October artwork...

 A handful of Halloween artwork from the boys.  Tamlin has been very prolific at school :-)  I'm really digging all the handprint art he's been bringing home.
Jude has learned how to draw spiders in spider webs...which he has been very obsessed with for the past few weeks.

 Tam's big green monster

Construction paper which by Tam

Naming the parts of a bat

 Handprint bat

Tamlin's spider in his web

 Jude (and my) spiders and webs :-)

Happy Halloween Recap

 Halloween was Awesome :-)

Highlights:
- Kiddos LOVED their Ninja Butterfly costumes.  Others thought they were pretty cool too.
- YMCA Fun Festival = Rockin' good time.  Lots of Candy.  Lots of laughing.  Some scares.
- Trunk or Treat = Fun time.  Fun little games for kiddos.  S'mores.  Candy
- Carlisle Park Haunted Trail = Spooky good time.  Minimal candy/toys for games.  Haunted trail with some scares.  Fun ride on the train.  Dance party.
- Trick or Treat = 15 minutes door-to-door with Daddy.  Totally cashed in on candy even in this minimal time.  Lots of fun.  Next 45 minutes the boys helped to pass out candy at our house to other trick or treaters.
-  Halloween party at schools = Fun and lots of sugar.  Wild kids.  Lots of fun...lots of candy.
-  Treat box from Aunt Rosilyn and Aunt Carol = stickers, cookies, dot-to-dot books, and fun glasses.
Both boys totally rocked the glasses and loved doing the dot-to-dots...Jude's were a bit more random than Tamlin's.

 

Next year we want to go as the Avengers or the Justice League.

Ninja Butterflies

Be very quiet...I'm hunting butterflies...

 I heard there are very rare Ninja Butterflies in these parts...

 Wait!  I hear something...What was that?!

Was that a ninja butterfly in that tree?

 

 There's one now...Net at the ready...

  

 

Those ninja butterflies are good at hiding...

 Wait...There's not one, but TWO ninja Butterflies!

 Catch them!

And a bonus Daddy Butterfly!

 

 Here are our home-made costumes.  We tie-dyed the wings, painted the ends black, sewed a gathering stitch through the back, and cut a rough wing shape.  They are hung on wire hangers attached via duct-tape to a styrofoam backpack = light-weight and allows for fluttering.  Shirts with extra sock arms and fishing wire.  Lastly, antenna attached to their favorite hats.  Oh, and masks...masks because they are ninjas :-)

My costume = vest from goodwill, my binoculars, and a net from tulle I had lying around.

I always think Halloween costumes should be cheap and fun.  And a shout out to our friend Gail who taught me to think out of the box for costumes and use lots of duct-tape.

A visit to Mars

 We were able to visit Brian's folks this month.  I was hoping for a beautiful fall weekend...and we got mostly rain and I had the start of horrific coughing cold.  Well, we still had fun.  Both boys love seeing Nana Margie and Papa Johnny and their dog Kirby...maybe because Nana gives them treats :-) and Papa plays video games :-)


 We didn't get many great fall hikes in, but we were able to visit the Children's Science Museum.  This was an awesome place to let the kids roam around explore geeky science concepts.

The most awesome kicker was that they had a real submarine that we all got to tour through. Tam liked to play with all the interact stuff, like making the submarine's bell ring and the torpedo shoot.  Jude like trying to spin all the wheels and pull the levers.

There was also a sports center that had interactive stations focusing on body movements.  This is where the boys had tons of fun. They got to play operation...

Hang like monkeys...

And jump and twist

 Later, Papa and the boys flew a balsa wood plane out over the back yard.  That amazing little plane survived a ton of crashes and still kept on flying out of little hands.

What a great weekend!  Thank you so much, Marge and John...we love spending time with you all!

The Christmas Holiday has begun...

And Halloween hasn't even past!

Mini-brag alert...I've already hit the deals hard and am now about 50% done with presents.
Yeah me.

Then today...
The Toys R US toy catalog showed up in the mail :-)

The boys broke out the crayons and busily spent the next hour circling photos of toys they think they would like for Christmas.

But the cute thing was that they weren't just thinking of themselves:
Tamlin: "Jude, check this one out!  I bet you would like this train for Christmas."
Jude: "Yeah, Train!"
Tamlin: "Mom, look!  I think baby Elizabeth would like this toy.  It has all these things on it"
Me: "Gears?
Tamlin: "Yeah, gears! I think the baby would really like this one too."
Jude: "Look it is my Scout Dog.  Baby would like this dog too."
Tamlin: "And Frozen, Mom.  Look, it's Elsa.  Ciearra likes Elsa.  I'm going to circle this one for Ciearra."
Jude: "I like Elsa too!"
Me: "Circle all the things!"

I love this time of year.

Halloween Preview

Costume preview :-)