Halloween 2010

Since we missed the trunk-or-treat at church last weekend (due to sickness), the kids were super excited about going trick-or-treating tonight! Nathan was beyond excited...I mean, he was absolutely beside himself. He was wired and ready to go the minute he woke up today!

We headed over to Nana and Papa's to trick-or-treat over in their neighborhood. It's become a tradition to meet over there, with Gaga and Doo too! Madison is always my cooperative one when it comes to taking pictures, but it was a bit harder with my wild little Nathan! He was too into everything else going on to smile and sit still! Anyway, Madison has had her heart set on being Supergirl all year long, so that's what she got for a costume. Nathan wanted to be Superman, and since he hasn't grown much, we just decided to use the same costume from last year! Plus, they match, and I know it probably won't happen again!

Michael had bought a creepy mask to wear for Halloween night, and Nathan has always laughed at him when he sees it. Tonight he started screaming so loud when he saw him walk into the room! It wasn't really a fearful scream, but the boy was wound up!

With freaky man, daddy...

And they're off...

The entire night, the kids were racing each other. It was either Madison trying to catch up to Nathan, or vice versa. Walking was not in their vocabulary tonight!

My runaway three year old, full of energy...

And see, now it's Nathan trying to catch Madison, which was most of the night. He burned all his energy in the beginning!

The kids got to walk through a mini haunted house. I told them they had to come back through so I could get their picture. Nathan was a little scared, so he ran as fast as he could back to me. He was so quick, I couldn't even get his picture! Madison liked it though, and wasn't afraid!

After about an hour or so, the kids got tired and thirsty, so we headed back home to surprise Papa at the door!

Here they are with all their candy. We didn't get a ton, but we got PLENTY. Poor Nathan had to give up half of his because of the eggs and peanuts in the candy, but he didn't seem to mind though...any candy is good in his eyes!

It's so much fun to see the joy and excitement they have on holidays like this. I love it when they can be complete kids, and just have fun! It was a great Halloween, with perfect weather too!

Pumpkins...

The kids wanted to carve some pumpkins, so we headed outside this afternoon! I need to get one of those pumpkin carving kits, so the kids can actually do the carving themselves. Once the seeds were out, they lost interest because they couldn't touch the knife. So, daddy ended up doing all the work!

Nathan wouldn't touch the pumpkin at school, so I figured he wouldn't touch ours either. But to my surprise, he did! Here's what he thought about it...

Madison didn't mind as much - she actually got into it this year.

And here are our pumpkins, who didn't even get used on Halloween night! We weren't at home, so no one even saw them. I would say we at least got some good pumpkin seeds out of the deal, but those didn't turn out too well. Ohwell, there's always next year! At least we can say we did it!

Our new pet...

Our absolute favorite teacher EVER asked us if we wanted her precious little frog, J.J. She said Madison was always interested in him last year at school, so I decided to go for it and surprise her. My track record with keeping pets alive is not the best, but she said he's low maintenance, so we'll see! I think it'll be pretty easy....we just need to clean his tank about once a month --right, Jennifer? :) -- and feed him every day, which I'm sure Madison will remember.

I didn't tell Madison whose house we were going to for the surprise, so when Mrs. Aldrich opened the door, she was a little confused!

Here's J.J....he's an African Dwarf frog, and he is one active little guy!

Nathan was super excited too. Whenever we were up at school helping Jennifer out, Nathan would run over and just stare at the frog...he loved him! So this was a surprise for both kids.

This has nothing to do with the frog, but I thought it was sweet. I snuck up on Madison writing this on her magna doodle later on today. She still talks about Mrs. Aldrich and how she misses her and that she was the best teacher ever. I agree. I'm STILL going through withdrawals and it's the second six weeks of the next year!

Jennifer, thank you so much for giving J.J. to Madison, and for thinking of us. Madison thinks it's pretty special that she gets to have her old class pet at home. We will take good care of him, I promise!

Our bike ride to the pumpkin patch!

Madison has been dying to ride her bike practically every day since she learned how, so this afternoon, we decided to ride bikes up to the pumpkin patch! I wasn't sure if she would be able to make it, but we were optimistic and rode AT LEAST 3 miles to the pumpkin patch off of Murphy Rd. She was having so much fun, and loved every minute of it. She can go a lot faster without those training wheels!

Taking a break at Albertsons. She was so hot, but couldn't wait to keep going!

We made it! I have a ton more pictures of Madison than Nathan here, only because he was not in the mood for more pictures after having our family pics taken this morning! I love Madison's age - so willing to pose for pics. And by the way, these were all her own poses....I had nothing to do with it!

I was a little worried that Madison would give out on the way home, but she did amazing! Never once complained. I'm not sure exactly how far we rode, but it was at least 6 miles, probably more. We had so much fun riding bikes to the pumpkin patch, and it was definitely a perfect day for it!

Family pics...finally!

We skipped last year, so the last time we had our family pictures taken was when Nathan was a little under 18 months! I finally just decided to book them and get them done. The photographer we used to use at JC Penney moved to Target, so we followed him and got them done there. I normally love outside pictures for family pics, but this year, my main goal was getting them taken - and for cheap!

I'm not crazy in love with them (mainly b/c I'm so critical of myself), but here it is.

And I'm absolutely in love with this one! LOVE it!

We almost bought these, but decided against them because we already have a ton of individual pictures of the kids around the house! I still thought they turned out really cute though.

Thank goodness it's over for another year!

A milestone for both kids!

Yesterday was a huge day in our household! Madison learned to ride her bike without training wheels!!!! I never thought she'd learn. She's my VERY cautious child, and every time we'd try to teach her, she'd give up because she was too scared. After several falls and much crying out of frustration, she did it!!!

She is SO proud of herself!

And today, she learned how to start by herself. I can't believe it only took a day for her to learn!

And to top that off, Nathan learned how to ride his bike too! WITH training wheels, obviously, but up until yesterday, he just couldn't get the pedaling (or steering) down! I realize he probably should already know how to do this, being 3 years old, but I am a bad mommy and wasn't working with him on it. It's been too hot!

Here he is today riding his bike. With all the excitement with Madison, I never took any pictures of him riding his bike!

I'm so excited and proud of my two babies! I never thought this day would come (well, for Madison)!