Oops...

Never sit on your mom's lap while she's eating a big sub from Jersey's Mikes.

Nature Hike (In Our Backyard)

On Friday, the weather was really nice, so I took the kids outside in the woods. We pretended we were explorers searching for treasures.

As you can see, neither kid has their "woods legs" yet. Isabella is much more cautious, by nature, so as soon as she would start slipping, she would sit down. Nicholas was running down the hills, and would do a full slip-on-a-banana-peel fall, roll over, get up, and start running again.

This is Taylor and Shea's fort that they made with friends the first summer that we moved in. (4 1/2 years ago) Still intact and quite impressive. It's a little tight inside, but I am sure Nicholas and Isabella will be able to continue building it sometime in the future to enlarge it and make it usable.

Here they are very impressed that they are capable of shaking a tree so hard that the entire thing moves. It was about an inch in diameter.

This is my favorite tree in our entire back yard. I know it's just a stump, but it was once a really huge tree. The tree was cut down a really really long time ago because the remains of the stump are very brittle and soft. I'd like to imagine that this tree was cut down maybe 100 years ago. And if the tree was that big 100 years ago, how long before that was it planted? Our development is new as of about 10 years ago, so why was this big tree cut down? I would love to find out the history of who lived on this land way back when.

This is in the side of our yard, and I am not even sure if this is our property or not, but the kids love to throw rocks and sticks in this creek and see how big of a splash they can make.

This was Isabella's first attempt at photography. Not too bad. She managed to get my entire body centered perfectly in the next picture. These don't look too different than the pictures I take. Is she that good, or do I take photos like a 3 year old?

After so many pictures, they were no longer willing to smile. They tried to give me their scariest faces.

And the winner is.......

New Favorite Purchase

Nick has been bugging me for weeks to buy flannel sheets for our bed. Our regular cotton sheets are just too harsh on his delicate skin apparently....So anyway....I found these great holiday sheets at Target over the weekend for $15 on any size! And they are really, really soft.

Of course, where ever I am, Tweedle-Dee and Tweedle-Dum are never far behind. The moment I had the bed made, it became playground central. Why is it so fun to jump on parent's beds? Even Taylor and Shea take running dives from the doorway of our bedroom onto our bed. No matter how much we yell at them, for some crazy reason, it's always worth the tongue lashing.

Holloween Festivites

Halloween started for us on Wednesday at Isabella's preschool, where they had their party. I was one of the "helpers" and had so much fun. They had a parade for the parents to show off their costumes. Then the kids got to play their games and decorate Halloween cookies with frosting and LOTS of sprinkles. 3 year-olds are really, really, really cute!

Saturday we went to my Brother-in-law and sister-in-law's house to trick or treat. We also were there to celebrate Heidi's birthday. Aside from my husband, Heidi hates to celebrate her birthday more than anyone I know. So, she will do anything she can to get out of a party. This year, she cleverly decided that since we would all be at her house anyway for trick or treating, then we could celebrate her birthday as an after thought.

Isabella as Sleeping Beauty

Nicholas as a pumpkin (This also happened to be Taylor's costume when she was 2. At the time, I was felling rambunctious enough to sew the girls costumes. I went to the fabric store and picked the easiest pattern I could find. For the average sewer, it probably would have taken an afternoon to make this simple costume. I think I worked on it for about a week, with SEVERAL errors, where I had to rip apart seams and re-do them. But when it was done, it looked really good, and I was really, really proud of myself.) So why is Nicholas wearing it? Because I waited until the last minute to buy costumes. The upside: 50% off all costumes at The Disney Store. The downside: No boys costumes under a size 8. Low and behold - Nicholas is a 13 year old pumpkin. But was very, very happy.

Anthony: Scary Skeleton

Joseph: Scary I-don't-know-what

Taylor did not trick or treat this year. She decided to walk with the little kids, and pass out candy at Joe and Heidi's house instead. Boo-hoo, my little baby - all grown up and not trick or treating anymore.

Shea and her friend Lauren met up with us later. They decided on their costumes all by themselves. Lauren was "Attacked by an artist". Yes, I know. I had the same puzzled look on my face that you do on yours. And Shea was an old lady, but also the artist whom attacked Lauren. Again, I know - puzzlement. They both looked really cute through.

The happy birthday girl and her boys.

The happy birthday girl and her hubby.

Joe sporting the new do. He LOVED his new hair, and continuously flipped his hair out of his face ALL NIGHT!