Halloween!

This year both kids know what candy is so halloween was super fun for them and kind of crazy for me.  We went to the festival at Molly's school and the amount of candy was kind of insane.  It made me wonder why they kept asking for us to bring in more candy.

Jonny is a pumpkin carving stud.  Ruby gloom pumpkin.

We had mommy and me on Halloween, Maggie did some more hanging about.

Ruby gloom in all her glory.  I think she turned out pretty good!

Maggie wasn't into pictures so this is the only one of ruby with doom kitty. The collar that I was so proud of, was lost within minutes of arriving at the festival.  Oh-well.

On Saturday Molly performed her nutcracker lambie dance at the children's festival.  She did such a great job.  I was super proud of the backbend she did on the asphalt. I'm also super proud of Jonny's make-up skills.  He paints a mean lamb face :-)

Maggie loves goat cheese from Yuma's own Toggenberg goats!  Shoveling it into her mouth at record speeds.

Today we took a day trip to sea world. It was fun and exhausting all at once.

Little penguin hatchling.

Gymnastics can be practiced anywhere.

Some random pictures:  because sleeping children are cuter than awake children.

Sea World makes me sleepy too.

Face painting fun at sea world!  Maggie was jealous when she woke up.  

We took Maggie to get painted up. She was game until the paintbrush was an inch from her face...then she was out.

Now we're on our way home and we're hoping for quiet children for the next couple hours.  Could be wishful thinking.

Mommy and me

Going to do a double post hopefully.  Here's some pictures I meant to post earlier, but didn't.  

Maggie and I have been going to mommy and me gymnastics.  She's shy, but she loves it.  

Hanging on things is probably her 2nd favorite.  Jumping on things is 1st.

Playing in the yard now that the weather is nice.

Goofy kids

Peachy Keen

Twice now I have bought a little box of peaches at Sam's club and twice now Maggie has stolen them and taken bites out of each one.  The first time was completely my fault.  I left the box out where she could reach it. The 2nd time though, I thought I had it out of reach on the kitchen counter.  Guess she's taller than I thought.  

My little helpers helping me make some bread.

I'm going to choose to remember this moment like these pictures: smiling and happy.

I feel like every time we play outside (especially with Jonny) it ends like this.

I guess Jonny's just always watering something and he can't help but spray them down too.

I probably shouldn't waste time and money on clothes for Maggie.  I know she's not alone which makes me wonder why they even have a 2T size at all? 

Look out, she has on underwear! Trying not to get excited, but she has actually used the potty a few times now.  

Halloween has become a huge topic in our house.  Molly is going to be Ruby Gloom.  I'm sure no one knows what that is. It used to be on netflix, and that's where she latched on to it.  She's just a cute little bright red head girl that's slightly skeletal/zombieish looking.  I was surprised she went for something more "Halloweeny" since it's usually all pink and princess with her.

Maggie with the Ruby wig.

The outfit

The make-up.

Ruby's sidekick is doom kitty, so Maggie, not being able to articulate exactly what she'd like to be, is being roped in to being doom kitty.  I think she'll like it though since she'll get to wear her black leotard and tights. That's pretty much her favorite thing to wear.

Going to the grocery store when daddy is there is so much better than with just Mommy.  I'm always teasing Jonny that he's ruining them when he takes them to stores since I have different standards for how a trip to the store should go. I hate all carts that are not regular. He's happy to push whatever novelty cart they might have available. I don't like to let them (particularly Maggie)out of the cart. He's happy to let them wander within reason. I'm a hard ass (not really) and don't buy them stuff EVERY time...just most of the time.

I can't complain too much though since he's helping with errands.

Grocery store fashion shows are perfectly acceptable.  Even I can agree with that.

Happy Birthday Maggie

I won't start where we left off, I'll start with the most important, which is Maggie's 2nd birthday! I kept it as small as possible.  Pizza, cake and ice cream, presents. No invitations, No organized entertainment (only the bajillion toys we have littering the house), no unifying theme (unless you count "birthday").  Maybe I dropped the ball, or maybe I'm rebelling against the new idea that you must do all of those things in spectacular fashion in order to give your child fabulous memories of how cool you were. It's probably the former.

We also totally smashed the cake.  I thoughtlessly placed the cake directly below some precariously arranged pumpkins and Jonny thoughtlessly walked through the dining room creating just enough vibration to send a pumpkin tumbling into the cake. Whoops!  I made the kids eats that part.

 The Macs and the Morrises

Maggie wearing her uniform: a romper. I can't keep this kid in clothes. Even rompers can be discarded, but they at least slow the process a bit.  I wouldn't care except the whole potty issue.

Trying out her new stuff.

Don't touch! You'll ruin it!

Can't cram it in her mouth fast enough.  It was pretty yummy.  I love Goldsboro's

Can't believe it's already been 2 years!  I can't believe it's ONLY been 2 years! Ha!

So that was last week, but of course there was also the whole month of July and the beginning of August that I missed. I'll hit the highlights.

We were lucky in that we were able to get away some this summer.  Jonny had to work in Ca. so we stayed on Ventura beach and hung out there a few days.  

I had no intention of letting them get into the water this time, and so I didn't bother with bathing suits.  Of course by the time we left, Molly was completely soaked.  Thankfully a better, more prepared mother, let us borrow a towel (and some Cheetos).  Molly was grateful for both.

Playing at the park on the beach.

On the way home we hit up Sea World, which was fun as always.

Checking out the belugas.

Then the next weekend, we went camping near Payson with the Morrises. The weather was great and the kids had lots of fun.

Our tent!  It kept the water out.  Thankfully the Morrises shared their trailer with us.  We even got to take showers!

The last day.  Looking a little disheveled.

Smiling through the mosquitoes.

I somehow I didn't manage to get the log into the picture.  It didn't look safe to me, but she survived.

 Glad to be going home and getting ice cream.

It was pretty fun.  My hope is that my memory of the rough parts will be diminished enough that I'll want to head back out next year.

Now, on to the random.  Maggie is kind of a pain in the butt.  Like most little ones, she's really good at making messes. The flour isn't on a low shelf in the fridge anymore.

 

She enjoys painting

 

 We've had a few firsts.  Molly is now a Lutheran...or at least a student at Yuma Lutheran School.  We were pleased that a child of ours didn't burst into flames when walking into a church. So far she really likes it.  Her class is really small, which is awesome.

 

Maggie had her first dance class.  

 

I sent Molly in with her and that seemed to work out well.  hopefully next week she'll stay in there by herself.

 We have had a pretty mild summer this year.  We've also had some pretty decent rainstorms which is always fun for desert folk.

We're hopefully going to get even more this week.  It's awesome to see temperatures lower than 100 in August.