Thursday, October 31, 2013

Halloween...

I am not a big fan of Halloween. I know! I'm a minority! Here are my cons:

1. Candy overload that starts everyone's immune systems on a path of destruction leading to months of perpetual sickies.
2. Dressing up. I mean, who am I going to be? Rosanne Barr? The girl from Hairspray? Ursula from The Little Mermaid? Right. Not that exciting. I'm sure as heck not going to put buns on my head and wear all white and pretend I can pull off Princess Leia. It's just not right. So there's that.
3. It isn't just one night anymore...in fact, we got dressed up for co-op, piano, trunk or treat, a fantastic party by our friends the Wilcox's and actual Halloween...AND we skipped a party we were invited to on November first because we just didn't have any dress up left in us. No more! I'm not exaggerrating, these were FIVE events on different days from each other all of which required makeup for the girls, colored hair spray and what, when we get home at 10pm crashing from a sugar binge we have to BATHE the kids, wash and DRY their hair or they'll slime around in hair dye colors and mascara all night. AWFUL. Such a chore. Please can we just go trick-or-treating one year like the good ol' days?

That said, I do like getting excited with the kids about their costumes. Ruby wanted to be Little Red Riding Hood and I made her a cap and the rest was pretty simple, just wore a black dress under with tights and a basket in hand. Alice wanted to be a Ninja until I had a friend selling off her old homemade costumes and I bought a black cape which led Alice to want to be a Vampire. Easier! So she was super cute wearing all black and lots of makeup. Betsey wanted to be a butterfly, a unicorn or a mermaid depending on what day it was, but I saw a deal on a mermaid costume and went for it. she was happy as long as she had makeup on. For all my girls that is always all that really matters.

I went to Target and found this $5 solution to my costume woes. Yesssssss. I always wear kitty ears, paint whiskers on my face and go as a kitty wearing all black with a scarf hanging out of my pants as a tail. So this is kind of the same idea, only I'm a devil and it's still easy and not too bah humbuggy.
Chris, the holiday decorator, is Mr. Fancy Pants again...the girls just love the decorating!
Mermaid with two black eyes. Listen people...this isn't about looking like a Mermaid its about doing whatever makes Betsey happiest...once four times per year. She wanted some black hair spray like Alice and some blue eyeshadow. Sigh. She looks a little Monster High-ish, right? I don't even know what Monster High is.
"Rainbow Hair."

All three are princesses to me.
Well maybe Alice isn't because she is really working her mean face here and I'm convinced.
Okay...I'm terrified.
Leo missed out on most of the fun, staying home with babysitters or mommy...here he was off to bed, but we threw on his hat for a quick pic.
All four of my babies.
Little Rylan in his homemade lion costume that totally matched the one I bought that my friend made...two little lion's at co-op!



At-a-glance October...the minor stuff.

Who can't get enough pics of kids in adult sunglasses, or any sunglasses for that matter. Me!
Chris took a lot of these pics, and he loves his chickens. There's always bound to be a picture of a few eggs.
Again...we like our kids in sunglasses pics.
Leo has sharp teeth...when he eats. Enough said. I know it is gross to include, but one day he will need to apologize to me and there's no way that will happen without this documentation. Consider a grudge held until the correct restitution effots are made. Okay, already forgiven. I love nursing this kid!
I briefly thought I was going to bottle feed him after the above incident. It didn't work. He don't take no bottles.
I love my kids loving each other. Ruby sometimes gets Leo up and gets him changed and dressed for the day while I doze in bed in the morning. They we all hang out in my bed for a bit and snuggle.

Leo in his bath! Gosh, I am writing this a few months late and he sure has gotten chubbier recently! Stay tuned October readers...December he looks a lot different!
He was momentarily resting his head on Ruby's chest...always a need for a photo because he never relaxes, ever. Betsey takes offense if you don't want her in any pics, so even if I'm not really including her I always tell her to smile for the camera.
We tried his first food...again, trying to come up with breast feeding alternatives.
Leo was introduced to the Jumperoo! He really likes it and started to get the hang of the jumping right away!
Betsey started a dance class. I can't get enough of watching she and all the darling little girls prance around. We aren't allowed to take pics at the YMCA, so these are awful and had to be taken in secret. Betsey is in the hot pink skirt.

Oh. Did I mention we like sunglasses on kids?
Betsey did a pretty hairdo all by herself. I'm really pretty impressed.
This kid looks like he is wasting away. Oh my. What a skinny little guy!
I love three years old! LOVE. Can't stop loving. Betsey is an artist, she draws constantly and when she drew this it was her first body ever (thankfully it was a fluke and we are back to heads with limbs) and her beautiful fingers and toes were a first too. I'd like to think this is me.
Betsey is starting to learn her Twinkles.
Wow. More glasses. Love the beanie too.
Betsey is such a great preschool teacher to herself. I love it. She really enjoys sorting and organizing and identifying her letters.
Leo sat in a cart for the first time at Costco with pops.
Leo has always liked the bath. He mostly just pees and grabs at his feet, which is hard to do when he is diapered. He loves it when I give him a clean washcloth to suck water from.


Betsey likes to go for walks. This day, it was just she and I and she was dressed for summer on the bottom and winter on the top and it was cold! We walked down to a friend's house with a baby gift. She has to do it all by herself. I wasn't allowed to approach the door. She was so bummed when they weren't home!
I got me some red boots. I wasn't sure I could pull these off, so I had to take a pic and send it to my cousins, McCall and Sydney and see what they thought. They said that since they aren't "hooker red", I was good to go. I tried them on on a day when I wasn't wearing the right pants...I know, attractive.
I really wanted a cute pic of my look-a-like boys. Leo would not for anything stay looking our direction. I wound up taking video of it because Chris would turn so he was looking at me and Leo would IMMEDIATELY turn to look back again...there was nothing back there...and there were four laughing, smiling people where I wanted him to look. What a goofy kid.



Chris immitating the drooler. Niiiiiice.
Oh does Betsey love to take a bath in two inches of water with Leo. I love it too...noidon'tnotatall.

Kelly came down to pick up some pipe Chris got she and Danny for a play area they were making for their boys in their yard. Anyway, so Eli and Leo got acquainted. Pretty cute!

Betsey unloads the silverware!! I swear when Alice did this at like six years old it looked like she dumped the clean silverware in the drawer at random...so I didn't expect this when I turned my insistent Betsey loose with the silverware. Impressive!
More from Kel's visit.
Love these mesh bags for baby eating, messy fun.
One of those mornings when Ruby got up with Leo.
I think we were at Target here...and Betsey got to hold her brother. Boy does she love being big and holding him!

We spend lots of time in my bed.
Alice misses most of the bed fun because she is my late sleeper...but sometimes we are there really late and sometimes she gets up a little early.
Spaghetti mustache.
Alice is always reading to Leo. I love it. She never wants me to take any pics. Ever...but I insist.