Halloween Part 2

After school on Halloween Lilly had gymnastics.  It was also parent observation night, so I got to tag along to watch.

Video

After gymnastics we grabbed Wendy's with some friends and headed out to trick or treat.  I think it was in the upper 30's and drizzling, so not the best weather.  

The kids had a great but cold night and came home with a lot of candy.  Jack seems to have forgotten about the candy but this is the first year that Lilly spent her day eating candy.  I thought Halloween was over but then I remembered that Jack's preschool party had been pushed back to Thursday, Nov. 1 due to school closures.  So one more day of Halloween!

Pumpkin carving and Halloween part 1

The night before Halloween when the threat of the storm was past us we realized we still had Halloween to deal with.  Quite honestly we had all assumed that Halloween would be cancelled due to the storm, but it was not.  So Tuesday night, 15 minutes before bedtime we carved one pumpkin.  Luckily the children did not question us about all the other pumpkins we bought that were sitting on our porch.

Lilly wanted a ghost pumpkin that said BOO.  So Jim carved it out in a couple of minutes and we sent the children to bed.

They were really excited about the pumpkin and Jack kept trying to blow the candle out like it was his birthday.

On the actual day of Halloween we were quite busy.  Jack and I brought cupcakes to Lilly's class party.  All the kids were so excited to see a little Spiderman and Lilly's teacher included Jack in all the games and activities.  I overheard Lilly say to her good friend Bronson: "Now do you see what I mean about my brother being crazy." Ha! I guess she talks about her crazy family already.  

The brave homeroom mom brought mini pumpkins and paint for all the children to paint their own pumpkins.  Jack sat right down with the rest of the first graders and painted away.  They had a lot of fun.    After the painting they played "pin the face on the pumpkin" and "hot pumpkin" and did some crafts.  Costumes are not allowed at Lilly's school but she wore all black and cat ears to try and beat the rule.  She was cat girl for Halloween so she was only missing her mask and tail.

Poor Jack was already worn out at Lilly's party, he had no idea what was coming later in the day.  He didn't actually sleep, he just rested his eyes for a few minutes.

More Halloween fun later...

Jack's birthday!

Jack's turned 3 on Sunday!  He seemed pretty excited about the decorations, presents, and cake.

I made the effort to get out my real camera when he opened presents but you can't really tell since the pictures came out so blurry.

Jack had many people celebrate his birthday.  His papa sent him some great books, and cool flipping car, and a wooden truck with wooden cars.  His Grandma brought him two very cool spiderman toys and some other spiderman and Captain America toy.  His Nana and Grandpa brought him $3 and thomas the tank toy trains.  He was a very well loved boy!

After presents we ate eggo waffles for Jack's special birthday breakfast, because that is his favorite.  Then we got ready for 9AM church.  That morning was Jack's birthday AND the primary program that I helped to run.  The primary program is the one Sunday a year where the kids get up and deliver messages and sing songs, it's a great Sunday.
My mom was able to stay through our first hour meeting at church but then she had to leave to get home to prepare for the storm.

On the way to church we sang happy birthday to Jack in the car, but he really did not like it at all.

After church, Jim's parents and our friends joined us for Sunday birthday dinner.  Since Jack doesn't eat I just made a roast and potatoes.  When he eats normal food other than candy and crackers he can pick his own birthday dinner.

After dinner we had his birthday cake.  I took my family's traditional mother's day zebra cake and turned it into the number 3.  I can't bake a cake and none of us really love cake, so I feel like this is my new birthday solution/tradition in one.

Jack was much happier about the singing in the afternoon.  Maybe because there was a cake??

Jack loved people singing to him and even sang along.  He is a sweet boy.

Jack had two of our friends over for his birthday and this is the face the older three made when I told them to smile.  I am not sure where I went wrong...

Last Saturday

We started to get pretty nervous about the hurricane superstorm late last week.  All kinds of predictions of flooding and wind damage were made for our town and we went into preparation mode.  Jim picked up more cases of water Friday night and we made sure we had plenty of non-perishable food, batteries, and necessities.

Saturday morning Jim and I cleaned out the gutters and cleaned all the leaves in our yard.  We ate pop tarts on the porch and started working first thing Saturday AM.  This is why the children are still in their pajamas.

I took an after picture but I cannot find it anywhere.  Just imagine the above picture but with no leaves on the ground.  Now imagine the above picture with leaves everywhere and that is what the yard looks like today.  The storm brought down most of those leaves on the tree yesterday but there are still more to come down.

We raked, cleaned, and planned all Saturday.  Then I made 10 boxes of corn bread, popped 10 bags of popcorn, and finished my costume for the trunk or treat party at our church.

Since I had to be there early to set up and stay late to clean up I was at the church for about 3.5 hours, more exhaustion!

I seem to be quite incapable of setting limits to holiday celebrations.  Although I did skip the mall trick or treating and the school festival.  Well the school festival was cancelled, but I had planned to skip it BEFORE they cancelled. So it counts as an activity I told no.

Oh I forgot my mom came for the day and helped me a lot.  I didn't get any pictures with her but we loved having her. We need to take more pictures!

Last Thursday

Here is what happened last Thursday in iPhone pictures.

Jack was sick with a fever, runny nose, crankiness, and he told me that his ears hurt.  This child has had ear infections with zero symptoms.  One time he had an ear infection he didn't have a runny nose, fever, the only clue was the he would wake up in the night.  Suffice it to say I never know when I should take him to the doctor.

Anyway, we went to the doctor because he was miserable.  He insisted on going in his race track pajamas with his light up Cars shoes and his fedora hat.

Longer story shorter, he did not have an ear infection.

Sad baby, but here is a picture of us together at the doctor's office.  You know so I can be in more pictures with my kids no matter how unflattering the photo.

After school Lilly was invited to attend a Halloween Dance class with her friend Alysson.  They came in costumes, danced, and ate lots of treats.

Jack and his friend Carson watched the iPad while the girls danced, but Carson couldn't handle the Halloween festivity.  Halloween is exhausting for modern kids, there are SOOO many parties.

After the dance class I figured Jack would be too sick to attend the local parade, but he was a maniac so we decided to go to the parade.  It was a warm evening and he loved it! The Danville Halloween parade is one of the biggest events of the year.  They throw out lots of candy and treats to the kids, we didn't stay the whole time, but it was still really fun.

I didn't bring my real camera, only my iPhone, so no good pictures from the parade.  Jack did have a fun time with his friends who also came dressed as super heroes.

That was our Thursday.  That wasn't even my entire Thursday.  On Friday I spent the day cleaning and organizing which came in handy for our storm preparation.

Scooter and last Tuesday update...

Jack really likes his new claimed scooter.  He is pretty good with the scooter. I took a lot of pictures and video of him on the scooter.

This was one of the last few warm days we had.

See, I sit on the front porch cheering Jack on and taking pictures.  Which is why he has on a different outfit at the almost identical spot on the sidewalk.

Last Tuesday was picture day at Jack's school and crazy hair day at Lilly's school.  I am really glad I did not get those two days mixed up.  To make matters even more confusing, Lilly came home with her school pictures that she had taken a few weeks prior to crazy hair day.  It seemed to all work out for the best and I sent each child appropriately dressed to the correct school. Win!

Breakfast on picture day and crazy hair day.

Jack was afraid of Lilly with her pink hair.  He kept running from her screaming "get you! get you!"  Which means he thinks something is going to get him.

Lilly was very unhappy about this and was trying to hug him in the picture below, but Jack would have nothing to do with her.

Below is a picture of Lilly's carpool friends on crazy hair day.  I probably didn't need to tell you it was crazy hair day in that picture.

Alyssa, Lilly, Alysson, Addi.

Alyssa and Addi are sisters and their mom put plastic cups in their hair and used lots of hairspray. 

It was amazing.

Then Lilly came from school and showed me her school pictures, again I was very confused for a moment and had a bit of panic thinking I had sent her to school on picture day with crazy hair.

I told Lilly I thought her school pictures were beautiful.  She said "I know, when I saw them I almost cried because they were so beautiful."

I love my children!

Blogging Slacker

My blogging has been really slow, it could be because I have a new iPhone that occupies my digital life or could be that life has been really busy.

Either way I am behind, and I love my blogging. I love keeping a family record of our happenings.  So this is just a small post for myself to remind myself to not be a blogging failure!  I have kept this blog up for almost 5 years, I can't stop now!

Last week I found some energy and cleaned out all my closets and laundry room (this might have been because I was expecting a visit from my mother, but I like to think it was just my own personal motivation!). After that I had a big church trunk or treat I helped to plan and a big church program and Jack's birthday and then had to prepare for the supposed biggest storm of the century.  It was a big storm, it just thankfully didn't affect us.  We dragged all of our furniture upstairs and planned for the worst.  It took a lot of planning to be prepared.

In short, I am exhausted and have many pictures to post.  So more posts and pictures coming soon.  We are happy and grateful to avoid a natural disaster and to have everyone safe.