Thanksgiving at Grandpa's

November 26, 2009 - Thanksgiving at Grandpa's house in Wilmington. The boys were happy to see everyone!

They were also very happy to spend some time outside after the Thanksgiving meal.

I'm not sure exactly what they were looking at, but I'm sure it was cool.

Alex striking a cute pose. I just asked him what he was doing when I took this picture. He laughed and said "ELBOW."

Robbie trying to teach the boys how to play checkers, but they just wanted to "battle."

Trick or Treat and Boo at the Zoo.

October 31, 2009 - Boo at the Zoo was not as good this year as it has been in previous years. They had all of the treat stations in 2 locations and the people giving out treats wanted to give the parents a big sales pitch. And it was cold!

Nick has been scared of halloween decorations in the past. To make him feel a little more comfortable, I showed him in a store one day how you could go poke a scary decoration (like a skeleton) in the nose. So, here is Nick punching this little inflatable witch in the nose. I suppose I'm lucky he didn't punch any little girls dressed up as witches!

October 29, 2009 - Trick or Treat Night. The boys trick or treated for a little more than a block, but after that they said they wanted to go home to hand out treats to the other kids.

The funny thing was that on the way home from school on that day, they cried their little hearts out when they found out that we were giving candy out to boys and girls in our neighborhood. "DON'T GIVE AWAY OUR CANDY, Mommy!!!" was all I heard on the way home. So, I was really happily surprised when they said they wanted to go home to hand out candy.

They got all set up with their little lawn chairs and each of them gave each trick or treater a huge handful of candy. It was a lot of fun!

Halloween - a 2 week celebration.

October 29, 2009 - The school celebration! Started with a parade. Alex is the fireman, Nick is superman.
The outside part of the parade.

October 26, 2009 - After carving pumpkins.

October 24, 2009 - Michael's Halloween Party. Most of his 1st grade class and family members were invited. There were tons of kids!

Michael's cool outdoor inflatable haunted house. Katie is holding on to Nick.

October 24, 2009 - Trick or trunk at Nana's and Pop-pop's church. Alex is the batman in front. This is right before he ran towards me wailing because he didn't win the costume contest (that he didn't enter).

Nick is "too shy" to go inside.

Alex as Batman (on Boomeraction).

Alex gathering all of his batman tools.

October 13, 2009 - the second set of costumes. First, Nick was Bumblebee and Alex was Optimus Prime. Then they saw these costumes online, and Alex wanted to be the "Batman from Boomeraction" (a tv show) and Nick wanted to be "Batman on Cartoon Network." Nick's costume, however, was just too big for him. So, he finally ended up as Superman. I think next year we'll wait to buy the costumes so we don't end up with 3 for each boy.

Pumpkin Farm!

October 12, 2009 - Circle S Farm. Here we are on the way in to the pumpkin farm. The boys were excited. This was a field trip with their school.
The hay barn!! They have a barn filled with bales of hay and slides. Alex is a little tentative.

Nick jumps right in.

For the 5th time, Don't throw the hay!

It's a pile up!

Nick stayed inside the barn for about an hour and a half.

Alex went out to explore the kid maze. They also had a sunflower maze that we went through.

Waiting in line for the hay ride.

Alex looking for the perfect pumpkin.

Nick wants to find his pumpkin right now!

We had a blast!

The Rest of September

September 20, 2009 - Nicholas modeling the hat I knitted for him. He wears it like that almost every time he puts it on!

September 20, 2009 "Mommy! Did you know they had animals at the zoo??"

They even have stinky animals that you can touch!

The boys on one of the many metal sculptures of animals.

Still one of their favorites at the zoo - an indoor replica of a boat complete with panoramic video of the Florida everglades.

September 19, 2009 - Here's our newest family member, Sweetie Pie, .a.k.a "The little fluff ball."

Under the heading of "The box is always more fun to play with" here's the good time that was had when Alex got a hold of the Ultimate Dance, Dance Revolution for Wii box.

Nicholas, still not a big fan of rules, playing DDR by rolling around on the mat. Sadly, he was able to beat me by doing this.

September 13, 2009 - Playing at the little park next to our house.

Daddy's Birthday

September 7, 2009 - David's Birthday fell on Labor Day this year. Michael, Cassie, Aunt Jenn, Uncle Ryan, Nana, and Pop-pop all came over to celebrate. The kiddos are having a blast in the little bounce house we have in the backyard.

Cassie loves it! She stands her ground around the big boys, too.


David had a lot of help opening presents! Nick, Batman, Cassie and Alex were all eager to assist.

Mmmmm. Graeter's ice cream cake.

Home Improvements

August 30, 2009 - You might ask, "What idiot would give her 4 year old children paint brushes, buckets and deck paint?" Me. And because of this, 3 months later, I am still finding isolated flecks of brown deck paint in my hair.

Just look at the concentration! The dedication! This lasted for about 3 minutes. They painted about 80% of each of those posts and then that was it for the painting.

Silly smile on a silly boy!

First Day of School!

August 26, 2009 - First day of school! Well, actually, they went to that school for half the summer, and it is just Pre-K, but still. . . I mean, they have to wear uniforms and everything! And Alex even let me comb his hair.

Awwww, a brotherly hug!

August = Lots of Water Play

August 29, 2009 Alex getting sprayed by Pop-pop. Yes, he loves it.

August 15, 2009 - At Kiefer's (a friend from school) birthday party at Graeter's.

It's a fun place with fantastic ice cream!

Nick's turn to play with the magic bubbles.

The birthday boy!

August 15, 2009 Playing in our new pool when Nana and Pop-pop were over.

"Ahoy!" says the boy with the invisible sword.

It's not too cold anymore.

ACK!! It's a 4 eyed monster (3 eyes on the towel, one eye on the boy).

August 2, 2009 We played a lot in the water outside this summer. We still need to get the boys enrolled in swimming lessons, though, so we are sticking with the kiddie pools.