Halloween 2012

We have a tradition that started back in Georgia where we make chili every year on Halloween. This year we invited the Culps (our friends and landlords) over to share in this spooky tradtion.

 

 

Here we all are getting dressed for the big candy filled night!

 

This year Maddox chose our costumes! Here is Jake with the "angel/fairy/bird."

 

This little boy was soooooooo excited. For WEEKS leading up to Halloween, Maddox dressed in his Jake costume and talked about trick or treating. He said Happy Halloween every time we entered and store and said trick or treat to anyone who would listen. This child LOVES candy and loves Halloween only because he knows that he gets to dress up (which he is obsessed about) and gets loads of candy all at the same time!  It is the perfect storm for this little guy!

 

enjoying the chili before the tricking and treating began

 

The crew: Jake, Captain Hook, Izzy, and Scully (who refused to wear his costume and took a bottle instead)

 

The first house was a little scare for Maddox...and me, but after that one, he would go to the door with his friends and told me that, "I not tared anymore mom."

 

Checking to see if the coast was clear of any monsters lurking in the shadows.

 

It is hard to see, but there are two legs clamped under the garage door.

 

Our neighborhood really gets into Halloween. This is someone being run over by a lawnmower.

 

 

My favorite part of the night was when Maddox ran in the house and immediately dumped out his candy to check out his loot. It is funny how kids do this instinctively.

 

Hands on hips and very proud of himself!

 

The day after Halloween Beckett brought me the package with his costume in it. It's funny how he hated the costume until Halloween was over.

 

After taking this picture, I realized that I could have dressed Maddox up like Richard Simmons and won every costume contest around.

 

 

Jake and Scully!

Painting Pumpkins

A few weeks ago, we went to a coffee place in town to paint pumpkins with some friends from our soccer team! It was raining (of course), but we had fun anyways with pumpkins, suckers, and hot chocolate!

 

 

 

Maddox and Bailey were very serious about their artwork!

 

Beckett didn't feel like painting that day, so we set up our own pumpkin painting for him at our house. He tried tasting the paint at first, and when that didn't work out, he decided that decorating the pumpkins was fun too!

 

He can be just as serious as Maddox about his artwork!

Open House

 

Open House at my school when I was a kid was always so exciting to me, so of course I was pretty pumped to see what Maddox has been up to in class. When we arrived we picked up a paper with a list of things for Maddox to show me in the classroom like his spot for circle time...the calendar..his pictures etc. Of course, my son went straight to the playgrond.

 

 

 

The first week of school the kids were asked to use craft materials to make a likeness of themselves. I let Maddox do it on his own. I wish I had taken a picture of the whole wall of work because I found out when I got there that I was one of the few parents who didn't help much.

 

 

This was the morning of picture day!

 

Beckett was so excited to play on the playground at Maddox's school!

 

I was trying to get Maddox to pose next to his friend, but he was more interested in the playground.

How Do Dinosaurs Eat Cookies?

 

 

Maddox has been a little obsessed with dinosaurs over the past few weeks. A few weeks ago all of the stay at home mom stars aligned and made for a great Dinosaur Week!

Maddox was studying dinosaurs at school. My mom sent the boys a package filled with tons of stuff including a book about dinosaurs making cookies and all of the cooking utensils to go along with it. As a bonus, the storytime at our library that week had a dinosaur theme as well. I am not sure if this miracle will ever happen again, but it was tons of fun!

 

 

Here is my little chef all ready to make some cookies! I am sure that we would get a pretty bad rating from the health department since he is in his underwear, but hey, he is wearing his chefs hat which has to count for something.

 

My boys have always loved this book, and I highly recommend it! It has scratch and sniff stickers in it and a few cookie recipes in the back! Yes, those are dinosaur cookie cutters!!

 

 

We used a sugar cookie recipe because we didn't have the ingredients for the cookies in the dinosaur book.

 

Of course Maddox wanted to do everything, "my sef."

 

He actually did a really good job! He did get a little frustrated trying to transfer the cookies to the pan for baking because some of them fell apart, but all in all he has become a great helper in the kitchen!

 

He wanted to make all T-Rex cookies. T-Rex is a common term in our household these days. I am not sure why he decided on that particular one as his favorite dinosaur, but I'm not complaining  since I can actually pronounce it.

 

He is much like his mama in the kitchen...flour everywhere!

 

Beckett was not very far from the action!

 

He wanted in on it at the very end.

 

Unfortunately, we ate them before I remembered to take a picture of the finished product.

 



Pumpkin Carving Extravaganza!!!!

 

October is one of my favorite months for many reasons, but I think my favorite part of the month is carving pumpkins. Maybe it's the kid in me, and maybe it is the many years that I worked at Mark's Melon Patch, but I have always loved this activity...that is

 

 

until I had kids! Notice the child to the right of the pumpkin. Yes, that is Maddox bawling his eyes out. Why? Well, because he was not satisfied with the child friendly activities that I had planned for him to do while I wielded the very sharp tools it takes to carve a pumpkin. He wanted to carve his  own pumpkin with his "own knife." So just like every other 3 year old that doesn't get their way, he proceeded to throw the biggest tantrum that you have ever seen.

 

Beckett, on the other hand, was perfectly content hammering small brightly colored pegs in to his pumpkin. I always thought of the pumpkin carving family activity as a time of bonding and hanging out together while creating something cool to sit on our porch and impress trick or treaters on that wonderful day of Halloween. I, now, realize (much like my "real" Christmas tree experience) that when you are a parent of small children that can't help with the actual carving that pumpkin carving is alot of fun work. Maybe I am doing it wrong.

 

Pure Focus

 

and Concentration.

 

As seen here, Maddox did eventually calm down and join in on the Windham Family Fun Pumkin Carving Extravaganza. Maybe I just have a little bit of Clark Griswold in me, and my expectations are just way too high. Anyway, there is always next year to get it right.

 

Maddox did not like any of the pictures in our carving book. He wanted a scary "tary" face on the pumpkin. I did the best job that I could to free hand a scary face for him.

 

After getting bored with his own pumpkin, Maddox found the camera and took this picture..

 

 

and this one! Gross!

 

Voila!

 

At the end of the day, I was sweating, but we all had a great time!

 

This is our little display. Kevin made the two small ones. Our neighborhood goes all out for Halloween, and put up orange lights and things that would scare the pants off most adults. I am sure they laugh at our sophomoric attempt at decorating, but I don't care.

Happy Halloween!