A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away

The girls decided a few weeks ago that they wanted to be “Star Wars” for Halloween.  They have not ever seen the movie so it cracks us up that they even know about it, but they knew exactly which characters they wanted to be.  Luckily, we had a lot of the items already that I just re-purposed, we borrowed some light sabers and Yoda's cloak from a friend, and I had to buy odds and ends for a total of $35.  Well worth it...
We had a lot of fun dressing up for the church Trunk or Treat and Chili Cook Off.  Jared really scared some of the little kids and they wouldn't trick or treat at our car but their parents kept assuring them, "it's just Lilly's and Jocelyn's Dad."  I finally had to park Yoda's stroller next to him to counteract the dark side.  Our next door neighbors went with us and the girls had fun running around with friends there as well.  Of course, the girls came home with enough candy to make us all sick.

The whole fam.

Little yoda in the stroller trick or treating (eating his first candy!)He was a little tired at this point...

Princess Leia Jocelyn

Queen Amidala Lillian

Darth Maul Jared

Mara Jade Caitlyn (female jedi for those not well-versed in Star Wars characters)

Spooktacular Dinner & Birthday Party

We hosted our 4^th annual Spooktacular dinner at our house and, for ease, I combined it with a birthday party for Jonas.  Everyone brought some fun and appropriately gruesome food and we had fun visiting with my cousin and his family who were able to make it, Jared’s co-worker’s family, and some friends from around here.  The house was bursting with kids running around, catching up with friends, chaos, and plenty of food which was a lot of fun.   

My cousin's flan

 Of course, I was too distracted with visiting to get many pictures, but here are a few...

 

Jonas had a ball cake for his birthday since he loves any type of ball and we fed Jonas his first cake.  He didn’t get too messy, but he did seem to like it and he has really enjoyed his basketball hoop from the Grandparents.  He is also taking some steps only with the help of his little walker toy and he looks like an old man hobbling along with his walker.  I am tempted to tape on some tennis balls just to get the full effect of the old man with a walker.

  

Fall Fun

 We have had fun with all the traditional “Halloween” activities and Halloween isn’t even here yet!  We’ve gone to the pumpkin patch, hosted our Spooktacular dinner, attended the church Trunk or Treat, had school parades, carved pumpkins, and made spooky treats.  

Our local pumpkin patch is a fun one, but can get a little expensive.  I was talking with a group of moms at church and we thought it would be fun to go to the pumpkin patch together so I said I’d find out about a “group” rate.  I figured out all the details and spread the word thinking not everyone would come, but at the pumpkin patch we had over 45 people in our group.  It was a little chaotic as I had to be the liaison with the pumpkin patch, figure out payment and make sure everyone got where they were supposed to be while keeping an eye on my kids plus a couple extra we had taken with us.  But, in the end it was worth it.  They had a cute tour, train ride, video about growing pumpkins, each of the kids got their own pumpkin, a walk through a corn maze and jumping on the hay.  The kids were sufficiently tired out afterward!

 

Girls with the Carved Pumpkins.  Unfortunately right after they were carved by Jared, Jocelyn decided to push her pumpkin on the swing.  Jared and I were distracted by trying to have Jonas NOT eat the pumpkin and smear it all over and helping Lilly carve her pumpkin and didn't realize what was happening until it was too late.  Jocelyn had a complete meltdown because her pumpkin flew off the swing, landed on the ground and split immediately open. 

Lillian at her Preschool Parade

Jonas=Trouble

That's Trouble with a capital T!

How could this cute little stinker be trouble, you ask?  Well, Jonas is going to be 1 year old two weeks from today and besides growing several new teeth recently he has been getting into EVERYTHING.  I try to send a quick email for church and BAM, a whole roll of toilet paper has been unrolled.  I try to put together a simple dinner and BAM my tupperware drawer, miscellaneous cupboard and pyrex dishes are all in the middle of the kitchen floor.  I try to read to Jocelyn for her homework and BAM, he's crawled all the way upstairs.  Emptying the dishwasher of the dirty items he can reach, splashing in toilets (even ones that Lillian has forgotten to flush), you name it!  He's sure keeping me on my toes these days.

This is the same reason that all of our garbages are decorating the tops of dressers and toilets these days instead of being in their rightful places on the floor. The same reason that we have the ottoman blocking the bottom of the stairs instead of fashionably by the couch in the family room, and the reason I am cleaning up non-stop in between feedings.  And, we still love him more than we ever thought possible!

Under Construction

 How's this for a view?  When I took this picture, I was literally standing in my front door.

Since May of this year, we've had constant construction on the portion of road right by our house.  Some days they've started work by 7 am and we've even seen them working at 10 pm.  Recently, they've expanded to include weekends and completely closed down our road so not only us, but our friends have to drive down all these tricky access roads to make it to our house.
I've tried to focus on the positive of all this. For instance...

• Jonas is being trained on a daily basis to sleep through bulldozers, jackhammers and the like... Maybe he'll have a fighting chance of sleeping through all the noise his sisters make during his nap time! 
• I'm forced to be spontaneous and think on my feet because every morning when we leave the house I'm not sure which  direction or which delays I will have on my way to take Jocelyn to school.
• We have way less traffic coming down our usually busy road
• I have a valid excuse not to wash my car for months at a time because all the dust and dirt that gets piled back on the day after I wash it.
• I'm forced to be "off-line" and enjoy life at a slower pace because my internet goes off un-explained on the days they are working on moving all the wires underground and our internet provider doesn't give a hoot!
• Since there is no physically possible way to go walking around our house (since we don't have a road, much less a sidewalk) I meet my friend a few mornings a week else where to go on a walk, which has been fun.
• I am fine tuning my abilities of driving in reverse, parking in cramped spaces and weaving through cars since we aren't allowed to park on the street anymore.  This means all four housing units are parking in our small parking lot and all of our neighbors think it's necessary to own 6 vehicles for a total of two drivers (??!!)
• Our kids and anyone visiting has a close up construction and tractor show any day of the week!  They climb up into their "tree-house" and watch all the excitement, or watch from Jonas's window in the morning
• Maybe all this is an answer to my prayers to give me more patience...Be careful what you pray for. 
• Here's to the upcoming months of road construction coming our way !!! :)