Little Spooks

A little Halloween photo shoot at the park has become a bit of a tradition around here. I took Liam there for a few turtle pictures 4 Halloween's ago (he couldn't sit yet!) and we have been back to the same park in costume every year since. We saw a break in the rain this afternoon and dashed home for the costumes. (And a pee. Sarah is on a roll!)
Here are a few of my favorites.....

Sarah really is sweet as a little lamb these days. I remember a brief "calm before the storm" period with Liam, too. I am not taking this peaceful spell for granted!


The dragon is a pretty appropriate costume at this time, too. Liam and I have had a (ahem) challenging couple of weeks. There's been a lot of fire breathing from both of us! ROOOAAARRRRR!





Uh, Mom? A little help here?



Sarah is pushing Liam on the swing. She doesn't yet know that she should get out of the way because he's coming back at her!

Which leads to.....






Looks like it's time to call it a wrap!

Happy Halloween!

Icecapades

Skating had a different twist this morning.....costume day!


Halloween music was playing throughout the lesson....Sarah danced the entire time. She particularly likes "Thriller." Here she is striking some sort of cute goblin pose!

Not Exactly A Scarecrow....

Liam's ideas regarding his pumpkins' design were carved in stone. But they didn't end up carved in a pumpkin! He wanted a scarecrow face. Sounds easy enough, but then you start to think about it....what does that look like exactly? Yeah, I don't know either. So we compromised with a ScareOWL face. Close enough!
* On a side note....I thought that the knives in store-bought pumpkin carving kits were made so that kids could help with the carving. Not so! I'm sure you could take off a finger with the $1.99 knife!
** On another, but way more fabulous side note....if you are wondering why Sarah is not wearing pants....(my Dad always wonders why they don't wear pants!).....Sarah had a very big day today. Drumroll, please. SHE WENT PEE ON THE POTTY!...TWICE! Turns out she doesn't like her Fancy Nancy undies, so we're sticking with the diaper for now. No pants though, because when the urge strikes and she says "PEE?" (it's more of a question right now) we are movin' and shakin' our way to the bathroom. Zippers and belts be gone! It has been exactly 349 days since Liam's potty training adventure began. (Blogs are great for keeping track of that kind of trivia!) He had the hang of it without a week or two, so here's my goal: Two kids potty trained in under a year. Well, at least enough to leave the house on a short outing without a diaper. Go!
And now, I give you....The Pumpkins:



Liam noticed that a couple of seeds on his fingers looked like a heart. I thought this was sweet, especially coming from his not-as-sweet-as-usual-this-week self! A breakthrough? I'm desparate so I'll take it as a good sign!


We had pumpkin guts EVERYWHERE:


Because making the mess is really what it's all about...



Sarah wasn't as specific and our dinner was burning, so.....yeah.

Skate, Baby, Skate

I took the kids skating this afternoon....it wasn't great. Liam wanted me to show him some "tricks" but, well...."standing up" is about the only trick I've got, and apparently that doesn't count. And Sarah? She fell asleep and that is currently messing with naptime!


He did practice bending his knees, which is about as far as my coaching skills go!


Awake....

Not so awake!

Beachcombers

It started out as a Plan B, "let's hope the weather holds" trip to the beach this afternoon. But the weather did hold (at least until the last 20 minutes!) and the outing turned out to be just as fun as Plan A. The kids got to goof around with Grandma, Grandpa and GG....and I got to take some pictures and sip a Starbucks. Good times for all!



GG is waaaay ahead waiting for the rest of us slow-pokes!


Doing some fancy footwork, and still holding that dandelion stem!

Little boy, big sky...

The "TM" on that cup stands for Toffee Mocha...

...but she'd rather have sand!


Liam did a few acrobatic flips...


The perfect get-the-sand-out-of-shoe location...

Available for Odd Jobs

The more odd, the better.
Those are steel toe boots on his feet, if you were wondering....

Rubber Boots Have Limits

These are "old" pictures (from last week), but since I'm on a roll here on the old blog....why not?!
Now that summer is over our stomping grounds at the lake are pretty deserted - even on a gorgeous fall day. I took Mojo and the kids for a romp around the dog park on a Wednesday morning....and we were the only ones there! Mojo is a grumpy old man when it comes to his canine companions, so this suited him just fine. And the kids were more than willing to throw sticks in the lake. I'm thinking it was a bit cold. He looks like he's saying "You want it back? YOU go get it!"


Liam looks more amused...


The kids would have just kept walking if I hadn't intervened here....

See where the bridge drops off at the end? See Sarah's little legs in mid-run? She kept going! I have never seen tiny legs move so fast, but she didn't faceplant! Matt is probably thinking "Yeah, her MC Hammer pants caught the wind and softened her landing!"

Here she is "hiding" directly in front of that tree. All of these are classic Sarah expressions. I'm not sure which one I like the best....so I'll include them all!
The wide-open mouth. We're not sure why she does this, but....she does it a lot!

The sideways giggle-smile. This is when she's really laughing it up!


This one is the "I'm looking for trouble".... She pretty much always looks like that!