Aargh, It's Halloween...

Oh, the joys of Halloween. This was a very exciting day for Red Head. The minute he saw me picking him up from school, he started doing a wiggle dance and telling everyone who would listen, that HE was going TRICK or TREATING!!! This prompted the whole class (about 20 kids) to go crazy at the thought that they (too) would soon be out collecting their loot, just like our little pirate. (Poor teachers...)

I have a theory. The person who came up with the phrase "ants in your pants" had a three year old who just so happened to be getting ready for Halloween night.

Most of you know that our little red head has enough energy to power the state of California for at least 10 summer's without the concern of brown-outs. Well, tonight I could include all 50 states and Puerto Rico!

We got home and put on his costume. This year he elected to be a pirate. He fell in love with the costume during a trip to Morro Bay. We decided at that time, we should have him try it on (it looked a little small) and when he did, he refused to take it off. He was a pirate the rest of the day. That was about 3 months ago.

Have you ever noticed how Pooh Bear's red shirt fits him? OK on top but as you move your eyes down toward his toes, the shirt flares out due to the girth of his belly? Well, that's just how Alex's pirate shirt fit him. It seems Alex's tummy has had a bit of a growth spurt! To remedy this, I tied the blue sash around his middle. That helped a little.

Our plan was to pass out some candy and then go trick or treating with our neighbors. Because of the "ants in the pants", we switched the order! Alex was a pro. He figured out very quickly which homes to bypass (no lights) and which houses had the booty! He stopped only to check out an interesting costume, ask someone their name, pick up dry leaves off the sidewalk, show off the candy he'd collected or talk to someone to be sure they knew it was Halloween and he was a pirate. It was an adventure...

Halloween is over now. We have a plastic pumpkin filled to the brim with candy that we will probably end up tossing so that Franky and I will not find our shirts fitting like Pooh's. Franky and Alex are sound asleep. I am going to finish up my blog then do some research online on "how to remove black marker moustaches" in hopes that Alex won't return to school with a curly moustache outline on his face....Oops!

Hope you all had a terrific Halloween.

Pajama Day

Today was Pajama Day at Red Head's preschool. I got him up, brushed his teeth, combed his hair and got him dressed...back into pajamas (clean ones of course!).

As I was dressing him, he looks at me and says,"Mom, we don't wear pajamas to school. That's so silly!" After a little coercing, he decided pj's were OK.

When he got to school, he was delighted to see his teachers and friends all in their bedtime attire.

This got me to thinking. There are things to envy about being 3.

The first for me is the endless supply of energy.(What is that about? How am I supposed to keep up?)

Their work is to play. (I could really get used to that.)

They have a love for life that amazes and thrills me.

And... they get to wear their pj's on days like today. It can't get any better than that.

Wonder if the county would ever adopt a PJ Day?

Naaaahhh!!! : )

A Rhino Wins the Piston Cup...

This weekend was so awesome. We decided to go camping up at Quail Valley. When I called to make reservations, we found out this weekend they were having a pumpkin carving contest, magic show and costume contest.

We are getting very proficient at these spur of the moment trips and luckily didn't forget anything of importance this time. I forgot my hair brush last time we went camping. (Thank God for hats!) By the time we got back home from the last trip, Franky (who never says a negative word about my appearance) says,"Now you can brush your hair." I was starting to have dread locks!

Alex had a blast with all of the kids at the camp ground. By noon the first day he had a "gang" comprised of two boys and three girls. One of the little girls, Payton, made quick friends with Alex at the fishing pond. She sat down right next to us, introduced herself and said," I really like apples" as she reached in our bag of goodies, took a bite of apple and placed it back in the bag.

I cracked up!

Fishing was a bust so we went up to the hot springs for a swim. Red Head pretended to be a scuba diver as Franky and I enjoyed the"healing water". Funny, I was so itchy even after showering, I had to wonder if I had found the itchy skin syndrome that the "healed" person left. Eeww!!!

Saturday evening we went to see the magic show at a barn by the campground. It was so cool. They had decorated the inside of the barn with about a million (exaggerating) twinkly lights, fake spiders, webs and pumpkins. The magic show was a little corny but Alex loved it.

After the show they had the costume contest. I am very proud to say our little rhino won the "Best Costume" trophy. He was so excited. He took the trophy from the judge and said very excitedly, "Look Mama, I won the Piston Cup!!!" (trophy from the movie Cars!)

Franky was making fun of me saying that I looked just as excited as Alex when he got the trophy. Honestly, I totally was! ( See picture for proof! Please ignore my four chins...)

That trophy ROCKS!

We WON!

We WON!

Sorry, had to brag. That's just what you do when you have a blog. : )

Fall in Quail Valley

The Patch

Gearing up for Halloween...

I love this time of year. Halloween is one of my favorite holidays. We went to the pumpkin patch yesterday afternoon. It is always so much fun there. Alex loves to run around in the corn maze, slide down the spider slide, see all of the spooky decorations and of course pick out a few pumpkins.

This year was especially exciting as they have added a little train ride. It is too cute. It goes around and around in circles (pretty fast...kinda scary for moms!). The kids all smile from ear to ear as it bumps along the track. Alex did not want to get off so he rode it three times in a row! He's asked about fifty times if we could go back to the patch and ride the train. I wonder if they sell season passes?

Halloween House

What a mess!!!

I have been promising Alex since September that we would get this Halloween gingerbread-house kit we saw at Target. So today was the day. While Alex was taking a nap, I mixed the black/ orange frosting and put all of the candy out in little bowls. I have never made one of these.

That frosting is the stickiest stuff! (I think I've found a new scrapbook adhesive...) It tasted pretty good. A little suggestion though, if you ever use black frosting, don't eat it. Five hours later, I still have bluish-black teeth. Ready for Halloween, I guess.

Alex and I had a blast decorating it. Franky kept trying to eat the frosting. Wonder if he's looked at HIS teeth?! Alex kept saying, "Daddy, don't eat our house!!!" : )

It is now proudly displayed on our kitchen counter. It has a few finger-dents in it (and a couple of frosting-bare spots from red head licking it). It has a built in security system as the frosting has taken on the texture of stucco. Do people actually eat these things?

Dill...

We recently purchased a new laptop. It is a Dell. It is a great shade of green. It has lots of really neat programs and a wireless card that lets you access the Internet from anywhere in our home. Franky has named it "Dill"

The Problem:

I absolutely love it. I use it every spare moment and I confess... I take it to bed with me. (Sad, I know.) This has opened me up to a lot of chastising by Franky.

Dill is being considered the"other man" in my life.

On weekends, I stay up late playing music and surfing the net. Franky will roll over every so often and either roll his eyes, ask the time or tell me to "turn that thing off and go to bed". I was up until 2:00am this morning. Not such a good thing when the rooster (red head) wakes the minute light hits his room!

Oh,well. I guess there are worse things!

Getting started....

October has been such an amazing month. We were in Minnesota at the beginning of the month visiting family, enjoying the cool weather and the beautifully colored leaves. (The pics in the slideshow titled "Family" are from our trip.)

It was so awesome to get to spend time with my parents and my brother's family. The girls ( Karlie, Chelsie, and Emmy) are growing so fast and are all amazing. Alex was in his element having three girls doting after him. In fact, by the end of the trip, he was calling them "sissy" instead of "my cousins".

We went to a pumpkin patch/corn maze on the Friday after we arrived in MN. It was a blast. We ate pizza, watched the kids run three-legged races, (ate dirt when Tracey and I challenged the girls to a race), got lost in the (two-foot-tall) corn maze, went on a hayride, and at last picked out a couple of pumpkins.

On Monday, we drove up to Duluth and visited a shop Mom likes and a playground that "red head" loved! (See Picture.)

The rest of the time, we mostly visited, which was perfect! (Some might say that the rest of the time, I took pictures.I'll admit, I do have paparazzi tendencies.)

We rounded out our trip at the Mall of America where I got to go to Archiver's. Heaven on earth for scrapbookers!!! Alex got to ride some rides at the amusement park, which he loved (the little thrill seeker!)

After getting back to Cali, we went to our church's food festival and ate to our hearts content while Alex jumped in the bounce house for two hours...I wish I shared his energy.

I was glad to be home after our trip. I sure do miss everyone though.

This last weekend, we decided (very spare of the moment) to go camping. Franky and I were having withdrawls since we hadn't been in about 2 months. So we loaded up the car, picked up the trailer then headed about one mile (from where our trailer is parked) to our campsite at Lake Success. I know, we are DORKS!

We had a great time though. It was very relaxing. We ate, hiked, ate, visited with the people in the camp next to us, watched a couple of movies and ate some more.

Alex was so funny, while on a hike, he noticed several tracks and things left behind by different animals. This was very exciting to him so when we got back to camp, he ran to our neighbors campsite and said ( in a very excited voice) "Guess what? We saw racoon tracks, Moose tracks (actually deer) and RABBIT POOP!!!" We all got a good laugh.

Family