William discovers the "Treat" in Trick or Treat!

William did go trick or treating with his brother and sister tonight. He loved being up after dark and following the big kids out into the neighborhood. After a few houses, Paul brought him home. Where he began exploring the contents of his pumpkin...

He took a few licks of the lollipop with a huge grin on his face. Then stuck the confection to the carpeting.

This is it for group shots. William is NOT smiling in the first one, he is actually shrieking in a rather high pitched voice as we tried to hold him down for photos.

The Trials and Tribulations of Photographing a Toddler

I took probably 30 photos of William trying to catch a full frontal shot of him in his costume. What an exhausting exercise (for me)! He just doesn't stand still- ever.

Happy Halloween!

SuperBaby!

Batman: The Dark Knight

Tinkerbell

I'm a Little Pumpkin....

Translation, as you can't understand the first two verses: (To the tune of I'm a Little Teapot)

I'm a little pumpkin orange and round,
Sometimes I smile, sometimes I frown.
When you take my top off you will see,
All the things inside of me. SEEDS!

Ellie's Halloween Preschool Party

(Sorry about the order- Blogger has changed things on me and now the pictures load backwards! Ugh!)

The classes at Ellie's preschool have a Halloween party today. But first the kiddos paraded for the parents in their costumes and then sang songs in the sanctuary.

This should be the last photo.... The kids filing out after their concert.

Ellie's class singing their pumpkin songs. (She's up front next to the Spidermen x2)

"Hi Mom!"

A somber Tinkerbell.

Showing off the goodie bag that she made in school.

I have some cute videos of them singing, but Blogger is resistant to loading them right now. Will keep trying...

Random photos of the kids over the weekend. All are completely filthy from playing in the fall leaves.

Our Brush with Fame (& Fortune?!)

There is a company called Exposures, which has become one of my favorite catalogs since having children and becoming slightly photograph obsessed. Periodically throughout the year they will advertise on their very back page, that they are looking for more pictures. This program is called Fame and Fortune and it promises a $50 gift certificate if they ever use one of your submitted pictures in their catalog, website, or a promotion. I had sent in a small stack a couple of years ago, lured by the promise of $, and never heard anything. I had assumed my photos were sub-par for their needs.

Well, their Christmas catalog arrived yesterday and what should I see on page 12?! Yep, two of my kids! I was shocked! (If you don't receive this catalog and want to see them; go to www.exposuresonline.com, and go to the online catalog. Then "flip" through it to page 12, they are at the top of the page, advertising a Christmas Memories Book.) This was our Christmas Card photo from 2006.

What has ruined this small brush with fame, is the fact that we have never received a gift certificate from them. I am so ticked! I fired off an email to corporate this morning, so we'll see what happens.

And keep your eyes open when looking at future Exposures catalogs. As I said I sent in a small stack of photos and am curious to see who else turns up....

Ellie

"This is how you model Mom"

I think she's got the maximize the cheekbones thing down in the second picture...

Nick

My Kids are CRAZY!!!

I was trying to catch a couple of photos of the three kiddos together, but no such luck. William was sitting in the car sulking. And Nick and Ellie were WILD! I didn't even know that Nick knew the "hang loose" sign, but apparently he does. Isn't it sweet what they learn at school. Think any of these are Christmas card material?!

Snow!

It's October in Colorado and that means, SNOW! It's here- this was taken in Estes Park today. You can see the accumulation up above in the mountains. It was 80 degrees in Denver today, but snowing forty minutes west. Wild!

The Boys

We headed out for pizza after the pumpkin expedition. William was not in a great mood as evidenced by the pacifier. He did perk up briefly for pizza though- the boy loves anything (pseudo) Italian! You guys will get along great Aunty Mimi!

The Pumpkin Patch- Trip #1

In a spur of the moment decision this afternoon, brought on in part by Paul and I deciding we were sick of cleaning the house and doing laundry, we decided to go buy pumpkins. This was our first trip to this particular farm, and we are thinking about trying another next weekend. It was very commercial- lots of mini roller coasters, train rides, bouncy houses, petting zoos, etc. And everything cost an arm and a leg. Mind you, so did the pumpkins. William was far more interested in figuring out how the wagons worked, not so interested in the pumpkins. Although he was eyeing that mini roller coaster and saying "Whee"!

So how does this thing work?

Got it! You pull it!

Not so easy pulling once there are pumpkins inside the wagon though.

Oh well, I give up on the wagon. Much more fun to roll in the dirt and pick up sticks.

(Nick refused to wear a Halloween shirt. He did opt for a green bandana around the neck though. Apparently this is festive enough.)

Will

Couldn't resist a giant William picture- he's just too cute! I love his cheeks, and lips, and hair... And this was the last cooperative photo we got for the entire day. Enjoy!

Bathing Pumpkins

After you choose your pumpkins you can give them a "bath" and scrub the dirt off. The kiddos loved this part! William of course ended up soaking wet. And the pumpkin patch trip degenerated swiftly after that. In fact it ended in one of my favorite activities: carrying a screaming, kicking, arching, dirty, wet, and now muddy toddler back to the car while the entire place stared at us to see if I was abusing the little guy. As if they've never seen a tantrum before!