Here are some pictures I took a couple of weeks ago, of the the kids in their Halloween costumes. The boys decided earlier on they wanted to dress up as Star Wars characters, and poor Margaret didn’t have a choice.

Although, I will say, she makes an adorable Princess Leia.

I am very proud of how their costumes turned out. They are a mix of re-purposed thrift store finds and things we had around the house. Maggie’s was the easiest. I bought a turtleneck and a t-shirt, cut them up, and sewed them together. I found a free pattern online to make her belt and the silver fake leather came from Joann Fabrics. The hardest part was getting her to try it on so I could fit it to her.

Luke’s was also pretty easy. We had the long brown cloak in our dress-up bin (technically it’s a cowboy duster). I found the boots, long sleeve shirt, and pants at the second-hand shop. The vest and belt were made from an old t-shirt and purse of mine that were going to be donated.

Adam’s outfit was the most labor intensive. I found the boots, pants, and a black corduroy jacket at the thrift shop. I bought his shirt and belt from Wal-mart. The shirt was originally white though, so I used tea to dye it to a light tan color. I chopped the sleeves off of the jacket and shortened it. I also had to relocate the pockets and add a few new ones, to make it accurate enough for Adam. I ironed the red dashed stripes on the legs of his pants. The holster was the most difficult part. I used that old purse of mine again to create it and had some help from Dave figuring out how to attach the belt buckle (it’s just cardboard covered in duct tape – but it has a magnetic snap to close it).

And here they are with their movie counterparts, so you can see how well we did (I told you I was proud).

Luke as Obi-Wan Kenobi (do NOT call him Luke Skywalker!)

Adam as Han Solo.

And Maggie as Princess Leia.

As much as I love how the costumes turned out, the kids love them even more. The boys ask if they can wear them several times a week. So I would definitely call this year’s costumes a success.

Hope you all have a Happy Halloween!

Adam’s teacher has been sharing a picture or two a day of his class and their daily activities. She posted this one about an hour ago with the caption, “Twinsies on pumpkin carving day!”

I am so thankful that Adam was put in her classroom this year. I have been very impressed with the way first grade has gone so far, and I love that he is so excited about school each day.

Dave is flying solo this week with the kids and his biggest concern was how he was going to handle Maggie’s hair.

I think his first attempt at pigtails turned out pretty well!

Dave and the kids got me a cookie cake for my birthday last week. It was a busy day, Adam had church school and a soccer game that night and poor Luke fell asleep before dinner and missed out on the cake.

Maggie and Luke are both doing great at gymnastics.

Adam was so excited to send pictures of himself in his Bengals gear to my Western NY family before their game against the Bills this past Sunday.

He was thrilled that the Bengals won, but changed into his Buffalo Bills sweatshirt (they’re his 2nd favorite team) after the game, so they wouldn’t feel too bad.

Maggie is still all about her “babies”.

Adam aced last week’s spelling and math tests. Luke had fun matching up letters and going over his colors – even if we did run out of uppercase letter tiles. Adam and his friend AJ were accidental twins yesterday. They are aren’t in the same class at school, but they ride the same bus, played on the same soccer and basketball teams, and are in the same church school class (which is where I snapped this picture). The boys thought it was hilarious and decided to wear their basketball shirts to school tomorrow so that they can match again. Adam had me text the mom of his best friend, who was also on his team, and ask that he wear his basketball shirt too.

Adam has a really great group of kids that he has chosen as friends, and that makes me so happy.

Dave’s parents came to visit over Columbus Day Weekend. We were able to cram a lot into the time they were here.

Adam had a very chilly soccer game on Saturday morning. That afternoon, we took the kids to the zoo to go trick-or-treating. We got a lot of comments on their costumes (more on those later) and they had a great time. On the way to the zoo, we stopped to check out a sailboat that Grandpa Kurt had been wanting to see in person. Adam thought it was really cool too.

Sunday, we visited a local pumpkin patch and went on a hayride. Adam and Grandma Cathy took their job of finding the perfect pumpkin very seriously, and they found a great one.

We kept Grandpa Kurt busy with all sorts of projects (he’s going to stop “vacationing” with us if we’re not careful). He and Dave built an amazing new bookshelf for Maggie.

It turned out great and I just need to get it painted.

They also built a very heavy, very sturdy, very awesome picnic table.

It was a fun, and productive, visit.

This girl is just a ball of fire.

One of my favorite things she does right now, is when she sneezes, she immediately says, “Bless you, me” afterwards.

For some reason, Adam refers to these as his “Elvis Pants”. I don’t know where he came up with that name or what he thinks it means, but it cracks me up. Adam dresses up for school one day a week. I normally have him do it on Wednesdays, since he has church school and doesn’t have gym or art. So “Elvis Pants” are becoming his Wednesday favorite.

Luke, on the other hand, has a style all his own. One day last week he told me that he wants to wear his “shirt with the dots”. I was confused, because he doesn’t have any polka-dot shirts. I asked him if maybe he meant the striped shirt, and he pointed to a button down plaid shirt. Then he asked me if I would help him “to do the dots” – that’s when I realized he was calling buttons “dots”.

I also love how he asks each morning if he should wear shorts or “pants with sleeves”.

I am less enamored with how he is fighting me on cutting his fingernails because, “kitties have long claws”.

These are the little things I want to remember – like how Adam always used to say “to why” instead of because. Eventually I will get around to baby books for them all – maybe before they graduate high school. If not, at least I’m capturing some of it here.

I snapped a picture of Maggie during her gymnastics class.

Dave helped coach Luke’s soccer team. One of the regular coaches was out of town, and as you can see, Dave took his responsibilities very seriously.

Luke’s team spent some time practicing and then scrimmaged against some of the other teams.

Luke participated for almost the entire practice.

Almost.

I’m not sure I’ve mentioned it here, but the organization the kids play soccer in is huge. There are 110 kids that play in the 4-year-old age division. There are 12 teams in Adam’s division (1st grade co-ed) and there are another 6 girls only 1st grade teams. If there are 11 kids on each team, that’s almost 200 first graders.

Hopefully Luke will decide he wants to play in the spring, and not just meow on the sidelines.

Earlier when I was taking photos off of my camera and phone, I came across this video of Adam playing soccer. I didn’t catch him making a goal, but you can see him throwing the ball in and then giving it a good kick.

We had Luke and Adam put their soccer uniforms on tonight, so I could try to get some pictures of them. I only bought the team photos from the professional photographer. Luke was feeling particularly uncooperative, but I did get a couple of good ones.

Some observations:

1. Adam looks really old

2. 4 year olds, especially ones that would rather pretend to be a cat named Fluffy, are really hard to pose

We’ll try for better pictures when the spring season starts up.

A couple of weeks ago we took the kids to a dinosaur expo.

They had animatronic dinosaurs that the kids could ride on.

They also had a bunch of bounce houses for them to jump in. I am not sure how they tied in to dinosaurs, but the kids liked them.

There was also a giant hamster ball thing that they could spin around in. Adam and Luke loved it.

It was a fun way to spend a Saturday afternoon.