Trick-or-Treat 2012!

The boys were more than excited for trick-or-treating tonight!  They ate a quick dinner and they were ready to get out there.  Conner was still on the mend from his latest cold, so we knew they wouldn't last too long.  After taking a few pictures, they were ready to go!

Conner insisted on wearing his IronMan mask to the first several houses, even though he could barely see out of it!  We finally convinced him to take it off so we could move along a little quicker!  Ben played the part of Simba perfectly and, more than a few times, greeted people with a roar...   After being told what a cute little lion he was by several other trick-or-treaters, he began telling people he passed by, "Hi, I'm a cute little lion!"  When our cute little lion and our tired little IronMan made it home, they dumped out their buckets to choose a few pieces of candy!

It was a great night and the kids had an awesome time!  Happy Halloween!

Pumpkins!!!

Ben made a spider hat at school today and was nice enough to help one of the adults make one for Conner who had to leave the party a little early! 

It was time to carve those pumpkins tonight and the boys were very excited.  They both wanted happy faces at first, but Conner changed his to a mean face when it was time to get out the magic marker and draw the face on the pumpkin. Ben was much more willing to stick his hand in the pumpkin and pull out all the "gooey" as he called it.  Conner pulled a little out, but mostly was not a fan of getting his hands dirty... I don't blame him...

Ben insisted on "helping" Dad cut out the face by holding onto Dad's hand.  Conner was content to watch Dad do the work while he laid his head on Dad's arm!

The finished jack-o-lanterns!!!

We took the jack-o-lanterns outside to the porch when we were all done.  Ben was very worried about leaving them outside all night long, but we finally convinced him that they would be okay!

We had a few more minutes before bed so we decided to have a little dance party with some Halloween tunes!  It started off great, but turned a little sour at the end...  (Notice how they keep looking at the dishwasher, because they can see themselves in it while they dance!)

All day long Ben had insisted on being called Simba, since that is his costume for Halloween.  I finally got the hang of it, so by the time the boys went to bed, I kissed Ben and said "Goodnight Simba!"  He then informed me, "Mom, I'm back to normal now, you can just call me Ben!"  Figures....  They are extremely excited about trick-or-treating tomorrow night so we will see how that goes in our new neighborhood!

Halloween Parade!

Today was the boys' Halloween party at school!  Conner chose to be Ironman and Ben found a Simba costume that he had to have so they were very excited to be able to wear them today!  They have a little parade at preschool so the kids can walk through the halls showing off their Halloween costumes.  The kids had a great time and I loved watching them having so much fun!

 

After the parade in the hallway, I brought Conner home because his asthma was pretty bad today and he couldn't stop coughing.  He wasn't happy to leave the party, but he took it like a champ and luckily, he felt much better by the afternoon.

A Witch and a Mummy!

Ben made a mummy mask and Conner made a witch mask tonight!  So Conner is running around here saying, "I'm a witch, tee, hee, hee, hee!"  He is trying really hard to get that witchy cackle perfected!  After Ben made his mummy and put it on, he told me, "Now I'm a mommy, just like you, Mommy!"  I told him that it was pronounced "mummy" but he's still running around saying that he is a "mommy!"

Some School Shots...

Every once in a while, the kids will bring home some photos from school or their teachers will post pictures on their shutterfly classroom sites, so I thought I would put a few on here today.  I love seeing what they do at school when I'm not around!  The first three pictures are of Conner...

Now a few of Ben...

Ben brought these 2 photos of him and Conner home the other day!  They got to play together at school on this day and apparently, they decided to play dress up!!!  I love it! (Especially the shoes!)



Warm Wednesday...

We took full advantage of the warmer weather and Nick's day off today to get a few things done around here.  In my attempt to get some more decor items up in our house, I enlisted Nick to help me with a project today!  It involved spray paint, so he didn't seem to mind!

 

 

After a failed attempt at a good naptime today, we gave up and headed outside to play.  The boys wanted to play soccer.  So while they played, Nick and I tidied up some things in the garage.  Ben eyed the traffic cones that we had used at their birthday party this summer and decided that he wanted to use them as bowling pins.  So they ended up kicking the soccer ball at the traffic cones to see how many they could knock down!  Not a bad game, especially when they thought of it all by themselves!

After dinner, it was back outside.  This time, the desired game was baseball so the boys grabbed their mitts and ball and headed out.  After cleaning up dinner, I went outside to check on everyone and this is what I found...  Nick on his phone, listening to his radar and weather apps...  everyone who knows what a freak Nick is about weather will appreciate this!  The boys were having a blast playing catch with each other!

Go Mama!

Mama ran in the Des Moines marathon this past weekend and this is a picture of her (far right) finishing!  We thought this was a great picture on the Des Moines Register website so I wanted to share it on here too!  Congrats Mama!!!  That is quite an accomplishment! 

Fun Saturday Night!

We were able to make a quick trip to Bettendorf this weekend to see Nana and Gramps!  With the nice weather, all the boys wanted to do was play some baseball outside!

 

After the kids went to bed, we got to enjoy some adult time and, as always, we had a great night!  My little brother even got to show off his corn cob pipe!!!

Thanks Nana and Gramps for a great night and an absolutely wonderful morning where I even got to sleep in until 9:30...  That was priceless!!! 

News of the Week...

It has been a while so I thought I would take a few minutes to give you our weekly news...

My excuse for not blogging for a week is that my creative juices have been flowing and I have been working on some wall art for some of our very white walls!  We will see if anything turns out to be "wall worthy..."

Nick enjoyed a weekend off last weekend and we were able to just stay home and enjoy some relaxation.. at least as much as you can possibly enjoy with 2 very active 5 year olds!

Ben had a great week at school and his teacher showed me several examples of how his writing is getting better.  He amazes his teacher with all of the skills he has and genuinely surprises her with how fast and how much he is learning!  The kid cracks everybody up with all the stuff he says now!  Just today, as we were leaving school, Ben noticed that his handpainting of a spider displayed in the hallway had lost one of his eyes.  Ben informed me (with his bottom lip shaking, like he was trying not to cry) that he had to find a new eye before he could go home.  So one of the very accommodating associates (thank you to Miss Dawn) found Ben a new eye and helped him glue it on. Ben told Miss Dawn that now he was so happy, and now we could go home!

We were afraid that we would have to schedule another ear tube surgery for Conner this week, but after an ear infection last week, his ears look great now so we will see how this all plays out...  After a cold last week he is on top of the world again and he has had a very good week, just as Ben has.  I was able to help in Conner's classroom this week, so that was fun for me to see him at school, doing his thing!  He is a social beast and loves being around his friends, especially the girls!

The biggest news of the week, however, is this...   Nick and I were at Old Navy on Wednesday, while the boys were at school.  They needed another pair of jeans and there was a really good sale.  We also found a couple of shirts for them which we bought from the "BOYS" section... not the "TODDLER" section....  Apparently I need to start shopping the boys' sections at stores from now on...  I am not happy about this change... (Although, given that our boys are still little guys for their age, we will be buying toddler sized pants for a while!) 

Anyway, Happy Weekend!!!

Baby...

I just couldn't resist taking Ben's picture this afternoon as he slept.  He and Conner used to sleep with their butt in the air a lot when they were younger, but don't do it much anymore!  Seeing Ben like this during his naptime made me remember that even though my guys are big 5 year olds who think they can do it all themselves now, there is still a bit of "baby" left in them... thank goodness...

Pizzas!

While we were playing outside this afternoon Ben actually caught a grasshopper!  Usually I have to help a little so he doesn't accidently squish whatever bug he is trying to catch, but he caught this one all by himself.  He was very proud.  When it was time to go in, I asked Ben what he wanted to do with the grasshopper and he said he wanted to let him go so he could go find his family.  Very sweet...  As we were getting ready to go in, we heard the marching band at the high school playing so Conner insisted on staying out just a little longer so he could listen.  There was some kind of marching band show at Linn-Mar last night so there were lots of bands playing, including the Iowa Hawkeye Marching Band!  We heard the announcer introduce them and then they played the Iowa Fight Song.  Conner was overjoyed!

Ironically, while we were listening to the Hawkeye Band, Nick was going to Iowa City to sit in one of the sky boxes for a dedication ceremony of some kind.  The important news there is that he got to meet Kirk Ferentz and enjoy free food and drinks!  He had a great time, even though he was too chicken to ask the coach for a picture with him!!!  So, since Daddy wasn't home for dinner, we decided to make our own pizzas tonight.  The boys actually loved this and were very proud of themselves for making their own dinner!  (Although Ben informed me, he was a little upset that I didn't have chef hats for them...) 

Conner and Ben were almost done making their pizzas.  Check out the leaning tower of mini pepperoni on Ben's!

Once the pizzas were done, we sat down to eat.  I will just say that the making of the dinner went a lot smoother than the actual eating of the dinner... but I suppose that is no surprise since almost every meal right now is a struggle with these two!  They would just rather be doing something else! 

 



Parade!

The Linn-Mar Homecoming parade was tonight and it just so happens that our house is on the route so we headed outside to sit on the lawn and watch the parade!  When we started to hear the parade coming, I turned to Ben, and said that the parade was starting and it was so exciting.  Ben told me, "Okay, Mom, I know it's exciting, but just calm down!"  Ironic, that my Ben tells me to calm down!!!  He loved the parade and Ben really loved catching all the candy that was being thrown at him!

 

Conner absolutely loved the marching band!  He just stared in awe as they passed us.  As soon as they walked past and happened to stop playing, Conner started listing all of the instruments that he liked.  Tuba, cymbals, drums, trumpet....  He was pretty excited about it.  He also enjoyed catching all of the candy and was very cute picking up one piece at a time and bringing it over to his pumpkin! 

 The football team was the last group in the parade, and a friend from HyVee was walking with her son, so she stopped and gave the boys little footballs, which they thought was pretty cool!  When the parade was over, we said goodbye to a few friends we had seen from school and went inside to go through all the candy!!!