We went trick or treating at Nanny and Pap's this year, which turned out to be the best choice ever! The kids saw all kinds of school friends and had a blast!

I forgot Simon/Steve's right arm and pick-axe at home. BOO! :( But he took it in stride and it worked out well for the pumpkin carrying. 

Jonathan was tired and kept falling on his face and losing his minion glasses. He was kind of a disaster... happy, but a disaster nonetheless. 

Ben was annoyed that Simon got tons of attention, which cracked me up because he chose the most generic costume ever this year and wouldn't even let me spray his hair or put on vampire makeup because he did not want to draw attention to himself. He is SO me. LOL. 

Halloween at School....

Simon as Steve.... HUGE hit. I kept cringing because all the kids wanted to touch it and this costume has to make it at least through trick or treating tonight! OMG STOP TOUCHING HIM!!!

Seriously though, it was like he was a movie star. He loved every minute of it. I loved when he whacked the cube head on the door on the way back into the school. TOO FUNNY. Apparently he also lost an arm along the parade route. The gym teacher reattached it while we was walking and said, "It's all fun and games until someone loses an arm!" LOL!

Ben as vampire minus the fangs which he left in his backback.  ;) He likes to blend in. Wanted nothing to do with any spray-painted hair or anything crazy.  I love how different they are. Cracks me up. 

And since we were kind of trapped at school for the morning (half day and parking at pickup would have been a nightmare), we hung out in the library and "beeped the books". Jonathan helped. ;)

Halloween is Coming...

... there have been MONTHS of discussion and angst over what costumes everyone will wear this year.

If I had MY way, Ben would be Prince Charming. (I found the most adorable costume two years ago and eye it up every year) Simon would be a magician complete with rabbit to pull out of a hat and a drawn on mustache.

However, sadly, I do NOT have my way with anyone but the baby as far as costumes are concerned. So this year we have a Bakugan guy (who sort of looks like a red dude with dragon wings) for Ben and Simon is a red Samurai Power Ranger. Seriously, HOW are the Power Rangers even still around?

(sigh)

At least, there's still Jonathan. NO Idea what to make him though. He won't wear hats at all, so it can't be anything that involves any kind of head gear. hrm...

Flight, Settling in and Magic Kingdom

My little flyers --




Ben and Anastasia getting ready to head out to Magic Kingdom yesterday morning. Clearly, Ben still has not learned how to smile normally... LOL.


Jonathan's first monorail ride!


Tom and the big boys headed for Main Street USA


While sitting outside of Pirates (Jonathan had fallen asleep), I inquired about the Pirates dress-up thing. They had TONS of openings, it's something we've never done and I knew my two costume-fanatic children would have a blast, so we splurged for it. So glad we did too. It was amazing and SO cute. Very well done and Ben and Simon thought it was way cool. :o)

Getting assigned his pirate name -- James Kilkidd


Spinning the captain's wheel to get assigned HIS pirate name -- Ned Sharkbite


THe Book of Names


A little unsure about what's going on...


REALLY unsure about what's going on... but holding it together well because he REALLY wanted the eyepatch.


Checking out the pirate ship tattoo she just put on his hand...


Getting facepainted



The finished product


High fiving daddy for a job well done


Arghing and Aye Mateying and sword fighting outside ;)


Ben posing. LOL!


Better pics of the faces... very weird to see my six and three-year-olds with facial hair, I have to say!




Baby J hanging out in the villa -- he is wearing an outfit that was ony of my absolute favorites of Ben's and Simon's. He wasn't goign to get to wear it otherwise because it's so far out of season... yay for warmer weather. :)




A glimpse of the teen years...


Anyway, so that's that... the boys also got to play on the playground here at the resort and we had dinner here last too at the little on-site restaurant. Everyone was pretty beat and we all passed out again at 8 last night.

Today we are off to "Epeecot" (as Simon used to call it) and then who knows... this is the most unplanned-out trip we've ever taken. LOL! We kept it loose because we didn't know how Jonathan would be. Turns out, he's the easiest baby to handle in Disney of my three (which I didn't really see coming until after the travel day when he was so awesome). He just takes it all in, falls asleep in the Ergo, wakes up, eats a little and looks around some more. No overtired freakouts, no overstimulations... nothing. He's just going with the flow. I never used to understand how people stayed in the parks all day with young babies... NOW? I get it. We could have stayed from open to close last night easily with him... it was the rest of us who were done!

Trick or Treat 2009...

Simon as the dinosaur and Ben as.... ? He started out as his "homemade Stitch" but ended up with just a purple cape. Grandmom and Aunt Debbie joined us for the fun! :)

Massive Photo Dump...

Pics from Simon's Friday school Halloween party, Ben's school parade and from our family pumpkin carving night!

Simonsaur and Anastasiakittycat


Class pic gone bad... that's Max... he kept trying to attack Simon's dinosaur head.


Slightly better...


I love Simon's face here... doesn't he look like he's up to something?


I love this picture... Sally always complains when I post pics of her on f/b... but this one may end up on there anyway. It's so sweet... :) I love it when you can tell people really love what they do. :)




Simon's first school picture... HA! ;)


Stitch enters the scene...


He sees me!


Waiting patiently for the action to begin... and it did take forEVER...


Here comes the kindergarten! (his teacher is the giant Clifford)



Watching Pre-K go by in the parade... that Anakin costume freaks me out. Oh, and the kid dressed at Batman is the infamous one. Aside from the fact that he's playing with his nose, doesn't he look sweet? Poor kid...


Pumpkin Carving Night... sitting with grandmom


Poppy has the swine flu so he was quarantined on the deck


One of Aunt Debbie's creations


Hammering things into the pumpkin...


Just playing around...


Brandon carved with us via Skype


Yeah, we carried this joke far...


Hi, Uncle B!




Brand-o-lantern




Roasting marshmallows with Aunt Deb


S'mores are YUM!


There are videos coming later of Simon's and Ben's school stuff too... so check back! :) Lots to dump today!!!

Happy Halloween!