Spooktacular

We have a very busy and fun weekend planned.  I love this time of year when it starts to feel like we have a lot of stuff to do.   My mom and I were talking about upcoming plans and we went through every weekend all the way to New Year's.  We have very little downtime for weekends until then, and I couldn't be happier about that.

 

We went to a local Spooktacular tonight.  It was nothing fancy.  Just a bunch of volunteers at booths with simple carnival games.  There was a maze, a spooky cemetary and a haunted house.  We waited in line for the haunted house but gave up when we heard people saying it was close to an hour from where we were.  There was also a costume contest that we should have entered because we totally would have won.

 

I give you Superfamily.

In separate pictures, because Ginger does not yet know how to operate a camera.

We got lots of compliments.  And when I say "we" I mean 99.9% of them were directed at how cute Elliott was.

Spencer got a piece of candy for completing each activity.  He's all about candy, so he was happy.

 

This was pumpkin bowling.

 

Elliott mostly just wandered around.

 

 

And did what he does best.....cried when we tried to take his picture. 

I do want to share one story, mostly because I want to re-read this post in 5 years and be like, oh my god, I had totally forgotten about that crazy girl.

 

We were standing in line waiting for the pinatas when a girl, who looked to be about 12, came up to me and said, "can I (something) you?"  It sounded like "can I sugar you?"  but that didn't make any sense to me. I gave her a funny look and said, "what?"  She repeated the same thing, "can I sugar you?"

 

Then I said, "I'm sorry I don't know what you are saying.  What does that mean?"  And then.  And then.  Yes, she really said this, "I want to get the candy but I don't want to have to wait in line from the back so can I get in line with you?"

 

O.M.Geeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

 

My jaw dropped and I glanced around to see if maybe it was a candid camera thing.  Nope.  I told her that nobody likes waiting in line but it's not fair to cut so no she could not stand with us.  Hey, maybe that's what sounded like "sugar".  "Stand with". 

 

Apparently she needs etiquette lessons as well as speech therapy.  I would be happy to help her with both.

 

Tomorrow morning we're going to a farm/pumpkin patch and tomorrow evening we're going to a Halloween party. 

 

Hip hip hooray for Fall outings!

A project YEARS in the making

When Spencer was exactly 21 months old (June 6, 2009) I took him to a local photographer for a little mini photo session.  She was doing Father's Day stuff and I was instructed to bring Michael's clothes as props.  We went to her house, she took about 8,560 pictures in about 15 minutes and a few days later I got a CD with the 30 best ones. 

 

I framed 3 of those pictures and gave them to Michael for Father's Day that year.  I also made little photo albums of all the pictures for Michael and the grandfathers.

 

You can read the original post I did about the pictures in 2009 HERE.

 

We still have that frame with the 3 pictures.  It sits on a shelf in the entertainment center in the living room.  I work out in the living room so I end up looking at that frame a lot....mostly while I curse Bob Harper and Jillian Michaels.

 

A few months ago it occured to me that Elliott was getting dangerously close in age to what Spencer had been in the pictures.  And I started hatching a plan.  Wouldn't it be so much fun to recreate the photos, frame them and put the frames by each other?  It would just be oodles of fun I said to myself.  Nothing could go wrong with the plan. 

 

Oh, except Elliott would probably rather have his blood drawn than have his picture taken professionally.  Knowing that it would be worthless to go to a photo studio I borrowed Megan's good camera and set up a white backdrop in the living room.

 

And Michael and I tried.  And tried.  And tried.  And tried, about 15 times to get these pictures taken.  And it was a disaster.  Every time.  We're talking tears, screaming, tantums, running away, disaster.

 

We started trying when Elliott was 21 months and 5 days old.  I figured that was pretty darn close to the two of them being the exact same age.  We were just about to give up when we decided to give it 1 more try with grandparents present.  And it worked.

 

Finally, when Elliott was 22 months and 4 days old we got our pictures.  They are not identical remakes and the quality of my photos is nowhere near as good as the photographers, but they are pretty awesome comparisons.

 

 

The 3 original Spencer pictures:

 

 

 

The new Elliott pictures: 

Oh, and how awesome is this?  I bought the original frame at Walmart in 2009.  We went there to buy some Halloween stuff tonight and Walmart still sells the exact same frame.  It was meant to be! 

 

Side by side of the frames 

 

Top and bottom of the frames (I really have problems)

 

Side by sides of my beautiful boys 

 

 

The frames in the entertainment center 

Whew! 

 

I'm so glad that project is done.  It was tense.

Weddings

We have not gone to very many weddings during the past 5ish years.  Most of our friends are already married and we haven't made it to any family (my cousins, mostly) weddings because they have all been out of state.

 

Tha last wedding we went to was in February, 2012. 

 

It was Bobby and Kathy's.

Elliott was a teeny, tiny, not even 2 months old yet baby (who was also really sick) and I spent most of the night nursing him or wearing him in the moby wrap so I could shield him away from everyone.  It was a fun, Hawaiian themed wedding complete with luau food and polynesian dancers, but I don't think back to this wedding very fondly because I was beside myself with worry about Elliott.

The last wedding we went to before Bobby and Kathy's was my friend Helen's in November, 2010.  That was a very fun night.

Now, all of a sudden, we are looking at 4 weddings of good friends in 2014.

 

First up will be Chelsea.  She is thinking about a Mexican beach wedding, probably in March. 

 

Then I will be flying to New Hampshire to see the nuptials of Cathy in August.

After that I am going to be a bridesmaid for Monica at her October wedding.  Spencer is going to be the ring bearer too.

 

(I need to take more pictures with my friends!  I couldn't find a single picture of me and Monica together)

And 2014 will come to a close with Kristi's wedding on 12/13/14.

 

(The only picture I could find of her is doing a can-can dance with 15 month old Spencer.  Um, hello, picture fail much?)

I love weddings.  It's like a free date night for me and Michael....minus the cost of new clothes and a gift, so it's actually a really expensive date night.  But the food and drinks are free!

Wednesday to Tuesday

Hooray! I have another "week in review" post for you!  Are you totally psyched?  Are you rolling your eyes at how un-innovative I am?

 

Let's get going.

 

In the last month or so Spencer has become obsessed with Star Wars, and more specifically, Darth Vader.  Last week he used some of his birthday money to buy two Darth Vader themed shirts.

 

He wore shirt #1 on Wednesday.  If you can't tell, that is Darth Vader and two storm troopers going trick-or-treating.

 

After we dropped Spencer off at school Elliott and I went to the plastic surgeon and I had my stitches removed.  Then we stopped at Trader Joe's to buy some coconut milk.  That's honestly all I was going to get........but then.......I saw all the pumpkin.

 The pumpkin body butter feels really nice but was a bit disappointing because it doesn't smell like pumpkin pie.  I have big plans for the tea tin next year.  I'm going to put a cute little fall themed plant in there.

 

Elliott gave an A+ to the pumpkin cereal bars.

 

 

That afternoon we had a jam session.

 

Our friend John gave us an old guitar for Spencer.  I'd like to sign him up for music lessons soon.  Any advice.....guitar vs violin?

 

Baby brother was not impressed.

Spencer wore Darth Vader shirt #2 on Thursday.  This time Darth, the storm troopers and Boba Fett are playing on the swings at the park.

After school that day we played in the backyard for a good 2 hours.  Spencer asked if they could have a snack and I agreed to 1 large pretzel each.  Spencer went inside to get them and when he handed 1 to Elliott he said, "bon appetite.  I hope you enjoy this scrumptious snack."

 The kids got totally soaked playing with the water tables so when we came in I changed Elliott into just a dry diaper.  And then, about 20 minutes later, for the first time ever he took his own diaper off.

I went to dinner and the movies with my brother that night.  Michael texted me these pictures of the kids enjoying a little pre-bed television.

 

On Friday I put our 2nd set of fall themed flannel sheets on the bed.

 

They are breathtaking.

 

Michael's parents came up from Tucson to spend the weekend with us.  My father in law dug out the huge, angry-looking ocotillo from our front yard.  I am so glad to have that thing gone.

 

He also built an awesome planter and we planted a Mexican blue palm.  It's tiny now but in about 3 years it will be gorgeous. 

 

It was also time to say goodbye to the yucca. 

 

I just don't have an after picture.  Sorry.

As if all of the yard work wasn't enough, Michael and his dad also re-did all of the corroded plumbing and replaced the bathroom faucets. 

 

These are the old, ugly ones.

 

There was also a bike ride/walk around the neighborhood.

I had a bunch of stuff to do on Monday.  Just normal, household stuff that I could get done quickly if I could get a certain almost 2-year-old to cooperate.  I stuck Elliott in a diaper box and gave him some crayons.  Then I just pushed him from room to room with me. 

 

It worked shockingly well.

 

He was content for a good 20 minutes.

Ginger was a scaredy cat on Monday night.  She was not a fan of a sound in a show we were watching.

 

Silly girl.

And, finally, Spencer has been bringing outside influences into our home.  His school friend has been talking about video games so he has been begging us to let him play Super Mario Party.  Michael gave him some Wii lessons tonight.  Sigh. Boys and video games.

 

I'll work on something jazzier and more fun for my next post.  Promise.