Halloween 2010

There are so many Halloween celebrations (or "fall parties" as some are called), and there are always pictures in abundance!  It's overwhelming to share them all here, but I'll try to summarize.

Aaron was the UPS man.  He was so proud of his costume!



Hannah was a monkey.  This was Aaron's costume when he was her age, and it was fitting for her because her favorite book is "Five Silly Monkeys Jumping on the Bed". 


Claire was a princess bride unicorn. We found the Cinderella wedding dress at the consignment sale, so I thought that was going to be it, but then she discovered her unicorn costume from last year was still in the top of her closet. So she had to do both!


This was the best I could do of all 3 of them together!



Our festivities included the fall festival at church, Claire and Hannah's fall party at preschool, Aaron's class party, and finally Halloween night trick-or-treating at Mammaw's, Granny's, the police department, and our neighborhood. It's enough to wear this mama out!

Here's a slideshow of all the pictures!

Tooth fairy's first visit!

Back in mid-October the kids had their dentist appointments, and when the dentist casually mentioned Aaron's loose teeth, I was shocked and even teared up!  Neither Aaron nor I even knew any were loose.  As the weeks went on, one of the bottom teeth got looser and looser, and Aaron had started wiggling it so much it was really gross! 

Then one day (October 27 to be exact) as we were walking home from school, Aaron announced that he had lost his tooth that day during library!!  He said it fell into his mouth so he went and asked the librarian for a ziploc bag to put it in.  He was so excited.

Look at that toothless grin!



That evening we got to use our tooth fairy pillow for the first time.  Aunt Judy made it for us, in the shape of a tooth with a little pocket on the front for a tooth. 




Aaron wrote a note to the tooth fairy, telling her about how he lost his tooth and telling her exactly where to put the money. (In the pocket...of course!)

The funny thing was that about a week before he lost his tooth, he had a conversation with me in the van where he started processing the whole tooth fairy story. He said he didn't think there was really a tooth fairy, because fairies aren't real, so he thought it was really the parents who put the money there. He had a plan to figure it out--he told me, "When I lose my tooth, YOU don't put money under my pillow. When I wake up if I find money, we will know the tooth fairy is real, but if I don't find money, you can just give me some then." Pretty logical!

He never mentioned that plan again so I didn't bring it up and put the money in the pocket after he was asleep! We were going to do $1...no reason to aim high!...but then when Aaron talked about putting some in his give bank and some in his save bank, we decided to reward his sweet giving spirit and give him $2. I think our tooth fairy will do $2 for the first tooth and $1 for every tooth after that.

Fall Soccer

Back when the World Cup was on, Claire decided she really wanted to play soccer!  Dora is, of course, a great soccer player with a "super soccer kick"...so what 4 year old girl doesn't want to be like Dora?   Our church does a low-key fall soccer league for ages 4-6, so I let Aaron and Claire sign up.






It turns out that soccer is not all it's kicked up to be.

The first game was at noon the day after a sleepover with Alli Rae, so Claire was flat exhausted.  One clumsy bump from her brother before the game even started and she was all tears and DONE with soccer.  That's my little drama queen!





Aaron seemed to enjoy it over the weeks but mostly acted up, which was totally embarassing to me and Chris.  Normally he is so well behaved so I don't know what came over him on the soccer field.  He acted disrespectful and goofy the whole time.  I think he acts goofy as a way to cover up for not knowing how to do something well.  Chris had a heart-to-heart with him about it one day after the game, and he said, "I run around and act crazy because that's what kids are supposed to do.  Act crazy."  We said, No, No they are not, and told him to straighten up. 

Hannah did okay at the games, considering they were at noon and that's usually when she takes a nap!


Needless to say I was thankful when the season was over.  My kids don't seem to be athletes, but I will continue to let them try what they show an interest in.  I'm wondering what each of my kids' "thing" will be...time will tell!

Fall Break 2010

I made this great photo book for Poppy to commemorate our fall break trip to his house in mid-October.  We had a great time, and it was good to see my nephews and my brother all weekend.  I just figured out how to share this photo book on blogger, so enjoy!

Click here to view this photo book larger

No, I'm not an ex-blogger!

Chris asked me tonight if I am an ex-blogger.  He enjoys reading my blog, which makes me happy.  He pointed out that I have not blogged the entire month of November!!  So I'm going to attempt to catch up!  I blog in my head multiple times a day...but finding the time to sit down and put it to the computer screen is hard! 

I'm curious...who else out there enjoys reading?  Make a quick comment to let me know you're out there!