Happy Halloween!

Soooo much trick-or-treating today. It started at 10am this morning at Brandon's preschool. They marched around to the local businesses in their costumes trick-or-treating. The parade of costumes was so adorable.

When we got home, we tried to carve pumpkins with the kids, but they got bored and wandered off. At least it was a Mommy-Daddy team effort: Daddy gutted and Mommy carved a ghost and a bat. Then during the kids nap time (all three were, thankfully, asleep), Russ & I finished decorating the front of our house: spider webs with spiders big and small and the inflated spider & Frankenstein. Russell made sure all trick-or-treaters knew they could stop at our house. Apparently, people were taking pictures of their kids in front of our house. Our boys loved all of Daddy's decorations.

They completely loved going door to door. Dylan actually lasted through our little circle of houses. Since my mom was handing out candy for us, we trick-or-treated our own house last. Mom loved our surprise. She screamed and then couldn't stop laughing. I thought we were done for the evening, but Brandon was ready to hit some more houses. We dumped out his pumpkin, and hit the neighborhood two more times. He would have gone all night if I let him. Now we have candy to last us until spring.

Another All Hallows Reunion

This is the third time I've gone to a get together with the people from grade school. There was a nice surprise waiting for us this time. Two of our teachers joined us, Mrs. Kassis (1st grade) and Mrs. Freeman (5th grade). It was so great to sit down to talk with them. Lots of laughing and reminiscing and gossiping. One of the girls took some photos. Hopefully this link to the pics will work:
http://www.costcophotocenter.com/share/p=567291193723308368/l=15625223/g=53006802/cobrandOid=1008/otsc=SYE/otsi=SALB

D's birthday party

We gave Dylan a puppet birthday party today. I put together paper puppet crafts as party favors. One of the guys I work with is a puppeteer who makes his own puppets. We asked him to do his puppet show for the kids. Brandon's favorite was the 3 little pigs portion of the show. He kept checking on Dylan throughout the show to make sure he was watching and enjoying the show. It was so sweet.

Dylan loved his cake. We made sure he had his Dora ice cream cake. We went to a birthday party two weeks ago, and they had the Dora cake. He loved it so much, we got one for him too. We also found a Diego candle and popped him on there. He had no problem blowing out his candles or eating his cake.

We let D open his presents after the cake. He let out little screams and squeals of delight every time he opened a present. It was sooo funny! He loved all his presents and wanted to open everything. He had a wonderful day.

Dylan is 2!

Our little Deets is two years old today! We made sure he felt extra special today, and pretty much let him call the shots. We took the boys to Fairy Tale Town for a couple of hours this morning. Dylan had the best time leading us around the park doing everything he wanted to do. Brandon, on the other hand, had a very hard time following D. They spent most of their time on the many slides, the train and Cinderella's coach. We left right when a flood of school kids showed up. Too many big kids pushing their way through the park. So we piled everyone back into the car and drove to Gunther's for cheese sandwiches and ice cream. The ice cream was soooo good! The boys looked like they were in heaven. After naps, Dylan opened our present: a puppet theatre. I think he liked the Sesame Street wrapping paper better than his present. I don't think he knew what it was when he unwrapped it, or even after Russ put it together. Deets wanted Daddy to do the first puppet show. Now, when Dylan wants to do a puppet show, he doesn't have to use their play kitchen as a theater.

Who's your daddy?

What can I say? My man was hot in his tight white polyester pants and wide collared shirt! We went to a friend's 40th birthday party last night, and the party theme was 60's & 70's. Russ dressed the part. He had the best costume hands down. The best part of the evening was when we stopped at the store on the way home. People were staring at Russ and trying to look like they weren't laughing and talking about him.

Apple Hill

We took the kids up to Apple Hill today. We wanted to pick out pumpkins from a pumpkin patch and eat some apple goodies. I managed to trip and fall on the stairs going out to the garage when we were leaving. I rolled my ankle and heard it crack and pop in three places, all while I was holding the baby. Scary! Owen was fine. Not a bump or scratch on him. I, on the other hand, iced my ankle all the way up the hill. I probably shouldn't have walked on it all day, but I did anyway for the kids.

First stop was the Kids Inc. pumpkin patch. Brandon LOVED it! He walked all the way up the hillside looking for the "perfect" pumpkin. Dylan lasted about a minute, before he was wanting Russ to carry him. When he was on the ground, he was sitting in the dirt rubbing his hands in it. After they ran around the patch picking the big pumpkins, we headed back up to the buildings and let the boys pick out one little pumpkin each. I made them sit next to one of the scarecrows, so I could take their picture. Russ was not happy with Kids Inc. The proprietor was extremely rude and bossy. Guess we won't be going back there again.

With the pumpkins out of the way, we drove to Larsens for a slice of pie and hot chocolate. I used to go there when I was a kid, so I was looking forward to the yumminess. I was a little disappointed to find several seeds and a stem in my slice. I also couldn't believe they handed us cups of hot water and instant cocoa. The boys thought the pie looked weird, so they didn't even taste it. At least they had a few sips of their cocoa. We took them across the street to the park after our snack, so they could run around and blow off some steam. The loved just running and running in all the openness. I'd say their very favorite part was the stream that ran under a bridge. They were dropping leaved in the water and watching them float away. They could have stayed all day.

We finally dragged them away, stopped at Boa Vista Orchards to pick up a box of apples and several other apples, pears, caramel apples and a pie. Such a busy, fun day for all of us. The boys were so exhausted, they slept all the way home.

Deja vu

That little Deets of ours is just reveling in his new found communication skills! Now that he knows how to say Brandon, he's always calling out, "Bandon" to get his brother's attention. He's also taken to repeating the same sentence over and over and over. Today he must have told Brandon that there was no more ice cream cones about 20 times today. (We took them to Baskin Robbins last night after dinner.) All the talking is so cute, but sometimes tiring because you have to repeat what he said.

Owey

That's Dylan-speak for Owen.

Potty-training update

Brandon is finally potty-trained. Such a relief to finally say that. He hasn't had a dirty diaper since our vacation. He is so proud every time he goes now. He hasn't given up his pull-ups yet, though. I think they make him feel safer than his underwear. Keeping my fingers crossed that we'll be in underpants in another week, and I can stop buying pull-ups.

Dylan speaks...

...and speaks and speaks and speaks. Yesterday he said, "Brandon." Well, it's more like, "Bandon," but it's still a huge deal and oh so cute! That little Deets of ours is on a roll stringing words together, too. It was like a switch flipped in his head within the last week, and he's turned into a babbling boy. Instead of yelling, "No way!" when I gave him something to eat that he didn't want, he said, "I don't please." He stopped me dead in my tracks. Another of my favorites is, "Want to play." That is usually paired with a finger pointed outside. He's so excited about being able to communicate. Sometimes he just babbles nonsense words mixed with words he knows. It's pretty cute, especially when he looks so proud of himself.