Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Halloween 2009

Halloween Festivities

Usually we have so many fun festivities in the month of October that we hardly sit down, but it seemed that all of our usual places were not doing their special kid's activities due to "the economy." That was their excuse anyway. It made me so sad and it really did make a difference for our month. At least I wasn't as exhausted as I usually am at the end.

Madison's Elementary School had a Halloween Parade, it was the cutest thing ever! All of the classes lined up and they marched around the entire playground and then all got to go back to class for their class party. Parent's were invited to watch and I stayed and helped out in her classroom after the parade. It was so cute to see all the kids in their costumes walking in a straight line. One of the dad's of Madison's classmate dressed up like Elmo, it was so cute and the kids got a HUGE kick out of it. Apparently Elmo still rocks in the kindergarten circle....


The kids classes all lined up according to age and Madison's class got outside first so they got to be the entire school's line leader. Needless to say, they loved that. All the kids looked so adorable and really liked being able to wear their costumes to school.


I couldn't hold the kid's attention very long but I was able to snap a quick picture of Madison with some of her friends. They had to stay in line so I got the ones right in front of her and behind her. I didn't want her teacher to put me in the Uh-oh chair once we got back to the classroom! It was fun and I am so glad I got to go. It was really, really windy and a little cold, but that didn't faze the kiddies, they had fun and hardly noticed the weather. Us parents, on the other hand....


Halloween Night




For whatever reason (I can't honestly remember because it has been so long) I didn't get that many pictures from this last Halloween. I do like the ones I got, but usually I snap quite a bit more. Maybe I was sick that day.......That sounds good, I think I will use that as my excuse, it is valid as I was only 4 months pregnant and my "morning" sickness hadn't gone away yet.

For Halloween this year Madison wanted to be Minnie Mouse. I thought she looked adorable in her costume! We let her pick out whatever she wants to wear and she stuck pretty close to her princesses theme. She was Sleeping Beauty last year and Snow White the year before. My favorite was 3 years ago when she was Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz. She was the cutest Dorothy ever! (I'm only a little biased....)

She loves dressing up, she does it ALOT, but dressing up and then getting treats is an entirely different story. Mostly she loved going around to all the cars at Trunk-or-Treat and seeing all of her friends dressed up as well. This was the first year that she really got in to trick-or-treating and wasn't too shy asking for candy and saying thank you. I think she was able to circulate the parking lot 3 times by the time we told her it was time to go. We had a great time and look forward to what she decides to be next year.




Hunter was a different story altogether. He decided to be grumpy that day and did NOT want us to put his outfit on. For some reason he did not like his cowboy vest and had a tantrum when I tried to put his hat on him. The picture on the left is of him rolling around on the floor in an attempt to keep me from putting his vest on. Nice, huh....

I think every picture I got of him he is grabbing his hat to take it off. After I got a few pictures I gave up and he just hung out in his chaps and white shirt. I figured that he wouldn't really remember this Halloween anyway and I had bigger battles in life to fight with him. I got my favorite picture EVER of him, so I was satisfied.

He did love eating the candy, I gave him a roll of smarties and he was in heaven. I have a rule of 1 piece of candy a day for a week at Halloween and then the candy gets sent to Ryan's work for them to enjoy. I don't like candy and I almost never give it to my kids. I let them have 3 candies at trunk-or-treat and that is it. I may be a "mean mom" but I just can't handle the tantrums that result from them eating candy.

We got the requisite pictures of the kids with Mom and Dad. I looked horrible, and I really didn't care. Now that I think of it, I'm pretty sure it was a bad day in terms of sickness. I try really hard to not go out in public looking like a complete slob, especially when I feel so crappy inside.

























Friday, February 5, 2010

Pumpkin Patch 2009

***Author's note: In an effort to actually catch up on the fun things we did last year I made a list of all I want to blog about. I am going to try and go in order, we shall see how it goes.......Here is item one on the chronological list.

As I am quite anxious to actually figure out Photoshop for digital scrapbooking, I have gone ahead and made the scrapbook pages for the event. Prepare to see many of these in future postings. I figure that since I have limited time I will combine both and hopefully catch up on everything. Here's hoping......

The Pumpkin Patch is one of the kid's favorite things to do each year. Now, In Las Vegas the pumpkin patch is a little different than pumpkin patches in other states. First off, it is located in the parking lot of a casino, yep, it doesn't get more "Vegas" than that (it does have hay for ambiance and picked pumpkins to purchase, therefore making it a "Pumpkin Patch" of sorts).


Second, there are rides for the kids--go figure. It has a huge slide, a pirate ship, buckets that spin (similar to the teacups at Disneyland), swings, a "train" that goes around the pumpkin patch, a trampoline for the older kids and a petting zoo. The kids love it and it really is fun for everyone.

We have discovered that if you make reservations to go before 2 pm and get at least 10 paying kids together it is only $5 per kid for an hour unlimited. We took Madison one year at night so she could go with her daddy and we spent $20 in about 20 minutes, so needless to say, we love going with other mom's and kids.



***I think if you click on the picture it will go to full screen so you can see the pictures better and read the text. Who knows if it will work correctly though.....when I tested it I couldn't get it to, but honestly, nothing technological works for me. There is a reason I did not graduate in Computer Sciences, or engineering, or anything technologically related. It has worked in the past though, so good luck!

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

I'm sorry, do people actually wear these???? Ewww...

So, I saw these at Dillard's today and couldn't believe it. Honestly, do people actually wear these? Thankfully I haven't seen them worn yet, I am not looking forward to this new fashion trend appearing.



What do you think? Is it just me, or are they creepy looking to the rest of you too?????

Monday, February 1, 2010

Dear Mom's, have you seen this?

All I can say is, I am so there!!! A friend of mine (thank you, Cori) called and verified that YES, they will accept broken items and items missing pieces. We have used our port-a-crib so much it will no longer stay up on the sides and our stroller is missing the tray (thanks to the airlines). It will be nice to get 25% off of items we need anyway.

Details are on their website. Happy shopping!

The games we play

My kids never seem to surprise me with their creativity and ideas for new fun games. This game has been going on in my home for almost a year now. It used to be that Mads would have to convince Hunter to play, but now he goes and gets buckets for both of them and puts Madison's on her head for her. Sometimes she is just not in the mood, but he is quite persistent. I snagged these pictures a few months ago while I was getting ready for the day. These kids continually crack me up. Madison is so gentle with Hunter and he slams into her full force. At least it is not the other way around!


It reminds me of what Ryan likes to quote REGULARLY; he was watching some show without me and he couldn't stop laughing when the parents on the show were talking to some of their friends and they said how they noticed that their kids enjoyed playing with the boxes that their presents/toys came in more than they enjoyed the toy. So the parents decided to get their kids some boxes for a birthday or something. To quote Ryan, the show said "The problem was we decided to put the boxes in gift bags and now the kids aren't interested in boxes anymore, they now play with the gift bag instead." I thought that was quite apropos for this scenario. Seriously, they dump out their toys to play with the buckets they are stored in....go figure.

Saturday, January 30, 2010

I'm in love, seriously

If anyone decides they REALLY love me and wants to buy me a present for the baby, this is what I want, really, really, really bad.



Just look at the features on this thing


It has a baby wipe zipper pocket. How awesome is that!

So, any takers?