Halloween

This year, I agonized for weeks about what I could do for Halloween costumes for our family. Gordy agreed to dress up as long as he didn't have to do any of the work getting the costumes together.... I couldn't pass up the opportunity, but I also couldn't come up with any good ideas. So, I decided to just ask Jack what he wanted to be. His answer, a policeman.

Okay, we can work with that. I searched high a low for a little boys policeman costume and couldn't find anything in the stores, and online the cheapest one I could find was 40 bucks. No thank you. seriously, you'd think a policeman would be a more common costume, but it turns out that spiderman and the like are more popular these days.

Anyway, I remembered seeing online somewhere that someone dressed their baby up like a bag of money. So I thought, this is perfect, Jack will be a policeman, Gordy and I will be robbers, and Charlie will be our bag of money.

I made the boys costumes and I think they both looked so cute! It's too bad that I completely botched our robbers masks. You'd think I'd be able to cut two ovals out of a piece of black fabric, but no, apparently, I can't. So we ended up just wearing all black and explaining to everyone what we were. Oh well. Can't win 'em all I guess.

We went to the ward trunk or treat and Jack had the best time running around with all of the kids, spilling chili all over his costume, and saying "trick or treeeeeeeat" to collect his candy. For some reason, he only chooses the candy I would absolutely never ever choose... You know, whoppers and banana taffy and the like. Funny kid.

On monday, I took the boys up to the law school to do the trick or treating thing there. Charlie, of course, slept the entire time, so he never even made it into his costume because my plan was to dress him when we got there. After all, sleeping in a money hat can't be too comfortable... It was a good thing that Charlie was sleeping because Gordy had class until 5:30, so we were on our own for the entire trick or treat part of the night, and you better believe Jack was a handful. That's also why there aren't any pictures of the law school trick or treat...

Jack's costume was a big hit. Every door we went to he got ooh's and aaaahh's and he was just a doll when he would say "trick or treat" and "happy Halloween" to every professor.

After we did the trick or treating part of the night, there was a costume parade for all of the little kids. Jack won the best costume for the boys for the second year in a row. Proud Momma.

Then they had Aver's pizza for dinner in the students lounge, which Gordy was able to join us for. It was delish. I was so distracted by the pizza that I failed to realize that Jack ate four entire strawberries, green tops and all, while I wasn't paying attention. Oh well, more fiber I guess?

 This year we picked out the most GORGEOUS pumpkin at the farmers market. Instead of carving it, I decided it would be better to paint it, so that Jack could actually participate. He had so much fun. The entire pumpkin ended up green though because I have him green, and yellow, and blue paint, thinking that those were more boy-ish colors. I should have known better, and I should have known that all of the colors were going to mix together. Oh well. We had fun, and we had a fun green pumpkin.

Needless to say, we had a really great Halloween with our two boys. Holidays are so much more fun when you have kids.

Apple Orchard

A couple of weeks ago, the weather was absolutely perfect, so I convinced Gordy to drive us out to a local apple orchard so we could pick some apples. It's something I've wanted to do ever since we moved here... I'll be the first to admit the outing was a bust. The orchard was much further away than we anticipated, you couldn't even pick your own apples, and Gordy accidentally got shocked by an electric fence. Ouch. I should have done a little more research before we just hopped in the car. My bad.

But the drive was absolutely gorgeous and we ended up stopping by the most awesome park that is just outside of town. The last time we went to that park, was right when we moved to Bloomington and I was still pregnant with Jack.

Jack looooved it. There are several different kinds of swings that he thoroughly enjoyed and he kept calling the play structure the temple. Such a cutie pie.

Children's Museum

The day after Gordy got back, I was ready to get out of the house and have some fun. I think we all deserved it after the week we had. So, I decided on going to the Children's Museum in Indianapolis. It's supposed to be the largest children's museum in the country or something...?

It was pretty cool. To top it all off, there was a traveling exhibit there. Take a wild guess what it was... HOT WHEELS CARS! Jack could not have been more thrilled. He was so excited, he didn't even know what to do with himself. Cars are kind of his thing lately.

There are even a special anniversary car on display that was made of 12K gold, had like 30,000 diamonds on it, and rubies for the tail lights. Now that's my kind of hot wheels car.

There was a little loud engine revving noise that went off every few seconds in the exhibit, and every time it went off, Charlie would throw his hands in the air and get a really surprised look on his face. I don't think he liked the car room as much as Jack did.

We also went into the Egypt exhibit...

...and the Children's play area where we met a bear, saw a tractor, and played in the sand...

...and Gordy took Jack into see the National Geographic exhibit while I was feeding Charlie.

Meanwhile, Charlie just slept contently in the stroller. A few times he opened his eyes, quietly looked around, and decided it was too boring and went back to sleep. He is such a good baby. We didn't hear a peep from him all day, not even on the hour drive there or back.

We still have really little guys, so unfortunately we weren't able to stay long enough to see the entire museum. We'll have to make another trip some time soon because it was pretty dang cool.

On the way home, I sat in the back with the boys to make sure they were both comfortable enough to fall asleep. It only took a few minutes before both of the boys were completely out. Sitting in the back seat between my two sleeping boys was one of those moments where my heart was so full I could cry. I love being blessed with those unexpected moments of pure joy. It's what makes parenting worth all of the hard work and long hours.

Fall Break

Wow, what a week. Gordy spent the last three days in Utah doing some recruiting for the law school/ job hunting/ visit his family. The plan was for the boys and I to go with him, but the plane filled up last minute.... That's the trouble with flying standby. Gotta be willing to be flexible and not too disappointed if plans don't work out. 

That left me at home, by myself, with Jack and Charlie for three days. Aye, aye, aye. I'll tell ya, it was a rough three days. I have a whole new respect for single parents. On day one, some one replaced my angle of a baby with a screaming banshee. AND he was nursing like every five minutes. It was insane. I don't know if that kid hit a growth spurt or what was the problem, but he was not pleasant. That night, Jack woke up FOUR times. Come to find out in the morning he was waking up because he had a cold. Lovely. So, day two was a bust. Luckily, the Rickey's invited us over for dinner. It really helped to have someone cook for me. It was lovely. On day three, I had to take both boys to the pediatrician for shots. You know how that goes... shots and babies don't mix. 

To say that I was ready to have my husband back would be an understatement. 

Unfortunately for Gordy, his traveling home didn't go so well. He took the shuttle back to Bloomington. When he pulled into town it was midnight and pour rain. Only to find out that our car, which he left in the shuttle parking lot, had a completely flat tire. Like sitting on the ground kinda flat. My poor weary traveler. 

The "Punkin" Patch

We met up with some of our friends out at Anderson farm to go see the pumpkin patch. Jack could not be more excited, he;s been talking about "o-ange punkins" for weeks. He's been telling me that he "Neeeeeeds a punkin" every time we see one.

For some reason, when we got to the pumpkin patch, he thought you were supposed to eat the pumpkins.... I have no idea where he came up with that. So he was putting every pumpkin he could find in his mouth, "Ummm, YUMMY PUNKIN!". Gross, but kind of funny too.

We let Jack pet some of the animals at the petting zoo, but he was not at all interested in the animals, he was a little intrigued by them, but mostly standoff-ish, especially when he saw an old lawn mower sitting outside. How can a live pig compete with something that has an engine? It cannot. Jack let us know that he just "HAD to ride that mower". He was so cute playing on it until wasps started flying out of it. Mom and Dad put a quick stop to that activity, much to Jack's protests.

Then we let the boys ride this little train thing. We were so proud of Jack because he just hopped right on. I totally expected him to cry, but he had a big smile on his face the entire time. I think he was pretty proud of himself too. Check out the conductor. He's a good ol' boy if I ever saw one.

After the train ride, Gordy found a wagon and pulled all of the kids around for a while so us moms could chat. Isn't it funny how we all have a baby strapped on? And this is what I got to look down and see the entire evening. Isn't he just the sweetest?

Then we all headed over to the pumpkin patch where we let the kids wander, and run, and climb, and play. I think they all left with grass stains on their little knees, a sure sign that they had a good time. Is there anything more characteristic of a little boy than rolling around in the grass? So darn cute of them...

Jack found a daddy long legs spider, and tried to eat that too. I swear, it was like he was 8 months old again, trying to put everything in his mouth that night. Bizarre behavior I tell ya. 

None of us even ended up picking out a pumpkin there, but it was so much fun for the kids to see a working farm and to run around together. The highlight was when Jack lost one of his shoes in the tall grass. Luckily, Sarah spotted it about 10 yards away from where we were standing, like nano-seconds after we realized it was missing. She must have mommy eyes or something. It was incredible how quickly she found it. I mean, it could have literally been ANYWHERE in this giant field. It really could have been a major disaster. Crisis averted, people.

We tried getting a good family picture with the picturesque background, but Jacky-boy had other plans... so he's not in it. Who can blame him? Going crazy in a field is so much cooler than taking a picture with your family. 

Afterwards, we all packed up and headed over to Wendy's for dinner with the kiddos. We all had such a fun time together.