One Good Halloween...

Cupcakes.

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A Costume Parade:

The Conductor.

His class.

No two-year-old, because I forgot.

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The only photo I took at the Corn Maze:

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A Halloween Carnival at church:

Two monkeys names Hayes. No kidding!

Games.

Buddies. "CHEESE!"

Food Trucks. And chips. 

(Hayes says chips backwards and it sounds like B****. We cannot help but laugh. He loves chips.)

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October 31st:

Pizza at Grammy and Bee's pre-trick-or-treat.

One conductor. 

One cotton candy.

One grumpy Curious George.

She is "THE SWEETEST."

Lots of kids. Lots of candy. Fun with Aunt Abby. 

(The two-year-old had screamed his way back to The Sienna (mini-van) by this time.)

One cool kid who was very proud of his costume and the general awesome-ness of the evening.

So tired but having fun!

The recovering two-year-old with the pro trick-or-treater. I saw them sitting together and ran Lillie over for a photo....the only one with all three of my kiddos.

Three is a lot. Halloween is fun. Good night!  

Costume Building And Why You Shouldn't Listen To Your Mother

Last week Bryan built Parker his POLAR EXPRESS costume. He did an awesome job and I am so thankful that I have a husband who is excited to do stuff like this for our children.

I tried sooooooo hard to get Parker to be something else other than The Polar Express. (Ya know, since he was a train last year and since The Polar Express is for CHRISTMAS and not Halloween.)

Here are our conversations:

Me: Parker, what do you want to be for Halloween?

Parker: How about......A MONSTER TRUCK?

Me: Okay! That sounds cool!

Parker: OR......I could be....THE POLAR EXPRESS!

Me: Well, but The Polar Express is for Christmas. How about you be something else?

Parker: Okay! How about....A FIRETRUCK?

Me: Yes! That's an awesome idea.

Parker: OR.....I could be....THE POLAR EXPRESS!

(Repeat with various methods of transportation about 23 more times.)

We gave in.

Also, THIS IS WHAT I DEAL WITH ON A DAILY BASIS.

100% Bryan's idea. This is the G-Rated version.

Hayes did nothing else but toot and laugh today. I mean it. I don't remember a single other thing that he did.

Good thing I have this little lady.

But back to THE POLAR EXPRESS (I always think of it in a yell because that's how Parker says it. He says it a lot, too.)

Parker wore his costume all weekend and got so many compliments. I will try and do another post on trick-or-treating for my two other children who were incredibly adorable BUT I must write this first: Parker was videoed while we were trick-or-treating and after we got home we were de-lighted to see him in the Halloween segment on the news. I laughed so hard. (Link right here.)We were so shocked and even more shocked to wake up today with the news station searching for the "mystery train conductor" on Facebook! Well, they found him thanks to a few of my friends and now they will be doing a story on Parker and his love for the Polar Express! I am totally not kidding, either. 

The local Polar Express that runs at Christmastime is letting him be a honorary conductor one night on the train, but SHHHHH! It's a surprise to Parker!

I still can't believe it. This is why you should never listen to your mother when she tells you, "Just be something else for Halloween."

(And I'm out of time....see how good I'm doing!?)

Not Quite Christmas

My children have a mother who is overly obsessed with Christmas. I've only cheated ONCE so far this year and listened to Christmas music before Halloween. It was on Saturday, when me and Parker ventured out to a Christmas specialty store to find some stocking and maybe some trains (we didn't have any luck, but ate some delicious truffles and cupcakes). 

Anyways--it's November 1st, WHICH MEANS I can listen to Christmas music guilt-free (although Bryan disagrees...bah humbug). 

Today I had the "my tunes" on while me and Lillie Mae got the boys from school. I commented to Parker that it was November 1st along with the statement above. He just kind of looked at me and moved on to more important things ("Mom, I want to go the train park after Sonic."), but later on after we got home he asked if we were allowed to watch a Christmas movie since it is almost Christmas time. As you would guess....I agreed! We watched Curious George Christmas and then I had an idea: we are starting a new tradition. 

Since I'm technically still a "Christmas crazy" until after Thanksgiving, I think we will start calling November 1st "Not Quite Christmas". 

Activities involved: 

1. Listen to unlimited amounts of Christmas music

2. Watch a Christmas movie with hot chocolate in our Polar Express mugs (and apparently popcorn because we just have to have it)

3. Make gift lists for Santa and family (This is mostly because I like to get all of the shopping done before December 1st....I am such a smart mother. ;)

4. Read a Christmas book before bed.

This is exactly what we did tonight. Guilt free. It was awesome!

Now we can get back to good old Thanksgiving.