Halloween!

We have been in the Halloween spirit around here since October 1st. We have been reading Halloween books, making Halloween crafts, baking and eating pumpkin flavored everything, trying to decide on and then making costumes and wearing plenty of seasonly inspired pajames and clothes. 

James decided he wanted to be a swamp creature inspired by his Lego Monster Fighter swamp creature pretty early in the month. I had no ideas on how to make this happen and I was busy with their birthdays, birthday party and my half marathon up until October 20th, so it didn't leave a lot of time for costume making. I tried to sell James on an easier costume to make, but he was not interested. I enlisted the help of Jenny (costume maker extraordinare) and had a green ski mask sent to her and she made and sewed on fins for me. I found a green shirt and sweats at H&M and then painted on scales, sewed on netting I found at Hobby Lobby and attached some plastic seaweed we found at PetsMart. I made fins to match the ones on the mask and spent a couple of long nights with the hot glue gun and, Tada! A swamp creature! It turned out about 300 times better than I thought it would, James was thrilled with it and everyone who saw him totally knew what he was supposed to be. I consider it a total win.

Mac changed his mind approximately 18 times a day on what he wanted to dress up as. Not much goes with a swamp creature, so my dreams of coordinating costumes like past years were crushed. He mentioned an astronaut one day and we decided to go with that because we could borrow Zephyr's costume that Jenny made her when she was 3. He really wanted an astronaut helmet, so we splurged on that since the rest of his costume was free. 

The first time the boys got to wear their costumes was for the Halloween parade in Longmont last Saturday, one of my very favorite things all year. We met up with some friends and the boys loved walking down Main Street and seeing all the costumes.

2013 was definitely the year of the ninja. James walked the parade with his 3 best ninjas, John (blue), Colin (Green) and Riley (black). James was very pleased he did not see any other swamp creatures at the parade.

 We had our traditional pumpkin carving party at the Haley's house that night, complete with a costume contest for the kids. Not all the kids brought their costumes, so they used dress up stuff from the playroom.

 James was over the moon excited about his award for Scariest Costume. Don't tell him that all the kids got an award, he still thinks he won and had the best costume of the night.

Halloween was a school day for both boys. They got to wear yet another Halloween shirt and brought their costumes to change into later in the day for their class parties.

Tim got off work early and we all went to Central to watch James in the all school costume parade. It was cute overload and my favorite part was after all the grades marched out onto the field, they formed a circle and the whole 5th grade did a flash mob choreographed dance to Thriller. It was pretty amazing. Here is James with 2 of his school buddies. (how cool is Lego Batman?!)

We took the boys out at about 6 to trick or treat. We went across Longs Peak and trick or treated down Judson to 3rd and then took Vivian back to Longs Peak. We had so much fun. There are a ton of houses on those 2 streets that go all out with decorations and a lot of people have fire pits in the front of their houses and stay outside to pass out candy. It was like a big party and we saw a bunch of people we know. James will only trick or treat at houses that are completely over the top with decorations. A lit up jack-o-lantern and porch light on mean nothing to him. For James it is totally, "Go big or go home." So we skipped all the lame houses (like our own) who didn't turn their entire house into a Halloween extravaganza and only hit the houses that looked like this. Both boys got a lot of compliments on their costumes and they did a great job saying, "Trick or Treat!" and then, "Thank you! Happy Halloween!" when they got their candy. At most houses, Mac would add on, "Smell my feet!" while walking away, which he found wildly funny.

 We were home by 7 to sort candy and choose which 10 pieces they wanted to keep. All in all, a perfect Halloween day and a perfect month of festivities leading up to the actual holiday!

Pumpkin Patch

Yesterday Tim was in the OR, so he got home early and we all headed to the pumpkin patch as soon as James was done with school. The weather was amazing and the boys had a great time running around in the pumpkin fields. We missed prime pumpkin picking time, most of the ones that were left were starting to rot, but we were able to get a couple that looked pretty good. And really, I mainly love going to the pumpkin patch to get pictures, the pumpkins are just an added bonus :)

 My new favorite picture of me and my boys. Well done, Tim!

I love the fall!!

6 Year Old Interview

6

James is 6 today! (I wrote this post on James' birthday, but just had the time to upload all the pictures off my phone so I could post it) We had a great day celebrating our big 6 year old. He woke up to 2 mini figures (chicken suit guy and scarecrow) and birthday balloons at his seat. He opened his present from Mac (Monster Fighters mummy set) before school and we saved everything else until Tim got home.

James was thrilled to see it had snowed overnight so he had snow on his walk to school. Winter is totally James' favorite season and he loves everything about the snow.

Mac and I surprised James at school by bringing him Noodles and Company for lunch. Photobomb coutesy of James' friend, Mac, who is completely thrilled with the fact that James has a brother with the same name as him. He kept saying at lunch, "Raise your hand if your name is Mac!"

 We were "flocked" by Kelly and her cheerleaders sometime the night before James' birthday, so we had 30 pink flamingos in our yard the whole day of his birthday. Mac might have been the biggest fan of them, but James was pretty thrilled too. (This is a fundraiser the LHS cheerleading squad does. You can pay to flock someone's house and they are picked up the next night to flock someone else)

 My 3 and 6 year olds!

 James could hardly wait to open his gifts when Tim got home. He was barely through the backdoor before James was tearing into the first gift. He got a robot building kit and another Monster Fighters Lego set from Tim and I and a tooth fairy pillow from Jenny (he has 2 loose teeth right now, but hasn't lost any yet).

 James picked Red Robin for dinner so that he could eat a cheeseburger. He did NOT want to be sung to, but gladly took the free birthday sundae.

An update on my favorite 6 year old:

James has been loving school and is doing so well in all areas. I thought the transition to full days might be tough for him, but he adjusted immediately and has been doing great. We had teacher conferences a couple of weeks ago and they left me feeling so proud of him. The first thing that James' teacher said was how much she loved him and how creative he is. He is ahead of where he needs to be in all academic areas and he has great behavior and is a good friend, I couldn't ask for anything more! I always knew he was pretty great, but it is nice having those thoughts confirmed by his teacher :)

James is still a total Lego maniac. He can easily follow the directions and put together sets for ages 7+ by himself and also loves coming up with own creations. He has been collecting the little yellow caps to applesauce pouches and calls them his applesauce army and can sit there playing with them for literal hours. One of the best things about James is that I don't think he has ever uttered the words, "I am bored." He never has a shortage of ideas to keep himself entertained. James loves listening to audio books and has been listening to long chapter books and gets so involved and wrapped up in the stories that he won't come out of his room until he listens to an entire book. His latest favorite was Indian in the Cupboard. His reading comprehension is pretty amazing, he will ask really thoughtful questions about what he is listening to and can easily tell me all about the book when he is done with it. His reading is improving, but he rarely wants to read by himself. He would much prefer to be read to or listen to an audio book. His favorite books that he can read by himself are the Fly Guy series. James loves non fiction books and magazines and can listen to me read him facts about animals or history all day long.

One area that James seems to be ahead of the curve on is being embarassed of his parents. I have been volunteering at his school on Thursdays when Mac is at preschool and the first time that I told him I was coming he told me, "I have a better idea, why don't you just stay at home instead." Mac and I brought him Noodles and Company as a special lunch treat to school today, and I definitely think all of his friends were far more excited about me being there than he was. Luckily I came armed with a giant Rice Krispie Treat the size of his face, so he tolerated me eating lunch with him. I guess I am nowhere near as cool as I thought I was. I figured I had a few more years before he wouldn't want to be seen with me.

James loves riding his bike to and from school everyday and loves playing with friends. He is pretty adament that the girls in his class are not friends with the boys, but he still enjoys playing with all of the girls that he is friends with outside of school. When he isn't fighting with Mac, he is a pretty awesome big brother and watching him play with his brother is one of my favorite things in the World.

James still loves to be snuggled (at home) and sit in our laps when we watch a movie or read together. I am going to soak up every second of that because I think those days are numbered. I am so proud of the boy that James is growing up to be. I love watching him learn and grow and have a hard time believing that he is getting so old!

Building Birthday Bash!

We decided to go for another huge, joint birthday bash this year for the boys. October is a busy month, and it just wasn't going to work for me to plan and host two parties. Not to mention, they have so many friends who are siblings, that it just makes sense to have a joint party when there is already so much overlap in the guest list.  The only theme both boys could agree on was a tool/building party. Mac was pretty adament he wanted a poop party, but I think the ideas on Pinterest are fairly limited for that, so we went ahead with the building theme.

I have to give a huge shout out to Home Depot and Lowes, who pretty much sponsored our party. I was grasping for ideas on what to do to keep the kids entertained, and James said he wanted everyone to do a real building project. He loves going to the free kid workshops at Home Depot and Lowes on the weekends, so I called our local stores and asked them if they ever had any leftover projects. I was thinking they could sell me a bunch at a discount, but I was blown away by their generosity. Home Depot gave us 25 sets for each kid to build their own wooden tool box, and they gave us an entire box of paints and paint brushes and Home Depot paper plates. I had left a message for Lowes and once I scored so big at Home Depot, I forgot all about them. They called me the day before the party and told me to come by and pick up a box and it had a variety of projects, aprons and goggles for all the kids! So even though the party had so many guests, it was CHEAP! Despite Tim being convinced the party would be a total disaster, I am happy to say I proved him wrong and everything turned out much better than I could have ever hoped for! Here is the check in for the guests as they came into the backyard, they each got a hard hat and tool belt. 

 This is the table we had set up for the kids to build and paint their tool boxes at. Kelly's dad has an insane amount of tools and he gave me a huge box full to borrow for the party so we had plenty to go around.

 Hammering practice station with strofoam blocks and golf tees.

Little Legos were banned from this party, but we brought out the train table and all the Duplos for the kids to build with.

Hands down the best thing I did was pre-make all the kids lunches and have the "Construction Crew" lunch bags ready for them to grab at lunch time. It made things so easy, and despite Tim's major doubts, not one kid complained about their lunch. All the adult food was inside, so this kept the kids outside and parents didn't need to worry about making their kids a plate. The kids each had pretzels, an applesauce pouch, a juice box and half a sandwich.

The boys wanted cupcakes, so I made both chocolate and vanilla that we topped with tools and construction trucks. I got some old blueprints from Seth to use as a tablecloth. And I love how the free Home Depot plates totally color coordinated with the rest of the party ;)

 Part of the adult food table, I forgot to take a picture once the food was out. It was nothing fancy, just lunch meat and chicken salad with croissants and pretzel rolls.

My little Mr Fix-It. He was so excited that we got all the goggles from Lowes, they are a part of almost every dress up outfit he puts together.

We had a bunch of empty boxes, tape, stickers and markers on the driveway so kids could build towers or decorate them. The inflatable hammers came in handy for knocking over the towers and ended up being one of the most popular activties.

Tim topped off the sandbox with fresh sand and we put all our construction trucks in there for another activity.

The hammering practice was another huge hit, and then pulverizing the strofoam with the hammers won over and we had styrofoam everywhere. Luckily the leaf sucker made clean-up quick after the party, and even though the activity did not go as I planned, the kids had an absolute blast.

The big blocks at BellaVita were always James' favorite thing to play with at preschool, and Mac loves them too. I asked if we could borrow them for the weekend, and I am so happy the teachers didn't mind! The kids (and dads) had so much fun building huge towers with them in the yard.

 The tool box station was definitely a big hit too. Poor Tim stood hunched over like this for so long that he woke up sore today!

 Cute Chloe ready to build.

 Break time for the Construction Crew!

Kellen looked so grown up eating his lunch in all his worker guy gear.

 I am not going to lie, as soon as I planned the party theme, I thought of this shirt and knew Mac had to wear it. It was Kate's youngest son Will's last year, and I am so glad she let us borrow it. How cute does he look?!

 Singing to our two birthday boys!

 Anne got so many great pictures when I handed off my camera, I should have used her as the photographer for the whole party!

Mac and Stella Blue, they both look so big!

Almost the whole crew-there were 25 kids total!

 The Nichols crew. The personalities in this picture are so spot on, I love it.

After everyone left, I had Steve grab a quick picture of the 4 of us, I am so glad I did!

 I love my boys so much, and I love throwing parties for them! This one turned out so awesome, everyone had a great time and I think it was our best birthday party yet. My only hesitation in throwing big parties for the boys is that it usually means a lot of presents. Although getting presents is fun, no kid needs a huge pile of presents to open after all the excitement of a big party! Luckily, all my friends listened to my requests to just bring one gift and a bunch of people went in on a joint gift for the boys. So even after a huge crowd like we had, each boy had 4 presents and then had one big joint one to open. It was perfect, they were thrilled with everything and none of us are feeling overwhelmed by having 20 new toys ;) Last night James told us it was his best birthday party yet and told us thank you for throwing him such a fun party. That made it all worth it and I would do it again in a heartbeat. Thank you to everyone who helped us celebrate, it was a wonderful day and all four of us had a great time with our friends!