A Happy Halloween

After last year's Halloween in bed, the boys finally got to get out there and have a real trick-or-treating, Halloween adventure.  I stayed home to hand out candy, which was a mistake--we only had three people show up--but, I probably wouldn't have had all that much fun on a two hour walk around base housing anyway and the boys had special daddy-son bonding time and I got to sit around watching Hocus Pocus (my all time favorite Halloween movie) so I guess it was all for the best :)

The boys were just a tad excited about the prospect of massive candy acquisitions..........

Apparently the boys were the hit of the base trick-or-treating circuit.  They even reached houses where neighbors had already called ahead to proclaim their oncoming cuteness  :)  The boys did great and Henry fell asleep in the wagon about two houses away from home.  Bedtime was another story entirely--I guess they thought Halloween lasted all night and they were coming home to devour every last one of their "special treats"--oh how wrong they were.  Everyone knows that good parents exploit the cuteness of their kids to get copious amounts of candy then immediately send them to bed so that they can raid the children's stash while they sleep.  We're doing them a favor by not allowing them to eat all of those processed sugars and chemicals....right?

Well, with all of their candy plus all of the leftovers from our almost complete lack of trick-or-treaters we should be set for candy enjoyment for at least.....two weeks......give or take......

The Third Trimester and One Last Day of Freedom

Chris had to start work today--his orders were written to report in October--so October 31st it was :)

For one last hurrah we decided to drive down to St. Augustine yesterday and have a bit of an adventure.  We found a mostly deserted beach, the best fish tacos in a two hour radius of our house, and a very exciting fort--I'd say it was a Tuesday well spent..........

I know you've all been desperate to see how gigantic I'm getting, so in honor of hitting the third trimester Chris went a little crazy with the camera.....you're welcome :)

So now it's back to work and back to finding a new rhythm to our days.  The children were not pleased to see daddy leave for work this morning....I don't think David was entirely convinced that daddy was really coming back home for dinner after the last ten week absence.  He seemed to be of the opinion that Chris should just stay home forever and never work again.  I have to agree that it would be nice to have daddy home all the time, but then again I also like having those little luxuries that his job provides....you know like a roof over our heads and food on the table :)

It's Fall...

....well as much as it can be here in northern Florida.  The weather has plummeted to a frigid 64 degrees but I'll take it.  I even broke out my boots in celebration :)

Since the weather was right, and we only had three days left until Halloween, we thought it was about time to hit the pumpkin patch.

Chris' prize pumpkin find......

We carved up the pumpkins later in the evening.....and by we I mean Chris and I....not because we don't want to give the kids pumpkin carving tools, but because they both turned their noses up at the idea of touching the pumpkin goo.  Mostly they spent the evening shining a flashlight into the woods looking for the raccoons that have been pillaging our flowerbeds...apparently you can spot them because their eyes shine yellow at night.  They'll regret their decision when we devour all the roasted pumpkin seeds we pulled out from the goo without their help and don't share any with them.....just kidding, we'd never do that......or maybe we would........

Our finished masterpieces....David wanted them to be scary, but not too scary.......

It only took me fifteen tries to take this picture with no flash and no tripod and have it not come out a blurry mess.....the solution involved me balancing the camera on the train table while yelling at the children to stop bumping me or there would be grave consequences....you can go ahead and be impressed (by the excellent parenting and the photography)  :)

It's All Going According to Plan.....

I already showed you our gravel pit......well I just knew you would all be interested to know that my visions of the boys imaginatively (and busily) digging, building and using all of those loose parts I set out have come true...with the help of a seven year old neighbor who was really excited about our backyard.....

The boys were happily making ramps out of rain gutters and dumping rocks and cars down them when I suggested that it might be fun to add water to their play.....

Chris was not as happy as I then proceeded to snap a couple of pictures and abandon him so that I could go inside and finish alphabetizing our books......well, someone had to monitor the hose....and the water did make it more fun :)

A Disney Vacation

....well, I'm not sure if I'd call it a vacation exactly....a workout, a marathon, a festival of brisk walking and of carrying heavy things?  I suppose whatever you call it, it was fun although I don't think we'll be doing it again in the near future :)

Aunt Courtney treated us to a wonderful (albeit tiring) trip and the boys had ridiculous amounts of fun--and candy (aka "special treats")--I'm not sure if you can still call them special treats if you eat them all day long though.....

By far the biggest hit of the trip was riding the monorail, followed by riding the ferry, and then by playing in the sand and pool behind the resort.....and if you ask David what rides he liked best he will reply that he liked the "boat" rides at the park (i.e. It's a Small World) but absolutely not the train ride through the mountain (i.e. Thunder Mountain) which daddy and aunt Courtney tricked him into riding based on his love of all things train.

The biggest food hits of the trip were found in Gaston's Tavern in the new addition to Fantasy Land that was open for "dress rehearsals."  For the boys it was Lefou's Brew which is a frozen apple juice concoction with a whipped marshmallow topping and for dad it was the pork shank which is now his favorite park food--winning out even over the famed turkey leg which, if you know Chris, is saying something :)  I on the other hand think it's pretty much the most disgusting thing I've ever seen anyone eat and had to look away during the whole pork shank eating ordeal......

Did you know there were two Dumbo rides now?  I scandalized my sister with my lack of current Disney knowledge and the fact that I hadn't been in the park for going on nine years.....

We went to Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party on our first night with the boys dressed up in their costumes of choice.....as advertised, it was not too scary and the boys liked trick-or-treating in the park although David made sure I knew that it was not really Halloween yet.....

We actually spent three of the four days of our park hopper passes at the Magic Kingdom with one day at the Animal Kingdom and one evening excursion for Chris and I to Epcot for a date in Japan......

David loved meeting all of the characters and mostly gave them hugs and high fives with the occasional punch to the stuffed belly......Henry on the other hand preferred at least a two person barrier between himself and anyone dressed up as a gigantic Disney character.

We did the Electrical Parade on our last night and David made it about halfway through before passing out--Henry made it all the way to the end--but neither made it to any fireworks........

David made sure to hold his glow necklace up near his face so that Mickey would be sure to see him......

We had a lot of fun and even managed to squeeze in a little time for relaxing and bubble baths....although we may have gotten a tad carried away dumping hotel shower gel into the whirlpool tub......it's the little joys :)

I think it's going to take us all of next week to decompress from this trip....and to convince the children that although we did have "special treats" all day every day while we were on vacation, aunt Courtney isn't here any more and mom isn't as much of a "special treats" pushover as their sweet aunt is :)

Thanks aunt Courtney for all of the fun!

Rocks Are For Digging......

....and dumping, and moving, and stacking......

Our new backyard is a little...sad....and not very inviting for imaginative play.  We have really nice playgrounds on this base, but not anywhere for the boys to really dig and get dirty--so as soon as my darling husband came home we got right to work remedying the situation.......

......we also put the children to work....hauling rocks is good for kids right?

We started with these sad, flowerless flowerbeds surrounding the back porch.  There aren't any rain-gutters on the very back of our porch--just the sides--why you ask?  I have no idea.  I'm pretty sure it's a contributing factor to the complete lack of anything growing here though, the rain just comes sheeting off the roof and would wash anything attempting to live there directly into the yard.....

I thought about filling them in with sand to give the kids a new place to dig but I was concerned about fire ants making a home in them and about all of the raccoons and stray cats using them as a potty.  Then I thought, what's just as much fun as sand (and incidentally not any less dirty--and probably slightly more dangerous)?  The answer--gravel and rocks :)  

Chris helped me turn that thought into our brand new gravel pit......

I have no idea how many bags of sand and gravel and rocks this took, but we did have to go back to Lowe's and get double the original amount we brought home.  We pretty much just grabbed bags of rocks willy nilly--I figured the more variety the better!  We also picked up several random paving stones and bricks to add to the fun--I stacked up some to make little seats and the rest the boys have been using to build with and put in their dump truck and then dump back out.  We moved the train table outside (it doesn't fit anywhere in the house--don't worry the trains are safely stored in the living room!) and gave the boys some old rain-gutters to add even more excitement with car and gravel races too.  It's been really fun to see where their imaginations take them!  

I've been reading a lot about the importance of unstructured outdoor play lately, as well as how to incorporate loose parts and irresistible outdoor playspaces into our own backyard.  I'd like to have a yard set up for the kids to just go wild in--exploring.....and building.....and getting dirty.....and burning energy--ideally while I read a book or maybe nurse the baby on the patio :)

We've got big plans for putting in some shade loving/low maintenance plants back here as well to fill in the rest of the flower beds and I'd love to find some tree stumps to make a little path for climbing as well as some big pots to let the kids have their own little gardens to be in charge of.  David says he wants to grow tomatoes and daisies--which I think is very cute :)  I'd also like to have a bird bath and some kind of bird feeder to encourage our feathered friends to venture a little closer.   I'm so excited to finally be able to start turning some of my ideas into actual backyard reality!

We Love You Daddy.....Oh Yes We Do....

Chris is home and we couldn't be happier......

 ....well, maybe David could be a little happier..........

We've been showing him all of our favorite new spots......

....and yes, one of our favorite spots is a drainage ditch........what can I do, I'm outnumbered :)

Daddy also brought home "I'm sorry I was gone so long" presents for the boys.....light up, alien blaster space revolvers--with scopes...at least that's what he calls them.....of course they were an instant hit and I've got to say I think I prefer gun play to sword fighting.  At least when the boys are fighting with guns no one comes running to me because they've been *gasp* hit by a sword......

We also found these monsters on a bush near our house.  We think they are oleander moth caterpillars....mostly because they were infesting this oleander bush.....they are definitely the craziest caterpillars I've ever seen......