Let me tell you, this girl was much less cute last night when she decided to stay up until 3 AM. And it wasn’t pretty when she woke up again at 4:30 either.

But, when she finally did fall asleep for good, snuggled up against my chest with her hand grasping my fingers, and her head tucked under my chin, that was beautiful.

Halloween bags are done!

Adam picked out the fabric for his bag. 10 points if you can guess which one is his. Dave picked out which prints I used for Luke’s bag, and I picked out the fabrics for Maggie’s. She won’t be using it this year, but I’m ahead of the curve for once here.

I finally finished the kids’ Halloween costumes Sunday night. We’re going with a Toy Story theme this year and I’m pretty excited with how they all turned out.

Adam and Dave wanted Maggie to be an alien, but I was quick to veto that idea.

Instead she will be celebrating her first Halloween as Jessie the cowgirl.

I made her shirt, wig, and belt. The wig was a “learning experience.” There is a braid down the back of it, with a yellow bow on the end. Part of me wants to spend more time on it and change a couple of things, but I keep reminding myself that it’s going to be worn for a very short time period, and is really good enough.

The hat is from the dollar store and I used a hole punch on it then wove some white yarn through it. It’s way, way too big for her – but it was a dollar and that makes up for all sorts of fit issues.

I used a onesie I already had, some yellow fabric, and red cording to make her shirt. It’s not exactly like Jessie’s, but you get the idea. The belt is made from felt and the leg warmers were bought online. I was originally going to make chaps, but Dave suggested the legwarmers (work smarter, not harder) and I was totally on board with that idea. Less work on my part, not to mention that I was stumped on how to attach chaps to her jeans without ruining the pants for future use or running the risk of a safety pin jabbing in to her chunky little thighs.

Adam’s costume came together fairly easy as well. His hat is also from the dollar store and got the same treatment as Maggie’s. I took a regular sized bandanna and cut it down to his size for his neckerchief. I put velcro on the ends so it goes on easier (and safer) than if we were tying it. I made his vest (another learning experience). The belt was done earlier this year, I did add some embellishments to the buckle and the holster though.

I looked all over for a yellow plaid shirt (in stores and on-line). The best I could find was this one, which isn’t as yellow as I would have liked, but Adam was thrilled when he saw it, and that’s all that really matters. Plus it was only $6, so we can do a little extra pretending for that price.

Luke’s costume was bought on-line (thank you JCPenney). And despite that last picture, he really does love it (once we finally got him to put it on he didn’t want to take it off). He just wasn’t interested in standing still for the camera. He wanted to be running around the yard yelling, “and beyond!”

We were finally able to get a decent picture of all three of them sitting in our (non-covered) wagon. They’re all set for Halloween (or at least they will be once I finish sewing their candy bags).

Also, there’s a fairly good chance that Luke will be a cowboy hat wearing space ranger. He steals Maggie’s or Adam’s every chance he gets.

I’m not sure how much longer I’ll be able to get away with having them dress up in themed costumes, but I’m going to take advantage of it for as long as I can. I do love a good theme.

Here’s a picture of the word search Adam did during rest time on Wednesday. I helped him find the word “hen”, handed him a colored pencil, and then left to try to convince Maggie and Luke that naps are good. I felt bad because I didn’t think I explained it that well and I thought it would be too hard for him.

I vastly underestimated my son. He found almost all of the remaining words. It’s a toss up as to whether he found “jake” and forgot to circle it, or crossed it off and forgot to find it. Either way, Adam’s obviously brilliant (you read it on the internet, it must be true). I love how he drew a line through the letters and then circled the word. He said he just picked a word to find and looked for the first letter. Then he tried to see if the other letters were around it. Totally a genius. Especially since my instructions were basically, “Here is a list of words to find. They are hiding in with a bunch of other letters. See? Here’s the word hen.”

I would also like to point out how adult female turkeys kind of get the short end of the stick when it comes to names. I mean if we were a family of turkeys, Dave would be a tom, Maggie would be a jenny, Adam and Luke would both be jakes (probably jake 1 and jake 2, just to alleviate confusion), and I would be a hen.

That’s totally unfair.

If I was a turkey I would want to be known as a gwendolyn or a cordelia or something cooler than a hen.

I’m just going to pretend it’s short for henrietta.

Take that science.

Also, not capitalizing those names sort of hurt my brain. I know it was the proper way to write them when considering that, in this context, they are not proper nouns, but it still bothered me.

Take that english (uncapitalized on purpose).

Also, according to my spellcheck, uncapitalized is not a word.

Neither is spellcheck actually.

Me: Sometimes I think Maggie is the prettiest baby in the world.

Adam: Why?

Me: Because she’s really cute.

Adam: No, I mean why don’t you think that ALL the time??

For the record, I do think she’s the prettiest baby in the world all the time.

We went to the “Zoo Boo” last weekend. The kids wore Halloween shirts, but not actual costumes because a.) Luke’s costume is mostly white and he’s a messy kid, b.) Luke will not put his costume on (so that first reason doesn’t really matter I guess), and c.) Adam and Maggie’s costumes aren’t finished yet (Luke’s was store bought – which does not mean I love him less. His costume would have cost more to make than to buy, and also, it would have been much harder for me to make than the other two).

How’s that for a bit of a tangent? I should probably warn you that I had caffeine tonight for the first time in days and I apparently CAN’T HANDLE CAFFEINE ANYMORE. Or something. Also, I would like to point out that it’s after midnight and Maggie has been asleep for over an hour, but thanks to the CAFFEINE, I can’t sleep. So I’m tired, but hyper, and that’s not a good combination.

Get back on topic Sandra, they are here for the pictures of the kids, not your rambling.

They had trick-or-treat stops set up throughout the zoo. Each station had a piece of candy and a small toy (except for the stop with the bendy straws – they were out of bendy straws and Adam was very sad – buuuut I just happened to have two bendy straws hidden away at home AND one of them was green, so it ended up being okay).

Luke was in a pretty wild mood (fitting since we were at the zoo). It sort of made me understand why people use those leash backpack things on their kids. Then I saw a couple with their kid wearing one of those things and remembered that I hate them. (The backpacks, not the people. I didn’t even know the people.) I will concede though, that having your kid on a leash is preferable to having your small child mammal jumping in to the leopard exhibit. So if that’s what you need to do to keep your offspring safe – go for it. I’m all for keeping kids safe. And now that I’ve made my opinion known on those safety harness leash things, I will probably end up having to get one for one of my kids someday – since that’s how this parenting thing seems to work for me. I swear I will NEVER do something (drive a minivan, give my baby a pacifier, etc) and before I know it I’m eating my own words.

Focus grasshopper, focus.

Dave and I took turns switching between Maggie (who only wanted to be held) and Luke (who only wanted to run around like a crazy person). Adam was very well behaved, but we also had to juggle the empty stroller, since, of course, none of them wanted to actually ride in that. Luke did calm down after we watched the elephant for a while though. That boy loves his “ellies”. Once we left them he was fine with riding in the stroller and was really awesome the rest of our visit. Maybe we need to invest in an elephant, you know for its soothing properties and all.

Both boys loved watching the penguins.

One of them swam right in front of them, startling Luke.

I tried to get a picture of the two of them, but Luke was more interested in looking at the penguin behind him.

We brought along the penguin outfit for Maggie in case it got cold. Technically it is a costume. I got it for cheap on super clearance when I was pregnant with Adam. We used it for a fun picture with Adam for his first Christmas, and that was it. Then, when Luke was a baby it dawned on me that, hey! this thing is cute AND warm. So we used it all the time Luke’s first winter. It wasn’t that cold while we were at the zoo, but we put her in it specifically for these photos (you’re welcome).

Also, Maggie was not in any danger during the taking of these photos. Dave was right next to her during that last picture (I cropped him out) and he was holding her tightly in the next one (he used his real arms, not those worthless fake penguin ones).

Before we left the zoo we had to go back to this elephant statue for pictures. Luke was in crazy-mode the first time we went past it.

I’m so glad we did. I think this is the first decent picture of me with all three of my babies. Sure, I’m the only one looking at the camera and Maggie isn’t all that thrilled to be sitting on an elephant, but I’ll take it.

We saw this Magpie on our way out too. It’s pretty cute, but not as adorable as my Magpie.

It was still really nice when we got home, so we spent some time outside.

Luke was pushing around his car, so I put Maggie in it. Luke was not on board with this decision, “No car baby!”

While we were outside we heard the music from the ice cream truck. Adam has asked all summer if we can get some ice cream from the truck. We’ve always told him no in the past, because the truck drives through our neighborhood before dinner time (and truthfully I think it’s a little creepy). But this time, we said yes.

The boys waited for the truck at the end of the driveway. Luke wasn’t hurt here, he likes to pretend to fall off of things and then yell, “I OKAY!”

ICE CREAM BEFORE DINNER! WE ARE CRAAAAAAZY REBELS!!!

They both loved the treat though, so it was totally worth it (slightly creepy truck and all).

Okay, I think the majority of the caffeine has worn off, so I’m going to bed. Also, I totally won’t blame you if you only look a the photos from now on and don’t read the words.

Adam got a magazine subscription this year as a birthday gift from his great-grandparents in Florida. He loves getting mail and is extra excited each time the postman delivers a new one. He calls them his “researches” and keeps all the past issues in his room. He likes to look at the pictures during rest time. I love them too because they’re fun and educational (I am all about sneaking in some learnin’).

We read a few pages at a time together and when we’re done we’ll got back through and re-read some of his favorite parts. There is a story in each issue that has pictures used in place of some of the words, so he gets to read with me. We both really enjoy that. There are also puzzles and problem solving activities for us to figure out. Adam worked on his very first word search earlier.

Yesterday we read about harvest mice and today we read about marsupials. Did you know that baby kangaroos are the size of a grape when they are born? I knew they were small, but grapes are super tiny (see – I’m learning too).

Thank you again Grandma & Grandpa U for such a fun gift!

We took the kids trick or treating at the zoo yesterday. I’ll work on getting the pictures posted later, but for now I just want to relate a conversation Adam and I had outside the one of the exhibits. I was reading a sign with information on leopards and the last sentence said something along the lines of “leopards eat small mammals”.

Adam said, “Am I a mammal mom?” I thought this was a perfect learning experience and told him, “Yes you are buddy. I’m a mammal, you’re a mammal, dogs and cats are mammals, and lots of other animals too.” I was about to get in to what makes an animal a mammal when Adam asked, in what Dave described as a quavering voice, “Am I small?”

I think we were pretty much able to convince him that a leopard is not going to eat him (or his siblings). It was pretty hilarious though.

Last Friday (as in 8 days ago, not yesterday), Dave took the day off from work and we took the kids to the circus. Adam was a big fan of Skippy the Clown and said hello to him each time he walked past us.

Luke was more interested in the numbers on the seats and the letters on the stairs. He spent all of his time before the show pointing them out to us.

Luke’s favorite part of the circus though, was the elephants. He kept pointing and saying “ellie!” over and over again.

The last act was two guys on dirt bikes doing stunts and that was the part Adam liked the best. We sat right in front of them and he was on pins and needles the whole time. He told me afterwards, that he really liked it, but was “a little bit nervous” because he they were so high in the air and he thought they might fall down (they didn’t).

Later Adam told me he thought that Maggie should get a job at the circus. His reasoning was that then, we could go to the circus all the time to see her. I convinced him that she should wait until she’s a little bigger before filling out an application.

We finally got around to doing something with that pumpkin we got a couple of weeks ago.

Maggie wasn’t overly impressed with it all. She didn’t cry (which is a first for us, Adam and Luke were both very vocal about how much they disliked being in a pumpkin), she wasn’t about to smile either though.

Can I just talk about that headband she’s wearing for a minute? I made that. Okay, by made that, I mean I bought an orange headband, a small witch hat, and a clip with some feathers and then put them all together. It was cheap, quick, and cute – the trifecta of a perfect craft project for me. I meant to trim the feathers a bit, but didn’t remember until after our little photo shoot was over. I still think it’s pretty darn cute though (Maggie makes everything look good).

And just in case you’re curious, here’s my favorite pictures from when Adam and Luke had their turns in a pumpkin.