Disneyland Adventure

We took a trip to California for my little brother's wedding. While we were there we decided to take the boys to Disneyland for their first time-what a blast! My little brother Zach went with us and we had such a good time. Before I went I reminded myself that this day was for the boys and that I probably wouldn't get to ride any rollercoasters; this definately helped because we barely had time to go see all the stuff for the boys. Unfortunately, we missed the Nemo submarine ride because we didn't get to it until late and it had an one hour wait...next time. But, we had so much fun riding Pirates, the jungle boat ride, the circus train, a Small World, and a lot of other rides. The boys seemed a bit dazed the whole day and a little worried (we did Pirates first and I forgot that it had a couple of drops in it, oops) that we would take them on some crazy rides-but overall they loved it!

Tarzan's treehouse.

The zoo animal train with Uncle Zach.

Swallowed by Moby Dick (or was it the whale in Pinocchio?).

It's a Small World.

Toon town.

Pirates of the Caribbean (the before picture-sorry no after picture that would be cruel).

Trick-or-treating

I have never been a huge fan of Halloween-I don't really like candy (or I should say I don't really want to like candy) and I definately don't like to dress up in some ridiculous outfit to be cute or funny or whatever, but...Halloween is fun with little kids because I DO like to dress them up in ridiculous outfits

Ridiculous outfit #1

Ridiculous outfit #2

and I DO love to see them so happy and excited but I still don't like the candy bit. Anyways, Jon, Josh (dressed up as a Man U fan)

Ridiculous outfit #3

and I took the boys trick-or-treating around our little neighborhood. Clay and Eph were dressed up as geeks or nerds and Kai was dressed up as a lobster (he was so miserable in that costume-it was too small and the legs were stuck together in the tail so he couldn't really move around).

Incredibly cute but ridiculous outfit #4

Doesn't Kai look thrilled to be a crustacean?

The boys were so dang excited they were running to each door which was absolutely hilarious since they were both wearing pants WAY to small for them (all part of the costume).

Clay was a little tenative about the spooky houses especially ones with fake moving spiders. The boys were over it about 10-15 houses in so we didn't have to battle them to go home which was great. They ate some candy and after they went to sleep I gave Jon and Josh all of the candy except about 5 pieces for each boy. This morning when they looked at their candy buckets, they didn't even notice! Overall, we had a pretty great Halloween...maybe next year I won't be able to chuck the candy so easily.

This little lobster is all tuckered out!

On our way home.

After the boys were down Kai wanted to try their nerd glasses on...so cute!

Pumpkin Carving Extravaganza

Sunday, the entire family was sick so we vegged out at home all day, feeling lousy and lazy. That night Josh came over and we carved up some pumpkin fun! I made homemade pumpkin stew (traditional in my family) and while it cooked we first hollowed out the boys pumpkins then helped them "hammer" in these clear colored pegs to make designs on their pumpkins. When lit, the pegs glowed to show the design; way cool. I thought these kits were much easier for my boys since they can't really carve with knives. After the boys were done, the big boys (and girl) carved their pumpkins. I carved the biggest pumpkin I have ever carved in my life; the knife wouldn't even reach all the way through! It was a lot of fun even with the sniffles. The boys were so excited about their pumpkins they kept running out the front door to look at them...which made me constantly paranoid they would run into the street. Ahh the perils of toddlerhood!