Pumpkin Carvin' Time

Ah, my squealer and my whiner (watch the linked video files). In any case, the carving turned out this year... last year we forgot & ran out of time. I hastily insisted Rob carve something, anything (!) so I could snap a photo and we could get outside trick-or-treating. This year we perused a few ideas online and then modified the looks with a bit of our own touch. Rob made a pumpkin devouring a little pumpkin, I made a  girly-type one for Evie, a Spiderman for Max, and I tried to work with the hole Max bit in the little gourd by turning it into a baby pumpkin.

Halloween Costumes - 2012

We're on our way out to the Hansen Family Halloween party this Sunday night. A great opportunity for a costume dry run...

Evie is "Izzy" from the Disney show Jake and the Neverland Pirates. Although a still very girly character with her pink and purple clothing, this girl is not a princess and doesn't wear a dress - thank heaven. I really sealed-the-deal with Evie by embellishing her with my eye shadow, blush, mascara and lip gloss. Evie is seriously a cosmetic girl's dream customer - she wanted more (!) and was patient/still throughout the application.

Max is a toughie. He loves sunglasses and hats. But, he loves putting items on and immediately ripping them off more than anything else. So, we couldn't do a costume that required any head gear or masks. I then decided to hold onto Evie's old Tiger costume for Max to wear next year (it has a hood with ears on top). After shopping Target today, we realized we could be really economic and buy sale sleepwear for $12. Perfect! So, Max's costume will double as bed wear the night of Halloween... and then some. Max is, of course, a daddy favorite - Spiderman. Note the webbed underarms (details, people, details!).

This first picture captures both kids' true natures. Evie the glam girl who loves to be "pretty" (such a ham for a camera) and Max walking away shrieking with a bumpy gourd in his sweaty little mits. Ay ca-rumba.

The second picture is as close to a token keepsake, sweet photo as we could get. Maybe we'll have better luck in 3 more nights on Halloween night, but just in case, we do have this one.

Leaves!

Yet another quintessential autumnal activity I had to check off my October list of "things to do." We are due for this terrible 'frankenstorm' hurricane Sandy to hit this weekend ...so today was the only day to see that this happened! We invited over Evie's BFF, Emma, to jump in this modest pile of leaves with us. Max was inside napping (we did the pumpkin patch this morning, too) but he would have loved this as well. Oh well, there's always next year....





These are some of my favorite pics from this activity. Total duration of me raking these leaves and cleaning up 2 huge trash bins of leaves: 1hr. Total duration of leaf jumping fun: 15 minutes. Total photos taken: 22.

"Wheee!"

Evie and Emma jump in with their happy faces.

Evie buries Emma.

They both spring out after I bury them both.

Action shot.

Throw them all in the air!

A Lovely Fall Day...

The local church (Ginter Park Baptist) has simply the most amazing maples out front that radiate in the fall afternoon sunlight. It really is beautiful and gives you that pause that reminds you how beautiful nature is (and how quickly it changes). I grabbed Max from daycare early to take advantage of this short window of opportunity. Thirty minutes and fifty-two photos gave us these *winners*. Thanks to Rob for running down Max the entire time. And thanks to Evie listening to my constant directions. I have a very patient and understanding family. Too bad Max doesn't play along with my whims quite yet.

Max daycare portraits - Bundle of Joy (BOJ)

Max is in part-time daycare as of this past Labor Day weekend. He was at a neighborhood sitter (the same one Evie went to) from the time he was about 4 months old until 1yr/4 months old.

We joined Bundle of Joy Daycare after some friends recommended them and we used them for back-up with watching Evie the summer I had Max. It's a nice place (it's still daycare, so part of your heart breaks at the thought of leaving them somewhere) and he does now like it. We are still adjusting to our bank funds depleting faster then they ever have before.

Max's portraits were last week - a perfect time considering he was over being sick, wasn't in too need of a haircut, and we had a decent outfit selected. He, of course. fell down just 30 minutes before bed the night before resulting in his 2 front teeth piercing through his lower lip. Lots of blood and tears ensued. 

Viola! I give you, Max's portraits the next morning.