Halloween 2012

We had a great Halloween!  D LOVES Halloween and everything about it - so it was no surprise that he loved every part of his day.

He trick-or-treated in the morning with his preschool around Harper College - and got a HUGE bag of treats.  Then we proceeded to ACTUAL trick-or-treating in my in-law's neighborhood with my niece and sister-in-law.  It was great.

Here's the ninja turtle in all his glory:

Our children demanded costumes this year - my niece requested my sister-in-law be a bat.  D originally wanted more ninja turtle buddies - but last minute wanted Dain to be a policeman and me to be Catwoman - so I came up with a few things on my lunchbreak from work:

 

Buddies trick-or-treating - 2nd year in a row!

My newest niece enjoying her first Halloween! 

All in all - it was a success!

Spooky, Scary Skeleton Party!

D's 4th Birthday Party was a success!

We had his party this past Sunday at our regular location - the Peck Farm Park Orientation Barn.

It was a great day for a party and we had a great turnout.

Here's are the stations that we had set up for the kids:

BECOME A SKELETON:
The kids dressed in all black (or close to) and we had ribcage and leg/arm bone stickers so they could become a skeleton like the b-day boy in his skeleton sweatsuit.  I also had white face paint for any brave takers!

FEED YOUR SKELETON:
Cupcakes in black/white - with black and white skull sprinkles!  And some fruit, pretzels and candy to snack on!

COLOR A SKELETON:
Coloring sheets that said "I Shook My Bones at D's 4th B-Day Party"

SKELETON BUCKETS:
Bozo buckets - but no one sadly knows what they are anymore.  I had skeleton buckets set up - with eyeball balls for tossing.  This didn't really go off as planned - the kids just carried the buckets and balls around.  But it was fun!

MAKE A Q-TIP SKELETON:
Found a picture on Pinterest for this one.  We provided a sheet of black construction paper and a skull head - with glue and q-tips - and the kids created a skeleton on their paper!

MAKE A BONE NECKLACE:
Skeleton Candy Necklaces!!  They were a hit!

The kids played with help from their moms that came and we sang happy birthday to D.  After a bit I handed out the goodie bags - containing skeleton straws, stretchy skeleton toys, skeleton sunglasses, a gummy skeleton candy and two skull rings. 
Then we headed outside to play in the beautiful weather before it was time to take down the decorations.

I sadly was running around too much to take too many pictures - but I got a few!  Here's some of the fun from our great day celebrating the GREATEST boy!

Costume Decisions

Well he finally decided!  THANK GOODNESS.
And I'm happy to report that we've gone back to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle idea.

D will be Raphael this year (but make note - this is probably because they don't make a Michaelangelo costume).

Now - to see if I can find a way to convince him that I'm actually April O'Neil!

Book Time

Another book review!   A quick one!

You may or not know the comedian Michael Ian Black.  He's most known lately for his commentary on the VH1, I love the 70's, 80's, 90's etc etc etc.  He's always been hilarious to me, and now I love him even more.

He wrote a book called "Chicken Cheeks"

It's a simple book - focusing on animal butts.  Yep...I said it...animal butts.

D thought it was hilarious when we got it from the library.  He had it memorized very quickly.  And laughed so loud when we read it the first time in a restaurant that people were turning around to see what was happening.

Famous pages are "kangaroo keister", "deer rear", "turkey tushie", "duck billed platypus gluteous maximus" and D's favorite "guinea pig buns".

It was a great book.  Hilarious as the animal stacked their booties on top of eachother to be able to reach honey up high in a tree.  I won't tell you how it ends. :)

So Guess What?

We're so excited!  D loves the idea of a boy baby.  So much that he was telling us that he didn't want a girl baby.  So, it's a good thing...IT'S A BOY!

(And we're not concerned they read it wrong this time - it was pretty crystal clear!)

Votes

No this is not a political post.

This is YOUR chance to weigh in on whether or not you think we're having a BOY or a GIRL.

We're finding out September 18th.  So you have until the 17th at midnight to vote....see the poll on the side.

GO!

Ninjago COSTUME?!!?

Seriously Lego folks, you're missing the market.  WHY OH WHY don't you make Ninjago costumes?

D has moved his decision from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle to Ninjago.  (Granted, still in the ninja family). I've discovered that there are NO Ninjago costumes.  So I may have to buckle down and try to make one, if D keeps this as his decision.

For reference - here's the Ninjago guy D wants to be...the blue one, Jay:

There are some crazy parents out there who have crafted large helmets out of buckets and ducktape and paint and all sorts of good things - then styrofoam to make legs so that their kid looks like a Lego man.  However, my child is 3 - he will not put up with a bucket head - and will not be able to get in and out of the car in styrofoam.

So after some more research I thought, okay I can craft this...
Then I found this:

I mean, I'm not gonna do much better, right?  I should just plan on this being the costume and save myself a month of frustration and shopping, where I'd ultimately end up with something that would look nothing like a Ninjago, right?

There's still a part of me that wants him to have a Lego head.  But maybe we'll just get a Lego head container and make it into a candy bucket to drive the point home. 
Yeah.