Costume Parade

My gorgeous boys (:

A grumpy Indy

He was actually walking backward to school!

The boys school had a costume parade today.

Ivan, although he has been wearing the Indiana Jones costume for weeks, went as a pirate. I drew some facial hair on him and he washed it off. He told me, "Mom, that made me look HIDEOUS!" Not even sure where he learned that from!

Connor went as Indy instead and threw a HUGE fit. Connor's life is never fair and his complaints were just silly. Once he got to school and got some compliments from his friends, he did much better. For a calm, quiet kid he sure can put up a fuss!

Ethan went as Harry Potter. He sure has grown in a year. It was small on him last year but today I noticed how short the arms on his cloak were. I guess he will have to get something new next year.

Harmony wore the poodle skirt that she got in Girl Scouts last year. She made a very cute 50's girl! I didn't get any pictures of her 'cause we were a touch late getting to school today!

Our first last

(The graveyard cake...what do you think?

(Ivan won the cupcake walk, and chose one that he and I made! Awww)

(as soon as Ben heard "family picture" he was out of there! Stinker. He said he didn't hear me say it, and just went out to get the trunk ready. Hmmmm...)

( Harmony went as Marie Arnold. Don't know who that is? It is the main character in the book she is writing!!)

( the older kids hamming it up)

(Expecto Patronum!!)

(One of our Indy's. Connor was also Indiana Jones)


(arrrgh! Hanging out in the carrier. I bought this for $1 at a yard sale and I have to say it was worth every penny!)

( me with some friends at the trunk or treat)

With just a little over six months left on our sentence...I mean time left on Guam, we are starting to experience some lasts.

As we walked around housing for 2 hours last night, dripping sweat in the 80+ degree weather, trick or treating, we thought about the fact that this is our last Halloween on Guam! It was the first of many lasts that we will be experiencing. It is amazing how fast time really does fly!

Friday night was a busy day. I sent the kids off to school with an orange & black lunch (mac & cheese, oranges, orange juice, purple grapes and oreos) with Halloween stickers and jokes. I also placed a spider ring in their mac & cheese. They told me that their friends were fooled...but not them!

After picking up Ivan,I spent the day baking. I made a graveyard cake as a treat for the trunk or treat. I wasn't very happy with how it turned out but Ben told me to "let it go, it's not important". I am not sure if I agree or not. But, it doesn't matter anyway because it was devoured 48 hours ago!! I will try again next year and see what happens!

The kids had fun doing their usual thing. Playing games, making crafts, eating way too much sugar etc.

Saturday we went around housing and filled buckets. Mason was in his carrier and so we forgot the stroller! By the end of the night, I was carrying Mason, 2 Indiana Jones hats, 1 "leather" jacket, and 3 treat bags. Ben was carrying Ivan.

As the kids complained about the heat, and how far they had to walk, I just laughed! Our kids have it made. In White Salmon, homes were not that close! We had to walk a lot farther than up and down a few streets! I told them they would not have cut it as trick or treaters "way back then".

And of course, they were all up at the crack of dawn, counting, sorting and trading their candy. Let the teeth rotting begin!

Let the Haunting begin...

( his class all lined up)

(with his teachers)

(Holding a "bubble" in his mouth. The teachers do this when they want the class to be quiet. Ivan held his bubble the ENTIRE time!)

(walking in the parade)

I have quite a few friends who are big Halloween fans. Me...not so much. But the kids, of course, love it. How can we not share in their enthusiasm right? So far, the Halloween costumes have been sitting on top of the freezer just calling to them. But I haven't let them play with them. We paid a pretty penny for a couple of them and I do not want them getting ruined!!

The older kids have been having Red Ribbon week. They have enjoyed wearing their clothes inside out, wearing ties and today they are sporting their pj's. I swear they have never been ready for school so fast! I wish every day was pj day!

Ivan however got to have a character parade. My original idea was for him to dress up as a pirate and be from the book, "Pirates Don't Change Diapers". Mason is going to be a pirate this year so I thought it would be cute. Ivan said, "no pirrrrrrrrrrrrates!" to that idea. So he wore Ethan's Harry Potter costume.

With Ivan, change is never easy. Even if it is something fun. Our morning went like this...
" Why do I have to wear a costume?"
"What is a parade? Where do I walk to it?"
"Why does Harry have a scar?
"Why is it shaped like that?"
"Do you have to wear your rain coat on a costume?" (He just got his new rain coat on Saturday and has been wearing it every day since then)
"Ms. Adams said there is no snack in the parade."
"How come we are doing this?"
"Can you wash this scar off? I don't like this."

On and on it went. By the time we got to school, his frustration level had risen. He wasn't happy. He hid his scar, hid behind me. No eye contact. Finally after a little convincing he put his costume on and was a happy little wizard. I love the pictures, he looks so cute.

Honestly, if he didn't want to wear it, I wouldn't have pushed him. But I am glad that he decided to just go with the flow! Fun times. He is now eating a ghost shaped sandwich. (:

Tomorrow he has snack so we are making fun Halloween snack bags. We also have our trunk or treat tomorrow. I will be busy baking and decorating but looking forward to it!

Choices and misunderstandings

(talking to her friend)

(Enjoying his cupcake after winning the very first round of the cake walk)

(the ghost that "followed" Ivan)

( I made these cupcakes for the trunk or treat and thought they turned out pretty cute!)

Whew. I have a mile long to do list but I also have been wanting to update on a few things.

In school and at home, we talk to Ivan a lot about making choices. That he is not a "bad boy" but he made a bad choice. Or he made a good choice. And I realized the other day that these lessons were really sinking in. How? Well, Astro had got a hold of Ivan's diaper and was attempting to chew it up. Ivan went up to him and said, " Astro you are going in your tunnel (kennel) because you made a bad choice." I cracked up. Then later he asked me if he could go to the park and I said not right now. He started crying and said, "Mommy you are making mean choices about me!" So cute.

*************************************************************************************The other day Harmony let me know that she was voting for John McCain. I asked why and she said I don't think Obama will be good for our country. I said ok and left it at that. Today when she got home from school, she saw the yahoo page where it said "voted the first black president." She started bawling. I mean hysterical. I was not prepared for that!! I didn't realize she had such strong political positions. I finally get her to calm down and asked her what the matter was. She said that she had a really bad day and began to tell me about it. Well, she had written on a paper that "Obama used to be a terrorist." Some girl got all mad and ripped it up. Harmony was bawling, " Mom I didn't know it wasn't the truth!" It turns out, she thought that Obama and Osama were the same person. So I explained it to her and she is going to talk to the girl tomorrow, and let her know that she just got confused. What a crazy time!

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The past couple weeks there have been an increase in phone calls around our home. However, they are not for Ben or I. They are for Miss Harm. She has never really been one to talk on the phone, to anyone, but she has been taking the phone into her room so that she can talk. What is next I ask yah?

And lost but not least I just had a few Halloween pictures from our Trunk or Treat that I thought it would post. I was cracking up because they had this floating ghost that scared Ivan half to death!

Halloween x 4

Unlike some of my friends, I don't really get into Halloween. I just don't. I don't really see the point of the holiday. And costumes...well I only like "cute" ones. And it seems they are all the gorey ones. Plus they are not cheap and they wear them for like an hour. Ok I know bah humbug...or whatever you say at Halloween.

This year, the Girl Scout Halloween party was a little early this year. However I still put off getting costumes. So I finally went in and everything was 30% off! Nice. Now of course things were picked over but I still managed to find some cute costumes. They were $7 each. Not bad!

We are really going to get our money's worth this year because we have 3 Halloween parties and the actual Halloween night. So 4 uses! I am pretty happy with that. Of course Ben and I go as the same thing every year, a Mom and a Dad.

Last night we went to the GS party. The kids had fun running around like crazy. Harmony was very bummed that she didn't win an award for costumes but what are you going to do right? I thought they looked cute and that's all that matters. :) So now we are 1 party down 3 more to go...btw this doesn't include anything having to do with school/class parties!