Trunk or Treat!

The week before Halloween was the annual ward Trunk or Treat party. We just got home from Arizona (that post to come soon!) and Scott and Charlotte both crashed on the couch. We had to wake them both up from a dead sleep and bribe them to put their costumes on. But it didn't take long for them to perk up once they realized the candy that was waiting for them...

Before the actual trunk or treating, there was a costume parade and contest. I am proud to say that we took home 2 awards! Trevor was most adorable, obviously. Poor kid - the costume took away any mobility that he has!


And Scott and Zach won best couple! Mario and Luigi were surprisingly popular that night. People really loved their costumes and thought they were very creative! I don't know that I would really call their costumes 'creative'. They both just picked them from a catalog, despite Annette's attempts to get Zach to dress up as something a little more, uh, manly. But the boys have already announced than next year they will just switch and Scott will be Luigi and Zach will be Mario. Easy!


Charlotte was Snow White, and although she didn't take home an award, she did look adorable too! In the end, they came home with LOTS of candy and had a great warm-up for the real trick or treating on the 31st!

Fun at the Notley farm

Our awesome friends Jen and Charles (who in the near future will be moving from the Bay up here - yea!) invited us to hang out for an afternoon at Charles' parents' home in Orangevale earlier in October. Drew and I both knew Jen and Charles back in our single days in Palo Alto. By the way, once they do move up here, all of you living close by HAVE to hear this girl sing...

Sorry - back to the point of the post! Scott, Charlotte and the cute Notley boys, Henry and James, went on a hay ride, picked pumpkins and watermelons, fed the goats, ate cookies and brought home tons of pomegranates and tomatoes. It was great to meet "Charlie's" parents and they were so kind to entertain us for the afternoon. We weren't that far from our house in suburbia, but it felt like we were way out in the country. Thanks, Notleys!

Disney Princesses on Ice

Mom and I decided Charlotte might be ready for her first big show- Disney Princesses on Ice. We got tickets for Halloween day, and I tried to explain to her what we were doing, but she didn't quite get it. She was worried the ice was going to get her... She has also been worried that if we go back to Disneyland that Minnie might hit her. I'm not quite sure where these fears are coming from, but I did assure her she would not be abused by either the ice or Minnie.

We got to Arco Arena and it was a sea of cute little girls all dressed in princess costumes. We couldn't get Charlotte to wear a princess dress, but the always popular blue flower dress was her choice. The show was adorable and the costumes were amazing. And Charlotte seemed to really like it! This is just the first of many chick-outings for Grandma, Mommy and Charlotte!

The Main Event!

What an exciting day! It started with Scott's soccer game at 9am, then Charlotte, Grandma and I went to see Disney Princess on Ice, then we did our annual pumpkin carving and yummy dinner in a pumpkin, and last the grand finale - trick or treating! Scott did crash on Grandpa's lap around 5pm, but he woke up, inhaled his dinner (it's a Halloween miracle!) and was ready to go get candy...


Scott of course was Mario, although he was pretty disappointed we couldn't get the black moustache to stick on his face. Lots of people commented on his awesome costume! Charlotte made a game-time decision to be the "blue princess". The alternatives were the purple princess, Snow White or Tinkerbell. And Trevor was an adorable, happy monkey. We'll see if he keeps it up for next year.

The quote of the night came from Charlotte... We were trick or treating at a house that had a ghost hanging from a wire across their entry way. Charlotte LOUDLY exclaimed, "Look! It's the Holy Ghost!" And there were lots of people around who heard and cracked up along with us.

First sleepover!

One evening we were together with the Heninger clan, and Scott invited Jacob, Jonah and Rebekah over for a sleepover. Of course this was completely his own idea and we had never discussed it. Then during the following week he typed out an official invitation (unfortunately I don't have a copy of it) and mailed it off. I believe the invite said somthing about coming over at 5:30 on Friday and playing lots of Boom Blox (a Wii game). Now in the back of my mind I'm thinking, "Are 10 and 8-year-old boys really going to want to have a slumber party with a 5-year-old?" But I talked with Laurie and she said they would LOVE it. Really? When the boys are together and are allowed to play Wii, they seem to have an absolute blast, so I figured it was worth a shot...

We picked up the Jacob, Jonah and Rebekah and went through the In-and-Out drive thru for dinner. Then after eating, the boys were just giddy playing Wii and Rebekah and Charlotte were completely entertained coloring and playing with Trevor. Then after some pumpkin pie, they all put pajamas on, got ready for bed, and went to sleep in Scott and Charlotte's room. It was a piece of cake! Maybe we should have the Heninger clan over more often! How about this Friday night?





I'm not quite sure how Charlotte ended up in the hall...

Trevor is 6 months old!

Happy 6 month birthday, Trevor! (Don't tell him it was 3 weeks ago...) I just LOVE this stage because he is so fun and responsive AND he is not yet mobile!

In the past month, Trevor has learned all sorts of new tricks! First of all, at about 5 1/2 months I started giving him cereal and real baby food. It is something I usually like to delay as long as possible, but it really seemed like he was needing a little more than just milk... So hello baby food, goodbye innocent non-stinky diapers! He caught on pretty quickly and so far is a great eater.


Also, about 3 weeks ago, he started sitting on his own. I love that I can just set him down on the floor next to a basket of toys that are great for chewing, and he will entertain himself for a while!


And finally -- drum roll please -- he just got his first tooth! He was miserable a couple nights ago, and sure enough, that tiny tooth poked through on the bottom the next day. I'm sure there are more soon to follow...

A day in the life of a 3-year-old fashionista

You wouldn't believe the amount of laundry I do... Most of it is thanks to a 3-year-old fashion queen who changes outfits MANY times each day. Here is an example of one day last week. We started with a cute outfit, including fancy princess hair with bows. That outfit made it through preschool, but once were back at home, it was dress up time!


She went through the bottom drawer of the dresser and discovered the clothes passed down from Rebekah (which we LOVE, by the way). So she chose this cute Halloween shirt and demin skirt ensemble:


But then wearing the Halloween shirt reminded her of her Halloween dress, which is Charlotte's equivalent of Scott's Lightning McQueen shirt from last year. So she put the dress on, backwards of course, and danced around in that for a while. By the way, the dress is adorable, and I will post a picture of it when she is wearing it the right way (Thanks, Steph!)


I think I missed a few outfit changes around mid-afternoon, and by dinner she was back in the Halloween dress. I asked her to change out of the dress so she wouldn't spill on it during dinner, so she gladly skipped upstairs and came down in this all-white selection:


Then it was bed time and she chose her purple kitty pjs to wear (sorry, no photo). We said goodnight, turned off the lights, and Drew and I went downstairs to clean up. 15 minutes later, she was crying and Drew went up to find out what was up.

"My jammies aren't pink!"

Drew calmly changed her into her pink dancing fairy pjs while I started working on the laundry...

Perfect park weather

Man, I LOVE fall! Today we went to the park and just enjoyed playing outside in the gorgeous weather. Scott and Charlotte were especially excited to pose for the camera today, for some reason. I took advantage of the moment to suggest that it would be nice if they would be this cooperative taking pictures when we go to the pumpkin patch...

Already?

Today in at school Scott's class went to a 3rd grade class where they each were matched up with a 'big buddy' to do a project. Scott told me that he saw this girl named Kate that he really wanted to be partners with because she had pretty hair (yes, I know already he will be a hair man).

But he was a little disappointed when instead he was matched up with Joey. He's already chasing after older women...

How many days until Halloween?

My original plan for this post was to write about the seeds we have planted in hopes of enjoying lettuce and broccoli and celery in winter. But I know the first thing you are thinking looking at this picture is, "What the heck is Scott wearing?" So here's the explanation...

4 years ago, this was Scott at Halloween. His cruel mom and dad dressing him up in this ridiculous monkey costume was the absolute worst thing that he had ever experienced in his 21 months of life. It was pure torture:

Much has changed... Now we are a month and a half away from Halloween and Scott has already chosen his costume and wears it almost every day. Actually, he found the costume in a catalog last month, but I made him wait until September before we ordered it. And we had to count down the days before it arrived in the mail.


Can you tell how pumped he is? Any of his friends out there want to dress up as Luigi? Maybe Uncle Jeff?

Crash landings

I stole this post title from my sister-in-law Sara... Since school started for Charlotte and Scott, they have fallen asleep in some pretty random places and times. Here are a few:

Kindergarten follow-up

Scott has now completed 9 days of kindergarten. I know, because he tells me every day what number day he is on... So far, he LOVES it! I don't get many details about what he does in class (clearly a trait inherited from Drew), but what I do hear is all positive. He has a cute friend in class named Conner, and they have already had a couple of play-dates together. I'm encouraging this friendship because Conner's mom is awesome!

Right after I picked him up from the first day of school, I took him to get a doughnut, hoping he might tell me a little more about his day. So here are some photos and the first-day report: