Happy Halloween!!!!!

Seriously. What a fabulous evening. Halloween has always been one of my favorite holidays. Before kids it was always about making an amazing costume for myself...some years were sluttier than others, but either way they were usually pretty great. Now I don't even care about dressing up, it's all about dressing up the kids and reliving the holiday through their eyes...so much better than through beer goggles. Seriously.

This year I went pretty simple, but I still think they came out pretty darn cute. Here is my Pirate Boy and his Parrot Girl...







The cuteness is kind of ridiculous isn't it.

It gets better. We went to a friend's house and went Trick or Treating tonight with some of Joaquin's buddies...the cuteness was straight up overwhelming.














We ended the night setting our loot outside as an offering to The Great Pumpkin who will whisk our candy away and leave us some fabulous toy! Don't worry, he got a piece or two...we won't deprive him completely!





Can't wait to wake up and see what he left us! Happy Halloween!

A trip to the pumpkin patch again!

So we went back to Oma's Pumpkin Patch today with Dan. We all had a blast...not much to say, but lots more pics!



























Tomorrow we will be dressing up at playgroup...I can't wait to take a million pictures of my little pirate and his parrot!

Joaquin's big boy swim class!

Oh I should so be in bed right now! Both kids are asleep, I finished their Halloween costumes, watched some Glee (online), loaded a bunch of pictures on flickr and poked around on facebook and suddenly realized I still hadn't posted about Joaquin's swim class!

Bad mama!

On Tuesday Joaquin started his swim classes. Before we were in a playgroup swim class so I was in the water with him...but now he is all on his own. When we started talking about it last week he was totally not into the idea. He kept saying that he wanted "Mama to hold me" in the water.

The morning of, he was not a happy camper. Then I did what every fabulous mother does, I bribed him. I told him if he tried really hard with the teacher then we would go get him a chocolate milk from Starbucks. Yep, not only do I bribe my children, I bribe them with Starbucks. You see, I like to instill my consumerism early. Whatever. It worked.

He totally rocked swim class. He jumped in to the teacher's arms. He happily hung out on the *tot dock* when the teacher was working with one of the other two students. He made a friend, tried super hard, listened to directions and had a good time.

See what a little Starbucks can do?!?!

Here are a million pictures...enjoy!






















Oh and here is one of Isela today...just because she is so darn cute!

Oma's Pumpkin Patch

Over a week for another real post?!?! See, I told you this no napping thing was going to suck...but at least I don't have to suffer all alone. Yes you all have to suffer with my lack of posts due to my recent lack of alone time.

Anyway, this week we went to Oma's Pumpkin Patch and the kids had a blast! Of course right after like 10 photos my camera died but luckily everybody else had a camera.

I made a very sad attempt to get a shot of Isela and Joaquin in the pumpkins. It was pretty pathetic and the sun was in their eyes...but hey, I had to give it a shot! As you can see, Isela wasn't too impressed with the idea.






They had a dirt hill covered with construction trucks...Joaquin was in "tractor" heaven!




There was a giant hill of cottonseed for the kids to slide and roll down, Joaquin loved it!





Kelli took this one...




Here are all the boys up top checking out the scene...I took the first, Kelli took the second.






Here are a few more Kelli took...







I'm hoping we can go again this week in the afternoon with Dan...but we'll see if he's up for it.

Oh, I know this was only supposed to be about the pumpkin patch, but I have to share these photos as well. On Monday as playgroup started to wind down, I had to run off for a doctor's appointment. Joaquin stayed with some of my friends and their kids. As luck would have it up rolled a Firetruck and they totally showed off for the kids. Nobody had a camera, but one Mama managed these pretty impressive shots with her phone. I'm super sad and bitter I missed it, but pretty stoked for Joaquin. How fun does this look?!?









Hopefully I'll find a spare moment or two to update midweek...wish me luck!