yay

good list

Happy Halloween!

The five little pumpkins were fired and are all lined up in Ohio ;)  They look so orange and cute!

HomeChef offered this recipe gem that brought a lot of giggles as my white cheddar ghosty taters melted into little pools... but I was too distracted eating the rest of the deliciousness out of the piping bag ;)

carn-eval

J's colleague and his family host an epic Halloween party every year.  I was looking forward to seeing this year's decorations for the Carn-eval party (the invite said join us under the big top because no one can hear you scream at the circus - hah!) We expected creepy clown and they delivered.  There were light up flashing guys lining the walkways, a very spooky ticket taker, an empty lion cage, and a stiff fortune teller.  The carnival smelled like fresh popcorn and treats! 

moms party

The Narhwal and Minion picked their favorite costumes this year after looking over many, many options.  The Moms party was on the perfect fall afternoon... The boys found plenty of treats and our Minion even found his Gru ;)

silly string

Quite possibly the highlight of all the Friday excitement for Keaton was getting picked as the "most spirited" first grader after representing well all week long for the fun spirit week themes.  He was so pumped up marching out there with his can of silly string to spray the principals (which was a reward for the school reaching their half way point in fundraising!)  Even Jack had some silly string hanging from his beanstalk after that madness!  

parade

The Spirit Parade is a fun tradition at their school!  Each class takes a turn parading around. Keaton was super excited to dress as his current favorite story book character, Jack and the Beanstalk - Fe Fi Fo Fum!  The 4th grade was all Virginia Industries and Aiden's peanut costume worked out well - everyone knew what he was = success!

class party

Right after the Run for Rocky ended I headed straight to Aiden's fall party (his teacher just packed everything into one day so the fourth grader were already ready for the spirit parade later that day in their Virginia Industry costumes - You see Aiden in his beloved peanut costume, along with his buddies dressed as coal, horses, turkeys, govt workers, tourists, etc).  They made slime (a hit of course!) and leaf masks, ate food dipped in so many yummy things, and played a bunch of games in the perfect outdoor weather.

rocky highlights

Run for R O C K Y from LB on Vimeo.

run for rocky

Our big school fundraiser fun run was Minion themed this year.  There are a 'minion reasons to run' to earn money for the school!  The very pumped up kids ran nearly 40 laps cheered on by Rocky and the Minion. The most exciting addition this year was J dressed as Rocky!  Having your dad as Rocky is pretty awesome and J deserves a huge daddy spirit prize!  He was out there sweating it out in that costume for over three hours for all three rounds of the run!   

tidbits

This guy lost his third tooth and his first one on the top - It made a huge space waiting for a big tooth to come on down. The bottom two have some nice looking teeth lining up and pushing right into place.

These sweet flowers from my husband on Sweetest Day was a good way to make me miss him less and brighten up the day!

Our favorite Spirit Day this year was definitely Wacky Sock Day!  I found these noodle sock for that noodle lover and that crazy monkey sock covered in bananas for that banana intolerant minion - he loves irony ;)

good list

Found some good Halloween shirts thanks to Lizzie - Keaton's highlights the Franks - a band shirt ;)

The pumpkin pancake is missing his nose, but Aiden found it!  ha!

That mustache is one of Aiden's favorites lately... he wears it so casually, walking to the bus stop, reading the funny pages before voice lessons... as you do. ;)

camp preview

Where was Aiden in all those weekend adventures you might be wondering?!  Not only was J out of town, but Aiden joined his buddy at a Fall Reunion at his summer overnight camp.  It is set up as a preview weekend for potential new kids to get a real feel for camp by visiting for one night.  They pumped them up with a Halloween Bash and tons of treats! The first thing out of Aiden's mouth when we picked him up was that they had a pudding station where you could add oreo crumble, and actual sugar - because that doesn't sound over the top?! So, my dirty kid arrived home with a giant kool aid stained smile ready to go to summer camp! Keaton and I missed him terribly, so I was sorta hoping he wouldn't enjoy it, but knew that he would... I just kept wondering what he was up to and checking the weather there since that was the only thing I could think of that would help me know what was going on for him - it was beautiful btw! He joined horse back riding twice and rock climbing wall activities. He loved his horse Alvin and I think riding was his best camp experience overall (since the pudding laced in sugar actually did give him a stomach ache "just like you said it could mom!" - good lesson!)  Check out that Narwhal and his creepy jester buddy at the monster mash!

bioluminescence

This Spooky Science Creatures of the Black Lagoon workshop was all about bioluminescence. Keaton was so pumped to glow just like the mutant glowing fish. He made some bioluminescent creatures out of goop and tentacles. He loved the bio cave with the glow paint on his face. It was a fun way to learn about all these cool creature features and the twilight zone of the ocean.

pumpkin playground

Captain Dangle Tooth and I made a trip to the Pumpkin Playground where his top tooth was so ready to come out. It waited until the next morning which was pretty remarkable given all the running around, sliding, tractor riding and twisting he did! This was his third loose tooth, and he already looks like a jack o lantern this year.  He made a new friend and they played on the pirate ship and airplane for hours.  His mom was really nice and I hope we'll get a chance to meet up with them again sometime.

pep rally

The Run for Rocky pep rally fundraising kick off was minion madness with emojis to represent prizes and fun things they can help earn money for the school to purchase - technology, field trips, spirit nights!  This crazy group of moms danced around for three pep rallies in a row.  It was a three hour workout!  The kids came home from school all pumped up and ready to win some prizes.   Rocky revealed the prizes Oprah style and you'd think by the cheering we just gave all those kids a car - youuu get a car! ha!

castle

Once a year, this old mansion near Dupont Circle opens their doors to children and their families for their Kids in the Castle day.  The space is full of very rich furnishings and fun bits to search for on a photo scavenger hunt.  The smiley guys were excited to earn a kazoo and funny snake. I was happy to have brunch down there and enjoy the peek inside a spot you don't normally get to see.

hale farm

Visiting Hale Farm on one of their Fall Festival Days... The highlights were visiting with Johnny Appleseed, painting pumpkins, and finding Oviatt history... 

market

Cottage pies and popsicles at the farmer's market out by Liz's house... The cool hand crafted marble runs were neat to check out.

good list

The boys were signed up for a great pottery class to make some pumpkins!  Didn't they turn out so adorable?!  (Left to right: Aiden, Lauren, Cameron, Keaton, Liz) Can't wait to see a picture of them all dry and fired.

Aiden testing out the light for some family pictures during a super warm fall visit...

Cameron enjoying his new bat boy glasses after being "booed" with a bucket of fun stuff arriving at his door ;) from a secret friend.

tidbits

Lotsa time playing on the back deck and the nice flat driveway at Liz's house... Aiden may have spent most of his visit being wrestled by his cousin buddy ;) Big highlight was littlest cousin buddy walking around everywhere...

family pics

Getting ready for some family shots with some fall color in the background...

outtakes

Saving the shots of Liz's adorable family for her holiday card... but here are some attempts at cousin buddy shots... some serious outtakes in that batch... these are probably as good as it gets ;)

downtown

Can you believe that these pictures were taken inside a grocery store in downtown Cleveland?!  It's true! And they have wine samples ;) The cousin buddies enjoyed some coloring books which the adults enjoyed those treats. The boys also got to go on a shopping spree with Gran - thx!

cleve

Oh, Cleveland was showing off it's best on our quick trip to town (after our original trip was cancelled because Aiden and I got pretty sick - eek, so bummed to miss the 20th reunion for the neighborhood high school I would've attend and catch up with some really old friends, but oh well... Maybe 25 years will work out ;)

This Edgewater Cle sign was hopping with a variety of people (including Homecoming groups ;) It is a pretty spot.

good list

Hat man! Sometimes he gets a new slouchy orange hat and sometimes he wears three hats at the same time.

That weird egg taco thing was all over my ad network (they must know how much I like eggs!) and despite not having taco bells around here I got one on the road to Ohio - so surprisingly good!

This crazy eyed guy with the last ice cream truck driveby of the season! I think that is Sonic the hedgehog smeared all over his face and teeth - eek!

would you rather

Sadly, this is the last set of would you rather questions I asked Aiden and therefore, Keaton's last set as well. I could cry just thinking about how I will have less and less to document as they get older.  But in the meantime, I'm going to keep my quick draw on the camera and keep track of as many memories as I can.  I look back on Aiden at Keaton's exact age (June 2014) and can hardly believe how quickly time flies!  I can't even believe how grown up I thought they were back then... 

Keaton fine tuned his bike riding lately and can pretty much brake safely on his own now - so the nearby trees and his ankles are safe. He continues to love little kids and especially babies. He gives his cousin buddy Austin his biggest smiles. The two bottom teeth he lost this month were a result of lotsa wiggling work. He's on to a top tooth to get that generous tooth fairy to come back! I'm not sure there is a kid more proud when his teacher assigns him Star of the Day for some really good writing work.

Have sunglasses or goggles built in to your eyes?

Goggles because then I would be able to swim a lot without having to put on my goggles

Ride a bike everywhere or swim everywhere?

Swim everywhere because then if I had eyeballs built in with goggles it would be really easy!

Be a pizza delivery guy or a postman?

Pizza delivery guy because that would be way easier than a delivery man

Eat all your food off a skewer or melted into soup?

Off a skewer because it would be pretty good for most foods but kinda hard to put some foods on

Write a joke book or a piano music book?

Piano music book because then I could tell Aiden to play all these songs everyday

Would you rather... Be a mixel lego guy or have magnatile magnets in your teeth? 

Mixel lego guy because I like legos and mixels!

Never eat anything or never drink anything? 

Never drink because I think I could live doing that!

shakin

Tap, tap, tap, is this thing on?!  Somewhere between one kid turning six and a half, another about to turn T-E-N, theater practices, travel, and the typical busy photo editing fall... I lost track of my blogging routine.  

What's shaking?!  A bunch of random smiles floating around on my phone camera roll waiting to be posted. I'm going to get on it and try to get back on track with this decade long blogging habit... 

Here are some smiles at the playground with bellies full of milkshakes...

animation

Animation studio class at the Disney Store where these guys sketched out some cute Mickey Mouse drawings...

first tooth

My baby lost his first tooth yesterday!  I'm going to miss those baby chicklet teeth!