Who's on first?

After picking up Callum from school today:

Mommy, I was crying and you weren't coming.

Why were you crying?

Because you weren't coming.

When was this? When didn't I come?

When I was crying!


(Shoot me now)

Halloween Parade!

I remember Halloween parades during elementary school being a big
thing. I remember enjoying them when I was young, and remember being
embarrassed some years later (as I got older I think). So I was
curious if Logan would have a good time or if his shy sensitive side
would kick in.

Thankfully, as his group rounded the bend, he was smiling and waved
real big when he saw me. :)

Then, after some announcements and celebrations, they took the kids
around one more time before heading back in. The second time around he
had a very sad forlorn look on his face (2nd pic) and would hardly
look at me. I saw the teacher had noticed this too and tried talking
to him but I could tell he wasn't talking.

So, since I needed to head in with them anyway, to get him changed
back into regular clothes, I found him and walked along side him,
asking what was wrong (and thinking the worst, like some kid had
pushed him around or made fun of his costume or something of that
sort).

I couldn't have been farther off base. He was upset, he explained,
because the parade had ended and he wanted it to continue!!

The last pic was a final shot I grabbed in the bathroom... He asked me
to take the pic before we changed him back into his school clothes. :)

All in all, pretty cute and fun for all. Next time I'll remember to
bring my camera! ;-)

Dia de los Muertos Brides

I'll try to find a better close up pic of my makeup later on - but here's a sneak peek of me and a couple of my teammates after a very successful Halloween party at work tonight.

My makeup was harder to do than I was expecting!  So, I'm pretty pleased with my results.  ;-)   We all had a blast (kids AND adults!).  Our team placed second overall (but most people exclaimed we won first on costumes, hands down) - so you can imagine how fierce the competition was!!  :)

Haunted House Set Up

We've got a huge Halloween decorating contest at work. I built up my
team's excitement by pulling together a ton of ideas to create a
"Haunted House" theme in our section.

In preparation for today's judging, we all stayed late last night to
decorate. So, I picked up the boys early and brought them back to work
(they had a blast, pizza, music and other young kids were there).

Since our set up is pretty spooky, several coworkers have asked how
the boys reacted.

Let's put it this way. When they saw this hanging in my cube last
night, they oooh'd, exclaiming "A piñata!" ;-)

Growing up!

I think Minion is going to be a big cat. ;-)

We're ready for Halloween!

According to Callum, Logan's pumpkin is silly, mine is scary and his is "just a Mummy".

Another sign you're a mom?

Once pumpkin carving commences, you're left to do all the cleaning out
on your own. ;-)

Signs you're a Mom

#2,569. Random stickers stuck on your arm.

#2,570. You don't even notice they're there until a few hours later.

Halloween Fiestas!

Last night was crazy. We first went to Callum's school Halloween party where we saw some friends who had dressed up as the purple minions. Here we are all together! :)

After about an hour hanging out and eating delicious snacks, we packed up and headed over to Logan's school Halloween party! (Jon met us there)

The second one was insane. Probably a 500 person party at least. Tons of activities, tons of food, a scary spooky haunted house (that Logan had been begging me to buy tickets for all week and once I did, and we waited in line to go in, he got cold feet and refused to go in....). Tons of music, dancing, bouncy house and games, pie smashing (teacher's faces) and pumpkins to buy and decorate. Man! It was overwhelming and a totally different vibe than the preschool (lots of older kids for one!) but I think the boys had tons of fun at both parties.

Once we got home we all watched a little tv to relax and then passed out! Phew!!

Mummy pretzels

Our feeble attempt at making mummy pretzels for Callum's school
Halloween party tomorrow. These were a pain in the ass.

Water break

I have no idea why Logan likes wearing bright colors out on the field.

A sign of Mom guilt

I felt guilty that our trip to Target was all about getting new
clothes for Logan, and nothing cool for Callum. So, I quickly gave
into this little guy's request for a Monster Hat.

It probably won't last more than 10 seconds on his head but he is sure
cute! *sigh*

Snake Wreath

Here's the other project I've been working on, which the boys helped me out with this past weekend.  :)

I think it came out pretty cool looking!

Here's a close up if you can't tell what's going on.  Do you think it'll spook the mailman?  ;-)

Uesugi Farm Pumpkin Patch

We had a jam packed weekend but I was insistent that we make it to the Uesugi Farm Pumpkin Patch today, since going the next two weekends will likely be even busier and more hectic and I knew we wouldn't want to deal with that.

We've never been to this particular patch but I had heard great things and wanted to try it out.  Plus, Jon has pretty much sworn off of ever going to the pumpkin patches in Half Moon Bay ever again (that's where we've gone in years past) because the traffic is such a nightmare. :(  This place is ~30 min south of us, so it's still a drive, but TOTALLY more do-able and more bear-able!  I think it may be our go-to place moving forward!

So, I've pretty much given up on catching up the blog with my - literally - thousands of photos I take throughout the year of the boys.  Downloading from a trip, going through all of the pics I've taken to find a few star ones to show off, and then writing about it and uploading it all, is pretty much never going to happen unless I take 2 weeks off work just to blog.  ;-)  So, while I'd love to catch you up on our recent Hawaii trip or hell, a weekend outing to the tidepools, that will take awhile.

These however, were fun for me to flip through and I was able to pull out a few quickly enough that I figured I'd slam together a quick post.  ;-)

There were gorgeous marigolds (and bees) everywhere!  :)

While we waited for Jon who stood in line to grab some kettle corn, the boys and I watched the trains and made our plan for the day...

Up first - the Corn Maze!!  This was Logan's pick (he LOVES mazes).  I picked the harder one even though it cost an arm and a leg because I thought oh what the heck.  We spent a good 45 minutes I would guess and it was fun!  They had a questionnaire that they gave ahead of time and you'd have to guess the correct answer at each marker (there were 10) to get to the next one (quickly, anyway, I think you could have still figured out how to get to the next marker if you paid attention).  ;-)  The boys had loads of fun and it was a lot better organized than past mazes we've done!

Next up - the Train Ride!!  This was Callum's pick (of course). And he was thrilled.  :)  A very fun 5 minute ride around the pumpkin patch, with a lot of "farm" displays up for the kids to see too.

And then finally, the pumpkin patch itself!  (Mom's pick!)  I loved the variety of pumpkins, shapes, sizes and colors, on display.  I could have spent an hour just wandering around but Jon and the boys were wearing down.  :)

We found an old scale, I think more for display than actually weighing pumpkins, and put each of the boys on to see how much they weighed.  Logan's is a little blurry because we were laughing too hard at his sad pitiful face.  ;-)

This next series of pics I really enjoy - I'm that crazy mom trying to do everything to coax her kids to stand straight, not wiggle or move, in front of the ginormous pumpkins behind them, so I can take a quick shot of the two of them together.

But what do they do?

First they don't stand still,

I'm able to grab one VERY quick smile even though Logan is squinting...

Then older brother grabs younger brother,

And slowly moves into, what I like to call, "smoosh your little brother's face to death"...

While the younger one sticks out his tongue to lick him.  *sigh*

The required photo in the ACTUAL pumpkin patch!

We actually got a decent shot with me and the boys!

And one of Jon and the boys!

Perhaps next year we'll get one with all four of us together?

A mom can only hope...

Time for another renewal!

I had everything pre-printed and filled out ahead of time, so that all
we needed to do this morning was march into the passport office and
wait in line to submit Logan's renewal application.

I'm not sure if it's due to the shutdown, or something else, but the
humongous office just around the corner from us had only a single
woman working and what's worse, a new system (at least since the last
time we've been which is about 3 yrs), whereby you come the minute the
office opens and pick your number for your "appointment" that day.
But, they now apparently limit the number of "appointments" to pick,
and they were already "full" by the time we got there (20 min passed
opening!).

Ugh. Very frustrating. :(

So, I may try and actually book a real appointment at a different
office instead, since it's hard for us to find the free time to do
this and now with Logan in school it's even harder! (for a kid's
passport, both parents have to show in person, with the child present
too, and with all sorts of extra identification). :/

To end on a happy note however, I'll point out how goofy and charming
Logan looks in his passport photo. Love him to pieces, and crack up
every time I look at this shot. :)

Cheap labor

Another project underway! ;-)

Loganism of the morning

Me: When bananas get old, they turn soft.

Logan: Oh, so just like you Mommy!

(KILL ME NOW)

*sigh*

Entryway

I'm very proud of this skeleton vase I made last night. :)

Watch out!

I've got the glue gun out again and a few more projects in mind!
Mwahahahahhahaa!!