Catch Up

My mom left yesterday, so now my next rush of cleaning doesn't have to come until the day before Thanksgiving when my sister comes - just kidding.  I just thought I would take a few minutes to share our Halloween pictures.

October 25 Brenden's school had a Fall Carnival (it was a fundraiser - yes, another). The kids and I all dressed up and headed out for some fun.  We were in Houston for Halloween last year and bought the 2 little boys' costumes on clearance because who needs hot, fluffy costumes in Houston?

Brenden - aka Jack Sparrow (last year's costume, which we all still love)

My very scary fire breathing dragon named Ethan.

An equally terrifying and ridiculously cute lion named Nolan.Nolan getting his face painted.
The result.  Much less impressive than the tiger I saw, but perhaps a lion is much, much harder.Captain Jack tired of standing in line.
How Nolan plays toss to win prizes.
The final result of the evening.

Tell me, how am I EVER supposed to say "no" to this face?

We (all 3 of us - me holding Ethan) did the cake walk WAY too many times and never won a thing.  Brenden was so sad.  He didn't understand and his implant battery was dead so he had a really hard time with the cake walk (it is hard to know when the music is playing and when it stops if you can't hear it).  

Oct. 27

I almost wore this wig to the carnival, but decided against it.  Nolan decided he liked it - mostly because it has horns - especially suiting for him sometimes.

My mom arrived on the 29th.  Brenden had a big banner to hold for her in the airport that said "I love you Grandma!" but we were a few minutes late arriving and he didn't get to hold it up.  He forgot I was picking him up and I had to chase him down and get him off the bus before it got out of the school parking lot.  Grandma brought with her a Superman cape (which Brenden has claimed) and a Wonder Woman cape (which Nolan has claimed, but don't tell him it is a girl cape - it is red and yellow and no one remembers Wonder Woman anyway, right?).  The capes were my brother's and mine when we were little.  We had super heroes running all over the place.  My mom also brought a dracula/little red riding hood cape which I am sure will see its fair share of use.  But, the best thing she brought (besides herself) you will soon see...

October 31 we went to our church Halloween party.  They had a pumpkin carving contest, so we handed Brenden a marker and a knife and let him be creative - yes, he was supervised, but he did carve it all by himself.  (I am sure there are at least 3 people right now thinking I am a terrible mother for giving my 5 year old a knife.)  He has been drawing it out on paper for nearly a month to plan for exactly what he wanted his jack-o-lantern to look like and he was especially proud of how it turned out.  It does have a nose, which is hard to spot in the picture and very cute, realistically shaped ears.

The Jack-o-lantern's name is Carvr and he is "scary."

At church, they started with a costume contest.  

This is the nursery contest. You can see that to the left of Nolan (the lion) is Ethan's twin dragon (a little boy 4 days older than Ethan).

A close-up of the 2 dragons - Ethan is on the left.

THIS is the best thing grandma brought.  

Brenden in the costume contest - he flexed the ENTIRE time.

Brenden called my mom and asked her to bring this costume a few days before she came.  She only had room to bring 3 outfits because she had to fit this in, but it was a HIT!  It is a He-man costume she made for my brother when he was about the same age, but Brenden just thinks it is a "muscle man" costume.  I think it has seen more use than about any costume out there, but it is in great shape.  Brenden nearly refused to wear it because he was concerned people would laugh at him, but in the end, Brenden WON the costume contest!  (When he left the stage, they hadn't tallied the votes yet and he cried that he hadn't won.  I told him they had to count the votes before he knew and he waited, but rather impatiently.)  We had LOTS of compliments on the costume and everyone was SHOCKED when I told them my mom had MADE it - 25 years earlier for that matter!

Brenden and his winnings.  I don't see the intelligence in giving kids a whole bag of candy as a prize on Halloween, but hey, candy is candy to a kid, right?

Our missionaries and one of their investigators.  They even still have their tags on.

Our brief and very cold trick-or-treating.  

The boys had TONS of fun!  Nolan really caught on and he would say, "Thank you for the trick-or-treating" in his cute high pitched voice when the people gave him candy.  Brenden for the most part just stuck out his bucket.  At one house, I could see the person on the other side of the door waiting for Brenden to knock, but all he did was stand there and wait with his bucket out.  I kept saying, "Knock!  Knock!"  Finally the guy answered and said, "All of those muscles and you can't even knock?"  I think my legs were frozen solid by the time we finished.

Unfortunately, my mom missed out on any form of Alaskan fun.  There was not enough snow to snowmobile, but it was too cold to do anything outside.  We wandered down to the lake to see just how frozen it was, but missed out on any sight seeing with how early it is getting dark now.  My mom ended up really just cleaning my house and helping me try to make order of the chaos around here.  With everything torn up, I don't think she experienced a good representation of my house.  She vacuumed and scraped up versabond, helped me haul a huge load to the dump (oh, don't you worry, she has a picture she should be posting on her blog - I think that was the pivotal point of her visit), and just really helped me in more ways than she will ever know.  I have really missed her.

Brenden told my mom she had to stay until Valentine's Day and then she could go home.  He was very upset to find she was not going to listen to his demand.  On Sunday, Nolan insisted on bearing his testimony and as he and I were on the stand waiting, he point to my mom and said, "I love grandma SO much."  The first night my mom came, Nolan didn't want to go to bed because he was afraid grandma would go home.  He was constantly asking where she was and if she had gone home.  He kept close tabs on her.  Even Ethan figured out how to yell "Mah-maw" at her when she was ahead of him.

Other than Halloween, the only pictures I have to share are from October 28.  We had a moose right outside our basement window - within 5 feet of us!  By the time I ran to find the camera, he (or she?) was done munching and was headed toward the next snack.  

No, the trampoline never got taken down.