Halloween 2012

Josh and William picked out their costumes this year. I love that they actually picked within the same theme and that it's so relevant to their personality. Josh was a knight in shining armor, and William a feisty dragon. 

Halloween is a big deal here, it is serious business. You do not joke with candy.

Again this year, our ward had a little party, with games, food and good company.

cookie decorating

friends

face painting

games

and more games...

Later we had the family housing party, which I didn't take any pictures of, because I was working it. It was really nice. I made caramel popcorn for 120 people and swore I would never make another batch (I  have since, of course...).

On Halloween day we went to Pearl Street to Trick o Treat with some friends and at night we went in our neighborhood with other neighbors and friends. The booty surpassed all the kids' expectations. It was just gigantic.

they actually shared their candy with their friends! Aren't they cute?

The happiest day of the year if you ask a kid!

First snow

Catching up on the posting of all the pictures I have on my camera.
We haven't gotten much snow this year, so these might be the only pictures I'll have of the boys playing in the snow this year (unless we get another nice snow fall and we have a chance to play in the snow again).

It was Oct 26th and we got a really nice layer of powder snow. Colorado snow has got to be the best snow in the world, it is so light, and dry, not good for snowball fights and snowman making because it is so dry it won't keep a shape but it is so fun to play in and so so pretty.

If there is a leitmotif on this blog, it is probably the amount of times I've repeated how much I love Colorado. I'm not apologizing for it, I know I'll say it again. This place is just plain gorgeous.

An update on school

I snapped these pictures a month or two ago and wanted to post them but never got around doing it.
Josh has been overly enthusiastic about school since he started end of August but I must say his enthusiasm doubled when he started taking the school bus.

 I didn't cry on his first day of class but I couldn't help myself the first time he took the school bus. It felt like there was an invisible cord between me and Josh; it stretched and stretched as the bus drove away, until it suddenly snapped when the bus turned out of sight and I started bawling. I was so worried he would feel abandoned or freak out but it is all the contrary. He is so proud of his independence.

here comes the bus

booster seat and 5point harness. I'm relieved!

Kathy the aid (because there's a child with special needs in the bus) and Kathy the driver. 

A few weeks after he started taking the school bus I happened to be near the school around pick up time so I decided to surprise Josh and pick him up instead of letting him take the school bus. I arrived just as he was about to enter the bus. He barely noticed me, and when I offered to drive him home he simply said no. He jumped on the bus and I had to follow the bus home! It makes me happy though, it's such a relief he loves school.


Josh learned to read his letters when we were doing our home preschool with our friends last year and we worked on sounds this summer. He is now capable of reading easy words like CAT, DOG, TRUCK, PIG, CAR etc... I think it's pretty impressive for a 3 year-old. However his tracing skills aren't very good. He can write his name... poorly... and that's it. I don't think they focus on that at all in school and I don't mind. He comes home singing new songs and reciting little poems and I think it's great. He learned "Little Miss Muffet" this week and can recite it completely. I heard him sing "The Bear went over the Mountain" which I haven't taught him, he's also pretty good at inventing songs, and words that don't make any sense but he pretends are french, haha!


I also started taking William to a drop in day care about once a week for 2hrs and it's another story. Although he regularly asks for it and always comes home ecstatic (he spent at least 2 hours repeating "I fun a' schoooooooo'" to every single person we talked to last time he went) it is heart breaking to drop him off. Josh likes the daycare too and since school is over at 11am for him I've resorted to dropping off both of them in the afternoon once a week and asking Josh to stay in his classroom until he feels better. I'm hoping he'll get used to it soon.

Here are some of the art projects Josh made (at least the ones I was able to rescue before one boy or the other destroy them):

William also made a cute paper craft at the day care but it didn't make it home... the scraps of torn paper are still scattered in the car. Which makes me wonder, do people keep all their kids' crafts? Am I a bad mother if I throw them away after they've played with them and ripped them in pieces? I have yet to find a good way to expose them and/or store them away from their destructive hands...

Our halloween (and Christmas) outfits over the years

This week I'm in the middle of Halloween planning and it's a little crazy. I didn't grow up celebrating Halloween (although I remember going trick o' treating once) but I had no difficulty picking up the tradition when we moved to the USA. Now we've been here for almost 4 years, and it's becoming one of my favorite holidays (at least the funnest). I've had a lot of fun coming up with ideas for family costumes over the last few years but this year I decided to buy costumes instead of making them. Part of the reason is the boys are getting specific with what they want and I'm not sure I can satisfy them, the other part is they've reached the age when dressing up is fun and since I've been making and recycling all their costumes over the years they didn't have anything to play with when I was done. So this year we are buying costumes that I'm committed not to touch (no repurposing, or recycling the costume into PJs after Halloween) so we can start a stash of costumes they can play with all year.

Our first Halloween in Colorado, Josh was only 10months old (almost 11) and we were poor students (which we still are by the way) so I didn't want to spend any money. I decided to turn one of Joshua's hoodie sweaters (knitted by my aunt) into a mouse outfit. I added ears (pipe cleaners and felt) and a tail and it was done. I dressed up as a cat and Russ as a piece of cheese.

Our second halloween, we thought Josh would look super cute as a french man with mustache, beret and striped T-shirt, so we worked around the theme for the rest of the family. Russ was a French protestor (French riots were all over the news at the time), I was a French poodle, and baby William was an American tourist in Paris.

The following year's costumes were really fun to make. I decided on the theme a couple of months ahead of time and sneakily prepared Josh by showing him the movie "The Incredibles". It immediately became his favorite movie so when I innocently suggested we dress up as The Incredibles he was ecstatic. Little did he know he'd been brainwashed into it, haha!



I later recycled the costumes and turned them into Santa costumes for Christmas (by removing the logo and adding fake fur around the neck, front and wrists).

These were later turned into PJs, due to an obsession I have with reusing and recycling, which I'm trying to cure myself from by not making costumes this year (I'm not sure how logical or efficient this is).

This year the boys picked out their costumes and the best part is, without even trying they chose costumes that go together very well. Josh will be a knight in shining armor, and William will be a dragon. We went to the library this week and picked out lots of books about knights and dragons. We're building up the anticipation and it's so much fun to hear them tell everybody what their costumes are going to be. We're counting days!

Happy times along the creek

One of my goals last year was to improve my photography skills. I discovered a lot of fancy words like aperture, shutter speed, ISO or exposure but I still don't really understand what they mean or how I can use them. I'm still pretty much limited to auto mode, and portrait, but I love playing with my camera settings and figuring it out.

I'm really starting to appreciate photography. I don't think I ever realized how much creativity and thinking could be put into it. I'm not talking about my photography, there isn't anything creative in it yet, but now I can see creativity in other people's photographs and I consider it a real art.

This little outing along the creek was the perfect excuse for a photography session. These last few months the creek as really become my haven, it is so beautiful, peaceful and private (and obviously an unlimited source of sticks, rocks and water for the boys to play). I'm so glad to live so close to it, we can just walk there anytime we want. I'm lucky I have such cute and willing models (as long as I don't ask them to pose). The day was October 22nd, it was one of those perfect fall days in Colorado. It is my favorite photo session so far. That's exactly how I want to remember my boys at this age, happy, playful and full of energy.