Trick-Or-Treat

Dinner with friends. Great trick-or-treating neighborhood. Loads of candy. Even got some trick-or-treaters when we got home. Turned Cole into Batman tonight. Our trick-or-treating crew:

Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween from Spidergirl:

Luke Skywalker:

And the turtle:

Fall Festival

Fall Festival was a big hit. Always fun watching the kids run around with their school friends.

Audrey and Ava. These girls always give each other the biggest hugs.

Tyler's teacher, Miss Caskey, as Dorothy. Kids trick-or-treated from room to room, Wizard of Oz theme.

Cole's cute little turtle, and first trick-or-treating. He caught on quick, opened a lollipop right away - happy boy.

Halloween Stuff

My afternoon consisted of decorating this door for the school Fall Festival tomorrow. Whole hallway is Wizard of Oz theme. Tyler's teacher is Dorothy, and the kids will come trick-or-treat at her door. I am not the craftiest, so for me (with help from room moms) this is pretty good.

You should see some of the other doors. Sheesh! They're amazing. The school will be all sorts of decked out tomorrow.

Came home to pumpkin carving. Adam's creation this year. Designed by Tyler:

Halloweening begings tomorrow.

Wedding Dance

Mikey and Veronica's wedding was so much fun. One of the best parts was watching the kids dance. All the cousins danced every song, seriously non-stop. They shut down the dance floor. These videos were taken on Adam's phone and didn't upload very clear to blogger, but you get the idea. Tyler's robot entrance is especially awesome.

Some of Cole's cool moves:

So fun! Great family memories.

Audrey's Day

It's All About Audrey Day at Kindergarten tomorrow. I think we did a pretty good job on her poster:

She brought home the class owls this weekend, and we wrote all about her adventures with them in her class journal.

I think she's gonna feel pretty special tomorrow.

Cousin Love

Wedding weekend has begun. Is there anything better than cousins?!

Audrey got to bring home her class owls this weekend, Mr. Fluffy and Snowball. They hung with the cousins, too.

Devin, Danny, Tyler.

Love when the whole Tait family gets together. Wonderful weekend ahead.

Speaking of Sleep

The compromising position we found Cole in last night around 11pm. Pjs around the ankles and all. Too funny!

Sleepy Head

Tuesdays the big kids get out early and I always have to wake this peaceful, sleeping baby. So sad, although he handles it like a champ. Such is the life of #3.

Last Time

Realized today was the last free afternoon we have until Halloween (thanks to an exciting wedding weekend ahead). We had to go pick our pumpkin! Sadly Adam couldn't make it this year, but the kids and I picked a big ol' pumpkin, and I treated them to a train ride, and the petting zoo. A bunch of church friends were there, too. Love Lombardi Ranch. The last pumpkin patch photos:

So pretty where we live.

This stinker is so obsessed with animals we could barely do anything but. Anytime the big kids and I ventured to another part of the pumpkin patch he would cry, point to the animals, throw a nice little fit until I took him back. That's why he got treated to the petting zoo today.

Great friends.

Playing Together?!

These three have been peacefully playing together all afternoon. Usually it's Tyler and Audrey playing, trying to keep Cole from destroying their toy creations. Trains were the answer today. And Cole finally smiles for the camera.

Cole's Turn

Amber and I thought it would be fun to take our little guys to the pumpkin patch while the big ones were at school. Things to know about Cole:

Cole likes trains.

Cole loves animals.

Cole is a terrible picture-taker.

Almost too hot, and a bunch of school groups were there, but such a nice morning spent with our great friends. One on one time with our boys.

First Pumpkin Patch

Michelle brought her boys to Lombardi Ranch today, so of course we joined them. Grateful for the invite. Finally getting our Halloween on.

Legoland!

Tyler and Audrey had been wanting to go to Legoland all year. Didn't wanna deal with summer crowds, so we thought Fall Break was the perfect time to go (which luckily landed on Adam's hiatus week). Weather was great and we had a blast!

It was all sorts of decorated for Halloween.

Met Ellen there (my best friend from high school), and two of her little ones - Jake and Julia. She's a Legoland member and hooked us up with a couple tickets and discounts. So lucky! So nice spending the day with them. Need to do it more.

 We saw a Lego City fire show, and Chima 4D movie.

 Lego Chima is one of their favorites right now.

Cole was too small to ride all the rides, so we spent some time building legos.

Love how they have lego building stations while waiting in line for rides.

 Slides were a big hit. No line so they went over and over and over.

Star Wars X-Wing Fighter - the world's largest Lego model. Made out of over five million lego bricks! Pretty cool, and Tyler was very impressed. He's starting to really get into Star Wars.

The kids grabbed souvenirs, we said goodbye to our friends, had dinner at Chili's to wait out traffic, then headed home. Grateful for a wonderful day filled with fun, friends and family.

Growing Up

Before I post way too many Legoland pics, I just realized Mr. C is 23 months old today. One more month and my baby is two! This little guy growing up sure is bittersweet. Cole is such a joy - lately learning more and more words, talking to us, revealing more of who he is each day. Guess I should stop being in denial, and do a little birthday planning.

Rainy Day!

Rain on and off all day was so nice! Ran some errands. Old Navy since Tyler has outgrown all his pants! Trader Joe's for soup ingredients, and apple cider (best stop ever for fall grocery shopping). Adam took the kids to the dentist, then Halloween shopping. I got time at home alone while Cole napped. My soup started out as butternut squash, then I found kale in the fridge about to wilt so I threw that in, too, and pureed it up. Adding kale did not make a pretty puree, but I guess it was healthy, and still tasted good. The kids spent dinnertime giving it a Halloween name, like "Monster Sludge" or "Witch Slime Soup".  The before picture is prettier:

Hoping the rain has cleared by tomorrow like it's supposed to... trip to Legoland on the horizon.