2012 PARTY-GOERS

The flamingo (Cora) and the Cheshire Cat (James) testing out the photo booth before the party-goers arrived. We left the gate up because we didn't want any of the little ones getting into the breakables on the stove or bumping heads on the brick.

Starting with the Costume Contest winners... 

Most Unique: Steampunk family (Cari, Mike, Bridger, and Jacob). They also won  for Best Theme, but we gave the prize to the next in line to spread the wealth, since our prizes of candy and Halloween accessories are well sought after...

Best Theme was then actually a tie. Best Theme #1: Salt and Pepper and their little chef (Olivia, Lauchlin, and Grady)

Best Theme #2: Curious George and the Man in the Yellow Hat (Violet and Mikey). Tan Mom (Christy) came in second place for Most Unique.

Most Cumbersome: the "fat" bunny (William, who is Azure's uncle visiting from out of town, thus he was dubbed "Uncle Bunny" for the evening). Pictured here with a unicorn (Amy), a bear (Seamus), a witch (Azure), and a skyscraper (Jason), who also had an honorable mention for Most Unique. Since the bunny had to rush home with the bear, the tied Best Theme groups each took a bag of candy home.

Wendy (Christina), Tinkerbell (Lauren), Captain Hook (Al), and Peter Pan (Will)

The flamingo joined the Penguin (Sandy), because birds of a feather stick together

A jester (Oliver), a tiger (Rohan), and the zookeeper (Keri)

The Candy Family: M&Ms (Ned and Mary Beth), a Hersey's Kiss (John), and a Hersey Bar (David)

The Superheroes: Elastagirl (Sophie), Clark Kent/Superman (Alex), Nacho Libre (Leo), and Spiderman (Manu)

And just for fun, here's an outtake of us trying to recreate our pose from Boo at the Zoo. Cora was for some reason not in the mood to be hung upside down, and in rebelling, grabbed my hem and hoisted. Luckily, I was wearing tights AND shorts underneath, and Jay was able to help me out...

Thanks again everyone, we highly enjoyed your creativity this year!

4TH "ANNUAL" HALLOWEEN BASH

There are a few parties we look forward to all year long: our kids' birthday parties, Turducken, 4th of July, and our (now annual) Halloween Bash (previously held in 2007, 2008, and 2011 - we had a couple busy years with newborns in the house in 2009 and 2010...). We had a great time again this year and we're so appreciative of our friends' enthusiastic costume efforts and culinary skills. As usual, I took a LOT of photos (80, to be exact, and I would have had lots more had I not had children or infants or food or drink in my hand most of the night), so here are about a quarter of those, with captions as deemed necessary by me. If you missed it this year, we sure hope you can come next year! We strive to get bigger and better with experience, and throwing this party is a LOT of fun!

S'mores favors and kiddie favors

I didn't think to take photos of all the Halloween-themed food contest entries, but there was Mummy Brie (which was the contest winner - absolutely delicious, and prepared by ex-chef Mikey), pumpkin bread, pumpkin cobbler, pumpkin seeds, apple dip, Petrified Leprechaun Vomit, cheese eyeballs, Zombie Gut Dip, Worm Burgers, Swamp Dip, Snot Dip, Brain Dip, Spicy Blood Dip, Pumpkin Poo, Bat Wings, Severed Fingers, Dirt Cups, Lady Fingers, biscuits, Mummy Dogs, Dragon Eyes, and cupcakes (of course). 

Manu and James attacking the graveyard ghosts with glow sticks

Swinging by the bonfire

Steampunk Mike and Steampunk Cari enjoying the flames (and brews)

Nacho Libre (Leo) striking a pose

Cora loving on Mr. Mike

Clark Kent (Alex) and Mary Beth deep in conversation. I had to post it because I love the look on John's face!

Steampunk Jacob trying to look serious. Not an easy task with chocolate pudding on your lips!

Ned tickling the giggles out of John

Wendy (Christina) and her sleepy little Tinkerbell

The Brewmasters (who provided 5 gallons of a blood-red homebrew for the party)

Homebrew is awesome. Definitely looking forward to Jay finishing school so that he has more time for extracurricular activities such as brewing and photography!

Peter Pan (Will) and Tinkerbell (Lauren) taking a break

Curious George (Violet) was all smiles, all night long

Cheers!

Sweet as candy David proving to me that Cora isn't the only climber in town

Steampunks in the graveyard

The Mad Hatter. I mean, the Cheshire Cat.

And of course, we forced everyone to pose in front of the mantel (our photobooth this year). Those pictures will be in the next post (since there are about a dozen of them)!

5K FRIDAYS!

Since our virtual 5K race went over so well back in early August, we had a request to continue the trend. There actually aren't that many virtual races out there, and that's OK, since we didn't really RACE anyway. More like we completed a good workout with a large group of friends. So we figured Halloween was a great excuse to plan another one, and decided to keep it on a Friday after work, as that worked really well last time. Hence the creation of "5K Fridays", which we hope to do once every couple of months. Today's run followed the same 5K loop at the military park as last time, was run immediately after work, included some new faces, and ended with a boisterous dinner at our favorite restaurant instead of a park playdate (because it was COLD, and the sun is setting so much earlier these days). In fact, it was so unexpectedly cold that most of the kids stayed home and our planned group of attendees was short by 4 adults. Those of us who braved the chill had a good workout and the evening events were a great way to kick off the weekend! Thanks for coming out guys!

Not pictured: myself (photographer) and Al (who arrived late, yet was still able to catch us before we got to the end!)

HARVEST FEST 2012

Today was the kids' Harvest Fest celebration at school, which includes treats and cakes and sugary drinks and a bouncy house and crafts and game stations. When I arrived at 11am, hoping to snag some cute pictures (and pizza), the little ones were already being herded inside for lunch and naptime. Glad I took a few photos this morning!

I asked James to show me his Batman pose. The boy definitely knows the difference between a Batman and Spiderman pose!

I had told Cora to get dressed while I took photos of James. Apparently she thought the wings needed to go on before ANYTHING else. Note the undies at least making in at the #2 priority spot...

Fully clothed and ready to be a butterfly fairy. I DO believe in fairies! (And yes, I had to tie the wings on so that they didn't slip off.)

Preschool Halloween parties are FULL of superheroes and princesses...

I made Pumpkin Poo favors for the kids to share with their buddies.  So I suppose they ate greasy fake cheesey poofs in addition to all the candy and cake today.

As soon as lunch was over, Cora laid down for nap, tutu and all. She was asleep before I made it out of the room.

STILL LOVING THE HALLOWEEN SHIRTS

PRIMARY MONTESSORI CLASS SCARECROWS

I'm glad we're not the only ones that went the 2D route. Poor James suffers from a mom who lacks creativity... and remembering to start school projects earlier than the night before they're due.

SOMETIMES

At the park this afternoon, as I was swinging James, I was watching Cora climb around on the play set. She was so cute, singing to herself and dancing around, that I smiled at James and said "She's such a sweetie pie, isn't she?" His reply (after tilting his head to the side and thinking about it for a couple seconds)? "Sometimes."

ALICE AT THE ZOO

Tonight we went to the annual Boo at the Zoo event and had a great time. Of course, we spent the majority of the day putting our costumes together. There is no doubt that Team Lindsay is BIG into Halloween!

Alice in Wonderland characters: a flamingo croquet stick (who actually LIKES to be held upside down), Alice (when James saw me come downstairs dressed like this after nap he said "Uh oh Mama, you're gonna fall down the hole!"), the Mad Hatter (indeed!), and the Cheshire Cat (who happily wore those pink and purple striped jammies and pink glasses for hours, and thought he was the coolest thing ever)

Team Sanchez met us there, and Manu was the cutest little Spiderman!

(Don't mind Cora looking short, she was mid-jump)

Little Leo wore James' parrot costume (from when James was 7-months-old, though it fit Leo like a charm!) and was just absolutely adorable walking around with the big kids! He reminded me of Blue from the movie Rio, who was too scared to fly so he walked everywhere.

The whole crew!

There was carousel riding...

...and basketball playing...

...and animal exploring...

...and show watching...

...some attempts at photos with Halloween props...

...and definitely a little madness!

We skipped the haunted hayride this year (we asked, and just as I remembered from last year, it was scary - and rated for kids aged 10 and up), but hit everything else available (except face painting). The train was a great way to end the night and calm the kids down a bit after all the excitement inside the zoo. We didn't leave the party until 8:30pm, well past the kids' bedtime, yet we still drove up to Five Guys for burgers and the kids stayed awake most of the way home. While we waited in the car for daddy to get our dinner (and while I changed the kids into their jammies - note to other parents, ALWAYS bring the jammies if you plan to be out late, it's a life saver!), James told me "I had a REAL good time mommy! Thank you!" Definitely another successful October family adventure! 

Love my mad man!

MY BIRTHDAY "PERSONAL DAY"

Thank you all for the well wishes today - I did indeed have a great birthday!

I decided a couple days ago to take a personal day, so after dropping the kids at school, I hit the gym for a short run (which was cut even shorter than planned due to shin pain - NOT happy about that part, though I did enjoy my 9:00 miles in my new shoes with my new Garmin!) and some lap swimming (it takes me half an hour to swim a half mile - that seems so ridiculously slow to me!). And some spa soaking... Then it was off to the salon for a cut and color, followed by a short massage (which definitely made my legs feel better!), followed by a yummy lunch date with my Jaybird. I then had just enough time to hit the store for more Halloween supplies before picking the kids up from school. They seemed worn out from yesterdays excursion, so we skipped the park and went home to paint and craft instead (they both have Halloween school projects due tomorrow anyway). After his class, Jay came home to pick us up and we all went out for Mexican food at our favorite restaurant. We ended the night with presents and family phone calls (and Cora throwing a fit that lasted 3.5 hours... she didn't go to sleep until 11:30pm!), and I'm pretty sure I've started a new annual tradition for myself. Every mama needs at least one mental health day per year, right?

And in case you're wondering, I was serenaded 4 times today. This may have been the cutest version: