Trick or Treat!

Trick or Treat, smell my feet....give me something good to eat! :)

That little refrain was on our oldest "punkins' mind all day yesterday, despite a very busy start to our Halloween day. It was a grand day and we were so happy to see no rain! Our temps were cool, but the wind virtually disappeared just after dinnertime and left us with a clear, bright "spook-tacular" eve. And a full moon to boot.......

Lauren's costume (glitter vampire) vision turned out to be such fun and we girls had a blast with her make-up and accessories. There were lots of layers underneath, but we managed to keep the heavy coat off and the cape on! She also was beyond thoughtful of her baby brother, making certain that he too received treats all along the way and waiting patiently for him to catch up when she dashed ahead.

Tyler was dressed just perfectly for the weather as a sweet penguin and was enthralled with every aspect of Halloween. He relished toddling around our town's square for our early trick or treating and later LOVED trying to keep up with Lauren as we visited our friends and neighbors on the block. We had wondered if he might be fearful, but that (thankfully) just didn't happen; and certainly he received plenty of attention from all sorts of ghouls, ghosts and goblins, both big & small! Boo!

Then today as we "fell back" and enjoyed the gift of the extra hour, we busied ourselves with costume #2 for Miss Lauren as she had a Halloween party to attend at a friend's home. She chose an angel costume, as she was anxious to match her AG doll. Of course she a grand time!

Below are MANY pictures (yes, once again! LOL ) & I'm going to keep my comments brief, as I am SO anxious to pop on over to YOUR blogs to sneak peeks at your sweet 'punkins'. I hope you all had a thrilling Halloween and weekend!

My 3 pumpkins.........

Oh gosh, but the teeth & make-up sure make her look older..........I really almost had to sit down afterwards! She, of course, LOVED it all and kept us smiling all night long!

Our traditional photo of Lauren & Lexi......our furry devil! ;)

Our Baby Penguin............

Our Baby Penguin giggling.....he loved his own webbed feet!

Ready to go trick or treating........

Penguins on parade....... yes, he really did waddle in that suit! LOL

I love the movement of her cape and her expression.....she had a blast entertaining us with her "moves". :)

Just Angelic................

She turned to walk towards the woods and just as I snapped this, a shaft of light pierced through the trees........to me she's always a source of bright light and joy.

The Tale of a Pumpkin

& a pint sized lion on the loose! :)

Oh gosh, more & more pictures to share! I keep promising myself that I'll pen one of the more 'substantive' posts that have been rambling around my brain of late, but with all the Fall splendor and family fun its hard to resist sharing these glimpses of our recent days! And the days just seem to melt away........

As promised we did venture out again to our local pumpkin farm(still in search of that ideal pumpkin!) and while it was cloudy we did enjoy the milder temperatures. This little farm is so rustic and was virtually empty the afternoon we visited. Both of our kiddos fell in LOVE with THE very biggest pumpkins they offer.....*gulp*........ but then I'm getting ahead of myself!

I think the photos will tell the story best of all, but wanted to add that an awfully sweet lion prowled about today and attended his first Halloween party ever with our buddies at story time. We have 2 costumes for baby this year as both Mimi's bought one last year while we waited for Tyler to come home. Thankfully we have plenty of events to try them out and Tyler truly worked the costume while he dashed about growling "grrrrrrrrrrrr" and flashing his feline claws! (Flashed some wickedly cute dimples too! )

We WILL be back soon with Halloween moments and I just cannot wait to see all of your ghosts, goblins and cuties too!

The cutest King of the Jungle EVER!!

Yippee......snagged 'em both (together) AND they are both looking........makes a grown Mama swoon!

Tyler loved Daddy's hat.......Daddy's school celebrated Spirit Week for Drug Awareness and it was hat day!

Our family found a sweet pumpkin among this bunch......but that didn't stop our two goblins from dreaming MUCH bigger orange.....

What's a fella to do with no way to escape?? :) Grin broadly of course!

Our Little Miss selected this pumpkin as her first choice........a mere $50 plus prize! At least it doubles as a small sofa. :0

Yup......Tyler found one too.....a whopping $75 dollar pumpkin to love on. Huh? When oh when did pumpkins become so pricey? Fortunately our champagne wishes kiddos happily settled on a much smaller gem! :)~

Look Ma, no hands..............

And we met a few nefarious characters milling about........amazingly even creatures of the night brush and floss their pearly whites! ;)

And when at last it was time to head for home, our littlest 'punkin' needed a ride from a hat wearing Daddy. This pic actually squeezes my heart just a bit.......and I love how tiny our little man looks in Daddy's protective arms!

Wishing everyone a safe, dry, mild and "spooktacular" Halloween!!!

Our Lil' Pumpkins

Our lil' pumpkins and plenty of 'em! Or rather, plenty of photos of them both from our wonderful day at the pumpkin farm earlier today!

Y'all already know that I have been grumbling about this nasty weather business but today was bright, sunny ( where have you been sunshine??) a bit breezy, yes, but mild enough to visit our favorite farm & visit we did!! This was our first visit as a family of four and no matter how many "firsts" we celebrate, it truly never gets old. At this time last year we were still tumbling head over heals with Baby Pei-En and had only had his referral for just 2 months. I remember well last year as we visited the pumpkin farm, thinking that it would be our last time just the 3 of us and imagining how next years' visit might be different. LOL Well, it certainly was different and keeping up with two eager and excited lil' pumpkins sure kept us hopping and it sure kept us smiling too!

We have been visiting this particular farm for years and I think only missed one year when Lauren was just one. Over the years we have visited others, but always this one calls us back. We love that it has retained some of our same favorite activities and while it has gotten a bit more commercial since our first visit years ago *sigh* you can still see the owner's family dog running through the crowds and count on plump orange pumpkins a'plenty! And the pie......oh, the homemade pie.....

Lauren loved the pony ride best and was an absolute peach with Tyler. She was the first to make certain that he saw all the attractions that she loves best and held his hand when he was uncertain about the corn maze. Tyler......well, yep, he loved it ALL, but the petting zoo probably enchanted him the very most. I have NO pictures of the kids with the animals cuz Little Man has no fear and trying to keep little fingers safe is a full time job! :) I only truly got nervous around the turkeys and peacocks.......they were a tough group of feathers and several of them sported some unsettling gleams in their birdie eyes. :)~ Tyler made us all laugh as he tried to match up the animals with their "sounds". He got the cow, pig and sheep just right, but I'm pretty sure the goats, bunnies and ducks were a bit put off with his eager, loud and joyful, "cocka...dooooo, doooooooooo, deee" aimed in their direction! :)

And while none of our pics were just perfect ( not easy with two ya know! ) we had a nearly perfect day! Once again WAY too many for one post, but I know 2 eager Mimis who would be sorely disappointed if I don't share as many as possible!! :) Finally, I LOVED seeing all the pumpkin farm outings on so many of your blogs and simply can't get over how many darling lil' pumpkins there are out there in bloggyland!

Our two pumpkins (actually together in the SAME pic!!) enjoying the corn crib!

Lauren helped Tyler run through the corn husk tunnels ~ I love the pure joy on their faces!

Not sure he liked the prickly straw, but had to show the post hat hair!! LOL Defies gravity!

This is for my bloggy friends who like to see(me) Mama once in a blue moon too! And for my Mom, who I know will be looking! I so wanted a family of 4 pic. but Scott wouldn't pose! :(

Lauren taking a ride on beautiful Spirit!

She loved that pony soooo much......our little horse whisperer.

I just hate that Lauren's face was covered, but had to share this........I love those Big Sis protective hands holding on to Tyler and I love his obvious joy at being hugged by Big Sis even more!

We have pictures of toddler Lauren on these tractors too! One lil' pumpkin almost too big to ride and one lil' pumpkin just getting started! That makes me nostalgic for so many reasons!

And this one......we tried so hard for that classic "pumpkin shot" but he was just way too busy to sit still for too long! Who can blame him? You can see that he's already planning his escape and merely tolerating one more picture! LOL He also called the pumpkins "balz" all day long! :)

Ironically we left with NO extra pumpkins today. Lauren simply didn't spot "THE ONE".....

Luckily our weather is supposed to be gorgeous for the next few days and we have one final trip planned to a local farm ~ so hopefully I'll have a few more shots to share soon and who knows? Maybe we'll get that family shot and elusive "pumpkin shot" yet! :)

Snow White and the Seven........

Our Sweet Snow White Halloween circa 2005

Boo & boo hoo!! :) Gosh, but it has been chilly here, following a long stretch of summer like weather. A bit over a week ago we could have been found in shorts and sandals, but alas the North wind has found us and this weekend has been brrrrrrrr............unusually cold! And while we are fortunate to be able to snuggle in when we aren't dashing to soccer games and school events, it has added a wrinkle to our usual Autumn and Halloween festivities. As of yet we have not had a day fit for our traditional apple picking or pumpkin hunting........OH, Great Pumpkin, where are you?? :) We even were forced to slink into our supermarket and select a store pumpkin to adorn our lonely front porch..........crazy talk! And while the decorations are up and the kids have donned their Halloween tees, our date with the pumpkin patch will await another weekend. Until then and cuz the days have been zipping by so quickly, I thought I would take y'all back a few years to glimpse the sweetest little Snow White that ever lived and peek at our version of her "seven dwarfs".

Wishing you all happy pumpkin plucking and balmier days!!

Snow White

Sleepy

Bashful ;)

Happy

Happy (2) :)

Sneezy

Grumpy ( and a bit sleepy)

Grumpy (but mostly silly!)

Doc

And no way is this Mama gonna have a "Dopey", so instead I'll share a pic of my "darlings" taken today. I love how joyful they both look and its a pic. of them TOGETHER, where both are sort of looking forward! lol AND we managed some play time outdoors, despite the chill!! Yay!!

And They Lived Happily Ever After.............

Tyler Time!!

While Lauren has been in the spotlight, our little man didn't sit by the sidelines. :) I had intended to share 14 things about Tyler on my "7" post, but that reflection went another way ~ so I'm taking some creative license while he still IS 14 months and doing a bit of catch-up too!

14 Tidbits about Tyler:

1. Tyler still LOVES LOVES music; he will stop whatever he is doing to boogie if a tune catches his ear. He also likes to sing along!

2. Tyler is chatty. :) A few new words include: "bye-bye", "Bella"(our neighbors dog....lol ) "up" and "NO NO". Just this week he put two words together and usually it takes the form of, "Mama, MOE"( more ) & sadly "No , Mama" :)~

3. Tyler can find his nose, head, feet/toes, tummy, ears & mouth.....and he loves to show off his new skills! :)

4. At his last check-up he remained at the 90% for height and the 50% for weight. Most of Tyler's weight in his adorable cheeks & thighs. *giggle*

5. Tyler adores books (faves include, Where is Baby's Belly Button?, Brown Bear, Brown Bear & Elmo Loves You ), balls & trucks! He hoots & goes "vroooooommm" when a car passes us outside.

6. Tyler loves his big Sis & her bedroom is his favorite room in the house! LOL

7. Tyler loves to try new foods but likes constant change in his menu, otherwise known as, "Mama Buffet". His favorite stand byes are yogurt, apple chunks, Elmo crackers & pasta.

The remaining 7 are in picture form with one brief commercial interruption. ;)



8. Tyler loves to empty his toy baskets and wastes no time filling them right back up (with himself) ! LOL
9. Our little ham relishes putting on silly hats and entertaining the family. Its also understood that Mama will take him right to the mirror for his close scrutiny of said hat! AND look at that dimple........the home of many kisses!

We interrupt this post for a brief public announcement:

"Hair Apparent": As Anne Marie noticed in my last post, Tyler got a haircut recently! I didn't blog about it as it fell during our crazy busy time ~ it was also very traumatic for the both of us. He didn't like the experience AT ALL and it took every ounce of my Mama skill to keep him (and me) from sobbing. The hairstylist also noted that our baby boy has THE worst set of cowlicks she has ever seen. AND when it was all said & done, I didn't care for the initial cut, but his hair grows FAST and I do love it now. The above & below photos are the pre-cut shots. :)

This photo was probably the ONE shot that prompted our trip to the salon. That & because Daddy was tired of folks commenting on our "beautiful girl". *grin* Let me just say that Tyler is ALL BOY & we love it!

We now return to our regularly scheduled post:

10. Tyler (pre hair cut) loves riding like the wind on his blue horse!

11. With "La La" at school, Tyler has turned his entertainment skills and affections towards Lexi. As you can plainly see, she is delighted. ;) He also adores our neighbor's dog and will pucker up his mouth a block away in preparation of giving her a big ole kissy!

12. Tyler (post hair cut) loves his wheels! Any wheels & all wheels will do!

13. LOVES LOVES being outside. He will stay out for HOURS and cries when its time to come back inside. He melts my heart! He also loves his new sneakers and brings them over right after breakfast as a hint its time to head outdoors. LOL

14. Tyler loves to have fun. If you have ever heard the phrase, "make a joyful noise"........that's Tyler. He loves to laugh.....loves to make us laugh......and can almost always be coaxed out of a grumpy mood with tickles and hugs!! He is such a happy little guy and makes us smile each day!