happy halloween

we had a fun halloween this year. dahlia was so cute saying "today is going to be the best day ever" when she woke up.

miles had to work late so i took the kids to orange county after mason got out of school. we did not go to the church fair this year. we didn't have time since it was a school day. we met christina and zena at my mom's house for trick or treating. mason dressed up as a clone trooper, dahlia was ariel, and connor wore his skeleton pajamas. he didn't want to wear his spiderman pajamas. zena dressed up as jack skellington.

connor was so funny trick or treating. he kept saying "i'm going in" before he would walk up to the front door. he was on a mission. they all loved the trick or treating. they got tons of candy. this was the first year that the kids got tired before christina and i did. they were asking us to go home. we ended up carrying dahlia and connor home. poor sleepy kids.

connor is three

today is connor's real birthday. he is officially three! this crazy cute kid is just bursting with personality. he is so happy. always laughing and smiling. i love that he has become a little boy. i always find little rocks and lego's in his pockets when i go to do laundry. he loves to be barefoot. it is impossible to keep shoes on him for any length of time.

dahlia and connor spend a lot of time playing together. connor loves ninjago and he and dahlia will play the princess and the ninja where connor protects her from evil forces. they also love to cook together on their play stove. they steal vegetables from the refrigerator and make me salads. the salads are really quite good. they are filled with bell pepper, cucumber, and cherry tomatoes. i let them cut the veggies with a butter knife on their little cutting board.

connor is still not potty trained and he still has a bottle at night. i really need to work on these things. it is time for him to be a big boy. he is really smart. he knows all his letters already. he likes to pick out letter shapes from things he finds in nature. he will bring a tree branch to me and say "look a Y." it is really cute.

he also loves to spend time with mason. mostly they will play video games together on the ipad. mason will also help connor build with legos.

happy birthday connor. i love you so much.

monster party

i had a combo party for the boys again this year. i figure i might as well do it while i can. we had a monster theme. i thought this would be great for both a three and seven year old and take advantage of the fact that the party is so close to halloween.

i had tons of ideas for their monster party. i of course ran out of time and didn't get around to most of them but i still think the party was fun. we had a bounce house for the kids to jump in. there was also a small crafting station where the kids could make monster lollypops with foam stickers and googly eyes. they could also make a halloween eye mask and decorate it with stickers. miles set up the giant spin art box so the kids could make spin art paintings with glow in the dark paint and halloween colors. this is always a big hit with the kids.

for food we had a taco bar with chicken and carne asada and a variety of salsa's. we had chips and guacamole, a fruit salad, rice, beans, ceasar salad, quesadillas, and a seven layer dip. there was a large selection of food to choose from. for dessert jen made monster cookies and i made chocolate cupcakes that miles decorated to look like monsters. we also made jello in individual cups with our party colors of orange, green, and purple.

i glued googly eyes on all the plastic cups. this was a lot of fun and they looked so cute. it's funny how just a pair of eyes can make something look like a monster. i also made monster faces on all the goody bags and filled them with a wooden monster craft, mini reese's peanut butter cups with eyes glued on, some vampire fangs, monster rings, and some stickers.

it was a really fun party. the kids all had a blast running around. i had fun talking to all my friends. happy birthday my little monsters. i love you tons.

funny pumpkins

dahlia's preschool let all the kids pick a pumpkin and then make a face on it with candy. the teachers displayed them in front of the school for everyone to see. they were all so funny. i love her school. they do the cutest things. she loves it too.

dahlia got to take her pumpkin home. now we have tons of pumpkins sitting on our dining table. they are all so different and funny. i love it. yay for halloween.

the pumpkin patch

i went to orange county with the kids this weekend so we could go to the pumpkin patch. there is this really nice event sponsored by a relator where you can go and get a pumpkin for free. they also gave us ten tickets we could use for a petting zoo, bounce house, bungee jumper, pony rides, or some food.

the kids were so adventurous this year. dahlia and bodhi both did the bungee jumper. that was so fun to watch. dahlia was laughing the whole time. they were bouncing her really high up.

they all loved the petting zoo. there were bunnies, goats, chickens, and a goose. mason did not want to get out. he was loving the bunnies and the chickens. connor was having fun too.

each family gets to take home one pumpkin so mason picked the biggest one. of course i was the one who had to carry it to the car. whew! we had a great time. later miles and i watched all the kids at christina's house so jen, ray, christina, and susan could go to a halloween party. the kids were so excited to have a sleepover. halloween is right around the corner. we can't wait.

first trip to the dentist

i am a super mom. i took all three kids to the dentist all by myself and they didn't have any cavities. yay! i was so relieved. it was connor's first trip to the dentist and i wasn't sure how he would react. he was great though. he got right in the chair and let them clean his teeth. they even took a picture of him brushing the teeth of the office mascot. all my kids were good. i am so happy to be done. yes!

monster invite

we are having a monster party for mason and connor's birthday this year. we are so behind on sending out the invitaions. the party is in two weeks! we are so bad. of course most of the people coming already know when we are having it.

miles made the ivitations for us. i found all these cute monster illustrations on clipart.com. it is the first place i always look for illustrations. i wanted the monsters to be fun and not scary. i think miles did a great job. now i just have to start working on all the other party stuff.

party party party

it was a party weekend. we went to another kid party today. this party was much more simple. it was your typical kid party where the kids play and the parents stand on the side and watch. they had organized games for the kids like a sack race and a limbo contest. mason was very shy and didn't want to join in the games but dahlia jumped right in. mason did end up playing as long as he could stand next to dahlia. they also had fun playing a little t-ball with miles. the favorite activity was painting pumpkins. each kid got a mini pumpkin to paint and take home. this was messy but very fun. even connor got to paint one. the whole party lasted only two hours and then it was time to go.

rock star party

we went to our friend's party for their son nicky today. he is turning four. they always have the best parties. nicky's mom goes over the top with all her clever decorations and both her and her husband are so much fun to hang out with. the party is just as fun for the adults as the kids.

this time they had a rock star theme. there was a vip station when you walked in where the kids all got back stage passes and wristbands to wear. they had a little drum set and other little instruments for kids to play. connor loved rocking out on the drums. there was karaoke machine set up for the kids or adults to sing. i of course avoided any singing. there was tons of yummy food including a taco bar and a dessert station filled with microphone shaped cupcakes, caramel apples, and guitar shaped cookies. everything was adorable and delicious. they even had a bounce house for the kids to do some jumping.

we stayed until it got dark. when it was time to leave all the kids took home a goody bag filled with their own play microphone and a blow up guitar. the kids were all exhausted after such a fun day and fell asleep right after their bathes.

the mermaid and the clone trooper

i got mason and dahlia's costumes for halloween. dahlia wanted to be princess ariel which of course is perfect for her. mason wanted to be a clone trooper from star wars. i bought their costumes this year and didn't force them to have a matching theme like i usually do. i figured they should be what they want to be. they were so excited when we got home they quickly dressed up and played outside. it was so funny to see mason as a clone trooper. with that mask you can't even tell it is him. he looks kind of scary.

connor doesn't want to dress up. i am going to buy him some spiderman pajamas that i am thinking i can get him to wear. he said he wanted to be spiderman in the store but then he would not let me try the costume on him. he just started screaming. i didn't want to spend money on an expensive costume if he wouldn't wear it. i figure with the pajamas we can use them later on. if he won't wear the spiderman pajamas then my back up plan is to put him in his skeleton pajamas. he loves those.

birthday boy

granny came to visit to celebrate mason's birthday. she was going to come on his birthday but dahlia had strep throat so we postponed the visit for a few days. it was a very sweet visit. miles took a couple of days off from work and we were all together. miles and his mom even went to soccer practice. mason was super excited to have them there.

at night we made tacos for dinner and then all sang happy birthday. mason wanted to have a pumpkin pie instead of a cake. the three kids decorated the pie with small pieces of chocolate that looked a bit like tombstones sticking out of the pie. it was funny and delicious.

we had such a fun tuesday. the kids were all sad to have to go to bed.

mason is seven

mason turned seven today. seven! what? how is that possible? we had a great day. dahlia is still sick though so she stayed home from school with me. we all went together to pick mason up from school. we surprised him with his favorite croissants from portos. he loves their croissants. they are really good.

it was nice that it was friday so mason didn't have to do any homework. that would be a drag on his birthday. we carved our pumpkin while we waited for miles to get home from work. the kids couldn't wait for halloween to carve it so i decided it would be a fun thing to do. miles was nice and came home early so we could all have dinner together. we made tacos and then all sang happy birthday. i got some little desserts from portos including a chololate cupcake for mason.

we gave him a star wars lego x-wing that he could not wait to start building. he is still really into legos. we ended the evening with our family movie night watching star wars. it was super fun. happy birthday mason. i love you one hundred.