Halloween Night

So here are the photos from the evening. As promised, here's Pete dressed as Mario (yes, from the video game).

Here's the gang before we headed out. At first Allie was a little nervous and wanted me to carry her, but when she realized that people were handing her candy, she wanted to walk and collect from every door. It was really cute. The weather was 65 degrees and beautiful and we strolled up and down our street. Pete then went to more homes with a friend and his parents. After I put Sam, Tom, and Allie to bed, I took Matt out for one more street. It was lots of fun but I'm so wiped out and I have the worst sugar headache! It's good this only happens once a year!

Halloween Afternoon

For my kids, Halloween is a close second as a favorite holiday to Christmas. It's like the prom. It's more fun to dress up and get excited for the event than the actual event, only you don't get a pile of candy at the end of prom. Tommy has changed his mind about his costume about five times but finally decided he wanted to be Ord the dragon on Dragon Tales. Thanks to a great hand me down from my friend Heather, Allie was a pot of "Hunny". Here they are waiting to spot Matt and Sam in their Halloween Parade.
Sam was first. He is Spiderman but they don't allow masks (or weapons- a bummer for all the Darth Vaders out there). Allie was so upset when Sam kept marching and did not stay with us.
Matt wanted to be a creepy guy with a green face (they don't allow make-up either in the school parade). At the last minute this morning, we grabbed our beard and hat and added it to the ensemble. Combined with his cape, he looked like an Amish vampire. Allie didn't recognize him, so she was not upset when he continued.
After the parade, I picked up the boys, swung by to get Pete (his costume picture to follow) and drove by the "building house". That's what Tom calls it. He used to ask anyone he saw (including the mailman) if our "building house" was ready and the name stuck. This is how it looked this afternoon. It's a race against the clock to get it airtight. There's a rumor that it might snow next week. =(

Walls

Hmmmm. Three posts in one day...something is not getting done (dishes). I had to post this picture of our first official day with walls on the house. I snapped the photo as we did our daily drive-by after I picked the kids up from school. Between me, Bobby, and Bobby's parents constantly circling the site, the framers must think they are being stalked!

Too Warm?

I turned on the thermostat this morning as it was 55 degrees inside. As soon as the temperature hit 60 degrees Allie was demanding her shirt off. She's tough to dress as her preferences are usually not appropriate for the situation (pajamas to dressier events, bathing suits to the grocery store, no clothes at all). I wonder where she gets that from. I try to compromise now by putting a pajama dress over her existing clothes etc. This is new territory for me as the boys may have preferences but are not as choosy or demanding. They also do not take every piece of clothing they own out of their dresser and throw it on the ground. Allie does that prior to deciding she does not want to wear any clothes at all! This is her current outfit. The polka-dot shorts and muffin crumbs really complete the look.

Sam decided that he wanted to "strike a pose" too.

Global Warming II

It was 30 degrees this morning outside and 55 inside. After I corralled the morning group out the door, I went to work on getting the morning fire going. I then realized that the clothes I threw on this morning reeked like a campfire, but not in a good way. I looked at the thermostat and flipped the switch. It was so easy, and won't make me stink (more). My resolve was broken, I didn't make it to the first of November liked I had hoped. Hopefully I'll just need the heat for the morning, it's supposed to warm up. I don't want to give the utility company all my money yet. I think I'm starting to sound like my Dad (!).

Pumpkinhead II

I'm not quite sure why it always takes me a bit to get motivated to carve the pumpkins. The kids just love to do this and it's really only one hour of my day to get this going. Here are the fruits of tonight's labor. We had to work around some logistical issues. Allie's pumpkin had been attacked by squirrels on the front porch and she had a hole in middle of the front of her pumpkin, hence the cyclops. Pete thought that was a great idea so he made a triclops (Is that a word? According to my spell checker, it's not). Matt, not wanting to be left out, made a scary triclops.
Sam and Tom just wanted the scariest pumpkins ever and hopefully they are pleased. We are almost now officially ready for Halloween and are just waiting for the finishing touches of Pete's costume to arrive in the mail. I swung by McDonald's and bought the coupons to pass out (you know the ones... 12 for a dollar for free fries, apple pie, and ice cream). It's kind of novel, but no kid ever really wants to get one in their bag, they just want the immediate gratification of candy. I'm sure the parents will be cranky too; just one more excuse their kid now has to coerce them into a trip to Mickey D's. I don't want good candy in my house this year... too tempting. All I have to say is the coupons are better than buying the crappy candy like the Mary Janes we used to get or the Neccos... I hated those. Who likes Neccos? I think Bobby likes Neccos.... he has bad taste in junk food (good taste in women though!).

Babies no more... =(

I was just marveling about how grown up my guys looked this morning as they were heading out to school so I snapped their picture. I don't have any commentary or witty remarks, just wondering where my babies went. If my kids have any say, I will be posting pumpkin carving pictures today as well. We still need to do that. As far as house construction news, we have framers on site for the first time today. Between rain and other scheduling delays our construction time line was pushed back and they probably won't be there tomorrow because of rain. If there is anything picture worthy, I'll post it.