Halloween 2011: Part Three

Halloween Night - Claire was so excited about trick or treating that I had a hard time getting her to stand still for a photo.  Will was much more chill about the whole thing.

Note the almost ever present headband

After a few photos, we headed over to the neighborhood pizza party and visited with a few neighbors before hitting a few houses for trick or treating.  Claire was a little apprehensive at first, but she quickly got over her shyness (easier to do when candy is involved)!  She loved figuring out who was home and running to ring the doorbell while Will was happy guarding the wagon.

As it started getting dark, we took the puppy home to get ready for bed while Daddy and the cupcake passed out candy to the older kids.  We had a good number of kids come by and ran out of candy right around Claire's bedtime.  Before bath, she got to go through her loot and pick a couple of treats to savor before bath.  I may or may not have also found a couple of treats in there after her bedtime...

Halloween 2011: Part Two

The actual day of Halloween started off with a parade at the kids' school.  Claire dressed up as a cupcake, while Will was a puppy (or as I thought, Cutest Puppy Ever).





I think this was our last year to pick Claire's costume for her.  A month or so before, I asked Claire what she wanted to be, and I offered up a few suggestions - cupcake, ice cream cone, strawberry, etc. (easy to find costumes!).  She sat there a minute, and then said "I want to be juice."  "Juice?"  "Yes, a juice box!"  So creative!  While I would've loved to fulfill that request, we just didn't have time to make a costume.  Besides, at this age, I was afraid she would change her mind the day before.  Fortunately she was really excited about her cupcake costume - and of course, she looked adorable.  She really stood out in the sea of princesses at the parade.  :)

Halloween 2011: Part One

Halloween seems to get more fun each year as Claire gets older - her excitement spreads to the rest of us.  So many pictures this year that I'm going to spread them out in 3 posts!

The celebration started on Sunday at our church's fall festival.  Claire really had a blast playing some of the games this year and even wanted to get her face painted - something she never would've considered last year!







Will got in on the action, doing his best throwing some beanbags at the beanbag toss.  He is so into balls and throwing things - truly all boy!


Claire really wanted to go in the bounce house and just giggled and laughed the whole time we were in there.  Will got to participate, too (with a little help from Mommy)!

Project Life: Weeks 42 - 43

October 17 - 30


Tuesday, October 18


Will is getting good drinking from his sippy cup!

Friday, October 21


My placement for JLSA this year was Ole Market.place, and tonight was the Girls' Night Out event.  The giant flashing pink rings that were handed out were fun - this may be the most "blinged out" I've ever been.


Tuesday, October 25




Trying on clothes to figure out what to wear for some upcoming photo sessions.

Thursday, October 27




Will's turn to model some new clothes for me!

Friday, October 28



Robert and I got to celebrate our 5th anniversary.  Grandmommy came down for the night to watch the kids while we went to dinner (Baked Alaska for dessert) and had a night away at the Westin La Cantera.  It was so great to have some uninterrupted time together and sleep in!

Pumpkin Patch 2011

Yesterday the kids and I visited a pumpkin patch.  I thought this year would be the one where we made a day of it and visited one of the big patches outside of town, but things were a little hectic in October.  I'm sure Will and Claire enjoyed this one just as much.  We went on a weekday, and there weren't many other kids there, so Claire was able to run around checking out all the pumpkins while Will and I kicked back and watched.





Enjoying some of the books sitting out for story time later that day






Love that little tummy!

Will at 11 Months

Better late than never...  :)

Project Life: Weeks 40 - 41

Photos from October 3 - 16


Monday, October 3




Tonight we tried out one of the new smoothie recipes we tasted at the Vitamix demonstration at the Fair - a green smoothie with grapes, banana, lime, orange, and spinach.  It was delicious - you don't even taste the spinach, so it's a great way to get in some extra veggies.

Saturday, October 8



Will looked so cute stretching on his tip toes to play with the kitchen.  I was so glad I already had the camera out and had taken a few pictures since a few moments later Claire came over and did this:



I feel like it's such a great expression of their relationship - I've gotten a little choked up a couple of times when I look at this photo.  We are so blessed!


Tuesday, October 11


Mom, Dad, and Aunt Nancy were here this past weekend, and we put Dad to work building a couple of stepstools for Claire's bathroom (one for the sink and one for the toilet).  Today the paint was done drying so we moved them into her bathroom.  She was so excited to test them out - no more stretching to reach the toothpaste!



Will is 11 months old today!

Friday, October 14


The kids enjoying a rare quiet moment watching "Blue's Clues".

Saturday, October 15


We saw a cat in our yard this morning, and I sent Claire to take care of it.  She stands on the edge of the patio and yells "Go away old cat!  Go away!  Go away!"  Really scary.  :)

State Fair of Texas 2011

A visit to the State Fair is a family tradition that we could not miss.  For the first time, we were there on opening day, but the crowds were not bad at all.  We made it through the line and headed towards Big Tex and the Fletcher's Corny Dog stand.  We started to get in line and realized that Claire was asleep, so she missed out on a corny dog this round.  Will was a fan, though.





We hit all of our usual spots, including the car show.



Will got his first lion picture...



...and Claire got her fourth (previous years' photos can be seen here)!



ROAR!



Claire then thought she should roar for every photo:





Will mesmerized by the VitaMix demo:



We learned a new recipe for green smoothies that we've made several times - I'll post it soon on a recipe review post.

Claire did some good work in the Little Farmers' Spot.







Claire fell asleep in the stroller (again) and wasn't excited about getting picked up for a photo, but we had to get a picture with Big Tex before we left.  It's close to impossible to get a photo of all 4 of us looking at the camera and smiling, so I'll take it.  :)



We finally let her sleep when we got to the car - they were both out before we left the parking lot.