Life lately: Halloween Fun!

The past week has been BUSY! So much Halloween fun happening! We had the grand finale of Halloween with trick-or-treating Monday night.   But the week leading up to that was super fun too!

I refuse to raise men who do not know how to cook/load dishwasher/do laundry, etc etc.... Cal got a lesson the other night on browning some ground beef.  He actually made everything for the taco salad! He did a great job-- and was pretty confident he could make a souffle if needed.  

Love love love looking over and seeing his sweet face as he reads.  He is a GREAT reader and really blows my mind when I hear him.... he does not love to sit still and read though.  We are working on that!

Last Tuesday night was Halloween Night at Fitch Lumber! We are excited to go and support our sweet friends! I typically don't let the boys wear their costumes until Halloween night because they will spill, rip, destroy them and then we are up a creek on the actual night.  This was pretty last minute, so I  told them to go to the dress up closet and pick out something.  Cal grabbed this old OLD dinosaur costume that Andy loves to wear (look at his calf and see how short it is) and we were cracking up all night at him.  

 Andy found Cal's old batman costume and wore it, ripped cape and all. 

 He found some old bat man socks and threw those on as well..... because, well, why not. 

Cal and Brad had fun running around together at Fitch Lumber.

Andy did the donut game and it was hysterical.  

He was covered by the end of it...

My kids are non-jammy wearing kids.  They seriously never wear them.  Cal sleeps in boxers and Andy sleeps in shorts- sometimes, maybe, a t-shirt too.  My mom bought these jammies last year and we thought they were adorable, but I think they were worn one time.  The boys found them in their drawers and both insisted on wearing them-- made my heart melt! How sweet are they??? Makes me want to get a million matching jammies for them.. not that they would wear them.....

The boys got their triangle united sweatshirts and I am loving them! They each got their first initial and last name on theirs.  So official :) 

Last Thursday in the Mouse class we celebrated Halloween.  Of course we broke out the Minnie outfits again! We had a fun and crazy day with our littles!

Cal had a class party on Friday and I managed to offer myself to plan the whole thing.  I spent many a night sitting at this table cutting, hole punching, gluing and planning....

They made some super cute spiders.  I hung Cal's up when he brought it home and I love it. 

Friday at the boys' school, it was dress like a book character day.  We planned it out the night before and I said again that they needed to wear something other than their regular costumes.  Andy woke up that morning and BEGGED to wear his to show his teachers.  He was super excited about it, so I caved.  And he was adorable.  

 Cal went for a UNC basketball player, because y'all KNOW there have been books about them!!!!

 His little nose blinked all the way to school.  Eddie said he dropped him off and he hopped right out and walked in, nose and all-- too funny to me. 

I subbed at the preschool Friday and then hurried over to Cal's class for his class party.  He was pretty pumped to have me there, which made me happy...

Also super pumped: these two!

 While Cal's class party was going, I sprinted to Andy's class party to get a quick glance at him... he was all kinds of happy!

 Friday night we had a Halloween party to go to-- and it was SO much fun! We struggled with what to be....I mean, we went back and forth a million times, I swear.  Finally we decided on Coach Fedora and a football player. 

 Eddie's dad coached at UNC and got this jersey a million years ago and I borrowed Cal's shoulder pads #boymom. 

 Eddie is a double to fedora, I swear. My friend Pippa sent me this:

 Saturday morning we had Andy's last baseball game! He did great and played hard-- he had a couple of plays that even surprised him (hahahaha).  He caught a ball he didn't think he would catch and his face was stunned. 

 I made some monster munch after the game.  Holy yum.  It is so so good.  We passed it out to some neighbors and it got good reviews!

 Sunday, Eddie and Cal went to a retreat for Y Guides.  I am so excited about this program! Basically it is a thing for dads and sons to participate in together-- they do different activities and retreats together.  It's really neat. 

 This is a shot from the end meeting-- the second year father/sons hold up torches for the first year father/sons to walk through.  Very very cool! This was a long, full day for the kiddos (and dads!), but I love hearing about all the cool things they did together. 

Holy cow, talk about a long post! That's a look at life lately up in here.  We are getting out of town this weekend and really REALLY looking forward to it!

I can't believe it is November-- I've already started making Christmas lists....seriously?!?!

 

Happy Halloween!!!

 

Happy Halloween from my BABE RUTH and RUDOLF! 

 I have so so much to catch up on, once again! Our internet (and cable!) were out last week, so it slowed up all progress of getting much done. 

So, we start with Halloween night! Having it on a Monday was HARD.  Plus, the boys didn't have school on Monday....but they did on Tuesday....even HARDER!

Last year, you might remember, Andy was Santa for Halloween. Sticking with tradition, he picked his costume super early and stuck with it. 

 His little nose lit up and flashed and it was about the cutest thing ever to see a flashing red light run from house to house in the dark. 

 Cal could NOT decide what to be for Halloween.  He wanted to be a ghost for a while, but could never settle on a costume.  He got this Yankees shirt for his birthday so I suggested Babe Ruth (we already had all the baseball gear!) and he was all about it. 

We went to a pre-trick-or-treat party at a friend's house in the neighborhood. Sweet Tricia stopped by to bring the boys some BIG bags of candy!

Someone there had a skateboard and Andy would not get off of it.  Rudolf was skating back and forth-- pretty scary to see him all dressed up on that thing.  But it was pretty funny--

 Here are some of the kids at the pre-party.  Can you spot mine??

And, the parents!!!

Cal with his buddy Henry, ready to GO!

Then the neighborhood does a parade-- this was pure chaos! So many kiddos!!! We tried to get a picture of the group, but it was like they knew they were thiiiiis close to getting candy and they were restless! I can't find Cal in this picture....

They were off!!!! This picture makes me so so happy-- look at how happy he is!!!!! Pure joy, I tell ya! 

Andy stuck close to me and Eddie-- Cal was looooong gone.  He traveled with a pack of boys throughout the neighborhood.  Andy was content to go at his own pace and eat candy along the way!

I fell terrible that we have no pictures of Cal! But Rudolf was all about smiling for us!

My parents were sweet enough to offer to stay at my house and hand out candy-- pretty sure they had fun too!!!

Here is Cal! We finally found him-- he ended up at our house with some buddies and they sat on the front porch eating candy and talking about their night.  It was awesome.  

This is one of my favorite pictures of the night-- a big bowl with a sign that says "take one." How is a kid to decide?!

Cheese ball warning: it was one of those nights where I will always remember watching that red nose and feel such happiness.   Cal had a great time running with his friends and that makes my momma heart happy too.  Just a fun night all around!!!

 

Life Lately

Hey hey hey!

Gotta love it when you make it to Wednesday! We are trucking through our busy week.  Today I have plans to actually PLAY tennis-- I've been taking lessons for a while and really love it, and decided it's time to actually go out and play! Actually, that's kind of a lie... a friend who plays tennis saw that we were taking lessons and she started asking up immediately to play with her and another girl from her team (!!).  We finally agreed so today is the day...I am excited! And I hope I don't embarrass myself- actually, I am not really worried about that.  I am out there having fun and that's all that matters, right?!

I digress... here's a look at what's been happening lately! Also- realized I forgot to do this post last week, so this is a dual post, I guess.

Sweet Bruce loves it on our screened in porch- I took him for a long walk and he stood at the door crying to go out there and take his nap.  Sweet boy....

The boys also love the porch! I think I might have posted this already-- too lazy to check.  They wanted to cuddle up and watch some football out there after their showers.  Might need a bigger couch out there!

 I posted in my last Friday Favorites post about our pictures with Amber Byrd.  I might look like a house in them, but these two sure did look cute as can be! I chose not to battle with them over footwear.... I hope I don't regret that choice! The day before, we went to church and they both complained that their church shoes were hurting their feet- of course they aren't the right size, so..... and we didn't have time to go buy new shoes, so it is what it is... I think they look pretty cute though.  I can't wait to see what Amber captured!!!

Ahh, the sleeping bag.  You know, for a while there, once we moved into the new house, Andy was a great sleeper.  Then, all of a sudden BAM, back on our floor.  He loves the sleeping bag, he loves sleeping with Hank, and he loves the hard as a rock floor.  Seriously.  He sleeps great (usually) once he's there.  

Andy had a play date the other day after school and Cal wanted to help me walk the pups.  He looked so cute strolling along with Hank and his shades on.  

 Clearly the walk flat wore him out!

Andy was telling us something at dinner and Cal started cracking up and spotted the spinach in Andy's teeth.  We all were dying laughing-- he had no clue it was there.  

Got donned head to tow under armor gear the other day for school.  He said he should be sponsored by under armor- hahaha clearly he watches too much ESPN.  In other news, this pull over thing he is wearing is awesome- super soft, cozy warm, but not too hot.... he loves it and I think it looks nice! I would take one in my size!

Homework game has been upped in our house.  There is an online program the kids are required to do.  Both boys have to do it so we got a little creative--
Cal sat in the study at the kid work table on the lap top:

 And Andy sat at the big desk.  It made my heart happy to see them both hard at work, side by side.

 It also inspired me to totally redo the study.  If money were no object (ahhhh), I would love to do an L shaped desk in the corner for the boys to do their work and then get me a new desk that faced out (as opposed to the wall, where I face currently...), and I want some big book shelves behind me.  A girl can dream, right?? I started pinning some boards on pinterest-- but seriously....money IS an issue and this is not high on ANY priority list.... again, a girl can dream! I would love to make this room more functional.... dream on, Momma.

Okay, switching gears.... anyone else have a husband who seems to be allergic to shutting drawers??? I swear to you, I came home and saw this-- it was too funny not to take a picture of... not ONE drawer is pushed in-hahahaha

 Seriously, why? It doesn't take that much more effort to fully close it, does it?? He's lucky he's cute...

Speaking of cute, we got BOO'd this week! In our basket, there were some stick on mustaches....Andy was a big fan of those! He couldn't stop laughing....

Rudolf has been the preferred cuddle buddy this week.  Look at him in the crook of his arm, sound asleep!

Cal got to go on a field trip last week- sadly, it was on a day when I had to work, so I missed it! But I had some wonderful friends there who sent me pictures-- here's Cal's class! 

Look who is smart now!! Moving the sleeping bag ON TOP of the bed...  he only woke up once, but stayed in his bed, errr....ON his bed for the whole night! We counted it as a win.  It's the little victories, people.  

And I watched as much of the final debate as I could...and I spent most of that time playing with snap chat filters-- this one of DT made me laugh so hard.... he's basically duck facing with those shades on-- hahahahahahaha

 Okay, this is SUPER random! I have had multiple (okay, maybe 4) people ask me to do a post on how I curl my hair.  I am totally not great at the selfie world and this would be very much out of my comfort zone, but I am happy to figure out a way to show you-- is this something you would be interested in? If not at all, you can let me know that too.  It might be a huge flop, but if you are interested, let me know!

Alright, that's it! How random am I?!?! Hope you are having a great one!!!