was old.  That was also a pretty smooth transition.  But with those two big milestones, the guy doesn't nap anymore, which means he is tired every afternoon and evening.  He does still do a rest time in his bed, but he's even starting to fight that!
I'm so proud of my Diff Bug for staying in his bed at night, during the night, and even waiting till his clock turns green (7:00) in the morning to get out of bed.  He's getting SO big.
 He was dancing and cheering in his new bed.  We bought this train bedding to match the colors of Zane's baseball bed.

 Our big guy!!!

 And still my sweet little baby. :)

 Speaking of big guy, Zane is getting to the age that he can do so many more things.  The other night, on a school night, we let him go to the Avs game.  Zack had 5th row tickets from a friend and someone couldn't go, so Zane got to join.  Zack said he loved every second.  He didn't get into bed until after 10:30 and did just fine the next day!  Crazy.
 We visited out pumpkin patch again with Aunt Jord.  We met some of Emmy's friends from school there.  I love living right near it and it's free to go anytime.










 They could go down the inflatable slide all day long.  Smith and Zane teamed up and Emmy was so sweet to help little Molly go.
 I absolutely love these pictures of the boys.  They snuggled down the whole way and screamed and laughed.  There's nothing better than when my kids are best friends.

 Bounce house!

 I signed all the kids up for swim lessons this fall, and Molly joined too.  All four kids go without me having to get into the water! Woohoo!
This is Smith and Molly at their very first lesson, stretching and dancing and jumping to get ready.
 It was beyond stressful and nerve racking to watch them wait for their turn on the side.  I felt like I needed to sit about an inch away to save their lives if they fell in.  It turns out that they did fall in a few times.  Now the lifeguards have asked us to scoot back and they are sitting right behind them.  Yikes - it makes me so nervous.  They are so cute and love the water though!  Zane and Emmy are both getting better and better.



 We took the kids to a surprise family night at putt putt golf.  It was so so so much fun.  They were into it.  And I have to say - I got a hole in one on the first and second hole (oh yeah) but I somehow still choked and lost to Zack. Haha.




 I love the way Smith insisted on holding his club.
 Watching some football.
 Sometimes on Sundays, when there's football and more football on, I get so restless.  This day, I had to get out - it was absolutely perfectly gorgeous outside so I took the kids out to ice cream and to a new park.
We had the best time.

 Zane wanted to play catch the whole time or he played football by himself.





 Leaf angels
 Emmy took these selfies of us while we watched the other kids swim...

 And some more pics of Smith and me snuggling in our new blanket.

 Barnes and Noble - pretty much one of our favorite places to go.  We could look at books and hang out there all day.

 Boo at the Zoo - I braved it by myself with the kids since Zack had to work.  It was super crowded but we had fun.



 They got to pet an alligator.


 We played "camping" in our living room for a few days last week.  We set out sleeping bags, a tent, and made a pretend fire pit.  Thats all they needed to play a ton.

 Emmy new sign on her door... "No boys a llowed except Dada." She didn't want to leave Dada out, since he reads to her at night. And she's learning how to read and write and she'll argue with me about the way things are spelled - she insisted allowed is two words. So sweet.
 A four-tooth gap!! He finally  has one front tooth barely coming in but it's a huge space.  Love it!!!
 It's hard to tell, but Zane was sitting at the computer presenting his big "King Cobra" research project.  It's unbelievable how much he's doing this year at school.  They use chrome books and he created his presentations on his own, researched, added pictures, changed colors and fonts, and even created a glossary at the end.  He even signed in at home so he could catch up on it a bit. On a similar note, the challenge math that his teacher is sending home is HARD.  Zack and I have to work together to help him.  What the heck?!? Having such a smart kid can be hard to keep up with.  Haha