Holiday time!

 We had a rockin' Halloween party!

The kids sang their little hearts out at their holiday concerts.

 We hung out with Santa and his elves at the PBA holiday party.

 Dani turned 7!  Chuck E Cheese birthday party!

 Christmas!  Just the five of us this year.

And woosh, there went 2015.

Worst blogger ever.

It's April, and Tori's birthday is tomorrow.  But I have to catch up before I can get to her birthday.

I've spent too much time away from the blog, and haven't documented as much as I should.

So, here's Halloween 2014.

SpongeBob, a mermaid, and Elsa.

 Daddy took them trick or treating, and then they handed out candy.  We take the glass out of the storm door to make it easier.

 We typically get about 350 trick or treaters.  That's no joke.  I live on a wide, well-lit street, and it is utter chaos.  I usually buy about 1000 pieces of candy, vampire teeth and spider rings.  It's crazy!

 Dani and her BFF Joe, aka Sonic.

She adores him.

Of mice and men. Or fairies and superheroes.

And it was Halloween. 

Halloween has always been one of my absolute favorite holidays.  Back in my younger, funner, thinner cuter days, I was always dressed up and at a party or a bar to celebrate Halloween.  Even now, I dress up with the kids (this year, like last, I was a cow which is less and less like a costume for me), because Halloween is just magic.  The girls were fairy princesses.  Tommy, Superman.  If Tommy could choose, he would wear Superman every day.  We have about 4 Superman shirts in his size, and every morning he asks for Superman...so chances are, he's wearing a Superman shirt every time you see him...and the shirt is clean--I can't make the same promise about Tommy...he may or may not be clean, and we aren't so good on baths.  Grandma Deb had a super cool cheetah costume--she and Wes took Dani and Tori trick or treating while Tommy and I handed out treats.

 It was a crappy, rainy night.  Only three houses on our block had lights on, so Dani and Tori weren't gone too long.  Halloween in my city is a vicious cycle.  We literally have about 700 people come to the door--kids, full-on adults and everything in between. When I was a kid, trick or treating meant staying in your neighborhood, or traveling to a friend's house and walking in theirs.  Nowadays it seems to be an all-out candy grab.  In my line of work locally, its fair to say I recognize a fair number of folks who come to my door--and many don't live nearby...but they live in perfectly walkable neighborhoods, but they come to mine to trick or treat.  And I don't say that to suggest my neighborhood is superior in any way, but it's a very wide street, with sidewalks and street lights, and is very popular for trick or treating.   So, it's impossibly expensive to get enough goodies to hand out, and every year fewer and fewer people turn their lights on, so more people drive around to other neighborhoods to find places for their kids to trick or treat, and the cycle continues.

This year, I bought:

4 gross (576) vampire teeth

4 gross (576) spider rings

100 piece toy/candy assortment (but I sent in about 50 pcs to Dani's class)

100 Fortune Teller Miracle Fish.

My amazon.com order was $79.

And, my friend, Jessica, came over with some toys to hand out as well.  This was the first year I ever had enough loot to last the two hours of trick or treating.

In any event, my kiddos were thrilled to get a bit of candy.

Dani manned the door all night--we can remove the glass from our storm door, so it is a keep-kids-in barrier, but is perfect to hand out items to trick or treaters.  Dani wanted to talk to each kid that came to the door, telling them about the cuteness of their costumes, and mentioning that she sees them ont the school bus and being completely oblivious to the fact that from a trick or treater's perspective, we are only the handers out of candy--and in the brief moments it slowed down, she was shouting to the street, "We have treats for you!"

 Tori had only a passing interest in handing out candy.  She was far more interested in consuming lollipop after lollipop.  But she was just darling in her dress.  (I bought the girls' dresses at a consignment sale, for about $10 each...Tori's is so exquisite, I am seriously considering it as a Christmas dress.)

And, they had fairy wings, and wands and all that good stuff too. 

And, in other news, elections are over, and I almost have my life back but first I have to catch up at work.  And the chaos continues.

 



40 is the new, well 40.

I turned 40 a few days ago.  We had a rocking party, with lots of friends, and it was awesome.  There's an overdue retrospective of how I got here, and where I'm headed, but tonight's not the night.

 

It's been hard to make time for blogging lately.  Work has been crushing me, and things have been downright chaotic at home.  Not in a bad way, but certainly, I could and should be making more time for the things that are important.

Like this little dude.

 

 Our house is now officially high chair free.  Everyone sits at the dining room table, like big kids.  It blows my mind that my three children are pretty much conversational.

 Working so much means that I try to pack as much fun into the limited time I have with the kiddos.  Tori's always up for a fashion show.

Dani rocks her school uniform.

 We went apple picking.  I'd never been before.  There was a wagon ride, and a hay maze.  There was also a huge corn maze that I didn't dare take the kids into, lest the state police helicopters have to rescue us when three kids decided to run in three different directions into the corn.

 Every one in one hundred pics results in near smiles from everyone.

 I was pleasantly surprised at how low to the ground the apple trees were.  The kids had no trouble picking them.

 And nothing tastes as good as a minutes-ago picked apple.

 

 I love this picture.  Its the kids walking back to the apple farm, each following their own path, but sticking together, keeping pace with each other.

 We made masks this week, and tons of Halloween decorations--pumpkins and bats are all over our house, we're working on the Halloween costumes, which should be pretty darn cool this year.

 Tommy wasn't so keen on wearing his mask.

See his curls?  Gone.  Big Man gave the little guy a buzz cut while I was at work on Friday.  He went from looking like my little baby boy, to a kid.  A KID!  Where'd my baby go?

Spooky kids!

Halloween started out with a grumpy little ghost.

 

 And ended with happy crayons.

 And the cutest bumblebee ever!

 Daddy took the girls down the block for a bit of trick or treating.  They were back relatively quickly, and took over handing out vampire teeth and lollipops.

 We took the glass out of the storm door so they could just pass the candy through.  Dani was literally yelling to kids on the street to come over.  She was telling kids they looked cute, and had a blast.  She was a tad slow in the handing out of candy, not realizing the kids were there for the loot, and not to be her friend.  Tori was more interested in what kids had in their buckets and tried to help herself to it a time or two!

 Even Tommy had fun buzzing around and watching all the kids.  We had tons.  I had over 750 items to hand out, and in less than 90 minutes it was gone!

Cutest Halloween ever.

Pole dancer. No!

Dani is always asking me to take her picture.   We did a whole shoot of emotions, "happy", "sad", "upset".  This was my favorite of the bunch.

 Big Man and I escaped for a night to attend a Halloween Party.  His costume was sooo appropriate, because we hadn't escaped together in months!

 And then I blinked, and Tori learned how to work a smartphone.  And to talk fluently, like a big kid.  Where'd my baby go?

 And this one?  If I told you she was loving first grade, you'd believe me!  All she needs is her own cell phone in this picture and you'd think she was 8.  She's not even old enough for Pre-K! 

Where the hell did my little kids go? 

 I am really hoping this is not a foreshadowing to a future career.  She loves the radiator pipes. 

There's never a dull moment here.

HALLOWEEN!

WOWIE! This was pretty much the first Halloween for us. Dani, Tori and I went to three neighbors' houses, with Dani carrying Tori's bucket and saying "trick or treat". Then we went home to hand candy out. I took the glass out of the screen/storm door, so that Dani and Tori could just hand candy through, to the hundreds upon hundreds of kids who came.

We had 1,000 pixie sticks, 144 vampire teeth, and 300 tootsie rolls, and we were out in 90 minutes. Dani enjoyed giving everything out--she kept telling kids "trick or treat" or asking "what's your name". She had a blast. Tori handed out a couple of vampire teeth, but otherwise stood guard at the front door with Dani.

Most people were patient with the toddler candy hand out. Dani is not the most efficient kid. But she was so friendly and bubbly and trying so hard to hand candy out to the massess--it was not one at a time, but many kids, sometimes a dozen in front of the door, and Dani just kept her pace~yelling "Mommy, more candy!" when she ran out!

But this Halloween thing. It has always seemed to me like a total candy glom. Like the goal for the majority of kids who come to my door is to get as much candy as humanly possible. I'd guess about 25% of kids at my door were Dani's age (under 3) or younger, yet they were in strollers, or being carried! If your kid's under 3, there's no way your kid's eating the candy! Seriously, Dani and Tori had a peppermint pattie and some other little thing and that's it.

As for trick or treaters........It's crazy. And it's a vicious cycle. There aren't too many houses on each street that have their lights on, so people drive their kids all around the city, so each year fewer people give out candy and there are more kids per door because there are way more kids being driven around just to find candy. When I was walking with Dani and Tori, I figured I would stay on the block. I did. Besides my house, there were only 2 with lights on (fortunately my next door and across the street neighbors). That's all. So I understand the driving to find a few houses, but the full bags and buckets many kids had made it clear that people really travel for candy. When my kids are bigger, I'll walk them around a bit more. But, unless it's inclement weather, they will be walking.

I tried awfully hard to get a pic of everyone in costume. Tommy was fussing and the girls were restless! This was early on--Dani and Tori were getting dressed while Tommy wanted to rest!

Big Man managed to snap a quick pic of us at the door. Happy Halloween!!

Put your hands in the air!

Hip hop hurray, ho, hey, ho!

Fun day with the kiddos! We carved pumpkins and played all day! Dani is still loving her bunny ears...she likes to be "bunny Pete" from a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse episode. So cute!
As Tori gets bigger and more interactive, Dani and she are having more fun together. Here, they are snuggling on the couch.
Tori is trying hard to crawl. She can crawl backward, but not forward yet. But, she can do military pushups--no lie! As you can see, she pushes up on her tippy toes and her hands...and she does up and downs. Not bad for my little chubby mcdubbs. When Dani sees Tori on the floor, she tries to climb on Tori and says Giddybup! It's pretty cute, but means that now we can no longer leave Dani in the room with Tori on the floor alone, lest Tori get smooshed by her loving sister.
Yes, bad mommy had to take a picture as it was happening---I figured Dani was on Tori's calves, so it's not like Dani could do any harm, so I took a picture!

Carved some pumpkins this afternoon, roasted some seeds. Looking forward to Dani's first real Halloween!

Halloween parade.

Still no teeth, but super cute!Our city has a huge Halloween parade every year. The parade, like most. runs along our street--we live in the old historic part of town, and it works well for those types of things.

I've been doing a poor job of updates. but will do better, I promise!