Halloween

WHEW! We're exhausted. They didn't even EAT that much candy, but were so incredibly wound up that it took FOUR of us to control them at the Chassell Halloween party - and we weren't up to the task! Rob said as we were leaving "Why don't they give out a prize to who has the most hyper kids? We'd win that one every year hands down!" Holy cow.

Even though I had found the lost spiderman mask, I was at work while Rob got the boys in their costume, and he couldn't find it. So, Quinn went "maskless". Grandma LaVerne was worried about the boys getting too cold, so Quinn became "Yooper Spidey", he of the Oversized Winter Hat that's so popular around here. It was -- unique -- at least. There were four spidermen at the Halloween party, but only one Yooper Spidey. We obviously don't put as much effort into the whole Halloween thing as our contemporaries:). Then it was off to Aunt Dorothy and Uncle Carl's house for trick-or-treating and a visit. Aunt Dorothy was complaining that she was hard of hearing, and I told her "BE GRATEFUL! The boys are so loud tonight, you're lucky you can't hear them!!!"

Thank goodness Halloween is over for another year. Let's hope Thanksgiving is a little more sedate a holiday. We're too old for this!

Superhero Powers

Turtleman and BlackSuperHeroMonkey (self-given names) decided to demonstrate their awesome super powers this afternoon. Turtleman is a supersonic runner, and BlackSuperHeroMonkey can scale tall beds in a single bound... after several attempts. Their true superpower? Having boundless, never-ending amounts of energy. If we could only harness that, we would solve the nation's energy crisis and reliance on foreign oil.

If MOM could at least partially tame that energy for the Powers of Good, it would reduce the Parental Exhaustion Quotient in the Aho household to sustainable levels, and perserve peace and happiness for all eternity. That gives me an idea.....

A Birthday Cake for Baby

In preparation for the baby's arrival, I made this birthday cake for her today. It'll sit in the freezer until "birth day" - whenever that happens to be. When she DOES decide to come, I have a feeling her little "big" brothers will be antsy in the hospital. I predict a passing glance at the child, followed quickly by "can I watch cartoons?", accompanied by a rummaging through drawers and playing with buttons on the hospital bed. Call me a cynic, but it's almost guaranteed. To cut that scenario off at the pass, I am hoping we can have a little "birthday party" for Reagan, with cake and maybe a present they can give her (and open on her behalf). That should take up at least several minutes. Plus it will give them something to look forward to, as they are already making plans for which bug they get to munch. I'm hoping the experience will give them a good idea about what birthday's really mean, too. We'll see how it goes, but that's the plan :).

Addendum to last Post:

Addendum: Apparently, it was discovered today that Peter Parker DIDN'T lose his disguise. He gave it to his MOTHER for safekeeping, who put it in her shopping bag, and, because of pregnancy brain, forgot all about it until she unloaded the bag this morning, two days later. Peter Parker and his disguise were joyfully reunited, albeit with some complaining, as said mother wouldn't allow Peter Parker to wear his mask to pre-school.

Halloween has been saved. Thank goodness.

Candy for Dinner

So, you may not have known it, but Peter Parker's twin brother Deiter Parker, was ALSO bitten by a radioactive spider to become.... SPIDERMAN, the CLONE!

Unfortunately, near the beginning of the evening, Peter Parker was unmasked when attempting to eat candy, and somehow lost his disguise at the mall. His secret identity revealed, he spent a good 15 minutes whining and crying, while his unkind and unsympathetic mother kept telling him "well, then, you should've held on to your mask a little better." He quickly recovered after discovering that even superheros with their secret identities revealed receive Halloween candy while trick-or-treating.

Meeting up with a few cowboys at the mall

WOW! What we thought would be just a quick "trick-or-treat" through the mall and then the dorms on campus was ALOT more elaborate than we anticipated. The mall: disappointing, with two of the 10 stores running out of candy, and the vast remainder being very GRUMPY about having children in their midst trick-or-treating. This is not a bustling metropolis. You would think that anything bringing in potential customers would be a boon, but... apparently not. The dorms, however, went ALL OUT! The students decorated their halls elaborately, and provided guided tours through Dr. Suess, Aladdin, Zelda, Toy Story, a farm, a forest, under the sea to meet Sponge Bob... and much more that I can't remember at the moment. What I assumed would be knocking on a few doors turned into an entire evening's activity! The boys thoroughly enjoyed themselves. We'll have to remember - next year, skip the mall, go straight to the dorms. Unfortunately, the candy-harvest went right through dinner time, and by the time we finished, an exhuasted mom and dad decided Chinese food sounded better than scrambling something at the last minute at home. The boys were SO HYPER, we actually had to put Colby in a high-chair just to contain him. Seriously. At FOUR. Pathetic. And they refused to eat a thing but did drinktea, so officially, they had candy and caffeine for dinner. And we wonder why they were bouncing off the walls. So much for good parenting.

Meeting Mr. PotatoHead at Toy Story

A ginormous etch-a-sketch

Getting a ride on Aladdin's magic carpet

Pumpkin Carving

Well, it's the annual tradition - carving pumpkins. Despite the mess, and the constant frantic nagging by mom ("get your hands out of the pumpkin while I'm using the knife!!") the jack-o-lanterns were successfully completed! I think it's one of the first times I insisted that the boys take off their clothes. Stay tuned for pictures of trick-or-treating at the mall....

Pre-School Resources

The boys' preschool has some really neat resources. There is a lending library at the school that contains "Theme Bags". Each bag contains a book, and an activity to do with your child teaching some theme. We checked out the "Flag" theme bag. It held flags, a stuffed bald eagle, a book on the history of the American Flag, and activities to learn the Pledge of Allegiance. Very cool! So that was our after-school activity today. The boys were so excited to find out what the "surprise" was in the bag! Tomorrow's bag (shhhh... don't tell) is all about magnets.

Life With Leaves

Here's the boys at the neighbor's house, enjoying the leaves. It was like SNOW they were so thick! Doesn't it make you want to take a flying leap into them????

DNA in the U.P.

It doesn't happen often (guilt trip, anyone?) but every once in a GREAT while, a piece of MONICA'S genetic code enters the Upper Peninsula for a visit. Luckily, there is a Pro-Rally race up here once a year that my cousin Chad participates in, so I get to see him in between car crashes and fix-it jobs for a few minutes and feel not quite so home sick. So here's me and Chad, and his car. It made it through the first race, reportedly losing only its brakes (who needs brakes - it's a RACE, right????). It was so good to see him, albeit briefly. Makes me feel not quite so far away from family.

Fall Family Pic

We have tried to get a fall family picture every year since we've moved here. So here's this year's version. Although the picture will be already outdated in just over a month -- the baby IS in there, she's just hiding :).

A GORGEOUS Fall Day

Today.... was perfect. 70 degrees, sun, and brilliant, fabulous, fall colors. We were outside most of the day enjoying every last bit of it. Unfortunately, that means the INSIDE of the house refused to clean itself, but... oh well. These days are few and far between, and we will have PLENTY of time in winter to wallow indoors and focus on picking things up. I tried to capture the beauty on film (well, memory stick) , and realized that the pictures just don't do it justice. You just have to be here and experience it yourself. Which means all of you reading this need to COME VISIT US and enjoy our beautiful fall!!!! The boys, I, and the neighbor kids went for a hike on our property this afternoon and enjoyed tromping through the woods, kicking up leaves and climbing tree stumps.

A Friday in Fall

The colors are in full force, even if it is a little cloudy. Thought we'd go apple picking, the boys and I, and then spend the morning making apple pies with the nieghbor kids.

Last day of swimming lessons

We had our last swimming lessons tonight. UGH. It did NOT go well, which is why I won't even bother posting pictures. Crawling out of the pool after 30 minutes, they refused to get back in. Fine. But the tantrum afterwards? RIDICULOUS. Because I gave them a choice of getting back in the water and going home, and they didn't want to do EITHER. They wanted to go off the diving board into the deep water. Alone. Not an option. I suggested they get back in the water with the rest of their class, and maybe at the end they could do the diving board. No way. I tried to bribe them back in the water with a hot sauna afterwards, a warm shower, a trip to the ice-cream parlor. Nothing worked. So we went home. With one child still in his swim-suit because he refused to get dressed, and both children kicking and screaming all the way to the car and all the way home. UGH. These are moments when I feel we earn our Badge of Courage as parents.

New Bedroom Set

This was my awesome deal -- I bought this bedroom set from a neighbor for $50!! It included the loft bed, a desk, book shelf, LOTS of drawer space, a dresser, nightstand, and mirror. We set it up tonight, and here it is now almost 9 pm, and the boys are still too excited to sleep.

They're both sleeping in the loft, as that appears to be the most exciting place to be - near the ceiling. We'll see if they fall out or not over the night time hours. School is going to be UGLY tomorrow. Glad I won't be there :).

Fall Photo Shoot

The colors are peak right now, so thought I'd take advantage and get some formal portraits of the boys with the brilliant background! Attention was a little wanting, but I think we captured some good moments...