Happy Halloween

Finally, Halloween is here. Grace was a pink fairy and Lucas was Peter Pan. I was a little worried that Grace would not want to wear her costume (you know how fickle a 3 year old can be). I had picked several patterns for her to choose from. The one she finally picked had 4 different styles and she picked the "pink" one. Well, after I had made the outer part, she decided she wanted to be the "green" one. Yikes. But in the end, she cooperated with everything, thankfully. I'm sure Steve had a reservation at the Psych ward just in case. The only costume drama not including the 3 days/nights before was that Lucas refused to wear his hat. Oh, well.

This was the best picture I got of the two of them in their costumes. I'm not sure why they are raising their hands.
Lucas was not in the mood for picture taking. He just wanted to run all over the place.
My cousin has a Halloween party at her house every year so we headed over there to partake in the spooky festivities. Guess who fell asleep on the way and missed out on all the trick or treating fun? We left him with the witch.
All the kids in their costumes.
Grace and a friendly lion.
She even had her own personal security guard. Steve has Marshall to thank for his costume.
She was excited to go trick or treating. It was soo cute to see her running with her fairy wings bouncing along. One treat giver mistook her for a butterfly. You should have seen her face. "No, I am NOT a butterfly. I am a fairy!".
Enjoying the fruits of her labor.
Another friendly witch.
Lucas was eating dinner when we got back from trick or treating. He kicked back a cupcake with Daddy afterward.

Enjoying Daddy's caramel apple.
Lucas got a nibble too. Several, actually. He really liked it.
Transformed from a fairy to a pretty girl in her pj's.
Another Halloween behind us. I'll be starting on their costumes for next year tomorrow. What's sad is that even if I did, I probably still wouldn't finish in time. I also didn't get a picture of my "costume"---figures. I dressed as a Longhorn fairy which meant I wore fairy wings too with Longhorns on them. Luckily Texas beat OSU and I didn't have to throw those wings away.

Pumpkin hunt

The second annual Steffensen Pumpkin Hunt started off with a late night walk down the street (so Mommy could hide the pumpkins). The hunters were greeted midway through with new flashlights with which to begin the hunt.
Daddy assisted with taking off coats so everyone could get upstairs and find a pumpkin or two.
What you can't tell is that it is dark upstairs. They had to use their flashlights to find the pumpkins. Did you know that pumpkins come out in the dark?
Lucas found one.
And Grace found some.
Much of the fun came from playing with the flashlights in the dark.
Those pumpkins get sneaky sometimes and like to hide in the not so obvious places.
Our little pumpkin hunters found them all. Their prize? A Snow White DVD. Hi ho, Hi ho, it's off to work we go........

Halloween party

Grace had a halloween party at school. It was a big party with all the classes (2yr, 3yr and 4yr olds) in her preschool. It was held in their music room and playground area.

Her first stop was the spinning art booth.
Of course Lucas had to get in on the action. He never misses an opportunity to use a marker. Never.
An action shot at the bean bag toss. Look at that form.
Next up---the car wash. That's her teacher in the the red hat. She had to take the car through the car wash.
And back out. Lucas wouldn't get near this one, I guess he is still traumatized by the real car wash that Steve took the kids through a couple of weeks ago.
Even Grandma and Grandpa got to join us for the party. See, these are the fun things you get to do when you are retired.
Fishing for treats.
Caught one after one got away.
This was pin the mouth on the pumpkin.
Spider ring toss. A variation on the bean bag toss.
A picture with Sra. Melendez, her Spanish teacher, formerly known as Jenny, my high school best friend.
Sorting spiders.
Face painting. I was really surprised that she wanted this. Usually she doesn't want her face painted for some reason.
Fishing for ping pong balls. With all the leftover ducks from Grace's 2nd b-day party, my kids have become experts at scooping up stuff from tubs (or pools) of water.
And here is Grace in her first school program. Steve videotaped it and if I ever figure out how to upload videos then this will be one of the first. They sang several songs. It was soo cute. Grace did a great job singing. Some kids looked a little clueless, not Grace. I was such a proud mama and would be lying if I said that I didn't get a little teary eyed. All that practicing on Grandma's fireplace paid off!
A ride on Grace's favorite horse on the playground. He's the fastest one apparently.
Fun party that got us psyched for Halloween. Of course I'm still frantically trying to put on the finishing touches on their costumes. Hmmpf.

Mom's retirement

My mom retired from the post office today. Her career spanned several decades and included such accolades as Miss Zip Code 1974 (I think that was the year). We were all so happy for her.

Here she is "working" on her last day.
Her friends and colleagues gave her a nice luncheon.
Celebrating the day with family...and friends.
Receiving a coin and thanks from her boss.
It was a nice day. Too bad the battery in my camera went dead shortly after this picture. I noticed the blinking battery light right after I took the picture of the cake. Stupid camera. I take millions of silly, unnecessary pictures (oh, you've noticed too, have you) but an important day comes around and these are the only pictures I have to show for it.

Sorry mom. I guess you'll have to get another job and when you retire from that one, I promise to be better prepared.

Pumpkins and pizza

Finally, it's time to carve our pumpkins!

Trying to see what's inside. A little suspicious at first but it didn't take long.....for them to both dig in.Lucas, our little strongman, had to flex his muscles a little.Grace had no problem this year getting her hands dirty. Last year, she refused to stick her hand into the pumpkin. She was a good helper scooping the insides out. Of course this help was negated by the fact that Lucas kept scooping everything back inside the pumpkin. Silly boy.Our carving day took place over the course of the day. I learned from last year that with 2 little ones, you can't just do it all in one sitting. We scooped out the pumpkins early in the afternoon and by the time that was done, it was dinnertime. Or should I say pizza time. After noting the importance of the occasion, Grace made a quick wardrobe change. This is more appropriate attire for making pizza and carving pumpkins.Lucas making his own rendition of pizza. You don't want to cover the whole thing in sauce making sure that at least 30% gets on the surrounding area.Next comes the cheese. This part requires that you let a little piece hang out of your mouth for reasons unknown to me but which certainly make for a cute picture.And last the pepperoni.Once the pizza has been baked and eaten and the dishes are clear, it's time to return to pumpkin carving.

Put your game face on......

We left one pumpkin full of its guts so they could scoop it out with Daddy.And the results.....What these pictures fail to accurately document is how fast this night fell apart. It took Steve and I a while to get the pumpkins carved and the later it got, the wilder the kids became until they became quite unruly. By the time we got outside, it started to rain a little and nobody wanted to sit still let alone look at a camera. I'm not sure but I think at one point while Steve and I tried to light the candles, Lucas might have taken a walk around the block. It was a near disaster except that my mom unexpectedly arrived to drop off something. And that was just what we needed----an extra adult to overpower the banshee children so that we could take this picture...

And somehow we wrangled the kids and snapped this picture too.
An impossible feat, if you only knew.