Time for Trick-or-Treat!

Party of Five, originally uploaded by cheryl.

Halloween - a day of tricks and treats and costumes and candy. We weren't sure what to expect. Connor was, of course, excited. The twins, well, it's hard to tell. It's not something you can explain in advance, at least not at this stage. You just have to dress them up and hope for the best.

Grammy and Pappy came over for the day to help. We had an early dinner outside after Daddy grilled some steaks and baked potatoes. The boys played in the yard since they'd already had pizza earlier in the afternoon. Connor, of course, ate again. He doesn't pass up steak. Ever.

After dinner, it was time to get the boys dressed. Connor was eager and ready. The twins had to be coaxed inside. They were having too much fun in the back yard, and they weren't ready to come in at all.

Connor was first. His costume was easy. He had long ago decided on being a baseball player, and was doing nothing more than dressing up in his fall t-ball uniform. We did a long sleeve shirt under his t-shirt jersey, then his baseball pants, his cleats and his BlueJays hat. He was ready to go.

Xander was next. He was going to be Dash, from the Incredibles movie. It's a thin costume, so we needed something underneath to keep him warm. We opted, as usual, for those tight fitting winter pajamas that are often our "long underwear" layer in the winter when we're playing in the snow. It fit perfectly under the costume, and it also kept the scratchy velcro closures away from his back - win, win.

Last was Sawyer. We simply dressed him in black - sweatpants and his light-up Halloween shirt that Grammy got for all the boys last year - and then put his Tow Mater costume over the top. It's a three-dimensional costume with shoulder straps.

Each boy was given his McDonald's Happy Meal Halloween bucket, and it was time to go. We did a few pictures in the house, on the way down the sidewalk, and then it was time to go.

I took the first round at the house, passing out candy to the other trick-or-treaters in the neighborhood. Grammy, Pappy, and Daddy took the boys down our street and back up. Then Pappy and I switched places, with him handing out candy at our house while I joined the boys down the rest of the street and back (we live dead in the middle, so it worked out well).

Toward the end of that second loop, Xander was getting cranky. He was kind of limping (probably from his love of jumping off anything and everything, including a mishap on Saturday off of a bed). He also just wanted the very large blue sucker and nothing short of holding it would make him happy.

Grammy took the twins back to the house with Pappy, where they all stayed in the front yard handing out candy. Josh and I took Connor down another street in the neighborhood. He was ready and willing, but complained about being tired and needing to rest before it was all over.

It was a good night. The boys did surprisingly well. Sawyer in particular did great for his first time out. He walked up, took one piece of candy from the offered bowls, and turned to walk on. Of course, he didn't say trick-or-treat or thank-you, but he also didn't try to grab the whole bowl and dump it in his bucket either. He did great. Xander said trick-or-treat a time or two, but was mostly quiet, too. Connor wasn't so great on the trick-or-treat part, but was at least pretty good with the thank-you part.

All in all, a good Halloween in our new neighborhood. Here's hoping everyone else had a fun night of trick-or-treating in their part of the world!

Weekend Away

Watering, originally uploaded by cheryl.

Last weekend, after Connor's school fall festival was over, Connor packed his overnight bag and headed back to the lake with Grandma and Grandpa for a fun weekend away.

Connor has always been our "have suitcase, will travel" child. In fact, he tried to sneak and extra night in on the deal. He knows that with school going on, he only has two free nights to do anything. But when we asked him how long he wanted to stay at the lake, he said quite definitively, "I stay three nights."

Nice try, kid. School will come awfully early on Monday morning and you have to be home on Sunday night.

Connor spent Saturday helping Grandpa finish up some work for the neighborhood association. The lakeside community where Grandma and Grandpa live recently purchased and planted some pretty extensive landscaping near the front entrance.

New landscaping needs water, and Connor likes to help water things. He especially liked doing it with the big water tanks that one of the neighbors loaded into the back of Grandpa's Ranger. Connor loves to ride in the Ranger. And he loves to help. He was in heaven.

It was a short weekend, but a good one. Connor always comes home full of stories of what they played and what they had to eat (they grill out a lot, and he thinks we should do that more at home). He also keeps asking when he can go back. He wouldn't mind skipping school to do it, either. Just in case you were wondering.

To Sleep or Not To Sleep ...

Once the boys gave up naps (you know, a really, really long time ago), I foolishly thought we were done with our sleep issues. The boys were getting older, surely they would figure out a pattern that works and stick with it. Right?

Not so much.

If you can say he has a schedule at all, Sawyer has been off of it this week. He's normally up somewhere between 5 and 6 o'clock every morning. He's also taken to stripping down and peeing down the vent, so that means we have to actually get him up at that ungodly hour.

Xander usually follows an hour or so behind him, although our once late sleeper is now sometimes one of the first ones up these days, too. He's still in a pull-up at night, but you have to watch him or it will soak all the way through. You have to get up as soon as you hear him moving around, too.

Connor, unfortunately, doesn't have a choice anymore. He's up at 6:45 for school whether he wants to be or not. He usually doesn't. In fact, he often burrows back under the covers or has to be dressed while laying flat on his back practically still asleep.

There haven't been naps in our house in years. And bedtime usually runs anywhere from 8 to 9 o'clock on a school night. The boys are up and out early, awake all day, and still usually resisting bed.

Which brings us back to Sawyer, who always resists being put to bed and who is really and truly off schedule. Contrary to what you might think, you don't want him to take a nap. Even getting up that early, it's still a bad idea. Because he doesn't know how to nap. He knows how to be awake or asleep, and there's no middle ground. He's either wide awake or falling asleep (whether sitting, standing or doing whatever, with the blink of an eye, he will fall deeply and soundly asleep).

Yesterday he fell asleep on the car ride home from Connor's school. At 3 o'clock in the afternoon. He slept until just after 8 o'clock last night. No amount of noise or light or rubbing on him (or his brothers jumping on him) could wake him back up. He was down for the count.

And I'm sure you see where this is going ...

He was wide awake at 8 o'clock. He stayed that way. All. Night. Long. And he stayed that way all morning, all afternoon, and all the way up until about 15 minutes ago when he finally gave it up again (he's been in his room since 8 o'clock, and just now fell asleep).

It makes me tired just thinking about it.

Fall Festival

Mmm ... Cotton Candy, originally uploaded by cheryl.

Last Friday was the Fall Festival at Connor's elementary school. I always loved the fall festivals when I was that age, so we made plans to take him. Grandma and Grandpa from the lake came up that afternoon to keep the twins so Josh and I could take Connor to enjoy his night (instead of spending half our time chasing down his brothers or keeping them calm in a strange, busy place).

We started the evening by purchasing the tickets, of course, which were the key to doing anything and everything at the school. It is, after all, a school fundraiser. Connor got his tickets and headed off.

First he wanted a tattoo, which he had them put on top of one of his hands. He considered face painting, but decided to hold off. Then we circled the whole school, checking out our options. We stopped in the cafeteria for some food - things like cotton candy, popcorn, chili dogs, and chocolate pudding were on our menu - and to check out the baskets for the silent auction.

After we had some snacks, it was time to spend some more tickets. We went and made a sand bracelet, which will I'm sure end up dumped somewhere in the house the next few days. He decided on a face painting after all - a dolphin, which is the school mascot. It sort of looked like a dolphin anyway, as the elementary school art club kids were doing the painting.

Next we made our way outside. There were dunking booths for two different teachers, where kids could throw balls and try to dump water on their heads. There was also a big bouncy slide and a cake walk to try.

Our last stop of the night was the pumpkin patch, where Connor picked yet another pumpkin (we have about 10 this year, up from our usual three or four). He got to color on it with markers and make his own jack-o-lantern to keep.

And then it was time to go home. Mommy had to go back to work, and Connor was off on another fun adventure to the lake with Grandma and Grandpa. More on that adventure later.

Kindergarten Field Trip!

Happy to Be, originally uploaded by cheryl.

Today all five kindergarten classes went to a local pumpkin patch for their first annual field trip. And I was crazy enough to sign up as a chaperone.

Preschool and kindergarten are two whole different ball games. In preschool, you have to provide transportation for your kids. In kindergarten, if you want to go, you have to chaperone. Which means you drive yourself while the kids go on the bus. And then once you get there, you'll be responsible for not only your child but also three others! And you're going to be carrying around their lunches and jackets all day, too.

It actually wasn't bad. I had Connor and three of his classmates, all boys, and all kids I'd heard him talk about at home before. They were typical boys, meaning they were full of energy and into getting dirty. But we kept them together, got them fed, kept them mostly clean, and got them back on the bus at the end of the day. And that was enough.

Another difference between kindergarten and preschool are the pictures. In preschool, I knew everyone's parents. I could post pictures on the blog and not think twice about it. Not so much in public school, where you sign privacy wavers at the beginning of the school year. I posted a few with blurred out backgrounds and people on flickr, but mostly stuck to photos of just Connor. It was simpler that way. The one above is actually from a really great shot of Connor with his best classroom buddy, B. And it's a great double photo. But I don't know B's mother, and I'm sure it violates the privacy policy. So you get the good half of Connor and that's it. Just imagine another cute smiling boy beside him on the left. He was there, and they looked adorable in the photo.

It was a long but fun day. It started with the educational part, where the owners talk about the different things they grow at the orchard and the different types of products that comes from what they grow. Then you grab a bag and head to the pumpkin patch to pick out your very own pumpkin to take home. None were very big with the dry season we've had this summer, but that was just as well since each child had to pack his or her pumpkin back out. Next was the petting zoo, where you could see mostly goats on different displays. The kids even snuck into some feed bags and made that a little more interesting. After that, everyone received a sample of some cider and apple cinnamon doughnuts - yum - while waiting to take a turn on the hay ride. Then it was back to the picnic area for our sack lunches, and finally a few minutes on the playground before it was time to wrap it up and head back to school.

Connor had a big time. We've done the orchard thing a lot, with preschool and with Grammy and Pappy several times besides, but it was fun. Connor especially liked riding on the school bus - he'd never been on a bus before. Just one more thing to mark of his list. He's a big boy these days.