I will conceitedly admit that I think my kid’s costumes this year are the best I have ever seen. It must have been divine intervention when the thought “they could be shadows” came into my mind, because the amount of fulfillment and happiness these three shadows brought to me this past week, is almost unparalleled to every other thing in my life.
Without further adieu:
Meet my three shadows.
(There may be a play on words here, because they really are my three shadows in real life — especially that little mini one.)
My three shadows who tell secrets and are a little rascally.
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When I first introduced the costumes to Scout and Navy, they were higher than a kite. They put them on, and I had to threaten them to get them to take them off. They are obsessed with them. Especially while they sit still for 20 minutes in the dark– just waiting for someone to come close, and then they jump out to scare them. These costumes are amazing! Talk about camouflage.
But it wasn’t until Halloween night that I tried out Dash’s costume. I figured I only had a short time with his patience. Little did I know! This little boy tried to take off his mittens and face nylon (this is makeshift since they didn’t have a legit suit his size). When I sternly told him “no no” he never tried again! He was perfect! He was my ideal shadow. I can’t wait to see what I can do with him next year.
Look at these three.
I am slightly obsessed!
Here is mini shadow, just sitting in his car seat — waiting to hit up some houses for the goods.
We always try to hit up the Perkowski’s house before we leave. Luckily Gary passed them some yummy stuff. But, better y et, all of my kids had to wait patiently to eat any of their candy, because they didn’t want to de-shadow.
We hit up Auntie Gail for some healthy treats, and then Grandmas.
She took them to neighbors to get in some trick or treating.
Look at these three.
Aren’t they awesome!
Look at the shadow crawling.
So lifelike!
You’ll be amazed to know that my three shadows still beg to be held.
And when they are told that “mommy can’t”, they can throw tantrums like the shadow on the left.
(In that shadow’s defense, she told me about 10 times that day, “Mommy, my tummy doesn’t feel very good.” I didn’t buy into it too much because I couldn’t let a bad tummy ruin the showing off of my best costumes yet!)
But becuase of her bad tummy, I grabbed and held her.
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We headed off to Scummy’s house at this point where we met up with the kids to trick or treat.
This was really the first year that my kids did the real deal.
They loved it.
And although they could see really well, as it got darker and darker, a pregnant Bella helped them get down the walkways safely.
You would die over this boy — the cutest shadow on earth.
He sat in his stroller like a champ for 45 minutes straight.
He didn’t whine or complain even one time.
Finally, out of the goodness of my heart, I took his face mask off.
And it smiles as usual for my little Dashy!
We ran into “Sushi”, so made the original “Sushi” pose with them for a picture.
Here is our annual picture.
Scummy was disgusted with us and our annual lame costume.
Well, I was disgusted with her three 80’s rock stars!
When we got back to the Tackys, we opened up our bags, and Navy dug right into the gold!
All of that little stuff is for non-shadows!
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Scout dissapeared with Vaughn for an hour while they sorted and traded their candy.
And Dash cruised around for about 2 hours. You never heard him, but every once in a while, you would feel a fat little hand creep up you leg to let him stand, and then he would crawl off to something else. Like other people’s candy, that he would unwrap himself.
He really liked the suckers.
And naturally at the end of the whole night, Marc became the deejay, and we had ourselves one amazing dance party!
It was a perfect Halloween.
And the ending to a perfect night, was having two little sleeping shadows by the time we drove out of the Tacky’s neighborhood at 10:00.
And one big shadow giving us the play by play of his best Halloween night ever!
Navy had her first class party at Ms. Dianne’s preschool. All of the kids wore their costumes, and sang a bunch of songs.
My little shadow was loving the stage.
(Although I was not impressed with how quietly she sang — but it could have been that she was muffled by her costume!)
After the singing portion, they were going to bob for apples.
When ms. Dianne asked how Navy was going to do it, I told her to do it through her costume.
But, Tristen made me take the face part off.
She could have totally done it through her outfit — what a shame!
But seeing her smile was pretty priceless.
I love that she is the only girl — and the youngest in the class also.
This girl can hold her own!
The cutest spectator of the festivities leaned out to give Navy a “kiss kiss”.
I filled in when Navy was stuck on stage.
Then each kid got to hand out treats to their classmates — the “trick-or-treaters”.
Most people brought pre-packaged stuff.
And then there was RoRo who had to embarrassingly put brownies in each person’s bag.
Who are his parents?
Dash — the cutest pumpkin on earth — was loving the commotion.
After everything, the class sat down for a little Halloween lunch.
But when I realized the Navy is about the messiest eater on earth, and that the real Halloween was just hours away, I took her out of her outfit.
And because I didn’t pre-plan (like usual), I took Dash out of his outfit.
And put Navy in his little 12 month get up.
At almost 4 years old, it was a bit on the tight side.
But even a pumpkin wedgie didn’t slow this girl down.
Ms. Dianne — you did it again!
It was all a success.
But you better believe that I will be working with Navy on projecting that voice of hers when she sings — with or without a face mask.
We got an invite from the Zimms to carve pumpkins with them for family night.
Obviously we were in — especially when she offered up delicious soup, homemade rolls and amazing peanut butter brownies.
I was the adult sidekick to Scout — and our vampire pumpkin was simple and spooky, but not too scary.
The kids were great.
Can I just stop the presses to say that the girl in the blue tank is literally like an angel here on earth.
I think Dash is looking at her in this picture, because she is probably glowing to his pure little baby eyes.
All of those kids are awesome, and I love when my kids are with them because they have the best time.
And if our kids are together, that means we — the parents are also!
And any time spent with Jim Zimm is time well spent!
You too AZ!
The pumpkin carving was a success — even to the two over achievers you see above who were at the table about 20 minutes longer than anyone else!
Meanwhile, Jim Zimm was probably catching up on politics, while I created some sort of competition for the kids.
Based on popular demand, I put my kids in gymnastics.
Scout was so excited — and got to go back to an upper-level, all boys class.
And Navy is in the level that Scout used to be in.
Scout, my boy who follows directions like a professional, was used as the example several times his first week. When he came out, he told me, “Mom, the coach kept using me to show all of the other boys how to do things. And this is only my first week in class.” I told him that because he knows how to follow directions so well, all of the coaches and teachers really like him. He told me that I was right, because Ms. Shih uses him as the example a lot also.
And then there is Navy. I am SO pleased to report that she was P-E-R-F-E-C-T. She had one other little girl in her class who was pretty wild, and I was just waiting to see how Navy was in class, and she was amazing! She never goofed off even once, and she listened and followed directions flawlessly. When she came out, I gushed to her how proud I was of her. (I knew she had it in her, but was pleasantly surprised that she nailed it in her first class.) Then she told me, “Yeah mom, that other girl was acting crazy. She didn’t listen to the teacher at all!” I think she loved to be gushed over, and she has been telling everyone how well she did “at gymnastics”.
Scout was the second student of the week in Ms. Shih’s class! And because of his new big title, we had a lot of stuff to accomplish before the week began. We had to make a poster, fill a bag of special treasures he wanted to share, and I had to write a note to him that would be read aloud in class.
Our work began last night after Sunday dinner…
Scout went around gathering up things to go in the share bag.
His list included:
Part of his cast (so he could show everyone what he lived in for 10 weeks last year)
A smashed penny (to show he likes to save his money and take it to the real bank)
His little praying boy statue (to remind him to say his prayers each night and morning)
A CTR dollar (to show he tries to be good at home and earns treats from the store)
Some sea glass (to show that he loves to collect things from the beach)
Afterwards, we got working on our poster.
I did the main stuff, while Scout filled in the blanks.
Here, he is drawing a self portrait.
Navy wanted to be the student of the week also, so she spent two hours on her own poster.
Scout was excited with the final product.
Micah said that when he took it into school the next morning, he was so proud!
At the end of the week, I asked him how he liked it, and he told me that he really hopes he gets to be it again this year.
I think he loves to show himself off.
Clearly, he has a little of his mom and dad in him!
And Navy does too.
And by the looks of how much Dash likes to be applauded when he stands for us, he does too.
We are like one big huge show-off family!
Icka loves sporting her new pumpkin outift lately.
Don’t let this sweet little innocent face fool you.
Yes, a lot of times, she is just that — sweet and innocent.
But the other times….
She can be the stinkiest of the stinkers.
But even when she is stinky — she is really charming.
Maybe because she is so advanced for her age, her stinkiness becomes impressive.
And then sprinkle in a bit of sweet into the stinky, and it all becomes charming.
For example –
Lately, she screams a blood-curdling scream that is almost painful to your ears.
When you are just about to scold her, you look in her direction.
And then you see her mouth in a very exaggerated way “I love you”.
And then, because you are her mom and have to be a few steps ahead of her, you realize that she wants you to think you went deaf.
And then it becomes funny, and because she chooses “I love you”, it becomes charming.
I guess it goes back to one of the first few times I heard the scream.
I told her that loud noises like that can make people go deaf.
Most kids might stop at this point.
Not my Icka.
That was like throwing a spark into a puddle of gasoline.
After a soccer game and Dash’s party, we headed off to our ward’s Trunk or Treat.
I kept Dash in his pumpkin costume, and on the way, he was all smiles.
But by the time we came home, he had hit his wall.
But these two — in undisclosed costumes (until Halloween) had an awesome night filled with games and candy.
And lots and lots of fun in their favorite costumes to date!
We can’t wait for Halloween!
Micah and I have been gaming it up lately.
Yahtzee has been our game of choice.
Of course we are attaching bets to every game, and lately, I have had to do a whole lot of things for him. But when the game involves me having a few minutes of peace and quiet, I magically win all of those games.
So, in honor of him honoring his bet, he was in charge of a Sunday walk with the kids.
In true Micah fashion — he made it extra fun by taking them on a nature scavenger hunt.
These weasels were wild when they came back.
They found most of what was on their list — but Navy ended up being the true scavenger by finding a $5.00 bill on the ground of the road.
But did we ever question who the true scavenger in this family was?
Fresh out of the hospital that morning, I wasn’t surprised at all to see a present for Dash from Missy. That girl is CRAZY! But I was surprised to see a batch of delicious homemade cookies for our family. Talk about one of the nicest people I have ever known. She is awesome, and I wish I could be a little more thoughtful like her! Thanks Missy for cookies and nice gesture — NO thanks for the new pet!
Dash had his very first birthday party and it was a success.
It was a mini pumpkin patch outside.
With a donut hole bar inside.
I simplified this party, and only decorated with a donut hole garland.
When the pumpkin of the hour woke up from his nap, he was put into festive gear.
Then family and friends arrived.
Including the famous Tacky, who put finishing touches on our sign — like the perfect crow.
They all picked out their own pumpkin and then got decorating for the contest.
Then it was present time!
He loves our other two touch and feel books, so I knew a third would be a hit.
He touches every animal and then kisses the animal on each page.
And when we finish, he wants to go through it again.
But what Dash really liked was donut time!
Especially off of Great Grandpa’s plate.
The finished pumpkins, and the judging.
Brock took the prize!
Then a Denison kid picture.
Navy is with the other pumpkins in the pumpkin patch.
RoRo and Grey looked pretty good as scarecrows.
After the judging, they put their pumpkins in the patch, where the cutest pumpkin of all fit right in.
And then there was this other pumpkin sporting the booby prizes for participating but not winning.
Someone snapped this picture of the party planner who was surviving off of three and a half hours of sleep.
A little more mascara might have done me good.
I am particularly fond of the one year birthday party cake tradition.
This time I got smart and covered the ground and chair in plastic.
But there wasn’t much need.
I got this spice cake from Trader Joes, and it looked the part, but might have needed an acquired taste.
AKA it was gross.
So a minute into it, he was ready to get up and go.
but not before he took a few handfuls and chucked them on the ground.
I wanted him covered, and was completely unimpressed by the lack of mess.
Ka helped him out a bit with a frosting exclamation mark on his face.
It was a fun party, and on the way out — people started getting smart and wore sunglasses to combat the bright sun.
When the party was over, my little pumpkin crawled away in a huff.
I think he wanted to live his whole life in the little fairy tale that was “Dash’s First Pumpkin Patch”.
Me too.
Happy Birthday Dash.
My one and only scarecrow!
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