Happy Halloween

Calvin wanted to carve something "really cool," while Noah giggled uncontrollably when, in his words, he found "the weirdest pumpkin" in the patch.

There is no doubt in my mind that this Halloween will be remembered by Calvin and Noah as one of the greatest holidays ever. Between parties, parades, and trunk-or-treats, they amassed an INSANE amount of candy. They were both very pleased with their costumes and received all the admiration and adulation I'm sure they expected.

The only downside, according to our little Mario, was the masked candy givers. Noah decided it wasn't worth the risk to reach into any bowl of a masked stranger- no matter how yummy their treats might look.

First Day of School/ "I have no other choice"

(Sadly, this is as good as it gets when RB's not home to take the pictures)

Calvin's first day of school was, according to him, "awesome". To celebrate, I let him play on the playground afterwards with a few of his new classmates.

I was busy retrieving Malcolm from his perch halfway up the giant slide ladder, when I heard,

"IT'S A CRICKET!"

"NO, KATYDID!"

"NO, CRICKET!"

Apparently the true identity of a small green insect on the swings was causing problems between Calvin and another little boy.

Later that evening in the car, RB and I overheard Calvin talking to himself. Evidently he wasn't quite over the bug incident:

"I have no other choice. Next time I see that boy I'm going to verse him in battle. It's the only way. It was tied three-three... it's the only way." (I have no idea where the scoring came from.)

Maybe we should start focusing more on Calvin's conflict resolution skills.

Summer, we're sad to see you go.

The lightpole incident.

No 5 year-olds were hurt in the making of this video.

...and the livin's easy

Summertime has been treating us all pretty darn well. Our days are filled with popsicles, bikes, and swimming pools and our evenings, fireflies and basement forts.

RB and I even managed to sneak away for a week while the boys stayed with Oma and Opa. (I'm pretty sure they didn't even realize we were gone.)

The only real source of frustration so far has been the mysterious ball disappearance on the 18th hole of putt putt.

Noah, defined.

Lickolish (lik-uh-lish)

-noun

a candy flavored with licorice root: Mommy, can I please have a piece of lickolish? I love lickolish.

Hossible (hos-i-bull)

-noun

an institution in which sick or injured persons are given medical or surgical treatment:

Daddy, do you have to go back to the hossible today?

Slipperling (slip-per-ling)

-verb

to slide suddenly or involuntarily; to lose one's foothold, as on a smooth surface: Mom, help! My scooter is slipperling down the hill!

Unicorn (yoo-nuh-corn)

-noun

an identifying outfit or style of dress worn by the members of a given profession, organization, or rank: Calvin, when I play soccer, I have to put on my orange unicorn just like you.

Gondolas (gon-duh-luhs)

-noun

large spectacles equipped with special lenses, protective rims, etc., to prevent injury to the eyes from strong wind, flying objects, blinding light, etc: I'm ready to go swimming, will you help me put on my gondolas?

Scooed (skoo- ed)

-verb

to move on a child's vehicle typically has two wheels with a low footboard between them, is steered by a handlebar, and is propelled by pushing one foot against the ground while resting the other on the footboard: Noah, what did you do outside all day? "I scooed."

Buffalo (buff-uh-low)

-noun

a large, long-headed mammal, Alces alces, of the deer family, having circumpolar distribution in the Northern Hemisphere, the male of which has enormous palmate antlers: Noah, what did you name your stuffed moose? "Buffalo."

the shmoozer.

in between designing and throwing paper airplanes off the deck calvin whipped this out.

I think he was eyeing the last donut up on the counter.

inside the mind of calvin

The boys were outside drawing pictures with chalk on the driveway when this exchange was overheard:

Calvin: Mom, guess which Pokemon I just drew.

Carolee: I don't know, Pikachu.

Calvin: Nope, but don't worry, you have 3,000 more guesses.

the porkchop

Grammy and Grandpa came for a visit.

Malcolm got his first taste of grandpa's famous "30 minute cake".

It happened to be the opening weekend for trout fishing, so grandpa got the boys new poles and a fully equipped tackle box.

He even taught them how to make the top-secret trout bait, "The Porkchop"...

... the boys refused to let me in on how to make it, but I was happy to learn that no pork was actually involved.

One

a little cupcake, a drink of milk, and an easy to please one year old:

Happy Easter.

Life Adventures

Volunteering in Calvin's class allows me to experience proud moments like this:

Calvin's latest writing assignment at school was to focus on their class hermit crabs. The kids brainstormed ideas for possible subjects and came up with an exciting list including: soil, water vapor, body parts, and diet. Calvin apparently had a different genre in mind, as he suggested"life adventures" be added in the mix.

After the allotted time for writing passed, the children gathered in a circle to share their stories with the class. After hearing the very informative stories of the other seven kids, it was Calvin's turn.

He started by proudly holding overhead his illustration with what looked like an erupting volcano and hermit crabs parachuting down from the sky. He enthusiastically started reading, "Watch out, hermit crabs! The hot lava is coming!" From there, his plot eventually led to the crabs making it into the "magical coconut hut" just in time to be transported to another magical place.

Trying to encourage his excitement about writing, his teacher asked where his hermit crabs would go next. After a split-second hesitation he said with wide-eyes, "to the Valley of DOOM!"

Fish Tracks

Noah, lately.

Sitting in the Dr.'s office with the boys, Noah leaned toward me and mumbled a question I couldn't understand. Asking him to repeat it, he again, lowered his head and quickly said something I wasn't any closer to getting. Impatiently asking him to speak up and tell me one more time, he then nearly shouted his question,

"Is that guy a pirate?!!"

As I (and everyone else in the room) took a quick glance around, I made eye contact with the man sitting across from us wearing tall black boots, a bandana, and lip ring.

-----

We have our bath and bedtime routine down pretty well by now: go to the potty, get in the bath, get in pajamas, brush teeth. The other night Noah decided to mix things up and skip going to the bathroom before entering the tub with his two other brothers. After everyone was out, I told him he needed to go to the bathroom before he finished getting ready for bed. He declined saying,

"It's ok mom, I peed in the tub."

-----

The boys were playing the usual "tackle-wrestle" in the basement with RB when Calvin decided to add a new element to the game. Quickly getting into character, he announced, "I'm Thunder-Hero! I have laser eyes and laser punch!"

Noah, not to be outdone, countered, "I'm Rainbow Boy! I have super rainbows."

He then demanded to be called "Rainbow" for the rest of the night.

-----

Thanks to the recent snow, the boys have been identifying different animal tracks on our walks and drives. They've gotten pretty good at most of them, but when we came upon a new looking set they were both stumped. Calvin suggested, "moose", Noah then offered his educated guess,

"umm, Fish tracks?"

A less honest Abe

I asked Noah if he had gotten into the donuts while I was on the phone.

He coolly replied, "nope."

"Through the Eyes of a Child" or "Why I'll Never Travel on Christmas Day Again"

In Calvin's words, "Christmas is the best day in my whole world."

Yes, the boys had a wonderful holiday this year. What little kid wouldn't enjoy a day like this:

• waking up before 6am to find the loot Santa had left them
• receiving more than one present that mommy had sworn they would never own- incredibly fast shooting nerf guns, HALO legos, and an XBOX game of their very own
• discovering that Santa's reindeer really did eat all of the "reindeer food" Calvin had prepared at school and then scattered over the snow covered deck without asking
• getting to ride on not 1, but 2 airplanes
• playing all the v-smile they wanted while hanging out at the airport
• staying up incredibly late with no naps
• riding a sweet shuttle bus
• arriving at a hotel with a swimming pool and free donuts
  

Just a few highlights from the grownups' Christmas day:

• staying up late for... obvious reasons as well as packing for the trip
• RB sifting through the snow on the deck trying to gather all the mini-marshmallows, chocolate chips, and pretzels (ie reindeer food) without leaving tracks
• Christmas day, RB yelling at having words with an airline worker in a Santa hat about their carry-on policy
  
• the Santa hat lady informing us we have too many kids
• finding out someone was just arrested for trying to blow up a plane
  
• the 2nd leg of our flight getting canceled
  
• thanks to RB's shall we say persuasive nature, eventually finding a flight taking us to an unexpected destination, Denver
• unpacking from our carry-on's not 1, but 2 new clean pairs of underwear for the boys because mommy couldn't leave all the luggage unattended to get to a bathroom while daddy was busy persuading
  
• arriving past midnight in Denver to find the shuttle bus from the hotel only comes once every hour
• forcing Calvin and Noah to go against all mommy's taught them and butt in front of everyone in line for the hotel shuttle because waiting in the freezing weather another hour wasn't an option
  
• eventually arriving at random hotel where we would then wait 24 hours for our ride to Utah

Woohoo! Hooray for holiday travel. Alright, yes, I am whining. After the "getting there" part was over, we all had a wonderful time. We were able to see Uncle Joe get married and the boys got to try out skiing.

Spending time with family was of course, the best part. It was definitely worth the head ache of getting there, and I might even be up for doing it again sometime... maybe.