Halloween = Candy for Mommy!

Our halloween traditions and adventures 2011!

 Friday night: Gutted our pumpkins. My boys are all boy and don't mind love getting dirty. They dug right in. Daddy carved Tanner's into a Buzz Lightyear and Mommy carved Grant's into Mike Lesowski (sp?) from Monsters, Inc.

Saturday: Tried painting pumpkins for the first time.  They, of course, loved it.  I think there was maybe one square inch of orange left on T's pumpkin. The rest was covered in his masterpiece.

Sunday night: we went Trunk-or-Treating at Chapel Pointe.
I am a BIG fan of trunk-or-treating.  Its so much easier with little kids than walking door to door.  They also had tractor rides and cider and donuts.  Perfect!  Gramma Kalman was able to come with us and I think she had fun, too.

The twins came too, of course! Gramma had fun pushing them around (and all the attention that comes with twins).

Saw our friends Lily and Wyatt there!

T's face in this one cracks me up.

I let Grant pick out his costume this year.  Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle- Raphael.
Oh that boy and his ninja obsession! 

The twins' costumes are from SEVEN years ago.  My first niece was born in May and the second followed closely in July. These outfits were bought for those girls and we have some adorable pictures of them.  Worked out perfectly to have matching costumes in the *almost* right size.  I call them jailbird pumpkins :)

Love that Landon is looking at Tanner's costume.

Monday afternoon: Grammy came over for a bit to watch the twins and Hailey (a friend's baby I watch on Mondays).  Tanner and I visited Grant's school as they had their "fall party" and they got to dress up. Tanner was able to play on the playground with the big kids and he thought he was big stuff!

Raphael and the Mummy showing their bar skills

Monday night: we went to Grammy and Pop-Pop's for supper and pictures.  They kept the twins and I drove Daddy and the boys to Summerset to hit a couple streets. 

Notice the nice pile of spit up on the stem/leaf thing. Nice dude... nice.

The end!! Hope we made some good memories for the boys and that one day they'll appreciate all we do for them :)

Its what we do

BOYS TOYS-BOYS TOYS-BOYS TOYS
Our house is FILLED with boy's toys.  We have hundreds.. maybe thousands.  The current family favorite is our collection of Trio Blocks.  Now for those of you who are unfamiliar with Trio Blocks - allow me to introduce you:  Trio Blocks made by Fisher Price.  The perfect combination of Mega Blocks and Legos.

I love these blocks for a few reasons:

1- They are bigger than Legos so we aren't forever losing pieces (in the carpet, in the vacuum cleaner, around the house, etc)
2- They are easier to put together than Legos so BOTH my boys can make things.  Grant can actually follow the directions or has a great imagination to create things of his own (aliens, dinosaurs, guns, binoculars, bow and arrow, ETC ETC).
3- Because they can be made into just about anything (let's be honest though here- Grant can turn just about anything into a shooter (aka- gun)) they provide HOURS of entertainment.
4- They make a variety of sets so if your child is going through a BATMAN stage or really loves ANIMALS or thinks WARRIORS are cool or wants to be a FIREFIGHTER when he grows up- you are SET (not that I can relate to any of these ....)

Because the boys have been so into these lately- they have been SCATTERED around the house. Upstairs, downstairs, bedrooms, kitchen (grrrr)- everywhere. So I had this great idea to send the boys on a hunt to track down as many misplaced blocks as possible and then I would use as many as possible to create the biggest tower possible.

End results:

The worst part is that I STILL didn't even use all of them! I had quite a few leftover random pieces. I probably could have tried a little harder to fit the rest in but as you can see it was already taller than Tanner and quite frankly I was done. You know how it is.

His favorite new way to smile.

Now that's better.

leftovers

If you have boys (or girls- I don't discriminate!) I would definitely recommend Trio Blocks.  Yes, you will more than likely have pieces scattered around the house but they are a great toy to promote and excerise imaginations and are a toy mommies can appreciate.

Gotta throw in a couple of my boys!

Pajama time!

I promise they aren't identical :)

they really are that cute...

Just because I love these little guys to pieces and wanted to share their happy faces with you.
Feel privileged :)

HA!  They crack me up and make me smile like a fool.

Landon on the left, Lucas on the right in all of these.

girls just wanna have fun

I have four sons. Zero daughters.  This is an obvious, known fact.  Sometimes I feel a little bummed about this fact but I for SURE wouldn't trade my little stud muffins for anything - it's true.

A less known fact, I have 6 nieces;  four on my side and two on Robb's.  So I decided to start a fun new tradition with my nieces.  GIRL'S WEEKEND!!

While Robb, Grant and Tanner were gone on their annual men's trip -Y Weekend- I had my four nieces on the Vanden Hoek side over for some fun.  We went to the craft store, ate pizza and popcorn, watched an age appropriate chick flick (Tangled :) so cute!), made a fun craft and played all kinds of classic girly things (house, babysitters, coloring and drawing, ETC).
I had the twins, as they haven't quite reached the appropriate age to attend Y Weekend, but the girls loved having a chance to play with them and help me out.. sweet little mommies they are. 

We had a great time.. only a few little tiffs amongst cousins.  We hope to continue this tradtion in years to come and I look forward to building fun, girly, memories with these ladies!

Classic!

Helping Auntie Mel out

Beautiful ladies!

Finished product!

We made the biggest sleeping bag in the middle of the living room floor and slept here.
 EVEN AUNTIE MEL DID! Ok.. truth is I coped out half way through the night
 and climbed on the couch.. sigh.. getting old.

Stop And Smell the Roses

-or in my case-just look out the window.

Last night I was sitting at the dining room table working on my ginormous grocery list (I don't make it to the grocery store QUITE as often as I used to... having 4 kids in tow makes me think twice about taking as many outings as I once did so when I do make it- I must make it COUNT).

I was in a bit of a grey mood- having a mild case of mastitis, being a little grumpy about how my day went and how little I accomplished and thinking about everything I needed to get done before our busy weekends.

Then I looked out the window. I mean really looked.  The sky was GORGEOUS.  The scenery that I get to look at EVERY DAY was gorgeous.  There was even a glimpse of a rainbow peaking through even though we had not gotten any rain. 

My point-and-shoot camera does not do this scene of gold any justice.

Regardless- I needed to share:

~the aha moment of focusing on God's faithfulness

~the simple, pure beauty of His earth

~how BLESSED we are to live on a land that produces so that we can live- and thrive



Notice the rainbow 'coming out' the top of the white house.



If I were five years old...

I would want a nerf football for my birthday.

Not just ANY nerf football. No sir. It MUST BE a

NERF VORTEX MEGA HOWLER

No imitations will do.

And of course- Target, Meijer and Walmart do not carry such football.

So Grant learned the power of online shopping for his 5th birthday.  After he "deposited" his money into mommy's hand, and we read all the specifications on this football to make sure it was the EXACT one, he chose the orange color and we ordered it. Which in five year old terms means nothing. Why can't we just go to the store and buy it Mom?

Patience Grant. Patience.

And it paid off.

Four days later he was the PROUD new owner of the NERF VORTEX MEGA HOWLER.

And it was worth the wait.

Oh to be FIVE!

What could be better for a five year old boy's birthday party than lots of food, lots of friends, lots of presents and a PINATA!?!



Grant, Kelly, Sofi, Abby and Tanner



For Grant Alexander- Nothing!



I think these pictures pretty much speak for themselves. We had a great time, the weather was great (although a bit windy) and we are so thankful for everyone that came to celebrate with us.





Hernandez Fam





Kalman Fam





From Daddy and Mommy: a REAL bat, batting tee and REAL leather glove.  That's right- he's big time now.






After every kid (who wanted one) had a turn - we let Grant finish off the pinata without the blindfold. 



And of course- our goofball T-man (who really enjoyed his chocolate Costco cake- obviously!)