happy halloween

This year's Halloween was the best one yet.  This was the first year The Mayor really got it.  He talked about his Halloween costume for weeks and was excited to knock on doors and say "trick or treat".  And once Love Bug saw candy being put into her bag, she was pretty excited too.

After dressing the kids in their costumes, we headed to Mamie and PopPop's for some candy and a quick visit.  We stayed there for about 30 minutes and then Meega, J and Bennett headed back to the hood with us for some trick-or-treating.  Meega, J and Bennett hung out with us for about 40 minutes before they left to go back to their neighborhood to pass out candy.  I was pretty proud of The Mayor and Love Bug...they lasted a lot longer than I thought they would.  Normally they are asleep at 7:00...and we didn't get home and get them into bed until 8:30.  They had a blast.

While I was putting The Mayor to bed, he was already talking about the candy he was going to eat tomorrow.  He is definitely my kid.

I absolutely can not believe that when we wake up in the morning it will be November.  Wow.  This year has flown by.

my sweet Minnie Mouse and Lightning McQueen

all my sweets

the tylenol/orajel diet

This little beauty is a P-I-L-L today.  Whew...she is in rare form.  After D did some digging around in her mouth, we discovered all 4 of her one-year molars are attempting to cut through.  Poor Little Miss.

After her first round of tylenol and baby orajel, Love Bug is on her way to being our happy girl again.

Today will be filled with awesome, cold weather, pumpkin carving and prepping for our trick-or-treating tomorrow night.

the fall parade

Today, there was a fall parade at The Mayor's school.  The kids were to come dressed in their Halloween costumes and at 9:30 the kids were going to march around the sidewalk outside of school for all of the parents.  He shockingly participated in the parade last year but this year he wanted no part of it.  He was so excited to wear his costume and go to school, but when we got to his classroom he became so shy.  He hid behind my legs and wouldn't let go.  He was afraid of his teachers because they were in costume (and by costume I mean they were wearing all black and one had Mickey Mouse ears and the other a Dr. Seuss hat).  One thing was confirmed about The Mayor today: he does not adapt well to change.

I opted to let him leave with me and watch the parade from the sidewalk.  After the parade was over and his class had passed us, he asked where his teachers were and asked to go back to class.  Pretty good sign.  We went back to class, took off the costume and Love Bug and I went and ran some errands.

Really looking forward to this weekend.  The Georgia/Florida game is tomorrow, pumpkin carving, a Halloween block party in our cul-de-sac Sunday night and some pretty amazing fall weather.

waiting for the parade...still wouldn't let me go

my Lightning McQueen

PopPop came by a couple of days ago...made The Mayor's day

Love Bug now says "cheese" when taking her picture...this is her 'mid-cheese'

eating dinner last night...she ate her entire meal wearing The Mayor's sunglasses

happy 4th birthday to the mayor

Today my first baby is 4.  I really wish time would slow...time is going way too quickly.  It does make me unbelievably grateful to be home with these two sweets of mine.

We had an amazing day.  It was a school day for The Mayor, so after drop off, Love Bug and I went to Starbucks with Meega to celebrate her birthday - I love how Meega and The Mayor share a birthday.  After breakfast, we went to Target and then home to play.  We went to The Mayor's school early to bring cupcakes; The Mayor was so excited when we walked in to celebrate his birthday.  The kids were so sweet and they sang "Happy Birthday" to The Mayor before digging into the cupcakes.  And the best part, D was able to watch via the cameras that are in The Mayor's classroom.

After cupcakes, Love Bug and The Mayor had haircuts.  Love Bug was perfect, sat their quietly while she had her mullet cut off.  The Mayor was better than the last 2 haircuts he has had.  I wish I knew why he suddenly hated haircuts.  He asked to sit on my lap, refused the cape and I told him he could hold my phone.  He watched some Thomas videos on YouTube and that actually preoccupied him so his hair could be cut.  The lady was about 95% complete when The Mayor started to get antsy, but to be fair to The Mayor, he has so much hair that it usually takes over 20 minutes to cut and that is a long time to get a 4 year old to sit, especially one who now hates to have his hair cut.  I did have to hold him still for the last few snips, which resulted in some tears.  But it was a million times better than the last two fiascos we have experienced during haircuts.  So I will gladly take this experience.

The Mayor wanted pizza for his birthday dinner, so we went to Mellow Mushroom for dinner and then Yogli Mogli for frozen yogurt for dessert.  A delicious birthday dinner.  And The Mayor was thrilled to have received calls from MeMe, Big Daddy, Aunt Nat (and Trey and Luke got on the phone to talk to him as well).  He loved actually talking on the phone while they wished him a happy birthday and asked about his day.  It was sweet hearing him talk to them and saying "thank you" and "I love you too" when they spoke to him.  He loved having all of this special attention on his special day.  He is really catching on to his birthday and that it is such a special day!

Happy 4th Birthday my sweet boy!

she thought she was such a big girl getting to sit at The Mayor's table in his class

enjoying her lollipop after her haircut

handsome boy

opening his birthday present from me and D

glasses to the sun

For weeks, The Mayor has been telling me he needs glasses because the sun is so hot.  He loves wearing our sunglasses so I told him I would love to buy him a pair of sunglasses.  It was just one of those things that I would think about when we were home but forget when we were at the store.  But tonight I made sure to remember.

After dinner, we went to Target and I let him pick out some sunglasses.  He chose a Thomas the Train pair and a Lightning McQueen pair.  They were $6 a pair, so I figured I would buy two pairs...just in case.  I mean how well will a $6 pair of sunglasses hold up with a 4 year old owner?

He was so cute.  He couldn't wait to put on his glasses; he chose the Thomas pair to wear.  As we walked to the car, he thanked me for buying his new "glasses to the sun".  I so love that kid.

posing with his new shades

she didn't want to be left out...

she started saying "cheese" while I was taking The Mayor's picture

chaos lives here

Not one person in this household wasn't ready for bed last night by 7:00 and that includes all of the adults.  Friday night was a late night of traveling for the in-laws and party prep for me and D.  And after one awesome day of partying with our almost 4 year old, we were just wiped.  I am pretty sure both The Mayor and Love Bug were asleep before their heads hit their pillows and D and I were not far behind.  And even after a good 10 hours of sleep for me, I was still exhausted today.

The house is chaotic.  There are toys everywhere.  And I didn't do one thing today to help organize them all.  We just let the kids enjoy all the new toys and spent hours outside enjoying this gorgeous fall weather.  The chaos will be there tomorrow...and hopefully then I will have a smidge more energy.

The Mayor received a Missile Launch Pad toy and it is so much fun.  It is an outside toy and you put this lightweight missile onto the launch pad and stomp on this blue bag that pushes air through and shoots the missile in the air.  The harder you jump on this blue bag, the higher the missile goes.  Everyone had so much fun taking turns to see who could shoot the missile the highest.  And the 'most talented award' goes to The Mayor who managed to get a missile stuck in a tree.  But thanks to D, after about 8 attempts, he threw a ball into the tree and dislodged it.  Our hero.

D lit another fire in our firepit and we took a break from the missile launch to enjoy some s'mores.  We have eaten horribly this weekend, so why not go out with a bang?  I love this time of year.

Tomorrow I must get this house in order.  The chaos can only go on so long.  Tuesday is The Mayor's actual birthday and I need to get some cupcakes made for his class.  The celebration continues.

D showing The Mayor how the missile launch works

watching the missile soar in the sky

D showing The Mayor how to REALLY get the missile to soar

like father, like son

posing next to the cling letters he put up today

my gorgeous girl

a celebration

Today, we celebrated The Mayor's 4th birthday.  Although his official birthday isn't until Tuesday, the party was today.  And to say The Mayor was excited would be a huge understatement.  It was so much fun seeing his excitement.  This is the first year he really understood the whole birthday thing and having a party just made his year.

When he woke up this morning, I brought him into the kitchen to show him his birthday cake.  "Lightning McQueen!!!" is what he yelled.  He couldn't wait.

His party was from 10AM to noon which was perfect.  We had the entire bounce house place almost to ourselves for the first hour and just when it started to get a little crowded, it was time for us to move to the private room for food and cake.  It was awesome.

The kids had such a blast running around from bouncy house to bouncy slide to ball pits to the wave slide...It was 80 minutes of non-stop running and fun.  After the group photo, we took all the kids into the private party room and passed out the pizza.  It was eerie how quiet 14 kids were.  Seriously, you could literally hear a pin drop.  That is how hard they played...they were too tired to do anything else but eat.  After we sang "Happy Birthday" to The Mayor, the kids enjoyed the yummy cupcakes and cake.  This took us right to noon and then it was time to go home.  I was shocked both kids made it home without falling asleep.

When we got home, The Mayor opened his gifts.  He was so excited with each gift he opened.  He wanted to open each toy and play with each toy immediately.  We kept telling him to just make it through the pile and then we could play with them all.  It was stimulation overload!!  Just how a 4 year old's birthday should be!

The birthday fun will continue tomorrow morning when we take The Mayor, Love Bug, MeMe and Big Daddy to our favorite doughnut shop for breakfast, and then right through until Tuesday when I bring cupcakes for his class and have a special dinner for The Mayor that night.

I can't believe my baby is 4.  I guess my baby isn't a baby anymore.

the kids dancing

the crew!

crazy week

I can't believe it is Wednesday night.  Where has my week gone?  My little guy's birthday party is Saturday and in 2 days my house will be filled with family...just the way I like it.  But I have about a million and one things to do before this second and party time Saturday morning.

Signing off until Saturday when I will have pictures and a full-blown birthday party report.

My boy is going to be 4!  How did THAT happen?!

pumpkins, pumpkins everywhere

Today was our 4th annual trip to Burt's Pumpkin Patch.  We started early at our house at 7:30 and D made breakfast for everyone.  After breakfast, we loaded up and headed about 45 minutes north to go to the pumpkin patch.  The weather was perfect.  Sunny, clear skies and a little cool.  This is our 4th year in a row going and we now have it down to a science.  We get there as soon as they open, get in line to buy the hayride tickets, ride the hayride, pick out pumpkins, pay for the pumpkins, load the pumpkins in the car, go back into farm and have a blast.  We avoid all lines and by the time the farm is getting really crowded, we have done everything, paid and already taken 250 pictures.

We were done at the farm a little after 10:00 so we headed back home and all went to lunch together.  Thankfully we do this trip as a family because when we attempted to leave the farm, our car battery was dead.  A quick jumpstart from J and Meega and we were on our way.  We had to get jumped off again after lunch and ended up at the AutoZone to buy a new car battery.

We were home before 1:00 and all exhausted.  Everyone took naps and after naps, we went Halloween costume shopping.  The Mayor will be Lightning McQueen's driver for Halloween...he is absolutely precious in it.  Still need to find Love Bug's...but she should be pretty easy.  We are thinking Minnie Mouse.

After shopping, we came home and lit a fire in our new fire pit.  It still isn't complete but it was done enough for us to sit around it, roast marshmallows and eat s'mores.  The kids had an absolute blast.  They were excited to be outside while it was dark, sitting in front of a cool fire and eating chocolate, marshmallows and crackers.  Pretty much a dream come true for a 4 year old and 19 month old.

Looking forward to another gorgeous day tomorrow and a week that promises sunny and clear skies and fall like temps.  Perfect.

PopPop, Mamie and Love Bug

Love Bug and Bennett

Us!  And yes, I wish I had taken my sunglasses off

The Brocks

cuties

how we roll

my sweets

chillin' in the pumpkins with our popcorn

sharing with our sweet cousin

the 3 amigos

Love Bug on the tractor

Bennett

The Mayor

love

I love how she is looking up at him

yummy s'mores

making her "big eyes" by the fire

he rocks my world

I love D.  And I want my kids to know, when they read this 30 years from now, one of the many reasons I love D is because of the little things.

Meega had invited me to attend a Thirty-One party with her tonight.  After the party, I needed to run to the grocery store to get some food for breakfast in the morning.  We are heading out for our annual trip to the pumpkin patch in the morning, and D and I invited the gang over to our house and D is making breakfast before we go.

Meega and I went to the grocery store at 10:00 tonight and by the time we got home it was 10:45.  She helped me bring the groceries into the house and D was already asleep.  But he had laid out all of the gear he needed for the breakfast, had pulled the plates for The Mayor, Love Bug and Bennett, and even put out our spare booster seat for Bennett.  The pots and griddle were on the stove top and his spatula was in the spoon rest.  He is so cute.  I love him.  I didn't ask him to do any of this...he did it on his own.  I love this man.  I love that he loves our family and is excited about the day and got prepared.

Tomorrow we serve breakfast at the Shirley House of Pancakes at 7:30 and then we roll out at 8:00.  Can't wait.