Five Days of Halloween

Halloween with kids is a week long candy fest. I am so disappointed that we even purchased candy this year because a) Jacob and Maddie came home with enough sugar to feed an army and b) nobody trick-or-treats on our street! Granted, we got home around 7:30 last night, but we only had 1 group of trick-or-treaters at our door and yes, I was prepared to dump our whole bowl of candy into their bags (let someone else's parents deal with the constant demand for sweets!)

But alas, we have (literally) pounds and pounds of candy. Not great for a mama that loves sugar and is trying to watch what she's eating. I've heard you can box it up and send it somewhere. I'll be googling that right after this post.

So our festivities began last Wednesday with a special Halloween playdate at Owen/Nathan's house.



This picture is FULL of "say cheese!" faces. LOVE IT. There were actually many more kids present but this is the best we could do when trying to capture a group photo.



On Friday, we participated in the Goblin Walk again in San Carlos. (This was the event where our picture was taken last year and them remarkably appeared on the cover of the SC Parks and Rec Guide). I had to get a picture of Jacob with his mustache on immediately as he could only stand wearing it for about .05 seconds.



Cover worthy?



You'll notice a trend with Maddie. In the majority of her trick-or-treating pictures, she is sporting a lollipop in her mouth. She couldn't stand having to wait to eat all the candy she was collecting. Lollipops are always her first choice.



How many Marios and Luigis do you see? Apparently, we are not original.



Mark was a super trooper. His costume was extremely too tight and the back of it (secured by ridiculously small pieces of velcro) would not remain closed.



Then of course we ran into our friends the Pirates (err, the Robins)



But unfortunately Nathan refused to wear his costume



But Owen sported his pirate suit beautifully!



Of course we had to stop and take candy-eating breaks



Then, there is always that moment when we realize that we are D.O.N.E. This was exactly that moment.



(This was only a fraction of the Halloween photos -- to see all that we took, click here).

On Saturday, the kids got to wear their costumes once again for a Halloween Party at Marcia's house (unfortunately I didn't take any pictures that day). The highlight of that day was when the kids got to dress their "mummy". I'll see if I can grab a pick from a friend's camera but Maddie and Jacob got to use toilet paper to wrap me up like a mummy. Those little fingers don't realize how strong they are -- they ripped the toilet paper with each wrap so Mark had to jump in and help!

On Sunday, we headed to Lemos Farm as a family. We've been to Lemos many times in the past but we had to make one more trip to take some Halloween pictures and capture the true Fall spirit. Jacob, as always, LOVES to feed the goats.



Maddie, however, will have absolutely nothing to do with it -- no matter how many times Daddy asks.



She will, however, pet a baby goat





And these cut outs are always a good time









Time for pony rides







And pumpkin picking





And "say cheese" faces







And it's not Halloween without more sugar





Mark was sweet and offered to take some pics of me and the kids since I seem to be the one always holding the camera. Of course it's impossible to get BOTH kids in a picture. So we took one with each.





Finally, we had to stop and measure ourselves on the way out



As always, Lemos was a great time for all! (Again, this was only a portion of our Lemos trip photos. Click here for the whole album.)

Finally, the "real deal" came on Monday night when we celebrated Halloween at Tyler and Sydney's house. They invited us last year and it's always a good time. We start off with dinner and play time at their house, then we all head out in one big trick-or-treating group in their beautiful San Carlos neighborhood (no hills!)

Mark and I opted to be comfortable and didn't dress up for this one, but the kids certainly didn't even notice!

Trying to get a group photo:



This picture pretty much sums up the chaos that ensued:





So much fun!



Every so often, Jacob made me take a picture of his loot.



I had to throw this in. Notice the lollipop?





Nathan was about to start hosing people down



Which I wouldn't have minded much -- as Maddie was clearly a sticky, sticky MESS.



(Click here for all of the Halloween night photos.)

Ahhh, as much fun as Halloween is, I'm always relieved to move on to Thanksgiving and Christmas! Especially as this year we'll be heading to Kansas AND Angel Fire, NM. Many more fun times to follow this holiday season!

Family Photos 2011

I'm ashamed it's taken me this long to blog about our most recent family photos. We had a family photo shoot with my friend Shauna of Stinkiepantz Productions a couple of months ago. Of course, it was right before my sale so once the shoot was over, I was focused on other things. Now that I've had some time to digest these pictures, I could look at them over and over again. Shauna is so talented -- and so amazing to work with -- we are lucky to have her as a friend!

Take a look at a highlight of our pics over on her blog.

But if you'd like to see the whole lot, follow these directions:

Go to www.stinkiepantz.com, click on portfolio, then client proofing, and enter the password: broxterm@n11

And to our families, let us know if you'd like us to order any specific pics for you!

Random iPhone uploads

Every now and then, I finally get the chance to download photos from my phone to my computer. And on more than one occasion, I am completely surprised by a photo on my phone. Most of the time, I realize that Jacob has gotten a hold of my phone and started snapping photos at random. All of the time, I laugh hysterically. Here's just a few of the photos/videos shot in the last few weeks. Most of them, were intentional. :)

This was taken at the San Carlos Art/Wine Fest. Go cubs!







Grandma and Grandpa sent Maddie a kilt from Scotland. I had to literally BRIBE Maddie to put this on. Bribes with lollipops work wonders. And Grandpa wonders why she's not wearing a shirt. He's lucky I got the kilt on!



This is one of those priceless "Jacob got a hold of the camera" photos. In fact, there were about 10 of these. Taking photos of himself at Joann's Fabrics. That's how interesting a fabric store can be to a 4 year old.



I nearly fell on the floor when I saw this. This is Jaemie buying fabric. Obviously after our workout at the gym. LOVE. IT.



Don't ever underestimate the fun that can be had at Toys R Us. They hate it when I show up with my kids. Because my kids will be the ones taking EVERY single bike out and riding it around the store.



But how cute is this photo? Both of my lovelies -- all smiles on their toys r us bikes.



Not sure what this face is.



And we've been gearing up for Halloween. Jacob loves his Mario costume.



Jaemie got this Minnie costume for Maddie for her birthday. Maddie LOVES it. And she really couldn't look any more adorable.



So, these were pictures I absolutely do NOT remember taking. We took a day trip to Napa in a limo with 3 other couples (including Matt/Jaemie, Dana/Tim and Amber/Anthony) about a week ago. The trip was awesome but our limo broke down in San Francisco on the way home. This is where the whole day went awry. The boys thought it would be a good idea to buy a case (CASE) of beer while we were stranded. Yes, after a day of drinking wine in Napa. The case was gone in a short amount of time and so were all of our minds. Hence, the lack of memory in taking these photos. Either way, you can tell it was a GREAT time!









Gotta love the iPhone camera!