Halloween 09

Halloween is one of my favorite times of the year. I don't know if it's because it's finally cool enough to be outside or if it's because it's the start of the holiday season or what exactly, but I love it. Actually what I think it is is that my kids love it. They love every detail of it. They love the decorations (not that I do much), but as soon as anyone starts to get any holiday stuff in front of their doors, my kids are on me about doing ours. They love picking out costumes. They love making treats for neighbors. They love picking out their pumpkins and decorating them. They mostly love the get-together and trick-or-treating on Halloween night with all of their cousins. In fact, we were going to go to a Halloween party going on at the park by our house for an hour or so before the family party this year, and our kids were actually begging us to skip that party so they could get to the cousins sooner.

Riggs had been to this pumkin patch before with his pre-school and was so excited to show us all around. He especially loved the maze and since it was so dark when we were there, he told us he peed in the maze since no one could see him. (lovely)

Riggs pre-school put on a little performance of Halloween songs for the parents. I love his teachers and he has such good friends in his class.

This is definitely one of my favorite pictures of my 3 boys. What I love about it is that you can see EXCITEMENT written all of their faces. Let the candy start rolling in!

Basketball

Jackson finished up basketball and is onto baseball for now. He was one of the youngest ones on the team, but didn't seem to mind. I never got any decent pictures of him, and I was feeling very guilty about this, but then I remembered what I went through each game just trying to keep Crew off the court, and I don't feel so guilty any more. Sorry Jacks!

He improved so much this season, and to say Jeremy was a proud papa would be the understatement of the year. He's pretty much beaming when he watches any of his boys play sports. I think he'll have plenty of that over the next 15 years or so... :)

Newport Beach

A few weeks ago, we rented a house with 4 other families (all guys who did the MBA program with Jeremy). I think there were 12 kids, all under age 6. The beach was so nice, even though I hardly got in the water. I like it to be at least 90 degrees outside when I swim. It was in the low 80's most of the time we were there, but that didn't stop the kids from playing in the water for hours on end. They got pretty fried, but never complained.

The last night we were there, Riggs was begging to ride the Ferris Wheel. So we did--and I got sick. The things you do for your kids...

The kids had this volleyball that they threw out into the ocean over and over to watch the waves bring it back up. This is what they did for like 90% of the time we were there.

There was a little park right on the beach that we went to one day. Crew especially enjoyed this.

This is one of my favorite pictures of these 2. Jackson is so sweet to Crew.

Can you tell that putting their arms around each other was not their idea?

POPSICLES!

We walked out to the end of the pier one night and got shakes at Ruby's Everyone loved it--that is--everyone except for Crew. Look at that face!

What the?

Rosy Cheeks

I told them to put their heads down by Crew for the picture. Love it.

We rented this "bike" one morning and rode around for an hour. We even took it on the little Ferry over to Balboa Island. Jeremy and I were both too tall for it.

What a couple of Studs

Day at the Lake with Grandad and Uncle Travis

We never got to the lake over summer break, but we did take Jackson out of school one day on his first week to go. The boys loved cliff jumping and feeding the ducks. Crew was a beast, but it was worth it.

Watch Out Preschool...here we come!

Riggs and his good buddy Crew on their first day. We were in the ER the night before after Riggs had a little crash on the quad with his cousin Chandler. He sliced his eyelid open right in the crease of it. It was deep enough that I could see his eyeball through the cut, but because it was in the crease, it started sealing together really fast, and he didn't need any stitches. He went to school the next morning and was so excited to show everyone his battlewound.

He also informed me after school that day that he has 2 "grill" friends. I think one of them is Mrs. "Lalleman". He loves her.