Pre-Halloween Fun!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!! 

I hope you have a fun and exciting Halloween planned! We will be trick-or-treating this evening and then Eddie and I will be raiding the candy bags to collect whatever treats we feel should are better suited for us....haha

We have had a lot of fun getting ready for Halloween around here.

Thursday in the Mouse class, we celebrated Halloween! Once again we were Minnie Mouses-- I think we have more fun with this than the kids. 

Friday we had tennis clinic and this happened"

There is a running joke with our team that Pippa will stand on the court like Pooh while I bounce all around the court like Tigger. So we did what we do and showed up for practice like this:

There we are down there playing:

Then I had to leave and run to Andy's class to run his class party. We had five stations the kids rotated through-- he was in heaven! The class was all happy and liked all the different activities.

 Saturday our neighborhood had their Halloween party and it was SO much fun! Of course, getting ready to go, I could not find the green face paint I bought for Andy anywhere in the entire house. I am so annoyed with myself for putting it *somewhere* and not remembering where! Also, anyone surprised he is the Grinch??

Cal is a sumo wrestler this year-- his costume is hilarious.... he manged to lose his battery pack at the party so he may not be a sumo wrestler for Halloween!

 But, the cuteness!

Some neighbors turned our clubhouse into the most amazing haunted house ever--- it was AWESOME! You entered through a window and winded around through several haunted rooms.  I screamed multiple times- hahaha

 Some of the crew:

We have had a lot of fun prepping for the big night....now bring on the big night!

TRICK OR TREAT!

 

Life Lately

Basically, I am no good at blogging! In our house, the computer was in the kitchen, so while the kiddos would eat, I could type out a quick post. Excuses, excuses.  I can say I will try harder, but let's be real.  I need blogger to create an app so I can just blog straight from my phone. That would be lovely. Or I need a new laptop.  Maybe from Santa?

Here is a look at life lately! With baseball ending, our after school load has lessened dramatically, praise praise. 

With all this free time, the boys are getting a LOT of outside play time. I love our neighborhood. On any given day, there are 6-12 boys in the yard playing. Even if it means their feet look like this when they come in......YUCK. 

Another day....this time, they are serious about tackling. 

Sadly, we have to move/burn our house to the ground. Eddie found this snake skin on his putter and I have not stopped thinking about the size of the snack who shed it. Or what I will do if I see said snake. Or how loudly I will scream. 

Golf is wrapping up; we have one more match.  Two weeks ago, Andy shot a 37 (you have to shoot par, 36, to move up a level), and he was heart broken. Last week, the kid shot a 3 or a 4 on every.single.hole. It was amazing.  

 He got to his his buddy Lee in his group and he was on fire.

 Until the last hole (we started on hole 6). He was at a 30 going in to the last hole.  AND THEN SHOT A SEVEN. Seriously. You have got to be kidding me. He totally choked on the last hole! The pin placement was near the edge of a hill so he chipped it up the hill for his first shot and it rolled right back to him. So he hit it harder the next time and it rolled to the opposite end of the  green. Eddie told him to put it hard, and he did-- so hard it went right back to his starting point....let's just say it was a learning moment for both Andy AND Eddie....

 Thankfully we have one more match to try and get it.

The other night, I made meatloaf for Cal (he begs for it weekly) and Andy, who is borderline vegetarian, didn't want it. So I made him vegetable soup and he gobbled it right up happily!

More football playing-- this one ended with Eddie carrying one kid off the field thinking he had a broken leg. He didn't. 

 Andy's shoulder pads were flopping up and hitting him in the face. I threw on my fleece and he thought it was hilarious.... I did too.

 Bruce is still spoiled rotten and doted on constantly.

 We had our family pictures with Amber Byrd this week. Truly, there is no telling how these sessions will turn out. I say this every single year, but I was positive this year that there was NO way she got even one good shot. We presented quite the challenge.

For starters, we took this one along:

No one's hair was cooperating (total mom fail: they didn't wash it before bed the night before so it looks awful....but I forgot about that until during the pictures when I thought "why does their hair look so bad?")

 But they promised they would try hard.

Cal acts like a crazy person during these pictures-- he can be the most well behaved person in America, but as soon as Amber comes out with her camera, he is diving in the grass and climbing trees and falling down. It makes for a sweating momma. 

 Bruce smiled though. So there's that.

 Amber earned her sitting fee, that's for sure.

 Seriously.

 And at the end of it all, I was sweaty and exhausted and over it all and I swore we weren't going to get one good one..... then she posts this:

 And I vowed to do it all again next year because that's worth it. And because they grow so so fast. And that one picture so captures their personalities. And I love it.


The boys begged to take a bath together the other night. And I said fine. I can't remember the last time they bathed together. But I do remember thinking, when they were both taking showers, wonder if they will ever bathe together again? Like I didn't realize their last bath together would probably be their last....but there they go....maybe this is their last. For sure.

 

Fair Fun

The NC State Fair was in town, so we had to take a trip to visit it. Actually, Eddie wanted to take a trip with hte boys and I decided last minute to tag along. I had a curriculum night at the kids' school, but decided the memory making would be way more fun.

It took us a while to get there in traffic-- but we finally made it and parked and shuttled in.  Lots of other people wanted to go to the fair too.....

 After watching the motorbikes and bmx bikes, we grabbed hotdogs for all and did some people watching.

We got some tickets for rides about the time Andy declared he would NOT be riding any rides.   So Cal and I rode the Cobra-- a kiddie ride that was just scary enough for him.

He was nervous and it was super cute. I was secretly enjoying him grabbing on to me and wanting the extra cuddles. Not complaining there!

 Both boys wanted to do the trampoline jump thing. I think this attraction must have made a million dollars during its time at the fair. I have seen so many people posting pictures and videos of their kids on this! It is popular, that's for sure.

Next up, Andy wanted to ride the slide and Cal decided he was STARVING and needed food. I waited with Andy while Cal and Eddie disappeared-- they returned with a massive turkey leg. Cal gobbled it up....#punintended

 As soon as the boys spotted the midway games, there was no stopping them from begging to do every.single.one.  Several tries and several (several....SEVERAL) dollars later, we had two light up swords in our hands. Andy finally said "can't we just buy the sword?!?!" We agree, nug.

Continuing on our food journey, cotton candy was up. 

And soon, it was time to head home. Showers were oh so necessary after all that fun. 

 Eddie is usually the one encouraging the fair going. I am hoping after this year, he will be good to take a year or two off. The crowds stressed me out. And Eddie would walk about 20 yards ahead and then turn around and wonder where we were-- and I was trying to hang on to both boys and carry sweatshirts etc. while Cal would veer right to see something and Andy would pull me left (he held my hand pretty tight the whole time).....Mom life, right?

Until the next time, state fair.... may it be in a few years.......

 

Bruce's baby

Bruce got a bath at Petsmart last week. As we were walking in, he spotted a huge display of stuffed animals. The pup loves a stuffed animal. So I explained that he could get one after his bath if he was a good puppy. Because he understands that stuff. 

Fast forward two hours and I am picking him up from his bath and he makes a beeline straight for the stuffed animal display. They were super cheap with a bath, so I let him pick one out. Y'all. You would have thought I gave the dog a steak. He went prancing through the store crying out loud with happiness, his whole body wagging as he walked to the checkout.  Everyone was staring and smiling.  Hard not to.

 I mean.......talk about precious. He was SO excited.  I posted this pic on instagram and a series of videos of him.

We got home and he carried about his baby with a whole lot of pride. Bless his heart- this makes me so happy to see his happiness!

 We went to bed that night on the baby.....

 ...and carried it around the whole next day.

 And then I posted a video of him ripping the baby to shreds and pulling out all of the stuffing.  And holy smokes, the amount of comments I got, you'd think he ripped off a head of a human-- I was dying with all of the comments! Everyone was in shock he would tear apart his baby! But, this is what Bruce does... he pulls out the inside and carries around the carcass. You can sort of see below, some of the stuffing coming out. This was before the mega massacre.  

 He still loves the baby and carries it around everywhere-- it is just missing a few limbs and a whole lot of stuffing right now.  We don't buy stuffed animals in our house because they get destroyed, so that's what made this one so special, I guess?

 If you were one of the many, many commenters on the instagram videos, thank you! I was cracking up! I also got a ton of requests for more Bruce posts- how funny.  He is quite the character.....!