Boo

Remember my post just a couple of weeks ago about fitting it all in and keeping my sanity? Yea, well Halloween weekend might have been in the top 5 of craziest weekends ever. It was a very fine line. Insanity was only minutes away.

The morning started bright and early with a cold soccer game. Hard to believe the season started out with 105 degree games. I'll take a 50 degree soccer game any day over that. It was the end of the soccer season and so we squeezed in pizza at 10:30 in the morning before heading to Boo at the Zoo.

And as heartbreaking as it was, we went with store bought costumes this year for a number of reasons.
#1 Newborn baby...enough said.
#2 My appreciation for coordinating costumes is not nearly appreciated by my boys as much as it is by me. Guess I'll just have to reminisce about all the years past.
#3 Trying to convince your kid that a mad scientist is way cooler than ninjas is nearly impossible.

 

Don't you just wonder what those animals are thinking seeing my kid who, now that I'm looking at the photo, might look too much like a member of the Taliban than a ninja. Oops.

Costume and diaper changes in the parking lot are how we roll these days. I swear our swagger wagon is our home...at least on weekends. 

Campbell's costume didn't come with a mask for some reason so I busted out my VERY limited sewing skills and made him a mask. 

 

And you will notice Nolan's super serious ninja face in nearly every photo. Watch out.  

It was perfect weather. Normally it seems like my kids are drenched with sweat on Halloween in Texas with their costumes but this year, we actually sported a layer of clothing underneath!

Boo at the Zoo really was a lot of fun MINUS the part where we lost Campbell for 20 seconds. Seriously, I'm completely reconsidering making jokes about parents who put their kids on leashes now that I have an escape artist....scariest 20 seconds of your life when you're in a huge crowd and can't find your kid.

Immediately after this, we headed straight to my nieces' roller skating party. I don't have any photos of that because I needed every ounce of balance to keep myself up after not skating for over 20 years. 

The next day we headed to our church carnival which was so much fun for the kids. They loved every minute of it and I love hanging out with my Soul Sistas.

Generations of church members were there to support the carnival even the oldest and youngest.

The thing about church that I love it that every kid is your kid. You love them all, look out for them all, and even get onto them all when needed. I love that. It takes a village...

 

Next  up? Pumpkin carving. We could've and probably should've skipped the pumpkin carving but our kids can't ever say "Why didn't we ever do that?" because the Good Lord knows that we push ourselves to the point of exhaustion to make sure we're making memories. 

 

 

 And I'm glad we did because we got some pretty priceless facial expressions from the whole experience.

 

And Landry and I were excellent spectators. In the next few years, Sister is going to be getting her hands on those pumpkin guts and holding her own with her brothers. 

The most exciting news about Halloween this year was we were on TV! Good Morning Texas had a homemade Halloween contest and I sent the boys photos in from last year (remember we went store bought this year) and found out that we were finalists! I thought they were just going to show photos of the boys but we drove to Dallas in costumes and all at the crack of dawn and were interviewed on the show. 

I started scrambling making sure their costumes fit from last year. Nolan's aqua socks for his scuba diver costume were completely a scene out of Cinderella and her stepsister trying on the shoes, but we made it work. 

We didn't win but the boys were so great (WHEW, sweating that one!) and the boys LOVED that they were on TV. In fact, on the way home from church yesterday we heard Campbell talking to himself in the car and when we listened closer realized he was reenacting our GMT interview word for word. Seems like someone likes his celebrity status and 15 seconds of fame.

I can't find a clip of it online to save my life. I didn't wear a costume unless of course you count Spanx as a costume. If that's the case, then I was Super Spanx.

Next up,  Campbell's school costume parade.

Seriously, there is nothing cuter than seeing little kiddos in costumes. It just melts my heart. 

 

Don't you love how Campbell is making Nolan do all the work on the scooter. That is NOT an easy task with that kid, let me tell you. 

 

Our little princess was too little for a costume this year but did we rock out about 2-3 Halloween outfits. I already have costumes planned for this girl until she's 30. Thank you Pinterest. Now if she'll just let me boss her and carry them all out. Fat chance.

 

And FINALLY, trick-or-treat time! Gosh, remember when that's all Halloween really was? Now it's turned into the 12 days of Halloween. At least we get good use out of costumes, right?

So I couldn't talk my boys into being a mad scientist but at least the hubs was a good sport and humored me.

It was another successful Halloween on the Halloween meter.

How do I know?

Because I was exhausted. 

Til next year, folks. Better start soon now that I have three to dress!

Promise it's the last one

Ok, I'm sorry to make you suffer through one more Halloween post. But I spent hours (literally) editing these photos. So like it or not, you'll have to suck it up and suffer. But really how much are you suffering when you're looking at this?

Oh my CUTENESS. My best friend of over 20 years, Angi, came over to trick-or-treat in our neighborhood. She has boy/girl twins. There was some serious love going on between her daughter, Reese, and Campbell.  Angi and I are just alike...scrapbookers, bloggers, and she even coordinates her kids Halloween outfits. See, I'm not the only crazy out there. Tucker and Reese were sporting the cutest Grease Lightnin' outfits I've ever seen.

Reese's grandma and my mom helped make costumes this year. Do our mom's have serious talent, or what?

The love fest continued through the rest of the evening. Reese McDonald...has a great ring to it. Glad I'm not the one paying for the wedding!

 
Nolan's tank was a hit and everyone asked where we got it. Justin was beaming with pride when he could say that he made it with a 2 liter coke bottle and a visit to Home Depot.


 
 Angi was impressed with our neighborhood and how jam packed it was. There is some serious decorating going on. My favorite quote of Nolan the entire evening was, "That guy is wearing a scary mask, but I'm being very brave." It was too cute and my oh my how things have changed. I still remember the night terrors from last year on Halloween night.

It was so much fun knowing that 20 years ago Angi and I were trick-or-treating together and here we are taking our kids. It's one of those dreams you talk about when you're 13 and then you realize it's come true. It was so much fun, that I hope we can do it again.



I have no idea who this little spider girl is but she sure is stinkin' cute and it looks like Campbell thought the same thing.

Ok, promise last costume post! I know what you're thinking...ALRIGHT, enough already with the Halloween pictures. Thanks for putting up with me!

Trunk or Treat squared

Remember the days of putting on your costume Halloween night going trick-or-treating THAT night and that pretty much summed up the holiday? Yea, not so much these days. Now by the time Halloween actually rolls around, you're missing parts of your costume, it's filthy with chocolate stains and there are remnants of pixie stick dust found in the tiniest crevices of the seams of your costumes. That's because Halloween has now turned into at least 3 days of festivities especially when it falls on a weekend.

School costume parade...check. Next up? Trunk or Treat at church.

And no I didn't go as a Playboy bunny to church! See my duster? Yep, I was a dust bunny! Don't be jealous that I spent $5 on my costume and won the costume contest for the adults.

Guess who won the costume contest for the toddlers?



But there was so some serious competition.



Guess who DIDN'T win the trunk decorating contest? Hey, we were pretty worn out with all the effort put in to make our costumes. How do you like our "ghost?"

Times like this remind me why I love going to a smaller church. It's one those kind of churches that says, "Hey I missed you last Sunday, hope you're feeling better." But one of the top reasons I love my church? Because who can say that they're minister looks identical to Where's Waldo and who's wife looks like her day job just might actually be a gypsy.



I'm savoring every exhausting minute of this time. It's one of those can-I-bottle-this-up-in-a-jar-and-keep-it-forever moments.

Grand total of times costumes were worn this weekend? Two? Not even close...try FOUR!

Next up? Trunk or Treat at Grandma and Granddad's church, of course!

More candy and in this case, more sweating!



Guess we know why the kids say, "Trick or treat, smell my feet," at least in Texas when it's 83 on Halloween!



Best news this week? Tonya's scans came back and her lungs are clear after 12 long grueling weeks of chemo. Mastectomy is scheduled in a couple of weeks. Praise God!

Ok, if you can stand it, there's one more post for Halloween and then after that I'll stop...well, until next year.

Superhero to the rescue!

In a house full of boys you can only imagine the amount of bruises, bumps and boo boos that happen in our household. I had to get really creative really fast on how to distract them from their melodramatic ways after every little bump. First it was the boo boo train, a handy little ice pack we put in our freezer for those boo boos that are bigger than just mommy's kisses can cure.

But I resorted to spanking...hear me out. Spanking whatever it was that hurt them. Walls, chairs, floors, and especially those pesky toys have all be spanked in our house plenty of times. Works like a charm every time. Oh, and having a brother with superhero strength spanking skills always helps too.

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

I can't get Nolan to take this costume off. Justin even let him wear it to Chick-fil-a one night on one of their boys' nights. You can't help but smile.

Happy Halloween!!!

So it wasn't a cold night after all...well at least most of the night. Campbell sported his costume and didn't put up one stink about it. Nolan loved his costume but we did have a little talking to after he was mad about the "soot" that I put on his face. I think he thought I was putting real makeup on him and no fireman he knows wears makeup. But once we got past that, we went to trunk-or-treat at our church and had a blast. My mom could open up her own Halloween store and decorated her trunk. All the kids loved it. Campbell didn't really care about any of the decorations, he was more interested in playing on the stairs. That's always fun chasing a 26 lb dog up and down the stairs.

We ate hot dogs and Nolan did a cake walk and just loved every minute of Halloween at church. We made it home barely able to drive to our house our neighborhood was so jam packed. Our neighbors really do it up. So we decided to actually go trick-or-treating since we've only visited trunks this year. Campbell of course fell asleep on the way home after church. Poor thing was so exhausted. We just went around the block. Everything was going well until we got to the last house...strob lights, some guys with blood running down his face, and chasing kids with a chainsaw....REALLY is that necessary? Of course, Nolan was completely freaked while Campbell is totally oblivious. I'm afraid I'm going to have nightmares after that one myself though, I can't blame him. What a fun FILLED night. Whoever thought of adding that extra hour of sleep on Halloween night is a genius.

Campbell on the way home from trunk-or-treat getting ready to trick-or-treat.

Campbell's reaction after seeing himself in the mirror for the first time. This is after wearing it all night!