Halloween in Colorado

This year we celebrated Halloween in Colorado. Here's some of our family on Dad's side (Uncle Dean, Aunt Nettie, Cousin Amanda, Cousin Joanna, Cousin Jarrettt, Grandma, and us with Mom and Dad):

We got to meet our new cousin Adam. He's cute, but he doesn't do much. We tried to teach him how to write on the walls and pull the cat's tail and other fun stuff like that, but he wasn't interested. Oh well, maybe next time.And we met Adam's Daddy, Anthony. We warmed up to him pretty quickly.

Uncle Dean and Aunt Nettie bought us some bikes to ride around the neighborhood: Finally, someone who understands our needs.For Halloween, Mom and Dad each carved a jack-o-lantern. Then we went to a carnival at the local church. We were Mr. Incredible and "Darf Mater" or "Dark Vader" (depending on which of us you ask).Adam was a pirate, but not a very scary one. He just kept eating his sword.
We played lots of games, and they gave out lots of candy.
The chicken catapult was one of our favorite attractions.The train ride was great too. This won our vote for best costume: We had a great time and didn't want it to end. We think the feeling was mutual, because here's what Adam had to say when we told him we were leaving:

Fishing with Uncle Mikey

Uncle Mikey came to town. (That was last month, but Mom is just now getting around to telling you about it.)

Anyway, we went fishing. . . in Greece.Actually, we went fishing at one of the city parks. They call Nashville the "Athens of the south".

Here's us with Uncle Mikey. He's not in the Witness Protection Program or anything; Mom just didn't get a photo of his face. We fished and fished.

But here's all we caught:And that was enough to make us happy.

Wall Climber

Give this kid a little sugar and watch him go. Maybe I'll send him up the chimney to clean out the soot.

Jonah's Birthday Party

Today is Jonah's birthday, but we celebrated on Saturday. Can you guess how old he is? I would have made just chocolate cupcakes but Jonah doesn't like chocolate. Is there such a thing as maternity testing to be sure he wasn't switched at birth? Oh, did I write that out loud?

I was inspired to make art on this foil-covered window screen when I found myself with forty-eight cupcakes and no other platter large enough to hold them. Nobody knows it was an old screen from the basement. Well, they do now, but foil seals bad stuff in as much as it does good stuff. No worries.

Jonah was pretty happy when his friends started showing up. Maybe it's because they were sooo cute.

Here's the whole birthday crew, minus a couple camera-shy munchkins:

Jonah was very excited to open his presents.
Despite appearances, it wasn't a theme party. A few of the kids just wanted to be ready to protect us in the event of criminal activity during the festivities. Thankfully, there was none.

Then came the piñata. All the kids gave it a whack. Andy tried to bust it open. Then Spiderman gave it his best shot:

And when it seemed no one was going to crack the soccer ball, Dad stepped in. Let the sugar comas commence! Ah, look at all the baby-unfriendly candy.

Good times.

The Jolly Goblin

Paw Paw brought a box full of gourds by our house to make a jolly goblin. Andy chose this one for the nose: Paw Paw was on knife duty.We stuck all the features into the holes like a Mr. Potato Head.It was all very silly - just like we like it.Here's our jolly goblin:And here's our thanks to Paw Paw:

Cupcake Makers

Yesterday was Dad's birthday, so we made him some cupcakes. They were chocolate on chocolate with some chocolate sprinkles. Mom says you can never have too much chocolate.

We frosted them ever-so-delicately then ate them with relish - not the pickle kind.They turned out delicious and beautiful. Can you spot Andy's work of art?

Feeding the Ducks

We went to the park the other day to feed the ducks. You can see here that they seemed quite happy to see us. They came flying across the pond for our crumbs of bread.






A couple of them went right for the morsels in Jonah's hand, which spawned a discussion about whether or not geese have teeth.

So we went to the less threatening side of birdville to visit the ducklings.

These babies, poor things, didn't know enough to be afraid of my boys.

Here, my little men are contemplating what to do with them:

Thankfully, Andy decided that walking like a duck would be entertainment enough, so he waddled after them toward the pond.




I think Andy's going to make a great missionary. See how he makes himself all things to all people...and fowl?
He didn't even mind kneeling in the duck poop. What a well-rounded kid.

Soccer Game

Jonah played his first soccer game of the season today. Here are the little munchkins warming up before the game. Jonah's coach is the lady in pink. He's on the blue team this week. The shirts are reversible and the two teams practice and play each other every week. It's a church league. Andy practiced his karate kid, I mean his kick, just off the sideline.The league is more concerned with sportsmanship than competition. Jonah's working on his sportsmanship but has pretty much mastered the competition thing, as can be seen here where he shoves Little Yellow out of the way to kick a goal... AGAINST HIS OWN TEAM! Luckily, the goalie is pretty good and saves Jonah from himself.Jonah likes to play goalie too. See how he owns the space?Here comes the ball... Here it comes... He got it!Then he looks to make sure we saw it.And just in case anyone missed that, here's another block on a kid kicking... AGAINST HIS OWN TEAM! Good save, Jonah!
And another look from the blocker.Yes, we saw it and we are proud.

Finally, the play of Jonah's career so far and our money-making shot, should he go pro.

Don't worry, he didn't actually kick the little girl in the teeth, but he did take it to her, didn't he? So what if half of the league are girls and the other half are boys smaller than him? It's good for his self-esteem. OK, so it's good for his parents' self-esteem too. We're proud of our boy. What's wrong with that?