Happy Halloween!

Hooray! It's Halloween! I'm extra excited today because yesterday is over! :) Lily's party at school was a lot of work, but ended up being a lot of fun. Here are a few pictures from the festivities:

WPNS pumpkin I carved the other night. This was in the haunted house (room) that most of the kids would not go near. Lily went in holding one of my hands, while her friend Alaina held the other. After the first run through, I couldn't get them out of there. No fear. One kid, Alex, spent 20 minutes at the door, getting up his nerve. It was so cute! He eventually went in.








There is Alex, pumpkin bowling



Lily doing the pumpkin toss. Check it out, pumpkin in mid-air!

Interesting bits from today

I am running like crazy trying to get ready for Lily's school Halloween party. I am in charge of it and there are 30+ kids on Thurs. and 30+ on Fri. Not sure why, but I had to get 2 monster bails of hay, which took me 2 trips to haul....in a mini-van. So, my car smells like a horse barn. If you know me, or were ever around me when I was pregnant, you know I have a go go gadget sense of smell and I want to hurl in my car right now. I rolled down the windows to get the smell out on Westchester Pkwy. (It runs next to LAX and you can see the planes very close up). Ben was fixated on a landing jet until we were suddenly blown away by flowing hay. Ben was screaming and clapping. So glad he was amused. Yay! Hay-Globe!
Lily has been watching 101 Dalmatians while Ben naps. She comes to me with one butcheek out of her undies and says, "look, one bisky but.........I think this looks like a wedgie." Nice, Lil.

Pumpkin Patch part 2

Lily & Bella on the train



Lily, Bella and Grace



Sweet Ben



He's such a hambone!



Wiped Out

Pumpkin Patch

Went to the pumpkin patch on a school field trip Friday. Lily talked about it for weeks beforehand and it did not disappoint. We were late because I had class, but a lot of people were. We took a hay ride through the farm and there were beautiful fields of sunflowers along the route. Ben was climbing all over me, trying to get a better view of the tractor. We got to pick out pumpkins and feed animals. There were really fun rides and Ben went on his first pony ride. Oh, they also had the most beautiful wooden train for the kids to play on. They loved it and I wished I could steal it. We'd just hook it up to the mini-van and drag it home on the 405. Choo choo baby!

Ben's first pony ride



Lily loves the pony rides!



Lil had a little trouble driving the tractor, so I gladly jumped on! That thing was awesome!



Think they liked the train ride?



How can I toss these things? Can I eat them?



pics of the wooden train to come......

Busy days

We have been really busy, but having tons of fun. I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop and some crisis to arise. We all got sick this past week and that took a toll. Everyone's on the mend, though poor Daddy is 2 days behind us. Why is it that they kids get sick and carry on as if there are not boogies running down their faces and no coughing to stop them?? While we are knocked down hard and seek mass medication to relieve the hack? Oh yeah, because they are alien life forms that suck the energy from us and harness it for themselves.

Miss Lily



Lily loves corn on the cob and eats an entire ear on her own. She also loves for me to floss her teeth after.



Lily, Bella and Maddie on campus, drinking jamba juice and making wishes.



Silly Bubba



Lily Ben and Mama, playing while dinner cooked.

Do Guinea Pigs need therapy?

We brought the guinea pigs home from school last weekend and had a lot of fun with them. Well, we did, I'm not so sure if the pigs enjoyed it. They come out of their cage on school days after the kids leave. They run and play and stretch. They would not even go near the opening of the cage to come out at our house. Perhaps it was the midget banging on their cage and screaming like a banshee that brought on their apprehension. Enjoy.

Mullet dreams

Finally, my dream came true. I got a freakin' mullet y'all!!
Went to our friend's engagement party last weekend and grew a Kentucky mudslide for my cold neck. The party was for Cathy and Aaron who got engaged recently. Cathy is Laurie's sister and it was at Laurie's house. It was so fun, with SUCH good food!! Plus, there were margarita machines. Dios Mio!!! A party at Laurie's house is no typical event though. You never know when Santa may appear in July to break dance in the living room. This night however, Cathy and Aaron were instructed to dress up like a mariachi band part way through the evening. A task they initially were hesitant about, but eventually they owned those outfits and couldn't be wrestled out of them. Then, the wigs came out. It's amazing how a person's entire attitude and demeanor can alter when they don a juicy mullet. Good times were had by all. Thanks Laurie (preggers, sober)! I hope you didn't follow through on your plans to go upstairs take a bath and call the cops!! Love you!

Rebecca and I were really excited about the veggie carne asada (sp?) Yes, I realize that does not make sense.




Cathy is the one in black and red. This is before her inner senorita took over.




Brian once had a mullet and secretly wants one again.



My dreams become reality. Brett says he confused me with Dog, the bounty hunter. Thanks Brett.

Shovel Man

To clear things up, the guy with the shovel was a worker from next door. Our neighbors are putting a second floor on their house. It's a huge project and they had to move out for 10 months. We're having fun watching it and Ben's enjoying the trucks and other equipment. They tented it recently to spray for termites and we pretended we live next to a circus, which is how our neighbors feel every day :)
Some people were really freaked out by shovel man, but not to worry. It is a common occurrence these days!
More posts to come. Sick mommy.

Carnies

I took Lily to meet Kai at the carnival nearby so Daddy and Ben could nap. We had so much fun riding sketchy rides and playing games. Lily was so brave. We went on the giant potato sack super slide and she was not one bit scared. I screamed louder than she did on the way down.







Princess, or evil queen??

Nature walk

We went on a nature walk on Sat. morning and it wasn't as peaceful as we had hoped. Ben spent a chunk of time shaking a fence, trying to knock it down so he could escape into traffic. Lily whined and wanted to be carried. They did spend some time checking out the birds and plants along the wetlands walkway. It was a beautiful day. There are trees there that smells like the kids' breath when they were babies. I love it and could lay there and smell it all day.

Mama said knock you out



Ben puttin' out the vibe

It all makes sense

Whenever we drive by the In&Out burger, (They got good burgers. Shut the F up Donnie), there are people sitting in the grass watching the planes fly over, sometimes taking pictures. We are always so confused by this. Have people never seen airplanes before?! (or Jets as Kai would correct me) This Friday, it all made sense. Lily had fallen asleep in the car and Ben was awake. We were driving by that spot, so I decided to stop. Ben has been very excited about Jets lately. He points to the sky and says oooohh, ooooohhhh!! So we hung out and watched some Jets. We became "those people."

Chubbs watching the Planes



This was a BIG jet. Right after this photo was taken, Ben bolted at me. He was so scared! It was a loud one.

Retired

I feel like I said goodbye to a friend on Friday. I just gave it to Goodwill, it was so trashed. I used that thing every day when Lily was a baby and almost as often with Ben. I washed it so many times that it was getting moldy. Thanks to Kari, Shelly, Connie and Grandma Siniawski!! We got your money's worth out of that thing!!



Pieces of the tire were coming off



PS, sorry I posted the video below 3 times. I do NOT know what I'm doing! :)

Hopscotch

Check out half way through when some dude just walks into our yard with a shovel.

Tea Party

Rebecca and Laurie came over and threw Lily the most amazing tea party. We all dressed up in Lily's finest jewels and drank delicious tea (watered down apple juice). It was super girly and super fancy and Lily ate it up!!



She used her manners and everything





Notice my tiara and bling and proper use of my pinkie



In her element

Happy Birthday Nana!!

Nana is counting backwards, so I think she's 43. We'll be the same age before we know it! :)
We love you!!

Full Moon

Ok, what the heck?! Full moon f'd up our household.
Lily likes to keep "Uncle Brian and Lily" on the edge of her bed every night. They didn't help us last night!



At 3:30, I'm having a dream about class and what I need to get done. Matt wakes me up by mumbling about measurements and jabbing at his pillow. It wakes me up and I'm all, what? Am I going to get a bad grade? What are you talking about?! Then he laughs and passes back out. I'm wide awake then and hear rumbling in Lily's room. She doesn't cry, so I assume all is well, but still can't fall asleep. (I know something is not right) Ben starts crying at 5. We try to see if he'll fall back asleep, but he doesn't. Matt gets him, he's soaked, so I go to change his bed. I go in Lily's room to get the sheets and she's on the floor! I get Ben's bed changed and Matt rocks him to sleep (he continues to wake up off and on). I go put Lily back in her bed and try to go back to sleep. I finally give up on sleep at 7 and go to swim at LMU. Matt gets up with Ben at 7:30 and we go from there. I've heard 3 other people tell me that they had a nightmare last night. Harvest Moons are strong, man.
This is where I found Lily:

hoping this works

trying to upload video. using a different browser to do it. Ben is so funny. I hope you get to see it.

Ava is ONE!!

Seems like just yesterday that Shanon and I were waddling around with our big bellies. Now Ben and Ava are waddling around by themselves! Ava's first birthday party was Sunday. She started walking at her party, just like Ben. I guess they figure that everyone is there. They might as well walk now.



T, Ava and Lily



Shanon outdid herself once again with the cupcakes



Lily and Kai in the fort. Lily had Tinkerbell and Kai was a dragon.



Mmmmmmm, candy necklaces. I'm glad Lily figured out that you don't eat them while wearing them. Sticky.