Happy Halloween!!



New Playroom!!  Needs work and sorting out of toys bit it works for the time being until the rest of the house is being put away.  Kole is hanging out in his Halloween costume from his party at school.  You'll have to scroll down to see the rest of the costume.  Kole was TOTALLY into Halloween this year.  He loved talking about "spooky" things and then reminding me that is was just "pretend".  The tv has had Halloween cartoon episodes of some of his favorite cartoons, so we've been watching those lately (which has been great little times to get things together in the house!), doing Halloween crafts---clothespin ghosts, pumpkins faces, and baking Halloween muffins, and just noticing decorations and "spooky" things.  He woke up this morning asking to go trick-or-treating right away.  He was giddy all day and actually said "I'm so excited!" at one point as we were getting ready to go trick-or-treating at Publix this afternoon.  Sydney was excited too and loves seeing pumpkins.  She calls them "puh-keh".  They were both so cute this year for Halloween!

 

Dr. Kole, paging Dr. Kole....

I bribed Kole with taking a "together" pic.  He was so not interested.

So, I decided NOT to dress Sydney up.  I struggled a bit with Kole's costume, with the weather and all, and had no idea what Sydney would keep on and in one piece.  It was warmish tonight so a typical Halloween costume for a small toddler/baby (she's still so tiny!) is something like a wintertime sleeper or full piece outfit.  I didn't think that would fly.  I was just as happy with her wearing her cute Halloween dress that her Nana made for her (it was supposed to be a dress but she GREW enough to need leggings.  In the end, it was just as cute as a long tunic with her black leggings!).

C'mon Sydney, let's go to Publix to go trick-or-treating!

Getting all situated for Seth to take the kids out trick-or-treating

Bye-Bye, see  you in awhile!  Actually, they were gone quite some time (I stayed and passed out the candy and dog treats).  Kole LOVED it but was a bit leary at a few homes with spooky decorations.  Sydney liked it but was scared a few times.  By the time she got home, she clung to me for at least 20 minutes.  Poor girl!  Kole made out like a bandit!  He ended up raking in about 85% good chocolate candy!  It was a bit odd to be in shorts passing out candy but I sat back, opened a cold adult refreshment and enjoyed it.  There were others enjoying their own refreshments as well ;)  It was a fun Halloween!!

Pumpkin Patch

Kole had a "field trip" to the local pumpkin patch at school today.  Now, when I say "local", what I really  mean is that the church where preschool is hosts a pumpkin patch on their side lawn :)  Kole was less than thrilled to be there for some reason and didn't really have fun.  Not really sure why.  I suspect he was tired.  You'll be able to see his latest casuality to the face in the pictures.  He was, in his words, "messing with Sydney's crib" while he should have been sleeping.  I think his face sort of skidded across the crib and he got a little "burned" on his nose and lip.  *sigh*  Enjoy pics!

at the pumpkin patch

Poor Buttercup...she sat in her stroller most of the time.  Next time she can run around

Kole kept trying to pick up the giant pumpkins.  He's so strong!

Posing

Keep trying

Oooh, that face!

Kole had such a crusty look on his face at the pumpkin patch which obviously rolled over into the photos

Happy Fall everyone!!

It's Fall!

Just a few photos and videos of the kids.  Also here is an update of some random stuff with us as well:

Well, the big news is that we are FINALLY closing on the house we've been waiting on for the last 4 months!!  We are so excited to finally be moving into a larger space that is OURS and of course that means Jersey gets to come home to us!!!!!!!  We close on Friday and are only going to be living in the condo until the end of the month.  Bittersweet really, because we will miss the beach being in our backyard.  Seth was just down there tonight fishing.  Oh well, we are still excited!!!
Kole: he turned three and turned into a child with his own mind.  One of his favorite things to say lately is, "I don't waaaaaant toooooo."  He has a hard time listening and has been getting in trouble for it and ended up getting all of his trains taken away and packed up in a box until we move.  Yes, it was harsh but I had totally had it and that was my breaking point.  It was not a pretty sight, that's for sure.  But, he's been finding other things to do and other toys to play with instead.  Not the worst thing in the world.  He is loving preschool and looks forward to it every week.  He comes up with new things to say all the time.  This past week it was knock-knock jokes.  Apparently his teacher was doing the jokes at school this week.  Otherwise he's repeating lots of things he hears from me and mostly he directs it at Sydney.  Like tonight he was picking up and putting back all of the alphabet magnets on the front door and Sydney was pulling them off.  I heard him say, "Sydney, no!  Sydney I'm in charge, go pick up toys!  Listen to me, I'm in charge Sydney, go pick up toys!"  Oh boy....  He is still totally observant and still has that memory like a steel trap :)
Sydney: she is slowly growing.....she's almost into 12 month clothes!  She runs around the house like a mad woman and always has something in her hand.  Mostly it's her Woody doll (I think it's Kole's really) or a toy wrench from the tool bench.  She LOVES dogs these days (although the pigs are still close to her heart) and barks when she sees them.  No joke, the other night she was sleeping and I was still up and she was barking in her sleep!  She is saying lots of words (and sounds) these days:  please, thank you, cracker, cookie, fish, more, oink, woof, meow, baa, neigh, princess (seriously!), nana, papa, mama, dad, kole, jersey (that's super new!), Sydney, Thomas, Elmo, Poo, toot-toot (ha!), and ball.  Now, these don't ALL sound like they should but I can understand what she is asking for.  Her voice is just the sweetest thing you've ever heard!!  She loves to play with the letter and animal magnets on the front door.  She and Kole will usually play that together and it's pretty cute. It's called Fridge Phonics and Fridge Farm.  However, I have magnets ALL. OVER. THE. HOUSE. and it drives me nuts.  If they didn't play that toy every single day, it would be gone. She adores goldfish crackers and she loves to ham it up for strangers while we are out in public :)
Me: involved with MOPS and loving the great women I'm meeting.  Getting involved in Kole's preschool and helped at the preschool garage sale last weekend.  Looking forward to having places to put all of our crap and at the same time, weed some of it out as well!
Seth: working hard.  working hard. working hard. 
That's about it, I'll continue to upload pics and vids for you.  Hopefully the next batch will include photos of our new house :)

Sydney watching Spooky Buddies with Kole (a Halloween dog movie)

"Reading" a Veggie Tales book and then just Sydney babble which is music to my ears

The kids are SO sick of being inside the house!!!  Both were sick AND we had horrible rain and wind last weekend that kept us in most of the time.  PLUS we had a big leak by the sliding glass door that kept them away from part of the living room. 

Watching Spooky Buddies with her own buddy, Woody.

Kole is helping to make muffins!  He loved helping!

Corn maze at the Fall Harvest Festival in Viera on Saturday.  It was PERFECT weather! Warm but breezy with some clouds so the sun wasn't so offensive while we were outside.  Fun things for the kids (mainly Kole) to do.  We'll probably do more of these ;)  (Seth HATES doing stuff like this. He can be a party pooper sometimes, it's FUN!)

Bounce house which is a struggle for Kole.  He likes it and wants to go in but once he's there he doesn't want to fall down and is constantly asking for help.  He refused to go down the big slide. 

I forgot to mention that Sydney is LOVING pumpkins lately and can say that word too!  Kole got to draw on and decorate a pumpkin but gave Sydney a plain one.  She was totally excited!!

We started to get a little crabby after decorating the pumpkin (look at Kole's face) but here is his masterpiece, complete with pipe cleaner antennae

NOT interested in having pictures taken

Holding a pumpkin and chowing a hot dog. 

WOO-HOO....VIDEOS!!!

The two videos below are of Kole playing with some of the mullet that Seth caught one weekend morning

This is from Play Plus, the indoor play area that I am kind of in love with.  It's air conditioned and the kids are totally contained but they can roam around and play with what they want!  Now, in this video, listen carefully to the little girl Kole made friends with :)

Sydney has fun at Play Plus too.  She dressed up as a fairy this time and got to have time in the bounce house since we ended up going at lunch time and there was only ONE other kid there!  I'll have to remember that ;)

Birthday morning.  He gets this excited over every. single. train. he unwraps :)

Playtime with Buttercup

The T-Rex Cafe version of Happy Birthday.  Please excuse the focus.  Seth couldn't figure it out :)

A little Irene

Buttercup and her favorite toy--her little piggie!

Play Time

We headed to Play Plus today since our monthly pass expires in a few days.  We sure have gotten our money's worth out of the pass.  I don't feel bad about going there and only spending an hour.  Otherwise when I pay by the day, it's like $12 and I feel I have to stay forever to get my money's worth!  That gets old.  Today we went pretty late; almost noon.  We all got up a little late and had a late breakfast.  That's the thing to do---there was only ONE other little girl there plus us and we had the whole place to ourselves!!!  Sydney could run around like a chicken with her head cut off and I didn't have to worry about her getting trampled by other kids!!

She found a little dolly to hold as soon as we got there!

It's pretty blurry, but I just loved the look on Kole's face coming down the bounce house slide!

I detest the sand box area but Buttercup LOVES it! 

She had those two items in her hand the whole time.  She loves to "hang on" to things while she plays.  I hope she doesn't become a hoarder.

Bouncing Kole

Bouncing Sydney!

Beep Beep!  I'm pulling you over for speeding Sydney!

Having a little snack (in a fairy dress up costume).