Pumpkin Carving

On Sunday, we went to Yardley to carve a pumpkin for Canal-o-ween. For this week, the town of Yardley lines the canal with these carved pumpkins. I can only imagine how lovely it must look since we haven't visited yet. Anyway, back to Sunday... Whenever I want to get Ani Rose into the car, I tell her its time to go on an adventure. Well, the past two days of adventures included wearing her monster costume...so she insisted that she wear her monster costume...again. It was a beautiful fall day, they had a little mask making craft table for the kids and after Da and Norrin carved a pumpkin, we took a walk to enjoy the cool weather, the fall leaves and visit with the ducks and geese.

Norrin carved this pumpkin all by himself under the watchful eye of Da.

Our little monster watched for about a minute before it was time to find something else to do.

Ani made a butterfly mask.

She preferred to peek out from under it rather than look through the eye holes.

Norrin's glasses helped to hold the mask away from his long eyelashes. Classic Wolverine.  Nice.

Vampire Norrin.

The usual crazy attempt at a family photo.

Reaching for leaves.

Look at all the ducks!

My wild and beautiful little Bit.

We Did The Mash...The Monster Mash 2013

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, its that time of year again. Time for the Monster Mash at the Please Touch Museum. We always have a great time at this annual gathering and this year we made it extra fun by dressing up with the kids. Both Todd and I dressed as characters from their favorite obscure cartoons. Todd was MC Bat Commander from the Aquabats and I was Raven from Teen Titans Go. If you google that, you will see that Todd did an exceptional job with his costume. It was a good time with lots of healthy trick or treating, dancing, playing and eating.

Our family photos in the photobooth.  They show you on a TV before they take your picture, so Ani Rose loved making faces and totally got into it.

Our wild little minion.

James P Sullivan never looked so cute.

Ani was more interested in playing than collecting goodies.

She was happy to partake in the sampling of water ice though.

Every year they have a different seasonal flavor...one year it was pumpkin spice and cranberry...this year it was Starburst candy flavored- strawberry and lemon.  It was super delicious.

I had to make sure every drop made it to Ani's mouth :).

Norrin loved posing with the characters- Clifford the Big Red Dog.

Ladybug Girl

He also found some time to play...

An Astronaut on the blue screen.

This was the funniest to Todd and I.  This is a vaccination superhero.  There was a table where a group was stopping parents to make sure their kids were fully vaccinated and if not, to give them information about why they should be.  Yeah, sure, he's fully vaccinated...now, can he have a free superhero shield?

Another fun activity was hiding in Mommy's cloak.

Peek-a-boo, Ani Rose...time to go home, sleepy monster.

My Baby is Six Now...How is That Possible?

Yesterday was Norrin Radd Milligan's sixth birthday. Instead of a party, we let him dictate what his special day would be. The idea was to say "yes" to everything...within reason, of course. His first request was to go to the toy store. We let him pick out some toys, get whatever he wanted from the toy and candy machines, got him a crown and a balloon. Then, he wanted to go to the aquarium and he's so used to me saying we can't afford anything other than lunch that he started saying that in the car, but today was his birthday and we could get whatever he wanted. So, we posed for a family photo at the entrance, we bought him stuff from the gift shop, we had whatever he wanted for lunch and he got his face painted. After the aquarium, we went to Grandmom Meatball's for dinner (spaghetti and meatballs) and cake. I had bought and filled a pinata that Norrin had chosen on Thursday and thought it would be fun to bring to grandmom's. The dinner and cake were amazing, the pinata...a total pain to crack open. Once it was opened though and Ani Rose got some chocolate in her system, she started hopping around the patio, yelling "I love chocolate" over and over again...she is my girl. We finished the day with a late second nap for Ani and video games for Norrin. I'd say all in all, it was a very successful birthday. And for all of you wondering, yes, I cried. He's beautiful. He's growing up strong and so smart and amazes me every day. I'm surprised my heart hasn't burst with the amount of love I have for this little man. So, yes...first thing in the morning, I held him and hugged him and kissed him and cried...but just a little bit :).

Ani Rose acted very scared of the sharks...it was pretty cute.

Shark mask at the gift shop.

When Ani tried it on, I thought we should have bought it.  It was hysterically funny.

The birthday boy

We got to this presentation just as he was taking questions.  Norrin raised his hand and asked "whose teeth are sharper, a shark or a tyrannosaurus rex?".  We were thoroughly amused.

Such a little actor.

Ani took a mini nap of about 20 minutes.  It was a really solid nap though for being in such a busy place.  I wonder where Norrin gets all those silly faces :)?

Posing with a baby alligator.

Such a beautiful day.

Much happier after a little snooze.

The cake.

We all sang "Happy Birthday"...even Ani Rose. 

I love Ani's face here.  She wants that cake so bad.

And look at her eyeballing Norrin's piece while she's waiting for hers.  Too funny.

Finally, Mommy!

Time to beat the stuffing out of Elmo.

Todd encouraging his baby girl to kill that monster.

Rita is having a new shed built in her backyard and she asked Todd to place the flags, so the workers would have an idea of where she wanted it to go.  The kids thought the flags were some kind of game. 

We put them back afterwards :).