Two birthdays and lots of fun!

Matt's birthday is the 1st of November, and he had to work on his birthday this year. So, we went and had a "birthday lunch" the day before at a really fun restaurant where they cooked our food right in front of us. The kids thought it was pretty cool and still talk about it alot.


B is now "officially" three as of November 11th. He is such a big kid now - so he thinks. His favorite thing to say to me is, "Maybe we can go to the park today, Mom." (Of course he has lots of other things that he says - that is just the most frequent saying).

I've posted a few pictures of him as a "big kid."



Even though the three year old fits can be pretty intense, he has a super sweet side to him, too.



If you look really close, you can see that his right eye looks like he has eye shadow on. No, he didn't get into my make up drawer. He had a rough week the week of his birthday. It is still healing - two weeks later! One day, he jumped on to the couch that his sister happened to be laying on. She greeted him with a swift kick to the face. Princess dress up shoes tend to leave a pretty good size black mark on the cheek bone. Then, a few days later we took him to shop for his birthday present from us. He pulled a toy off of a shelf at Toys R Us to get a better look at it, but he failed to realize that there was something on top of that toy. That something came tumbling down and hit him right on top of his eye. So, one of his birthday party presents has come in quite handy. (No, we don't let him hit any people with these - just protect his face). :)


Matt and I have gotten back into playing Golf over the past 6 months or so. We have also taken the kids with us to practice at the driving range a few times. (We figured that it is never too early for them to start, right?) Last week, I took B with me while Matt was on a trip and K was at school. After hitting a large bucket of balls, B decided he wanted to go practice on the "short grass" (the putting green). I told him I was out of balls and we needed to go anyways. A few minutes later, I was cleaning my clubs off and B went to take the empty basket back. As I looked up, I noticed he was coming back with a brand new bucket of balls. He said, "Here you go Mom - I got some more balls for you." I had to meet him in the middle, grab the bucket from him and pick up all of the balls that fell out on the way as I explained to him that we have to give them money before we pick up those buckets of balls. The people inside thought it was too funny and gave him 6 balls to go play with on the putting green. How's that for problem solving? We practiced putting for a few minutes - until B got bored and found something else to do. I looked up at him again and found that he had picked up one of the mini flags that was on the putting green and held it high above his head. Soon, I heard him reciting the pledge of allegiance loud and clear. That's when we called it a day and went to go get K from school. (Whenever I figure out how to post videos from our video camera I will have to add a video of him saying the pledge, because it is too funny).

Halloween Part 4 - The Final Chapter for 2008 - Light up the Night

Are you sick of pumpkins yet? We are worn out now. This past month was crazy! We made lots of memories, and had lots of fun, but now it's time to take a few days off before we start getting into the "holiday season." Here are the last few pictures of the kids in their costumes from Halloween.

Here they are on the steps of the church. They weren't willing to stay still long enough for me to get them together. I told you they'd be sick of pictures after this month. :)

Playing a few games to get some more candy

Here they are socializing with a few of their good friends - all kids of our friends from Sunday School. I didn't even attempt to get all of the kids together for a group picture. Maybe we can do that some other time.

K and her buddy.

Can you say, exhausted?

Halloween Part 3 - Pumpkin Patch

We have tried to take the kids to a pumpkin patch each year. This year, we had to squeeze it in 2 days before Halloween. (It was a busy month). Here are a few pictures from this trip...

This is after the 1st time in the hay maze. They came out together this time. The 2nd time, K left her brother wandering and just told us he was lost at a dead end. We sent her back in to find him and finally they both came out. Needless to say he was not a happy camper. We weren't allowed to go in and help because the rules say, no adults allowed... I think we'll wait until they are a bit older to try this again.

Of course, we found the tractor that he could climb on.

They both love puppy dogs!

Here they are on the hay ride! Can you say instant asthma attack! Oh well, that's part of it.

Now, it's time to take a quick trip through the bounce house maze and down the slide.

Time for a quick picture with some of our new favorite characters!

"How much do you think I could get the tractor cut out for? I haven't seen one of these in the stores. I can get a pumpkin at Wal-mart..."

"I'll take this one, If I can just get it off the ground!"

"Maybe this one is more my size!"

"So many to look at. How will I ever choose? Oh, Dad got one for me. It's time to go!"

We didn't want to get in trouble for putting B in the big bucket of pumpkins this year, so I just took a picture of the bucket to compare to the previous few years.

Here's one from 2007

And here is 2006

Last, here is K in 2005 - 2 weeks before she became a big sister.

Halloween Part 2 - Monster Mile

This is the 5th year we have taken the kids to the Monster Mile in Lantana. We always meet at Nana and Daddy D's, change into costumes and then make our way to see all of the characters and get some candy. At the end of this post I included a few pictures from the previous years to show how much the kids have changed.

On the doorstep of Nana and Daddy D's house - ready to go. (K - almost 5, and B - almost 3)

Over the past 5 years it has gotten much more crowded. The first year was when K was not even one - they were dumping candy in her bag and she wasn't even old enough to eat it. Hmmm, I wonder who ate it all? This year, there was a constant line of people to see each character. The kids didn't mind though. B was actually very excited to go up and hug or high-5 each one. K only cared to say hi to the princesses.

"If I give hugs, they give me candy. What a great concept. I wonder if this will work with Mom and Dad when we get home? Hmmm, probably not. I'll just have to figure out where they hide it all and get some then."

"He looks kind of like me, only his head is bigger and he's green. Hmmm... He's got candy, though. Yea!"

"Candy is yummy! I better eat this all up before Mom takes me to the dentist next month."

Finally, a princess for K to go and see. She didn't talk to anyone else, but she did make sure to get a few pieces of candy from the characters' helpers.

Now, here's a few from the past few years...

Princess Belle, a Monkey and Spiderman!

On the porch ready to go. Notice the passifier is still part of the costume. We got rid of that this year!

Making the trip to the "mile."

Taking a little break for a photo op.

Princess Belle (Almost 4)

Monster Mile 2006 - Buzz Lightyear, Cinderella, and a Lion that was not even walking yet!

Cinderella - Almost 3

ROOOOAAAARRR!!! (B - almost 1)

This is where we stop - I forgot my camera in 2005, and didn't have digital pics of 2004. Maybe I will be able to scan them in someday.