More "Smooky" Fun

Saturday, we carved jack-o-lanterns.


I also bought some of those fake flickering LED lights and I LOVE them! They looked great in the jack-o-lanterns and little Halloween candle holders!

Sunday afternoon, we met up with some of the boys' buddies downtown to check out the hay maze and do a little trick-or-treating at the local vendors. It's impossible to get a picture with this many kids and have them all looking the same direction. :)

The boys were very wary of this guy. They finally determined that he was fake and cautiously took a treat.

The Cat in the Hat was very popular.
Then we headed home to trick-or-treat the neighborhood.
Funny, I never thought of this as a particularly dangerous activity, but this year I think we were more aware of the massive amount of alternative "safe" trick-or-treat activities. I think it's a little ridiculous. We just stuck with class parties and neighborhood trick-or-treating. We like to live on the edge that way.

So, Halloween: check. Next up: birthday parties. The soon-to-be seven-year-old picked a Scooby Doo theme, and, unbeknownst to him, a villain will steal all of the birthday presents! The meddling kids will have to do a scavenger hunt to recover the gifts. And the soon-to-be five-year-old is going with Lightning McQueen again. Mom and I will be making a Mystery Machine cake and another Lightning McQueen cake. And both boys passionately requested pinatas, so we'll have those as well. Looking forward to it!

Here Comes Halloween

The boys and I got into the Halloween spirit a little last week by making some delicious pumpkin chocolate chip cookies...mmm...

This morning we had both Halloween class parties. The parade o' costumes.

Cutie killer whale.

The first graders.
I made punch with Sierra Mist and sherbet and threw in some ice shaped like hands for the kiddos. As you can see, the gloves had a bit of a leak issue, but it turned out OK. The kids thought it was pretty delicious and fun!

Then off to the preschool party. Crafting. Playing a little game. Showing off Ben's costume. He says he's a very "smooky" ghost (spooky and smoky???), but I think he's a pretty cute little ghost. Fishing for goodies. Ben surprised the mom behind the cardboard by actually casting his line, with some enthusiasm I might add, instead of just plopping it over the board.

Thumbs-up on the caramel apple. Notice the whole plate o' sugar? The teachers got a good laugh out of sugaring the kids up and then sending them home. At least the weather's really nice, so they can go outside and run it off.

Happy haunting this weekend!

Gotta Love Him

Knowing that for the last couple of days I've felt less than 100%, Andrew got home yesterday, held out his hand and said, "Tag. Now go lay on the couch. I've got this."

Mama, look!

I love that my kids actually notice nature and its beauty. They always stop and appreciate a beautiful sunset, and it makes my heart smile. One of their favorite things to do when we go to Mexico is to watch the sun sink into the ocean. So here was a recent Colorado sunset we all paused to admire...ahhh...Even with our suburban rooftops in the foreground, it's still beautiful. (And the weird double-sun thing is because I took the picture through a double-paned window.)

On tap for us this evening...watching a couple of movies [How to Train Your Dragon and Date Night (after the kids go to bed)] with pizza on TV trays. The boys got to watch Iron Man 2 (their first PG-13 movie) last weekend with pizza on a TV tray, and it was BIG TIME to them. Getting to eat on the couch with a TV tray was about as exciting as the movie. :) We were a little unsure if they'd make it through the movie because it has some superhero fights and stuff, but they made it and as soon as it was over, they were total motor-mouths about how "awesome!!!" the movie was. I'm determined not to get the cold that Ben is trying to give me, so laying on the couch watching movies sounds about my speed this evening.

Weekend Athletes

Both boys wrapped up their soccer seasons last weekend. Ben with his trophy. His favorite part is that the soccer ball spins.

Andrew and I ran our first 5k in the Fans on the Field race. It took us from Mile High through the Pepsi Center and back. Running down the ramp into the Pepsi Center. The finish line! Oh sweet, blessed finish line.The long-sleeved t-shirt was a last minute grab because it was really chilly that morning. It's kind of huge and was sort of cape-like by the end. Definitely need to get some long-sleeve t's that aren't gigantic! I'm pretty sure the drag from the shirt was the only thing keeping me from finishing in under 20 minutes. ;)

Charging hard for the finish line.He did it! He totally showed that finish line who's boss. Both of us ran the whole thing and finished within our goal times. I wanted to finish in 30 minutes or less and Andrew wanted to finish in 40 minutes or less. We both had a lot of fun and look forward to more 5k's in the future. We've even had some talk about the Bolder Boulder, a 10k, yikes! I used to think the only good reason to run was if I was being chased, but here we are, both running regularly now. Thank you Couch to 5k!

Thus Concludes our Coast-to-Coast Travels, 2010

With Max off-track for September and the realization that none of my grandparents had seen the boys since Benjamin was about 8 months old, we headed to the left coast for a visit this month. We started at my Grandma Mary Lou and Grandpa Al's place in Vancouver, WA. While there, we visited the Oregon Museum of Nature and Science, a wonderful museum where everything is hands-on. I remember loving it as a kid, and my kids loved it as well.

Using robots to play "Connect Four."
The boys spent a lot of time playing container crane operator.

OMSI is now located on the Willamette River (it was next to the Portland Zoo when I was a kid), and the USS Blueback is docked there, so we took a tour of that as well. I don't know who loved it more, Andrew or the boys. We were the only ones on our tour, so we got loads of personalized attention and lots of opportunities to check everything out.

Operating the dive and surface controls.
The LOUD dive siren. Checking out the periscope.
The "trapedo" room (as the boys call it).
Also in Portland, we checked out The Voodoo Doughnut Shop.
Max enjoying his Miami Vice Berry.
Benjamin enjoying The Loop.
Me enjoying The No Name, a delightful mix of chocolate, Rice Krispies and peanut butter. Then we headed down to Salem, where we were treated to my Aunt Kristey's delicious cooking and hospitality and the company of my Uncle Rob, my cousins Angela and Amanda, my cousin's boyfriend Dave, and my brother Jody and his wife Whitney. (I'm not sure why I didn't bust out the camera at their house...sorry about that!) It was an awesome evening and morning with lots of laughs!

That evening we headed back up to Vancouver for a dinner with all of the Vancouver Duvalls. It was fun to meet my cousin's daughter Kalea for the first time.
Then we headed to the east side of the state to Spokane, where we visited my Grandpa Jack and Grandma Clara. (Side-note, we also recreated the "Can I come up now?" conversations through the vent, but this time I was in the generation in the living room while my kids were in the basement - good times.)

Grandma will tell you she's "an old lady," but she can still cook like she's cooking for a harvest crew and her scrambled eggs remain the best in the world! Max will tell you all about them - yum, yum and extra yum!

So after all our visiting, we headed home to recover from our 10,000-calorie a day diet (Andrew and I registered for our first 5k, Fans on the Field) and resume the usual soccer, Scouts, church, playgroup, preschool (for Ben; Max goes back to school next Monday), etc. Thank you to everyone who fed us and housed us on our trip - it is much appreciated and we loved seeing you all!

"If a bird had been nearby, I would have swatted it." Classic!

I thoroughly enjoyed this post of BooMama's. Aside from some of the details of the story and her amazingly talented writing that makes me laugh and/or tear up on a regular basis, I could've written this post about myself after some of those nights of little sleep. As anyone who knows me can probably attest to, I have been known to act like the goat once in a while. OK, maybe twice.

Blink

Here are a few pics and highlights from our last couple of weeks...

We camped at Golden Gate Canyon State Park. This trip will be remembered as "The Trip We Forgot Everything." Here is a partial list of the things we forgot (I'm sure I am forgetting others, ha ha):

• Pillows. The kids good-naturedly said, "That's OK, we'll just pretend our (stuffed) dogs are Pillow Pets." If you don't know what a Pillow Pet is, you need to watch more cartoons.
  
• Paper plates
  
• Plastic silverware
• Matches/lighter
  
• Tinfoil

We just had to laugh...it was seriously ridiculous! Most of this stuff is usually in the trailer, but apparently after 3 seasons of camping, we needed to restock - oops! We managed to borrow some tinfoil and Andrew went to a little store in the town nearby to buy plates and matches. It was a great park, we'll be back in a few weeks with our small group from church. Here are some pics from our monstrous hike that we did there.The boys spent last Friday night at Mom and Dad's where they had a blast at the county fair. Andrew and I did dinner and a movie (The Other Guys).

Max participated in his first Raingutter Regatta last Saturday with Scouts.
This morning, Ben started pre-K (three mornings/week). It was big brother's turn to say "Hey, don't you want a picture of me too?"

Of course I do, punkin', get in there. Soccer season starts tonight for both boys. I think those are the main things going on - hope your summer's treating you well too!