A Superhero & A Villain

It was a successful Halloween outing.  Ryder loved trick-or-treating (even though he couldn't eat hardly any of the candy) and Savannah had a bunch of friends over to go trick-or-treating with us, so she was happy as can be.  I wasn't sure if our new neighborhood would have any trick-or-treating traffic (our old one didn't have a whole lot).  I was very pleasantly surprised at the amount of families that were out.  We headed out in a big group and were gone for almost 2 hours and then once we got back Savannah still got the chance to hand out candy to trick-or-treaters.  I call that a pretty good turnout.  

Eric and I had all sorts of fun and creative ideas for Ryder's costume this year... mostly things that Ryder would have no idea about, but adults would find funny.  None of those ended up happening though.  Ryder saw the superman costume at the store and it was love at first sight.  I am not even sure how he knows who Superman is, but he does and he loves him.  He was so excited about his costume... so excited that he slept in it and then wore it the entire next day.

Then there is Savannah... the girl who has known who she wanted to be since last Halloween.  Our little Disney villain lover just had to be the evil queen from Snow White.  With the exception of the male villains and the Queen of Hearts, she has now pretty much completed this theme.  I think.  I say that and then next year she may want to be one of the guys.  Either way, I love her enthusiasm for her costumes.  I will encourage and support these over the top costume ideas any day.  I am just thankful that I am not dealing with a girl asking to be something "sexy" yet.

This face... even as an evil queen she is still the prettiest little girl I know.

I finally kept my promise to her.  Each year that she has been a villain, she has asked me to be the coordinating princess.  I always said I would try, and I honestly did, but it never happened.  This year I had to come through.  Especially since I'm running out of years where it is going to be cool to have coordinating costumes with your mommy.  Plus, who wouldn't love to dress up as Snow White.  It was fun... and Savannah loved it.  I may have been the only parent out that was dressed up, but that's all good.

Some of our gang before we headed out for some candy.

The kids were super confused by one house giving them cans of coke instead of candy.  Worse than that, Ryder got a can of instant soup.  Awesome.

So thankful that he was way more into the act of trick-or-treating more than he was the candy.  His food allergies really throw 90% of the treats that were given to him right out the window.  That's good news for his teeth (and the parents who get to sneak that candy at night), but really sad for a 2 year old who just doesn't get it.

For fun... A collage of Savannah at her absolute villain best.

A Quick Recap

Lots and lots of things have been happening.  I have a ton of pictures to share and stories to tell.  The kids are both changing and learning new things every day.  Ryder is talking so much now... he is finally communicating in a way we can understand (most of the time, anyhow).  Oh and Savannah, she is excelling in school.  Her enthusiasm for school makes me so happy and pushes me to work even harder with her and her studies.  These last few months have been some of the craziest of my life, and some of the best.  

Savannah brought home this masterpiece from her art class at school.  I am in love with it.  It is a self portrait and I think she nailed it.  Beautiful Savannah.

We also had our first major homework assignment of the year... a community diorama.  Each kid had to choose an establishment in their community that they wanted to build a diorama of.  Little miss chose the library... and not just any library, a rainbow library where princess go to read.  Perfection.

We somehow managed to squeeze a trip to the State Fair in.  Same ol', same ol'... rides, fried food, animals, and lots of tractors.  Ryder loved all the tractors, especially the little ones that he got to ride on. Happy happy boy.

There hasn't been a whole lot of time for new house stuff.  The only two rooms I managed to get done are the kids' rooms.  Ryder's was easy... we just did a light grey, nothing fancy.  Savannah's was not so easy.  She wanted a whole new color scheme than her old room and I wanted something that was bright and bold.  This is what we ended up with.  It turned out fantastic!

Savannah before school one morning.  Every day I swear she looks older and older.  She is also getting better with the whole dressing yourself thing.

Post family pictures... a quick snapshot of the kids.  We haven't done pictures as a family since Ryder was born, so I was very excited about this session.  I can't wait to see the proofs.  

He is still doing well in his big boy bed.  As you can see he brings everything he possibly can to bed with him.  Boy loves his stuffed friends.

One of my favorite parts of Halloween... the carving of the pumpkins.  Savannah was a huge help cleaning out the pumpkins and choosing what we should carve.  Ryder had no interest at all.

Did You Miss Us??

It has been nearly two months since my last post... I could list all the things that have kept me from blogging, but that would take forever.  I will just say that we have been BUSY... to the extreme.  Things are calming down a bit, and I really missed posting our day to day on here, so I am making my best effort to get back into it.  What better way to start, then our trip to the pumpkin patch this past weekend.  Savannah is just about too old to pose at the pumpkin patch and Ryder is too crazy to pose at the pumpkin patch, so I am not sure that these types of pictures will be happening again next year.  They were both waaaaaaaay more interested in touching every single pumpkin there.

Insta-Friday

The weather around here is just plain frustrating lately.  One day it is booty cold and the next day I am getting the tank tops back out for Savannah to wear to school.  Ugh.  Savannah was so excited the one day that it was cold enough for her to get to wear her purple sweater boots and one of her fun sweaters. She had been begging me to let her wear them for over a month now, but it seriously has been in the 80's... so that's a no.  She got a one day "yes" before it went right back to a "no".  Hopefully it cools down soon.

Chuck-e-Cheese for her cousin Weaver's birthday party.  Savannah loves that boy so much.  I'm not sure how she is going to cope when her days of playing soccer with him are done.

Sooooo, I cute Ryder's hair.  Not sure how I feel about the job I did... kinda dorky looking.  He had this one long strand bang looking thing that hung in his face all day long.  I finally got fed up and grabbed some scissors and just cut all the way across his forehead.  Perhaps not the right move.  Next hair cut will be done by a professional, for sure.

Trick-or-treating with my mister mister.

She is obsessed with these fangs she got while trick-or-treating.  Obsessed.

Ursula The Sea Witch & Wayne Campbell

"Whatcha looking at?"

Who do you think won this starring contest... party animal Wayne Campbell or Ursula the sea witch??

Halloween success!  Costumes turned out fantastic, kids had fun, Parents had fun, plus we walked away with a pretty good stash of candy.  Ryder walked and mingled and enjoyed his first "real" trick or treating experience.  Savannah was in heaven with her cousin JJ right by her side.  The two of them ran from house to house getting as much candy as they could.  By the end of the night both kids were done.  They had zero trouble falling asleep last night.

Savannah has known what she has wanted to be for Halloween for over a year now.  She LOVES being the villain, and actually wanted to be Ursula last year... but mommy suggested that Cruella was a better option (that way baby Ryder could be a dalmatian).  I promised her that the next year I would make sure that Ursula happened.  It took some effort on the parts of Savannah's mimi and myself... but it actually came together nicely.  I was pretty impressed with the end result... I'm not going to lie, there were a few days last week when I was wondering how exactly I was going to pull this off.  The make-up really scared me.  I am the world's worst at that sort of thing... I had Eric behind me coaching me the entire time.  After a few mistakes and several touch ups, we finally had a made up Ursula.  Absolutely LOVE my little dramatic villain loving Disney girl.  I'll take this over another pretty princess any day.

Oh Ryder... his costume was much much easier than sister's.  It was decided that he and his cousin Tex (who is 6 months older) would go as Wayne and Garth from Wayne's World.  AWESOME!  Those little boys were so funny.  Believe it or not, the wig and hat did not bother Ryder in the least.  He kept it on the entire time we were out trick or treating.  

Wayne had a mini meltdown during these pictures.  Halloween with a one year old can be so unpredictable.  Are these two not the raddest pair you've ever seen??

Well, and you can't have a sea witch without an Ariel... duh!

Savannah trying to make her cousin sing so she could "steal" her voice.

Part of our trick or treating crew.  Savannah and JJ were inseparable the entire night.

Old School trick or treating... actual door bell ringing... no curb side candy pick up, or trunk or treating for us.

Games set up along our trick or treating route.  Both kids were so excited about this.  It was pretty hard to pull Ryder away.  He just wanted to throw the ball over and over again.

Dinner on the go.  No time to waste... gotta get to the candy!!

Didad with a few of his great grandbabies.

Just for fun, can you pick a favorite??  I can't... tough one.