Birth-o-ween 2014

Oh gosh this has been a busy week.  We've had Halloween activities all week long.  And we've been preparing for the twins birthday today.  AND we are getting ready to go on a road trip starting tomorrow.  It's all good stuff, but it's added up to a lot of things to do.  I'm so glad that Brandon has been home to help me.  

Our first activity for the week was to carve pumpkins on Monday night.  Here is a picture with everyone in it.  About 30 seconds later Derrick and Veronica both melted down and I put them to bed.  

We bought two pumpkins so we could have more pumpkin seeds.  Brandon carved both pumpkins.

the girls wanted one to be sad and the other to be scary.

Our next activity was on Tuesday when we went to story time at the library.  The twins made pumpkins. Derrick played with his train.

And Veronica played with the puzzles.

I was very impressed when Charlotte and Lydia actually paid attention during the story time part of storytime.  The were interested in hearing about Halloween things.

The library provided some treats and the kids all had fun eating them.  This is the first time they all sat still for a picture of their costumes.

Veronica has pretty much given up her morning nap.  She only takes about an hour nap around 4:00 pm.  I've also decided that it's time to ween her.  She's not too happy about that, but most of the time she is still in a pretty good mood.

Charlotte took this picture of Hundley.  She and Lydia like to pretend to be Lady and Tramp and Hundley is their puppy.  They like to dress him up like this when they play.

Lydia wanted a pinata for her birthday so I learned how to do paper-mache this week.  Fortunately my sister Emily had some good advise for making pinatas.  One year she made a train and her son was traumatized when it was time to smash it.  So now she just makes balloon shaped ones.  And she doesn't do many layers because that way it's easier for the kids to break it open.  She also doesn't put a lot of candy into the pinata.  She says that fun is really in the smashing.  

The weather has continued to be really nice this week.  Here are all the kids watering the tree (and each other) on Wednesday evening.

On Thursday I let the girls paint their little pumpkins.

Derrick didn't want to participate.  He just wanted to play with the water.

Here's Charlotte painting Derrick's pumpkin for him.

The lawn care people are done for the season, but our lawn needed to be mowed one last time.  Brandon checked out a mower and weed whacker from the lawn and garden center and took care of the yard for the only time this year.  The kids thought it was a great show.

Maddy came to do her weekly babysitting while Brandon and I went on a date last night.  We went shopping for all our vacation food.

Then we came home and I decorated the girls' cakes while Brandon put away the vacation food.  This is Charlotte's cake.  I found these animals at a Smith's Grocery store in Utah.  I knew she would live the idea of a "Farm Cake."

Lydia saw a Tinkerbell cake at the grocery store and has wanted one ever since.  I found the Tinkerbell and Periwinkle dolls on sale at K-Mart.  Originally I was going to make a little hill for them to sit on, but then I decided to try to make the hill into a little house.  I think it looks pretty cute.

 The girls were so excited to wake up. Charlotte saw the birthday banner hanging from the ceiling and said, "How did you do that?"  She went and woke up Lydia who came out screaming happily at the top of her lungs.  I think my favorite reaction was Derrick's.  He saw the balloons on the floor and said, "b-loon."  Then he saw a birthday hat and tried to put it on his head while jabbering something.

We had breakfast and then the girls were able to Skype with my sister Hillary.  Hillary got home from her mission to Louisville Kentucky on Wednesday.  I've talked to her already, but it was when the kids were asleep.  It was fun for them all to talk.  Hillary was so surprised by how much the girls have grown up in the last 18 months.

 The girls kept going into the storage room to check out their cakes.

 We usually do "Little school" in the afternoon, but we did it in the morning today so there would be time to play later.  We learned about the number 9.

 Then we watched the Halloween episode of Curious George.  We've watched this like every day this week.

 Brandon came home and we had lunch.  We were going to have our little party right after that, but everyone (including me) needed a little bit of time to take a break.   So we had the party after Derrick and I woke up from naps.

 The girls loved their cakes.  As soon as they blew out their candles they started pulling the toys off.

 Here's a better picture of the little house I made on Lydia's cake.  Brandon found some round sprinkles in the cupboard while I was decorating the cake.  I said, "they are like fairy stucco"  when I saw them. So I used them on the walls.

 Charlotte and Lydia were very excited about Tinkerbell and Periwinkle.  In case you aren't well versed in Disney-Fairy lore, Tinkerbell and Periwinkle were born of the same laugh and are sisters.  I really like the Disney Fairy movies.  When I first heard about them I assumed they were a low budget cash grab, but they are actually really well done.  I like that Tinkerbell is a really talented designer.  She's always drawing blue prints and making things.

 Then it was time to do the pinata.  Even though it was a little bit of extra work to make the pinata I was happy to do it.  Mainly because the girls wanted to be the only ones to hit it.  So they didn't want to invite anyone over for a birthday party.  I was perfectly content to make a pinate if it meant I didn't have to host a party for little kids.

 I even got a chance to hit it.

 The girls had fun hitting the pinata until the candy fell out.

 Then it was time for presents.  We started with the "boring" presents.  New Sunday dresses and tennis shoes.

 The girls wanted to wear their dresses right away.

 Then we gave them some pretend makeup.  This was to make up (ha ha) for the Christmas Present makeup that I "accidentally" left in Utah back in December.  Within a few minutes I remembered why I didn't want that makeup in the house.  But even though it was messy the girls loved it.

 Both girls had a lot of fun pretending to know what they were doing.

 They asked Brandon to bring their little studio toy out into the living room so they could use the mirror to put on their make up.

 Pictures like this are the reason we call today, "Birth-o-ween."

 The big present of the day was the new Barbie dolls that my parents helped Brandon and I purchase for the girls.  Usually my parents buy the girls a movie for their birthday.  This year the girls said they wanted Frozen.  I did NOT want to have that movie playing non-stop in my house.  It's not that it's a bad movie, it's just that I don't think it's that great.  I was very unimpressed when I saw it.  In fact, when it was done I basically told Brandon the exact same thing that the How It Should Have Ended people came up with in this movie. (Except I didn't think up the X-men part.)

Anyway, I figured we could spent the same amount of money and buy two Frozen Barbies instead of the movie.  So I talked the girls into that idea.  I'd much rather listen to Charlotte and Lydia make up their own Anna and Elsa stories than listen to the movie.

 The girls were super happy to have the dolls.

 They played with all their new toys the rest of the afternoon.

We all kind of relaxed all afternoon and then it was time to get the kids into their costumes.  The girls were excited to go trick or treating.  

 Derrick was happy to see his train again.

 I thought that Veronica would just want to stay home with me and then go to bed.  I put her in a sleeper, but then put her in her costume anyway.

 She looked so cute that we hurried and grabbed the stroller so she could go trick or treating with the Brandon and the older kids.  Brandon said she fell asleep right away.  That was the first time she'd slept all day.  

 I set up a little candy table and then stayed outside to hand out candy.  I read almost a whole issue of Better Homes and Gardens between waves of trick or treaters.

 The kids came back with their candy.

 Derrick was pretty happy about all the treats.  He can say "tree" for treat.

 Veronica woke back up, but soon she was ready for bed again.

It was another great Birth-o-ween!

Well, I've got TONS of stuff to do before we leave tomorrow. I've been putting off packing our clothes and so that's what I need to do as soon as the kids are in bed.  Well be away on our annual road trip/vacation/camping trip/adventure for a few days. This year its all beach themed.  I'm excited for all the new places we are going to explore.   If you miss hearing from me you can check out posts from our previous roadtrips at www.51centadventures.com.