How We Did Halloween

It's been a week since the big night and we still are drowning in candy as I'm sure many households around the nation are. Don't worry, though, the boys are slowly making their way through as they are bribed to eat their healthy dinners first.

Halloween's a big holiday for us. Dylan, of course, loves all things spooky. So as soon as the calendar hit October, the bins of decorations came out. It started out with gel clings on the playroom window. A week later, the inflatable pumpkins and vampire Mickey went up in the dining room (just for our viewing pleasure). Then we went outside with gravestones, eyeball ornaments for the tree, skeletons by the door and blood gel clings for those that entered. The inflatables also went outside. We were all set to go!

Our first of several celebratory events was our 2nd time to a friend's big Halloween party. We all got dressed up for the event and headed over. When we got there, there were all the signs of a big party but no people. We wandered around the back to see if everyone was in the house for the magician that was supposed to be performing around that time. Nope, no one. So, we made a phone call and found out the party had been postponed to the next day due to the off and on rain that day. And the notification of that had somehow gone to my work email address which I of course wasn't checking on Saturday. I was pretty bummed to miss the rare occasion that I get to socialize with my neighborhood friends. The boys were fine though...they got to wear their costumes for the remainder of the day which was all they needed. Since we already had a family commitment on Sunday, we didn't make the rain date party. Hopefully next year! In any case, we were all dressed up so we took advantage of the occasion and did a family Halloween photo:

Emmet, Lucy\Wyld Style (of the Lego movie)
Captain Jack Sparrow and Bumblebee (transformer)

The excitement ramped up the week of Halloween with a parade at school for each of the boys (on different days of course), trick or treating in a nearby town the day before the holiday and, of course, trick or treating in our neighborhood on Friday, October 31st.

The boys also got fun spooky treats from Mimaw and Pipaw in the mail - glow in the dark creepy crawlies. And this is how they modeled them for a photo op:

Funny Boys!

First parade was Cade's. Dylan, Mike and I all went to watch. We also signed up to bring a treat to the post parade party for the kids. I got to take advantage of an adorable\easy pinterest find:

Monster Donuts!

This being Cade's 2nd day of school, he didn't have much practice under his belt for the "show" so he really just looked like he had no idea what was going on. But he was cute, happy to see us there for him and held tight to his parade buddy's hand as instructed. Good job, Cade.....er, I mean Captain Jack.

Captain Jack Sparrow and Spider Buddy

No Clue What's Going On
Aren't all those kids just adorable?!?

The parade consisted of a loop around the school. No walking across streets or down the road for the little guys.

The school director\Dylan's teacher yelled to me as she passed that Dylan is her "rockstar" and is just doing wonderfully at everything. I have seen a tremendous difference in my big boy in the last couple of months and am in awe at the progress he's made drawing, coloring and writing his name. It's truly incredible. For his entire life, he's had zero interest in coloring and all of a sudden, it's all he wants to do!

Back to the pinterest line of thought, I was somewhat relieved (time wise) but also a little disappointed (didn't get to use creative process) that I didn't have to make costumes this year. However, my 1 contribution was Cade's wig. I made it with yarn, rubber bands and a bandanna. The look of it turned out even better than I had thought it would. And with his "test run" at the parade, I made a few extra stitches and it worked perfectly on Halloween night. 

The boys went without me trick or treating in Maynard on Thursday. Mike said it was kind of a crazy event with the sheer amount of turn out it had, but the boys enjoyed hanging with some of their buddies for the fun event.

In the forefront - Flower Caroline and Thomas Engineer Ethan

Then it was Dylan's turn for the parade. Again with his incredible growth, his "performances" at school have pretty much consisted of him standing, not participating and looking a little like a deer in headlights. But underneath that Bumblebee mask, I saw a jaw moving up and down singing along! His first time to actually perform and I couldn't even see it.

The bigger kids paraded down the block to the bank where they went in, sang to them and then marched back to the school. The parents lined the road to ensure safety.

Arrrghhh!
My cute parade watching buddy.

Friends Libby and Molly
They were with the gang trick or treating the day before as well but weren't around when the camera was out.

Dylan's Class
Dylan is behind the cute girl in pink, who is his best pal, Isabella.

On Halloween night, Isabella came over, with her Mom and new baby brother Alex, to trick or treat with us. Dylan asked if he could hold Alex (what a sweet boy):

The kids were so excited and fired up, we had a really hard time to get them to sit still for a second for pictures.

Cade's crazy "cheese" face and the direction he's facing make it look like he's about to go off on Mickey Vampire.

And this little group was SO cute together trick or treating. Their manic energy hardly faded for the hour and a half we were out. Dylan and Isabella did a very nice job taking turns ringing the door bells. And with some gentle reminders from us, they waited to do so until Cade caught up with them. They were just running from door to door and Cade's little legs did the best they could do to stay with the big kids.

It was a really, really fun night for all of us. And as soon as the next morning rolled around, we started taking down the decorations. A month of a house filled with spooky stuff it plenty. Thankfully, I got a good picture of my lovely decorated mantle before Mike put away the decor. Since getting the fireplace redone (still have that post to come), this was the first time I'd gotten it set up nicely.

Cute, right?
Hard to see in the picture, but the spider webs really made it.

And this silly guy made it challenging to get a picture.
He kept jumping in front of the camera. Silly skeleton!

Now it's on to Thanksgiving planning and decorating!

Highland Games at Loon Mountain

We were in NH last weekend and the autumn season is already wrapping up and the trees are ready for winter. However, we've had some great weekends there over the last couple of months I want to share with you.

In mid September, we had a great reason to go up and spend the weekend there, the annual Highland Games at Loon Mountain. Mike and I have wanted to go to this festival since the first year we bought our condo over 7 years ago. Somehow though, we've never actually made it there. This year we had an excellent excuse not to miss it - we knew a performer! Mike's brother in law, Joe, was competing in the bag pipe competitions and staying at our place for the weekend, as well as niece Emily.

We all went up Friday night and were up and ready to go to the festival first thing Saturday morning. Joe and Emily went before us. We left later, parked on some of the off site parking and took the shuttle to the mountain. 

It was a really cold morning and we felt under dressed. We weren't too worried because the forecast promised that we would be warming up quickly. Only problem was that the forecast was seriously wrong. The sun never made it from behind the clouds, the temperature never went up and we even had some good Scottish like mist We were FREEZING the whole day! We seriously spent the whole day cuddling up to each other and trying to share each others warmth. For that reason, there weren't a lot of opportunity for pictures. And the cold also drove our decision on what to get for a souvenir - a nice, warm, wool, tartan blanket! It was a life saver.

The coolest part of the day (other than the weather), was watching the pipes and drums band march and play down the mountain. It was quite a site. Then we watched them march into the arena, play and march out.

That's Joe in the center of this picture.

After they played we went to watch some of the "heavy athletics" competition. That basically means a whole bunch of guys in kilts throwing heavy stuff. We cuddled up under the blanket and watched the disabled competition (I started to feel my toes again at this point). It was pretty impressive to see guys with prosthetic legs and partial limbs toss a 20 some odd pound rock.

Me and the Boys Snuggling (that's our new blanket over Cade's arm)

Dylan "Falling" Off the Train

And here you can see his cute face.

Despite the cold, it was a pretty awesome experience for all. After the games, we went to a potluck at Joe's band's rental condo and the boys played at the indoor pool with Emily. Cade was able to "swim" around solo with his floaty back and forth between Mike and Emily. Yay Cade!

Cade, Emily, Dylan

Emily and Cade

Joe's individual competition was on Sunday. Mike had to head back to Massachusetts for his soccer game and Joe and Emily left early to warm up. That left with me solo with the boys.

Now, this might sound silly, but I was pretty proud of myself taking the boys to an event like this solo. Mike and I are starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel of baby stuff and life seems to be getting just a wee bit easier in many subtle ways.  Little things like Dylan being able to dress himself, open his car door and partially buckle himself and his brother in the car seat all really help to take the load off our backs. It's very freeing! So feeling brave enough to take my little guys solo to a festival where I had to schlep the stroller as well as them through parking\shuttling\traveling back and forth to events and being confident I could manage the two of them without stress....yeah, kind of a big deal.

And I did have a very enjoyable day with them! The weather did a flip flop from the previous day and we were actually too warm in our long sleeved shirts. We got to cheer on uncle Joe in his solo competition and we got to enjoy some more of the heavy athletics. Pretty cool.

Cutie Pop

Joe in Front of the Judge

The Clouds Over the Mountains

The boys wanted to take this picture for their daddy - a table made out of his favorite drink.

Emily Helped with the Boys of Course
Here they are hanging on the ski lift.

Battle of the Merida!
Which One is Cuter?

My Vote's For Cade!

He Also Makes a Pretty Cute Piper

Me and the Boys

Joe, Emily, Dylan, Me and Cade

Throwing the "Light Hammer"

Caber Toss (Aka Log Throwing)

Brother Abuse Caught on Film

Cade Cheering on the Competitors

Definitely a fun experience. I can't say I knew squat about Scottish culture before that day so it was nice to get an intro in that fashion. I mean, there aren't many festivals you go to where the majority of the population is in kilts! (Fashion....get it?)

If you ignore the snot running down his face, this is a cute picture of me and Cade.

First Day of School

This post is either many weeks late or just on time, depending on which of my kids you're considering. The below pictures were taken on Dylan's first day of pre-school in the middle of September. BUT, today is Cade's first day! He couldn't start until he was officially 2 years 9 months old which was yesterday. Although he's been doing a drop off play group for his early intervention program that we call "school," today he'll be starting at Dylan's school, albeit on opposite days that Dylan attends. 

Dylan's First Day of School
He wanted to take a picture with his sword.

Mike will be doing drop off every day. Dylan on Monday\Wednesday\Friday and Cade on Tuesday\Thursday. The boys will get to have some much deserved one on one time with Dad and Mike will have it "easy" with "just" one kid for the mornings.

Man, aren't those just the cutest, most handsome preschoolers you've ever seen? I seriously just want to eat them up!