Trick or Treat

Trick or treat this year was a real treat for Dominic. Nothing in the world makes this kid happier than CANDY. So, when you tell him he gets to go knock on everyone's doors and ask for free CANDY, well it just doesn't get much better than that. I let Brian take the kids around while I passed out the candy at home. I feared Brian might return after only hitting a few houses, but they were actually gone for quite some time. When they finally returned home, Dominic's Spider-Man bucket was completely filled to the top. Aurora couldn't quite keep up with Dominic's feverish pace, so her's was only about 1/3 of the way full. Any way you slice it = too much candy in my house. Add that to the enormous amounts of candy I was left with. I couldn't believe it. Last year I almost ran out. So, this year I stocked up and wouldn't you know, I got stuck with a lot of candy. Don't worry, it didn't last long. It is no longer in the house. Well, I guess actually it is because it's current residence is inside my large overgrown arse. And then I have the nerve to deny my kids requests for candy for breakfast, lunch and dinner! If they only knew my ulterior motives;)

Before trick or treat our street gets together for some Halloween fun of our own and this is the group photo this year. You see The Scream? Aurora was petrified of this costume! She called him the "bleeding ghost" because he had the pump that squirted the red liquid through his mask. She was, however, not phased at all by the creepy ghoul next to the "bleeding ghost". She knew her buddy/boyfriend, Will, was behind the outfit, so she would go up and kiss him right on the mask. Yes, I have trouble brewing with this little flirt;)

Dominic's Halloween Party at School

This is Dominic's 3 year old preschool class at the same school. Yes, Dominic did just turn 4, but his birthday falls after the cut off, so he will always be one of the oldest kids in his class. And as it so happens, my 20 months apart children will only be one grade apart in school. Both of Dominic's teachers are fantastic. I LOVE them! They are both super sweet, very personable and great teachers. In just a few short weeks Dominic was counting to 20, singing the alphabet and a whole slew of other songs and telling me his colors in Spanish.

This was Dominic's class party. He dressed in his reversible Spider-Man costume. He has never worn the friendly side though, always the black. Anywho, we all had lots o fun. Father Terry pulled them around with a tractor for a hayride. And that is Dominic's teacher, Miss Janet he is snuggled up next to. Isn't that the sweetest thing? The scary Power Ranger (which I still refuse to let Dominic watch...more so because it is so lame than anything else) is his good bud, Will. And the angel he is walking with is, no not his mother, his other teacher Miss Karen. He calls her the one with the crazy hair, since there are 2 Miss Karens, the other being the director of the preschool.
I had fun because I was one of the room mom's who helped throw the party. I brought the pb and j shaped bats, spider cheese and apple and marshmellow mouths. I thought it was cute anyway...

Aurora's Halloween Party at School

Welcome to Aurora's 2 year old preschool class at St. Catherine's Catholic Church. Her teacher, pictured here terrorizing my poor daughter, is Miss Robin. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE her. She is exactly what Aurora needs ...super sweet, very hands on and loving, but firm. Aurora however, takes more to Miss Kim, who I have pictures of, they are just portrait shots. Aurora can hold Miss Kim's hand all day long sometimes. And it is Miss Kim, and only Miss Kim, who is allowed to change Aurora's diaper.

This is Aurora's Halloween Party and she wanted to come dressed as Cinderella. She was absolutely the most beautiful Cinderella I ever did see. And the most uncivilized one...again something she learned from her brother, don't actually eat any of the cupcake it might kill you, instead make sure you have licked every last trace of icing off.

Show stealers

So a couple of weekends ago, Brian and the kids were in his buddy Dave's wedding. The kids looked so darned cute, I just had to share. I have so many more pictures to share, but for reasons I have yet to understand, I cannot post portrait pictures, only landscape ones. Once I get past that hurdle I will be much happier;)

Pumpkin Patchin' It

One of our Halloween traditions is to hit the Pumpkin Patch. We so loved the one we visited last year, we went there again this year. Only this year we wised up. I'll elaborate more on that later. The reason I like this pumpkin patch is because it has a little playground for the kids, a few caged animals to visit, an awesome antique tractor for picture taking and, of course, a hayride to the pumpkin patch. The kids had a blast filling my bag with baby pumkins and gourds. And I had a blast discreetly tossing them out when they weren't looking. We told the kids we were only going to get one pumpkin and they were cool with that, thankfully. When Dominic found it we all jumped back on the hayride to go back and pay for it. The reason we only wanted to get one pumpkin here was 1.) because they rob you blind for them, 2.) because they were hideous looking (lot of rotten and misshapen ones) and 3.) we were headed straight to our neighborhood Wal-Mart to stock up on them at the fantastic roll back price of $3.99. And they were gorgeous pumpkins. As it turned out, I was able to distract the kids while Brian dropped the pumpkin, so we were able to get out of there without having to buy any pumpkins. See all of our beautiful pumpkins on display? I had to do a Spider-Man one for Dominic. I never got around to finishing the black one.

On a side note, did you know that pumpkins were the oldest vegetable in the US? Little pumpkin trivia for ya. Don't say you never learned anything here!

My little excavators

Uncle Michael always gets the kids the greatest gifts. This year Dominic got a dinosaur bone excavation kit and he couldn't wait to throw those goggles on and get started. His monkey see, monkey do of a sister, couldn't either. Many fights ensued, but finally after many hours of chiseling, Mommy extracted all of the bones!