halloween

We didn’t actually make it out to Trick-or-Treat this year.

I did manage to snap a photo of Jakob at a Halloween party we went to over the weekend.  Where’s Waldo?

 But otherwise the boys were just not into keeping a costume on at all.  So we just decided to stay at home.

Grandma and Grandpa came over to join in our fun.  However, I made the mistake of telling the boys that Grandma and Grandpa would be over after nap.  The boys get up from nap at 3pm.  Grandma and Grandpa were not coming over until 5:30pm.  Do we see where this is going?  So needless to say when the boys woke-up from nap and immediately ran to the front door I knew we might be in for a long afternoon.  Kara and I had plans to run to the grocery store after nap but that got shot down real quick with Mr. Jakob standing at the door going, “No store.  I stay here.  Grandma.  Grandpa. Pizza.”  So we just decided to sit at home and wait for Grandma and Grandpa.  We used our free time to practice passing out candy to the trick-or-treaters.  We gave each boy a pumpkin filled with candy.  And within a couple of minutes they had the task down solid.  They were ready to pass out candy.  That was until we got our first trick-or-treater of the night.  Alex carefully watched the semi-little kid approach our front door.  But as the kid neared our door Alex placed his pumpkin on the ground and hightailed it for the playroom.  I think he was calling it a night.  Alex spent the remainder of the evening in the playroom with Grandpa trying to convince all us to make the kids stop coming to the door.  Jakob on the other hand once again acted as our family ambassador.  The kid took his job seriously!  He would come running to the door each time we got a trick-or-treater and carefully place a single piece of candy in their bag.  And of course he would always yell “BYE” as they turned to walk away.  Jakob had a blast and really only got scared a couple of times.  But even after a quick scare Jakob would return right back to his job.  Alex on the other hand decided to spend time showing Grandma his new Thomas the Train potty.

Isn’t this how every kid spends Halloween?

Now we just got to teach Alex that you have to actually pee on the potty and not just read the special potty books.

Overall it was a very memorable Halloween.

Mary

family pictures 2014

All credit goes to our fabulous photographer.

The family.  This picture was the very last one to be taken that day and it so perfectly captures all our personalities.  It is also scary how much Alex is a reflection of me and how much Jakob is a reflection of Kara.  This picture was worth the entire day of chasing grumpy kids around the park.  And note - Jakob's reaction is a result of learning that he could have ice cream for lunch.

 Our life with toddlers.  Negotiations.

The boys.  This was one of the first pictures to be taken that day.  And the boys were being angels.  We quickly learned that both Jakob and Alex thought that the promise of a visit to the playground after we finished taking pictures was being translated as "If you take one picture, then we get to go the playground."  So that's why this was the best picture we got of the boys together all day.  They thought after this picture we were headed to the playground.

Alex.  The photographer got some great pictures of Alex while Kara and I were off calming down Jakob who was having a major meltdown over the delayed trip to the playground.  This is again a perfect capture of his personality.

Jakob. This picture was taken at the playground.  Pure Bliss. 

Mary