Halloween-y Things

Talmage painted a pumpkin that a friend from church grew in her garden. How cool is that? T made it look festive and wonderful!

 Holiday crafts. T cut the pumpkin and grass all by himself and I was so impressed. I love the little Evie foot-ghost and T and Evie spider-hands!

 We went to T's preschool for a Halloween party and Evie was specifically invited ;) He seriously ran the whole way there. T kept saying, "Mom, shouldn't we put da baby in da stroller?" But no, Evie ran!

 Pumpkin decorating at preschool with tissue paper, tape and markers.

 Everett was loving all the sand, play things and endless supply of fireman hats!

 After the party at school (and a quick meeting and even quicker nap), the boys and I went to meet James at the law school for trick-or-treating. It was so nice of the professors and staff to open their classrooms to the law school families. When I was telling T the schedule he said, "Why are we going trick-or-treating 3 times?" I told him it was because we were super lucky. His response, "No. We are going 3 times because I am 3 years old. I fought we were going 1 time cuz Evie is 1, but dat was wrong."

 I put on my mouse ears and a little ribbon to make myself a little more festive. Does Evie ever not look adorable in pictures? It's seriously crazy!

Evie was so tired from not having a nap that he fell asleep on the way home from the law school. He is SO, SO cute! 

 Our pumpkins and candy all ready for trick-or-treaters.

 The boys on their trick-or-treating marathon! You should see how much candy is in our house right now...it's crazy! As a side note...T was a flag pole for Halloween! He started telling me a month ago that that's what he wanted to be, and when it didn't change I got to work making it happen. When he saw the finished project he said, "Dat's exactwy what I wanted!" Melted my heart! The first time he wore it was to our church's trunk-or-treat. James asked him what everyone thought of his costume and he said, "Dey wuved it. Dey wuved it so bad!" I seriously laughed so dang hard!

 After trick-or-treating and switching into jammies, we brought the boys to "pumpkin mans" house to see the pumpkins his student's carved this year. ("Pumpkin man" is technically a professor of art at Stanford, but we're kind of a nick-namey family!) The pumpkins were just as amazing as last year and it was a great way to end a beautifully busy Halloween!

Happy Halloween!

From our pirate and a flag pole!

 

Aquarium of the Bay

The day started with donuts, which almost all brilliantly awesome days do. The littles were so excited and of course licked every ounce of chocolate frosting off before nibbling the bread. Awesome. T always ends up looking like the joker after eating anything with frosting!

Then the boys and I jumped in the car headed straight to San Fran. I was able to get free tickets to the Aquarium from the Palo Alto Library. T was mostly the most excited boy ever, although it was Everett that left his shark hat on his head for much of the trip!

The Aquarium is small (we saw every exhibit twice and still only stayed for an hour) but it was free for us and had everything Talmage wanted to see (Nemo, a shark and an octopus). The HUGE crabs were a bonus.

My favorite part of any aquarium is always the jellyfish. They are so gorgeous and I love how they move.

T and Evie were totally excited about touching the giant starfish in the tide pools. They would get so excited for each other, and for themselves!

After an hour, we headed out to look at the boats and eat some lunch. It was a super warm fall day in San Fran and there were lots of boats going out to enjoy the weather.

T and Ev got to pick one treat to share (do you like how I pretend that Evie had a say, poor kid!) They both loved the cotton candy which T said tasted like strawberry and Evie licks instead of eats.

And this was my treat: a veg crepe (filled with tomato, spinach and avocado) and a blue raspberry icee. Yum!

Talmage zonked as soon as we hit the freeway. Slept like a angel-baby the whole way home. Evie sobbed the whole way home. When I picked him up from his carseat he was burning up. High fever. Doctors visit. Still not quite sure what's causing it. At least we got in one fun day before more sickness entered our house!

Riley-dog

We found out that my family's dog is really sick and will probably not be with us for much longer so the boys and I made an uber quick trip back to Sac to say goodbye to Riley-dog and give him some last loves. T was trying to make sense of it all. I told him that the doggie-doctor said that Riley was really sick and will be going to live with Heavenly Father soon. "You mean he's going to DIE?" he asked in a scared, shocked, confused and genuinely curious tone. So we had a good talk about heaven and about death and about how Riley will be happy even though we will miss him so much. That night he prayed for "all the people on earth who are missing their dogs or their people who are in heaven." I smiled and cried. He is so sweet. 

 

We decided to bring Riley cupcakes from Sprinkles to make him happy. The doctor said to do the things with Riley that we usually wouldn't or couldn't (or shouldn't!) do so a caramel apple cupcake was definitely a must from a cupcake-lover like me. He loved it, although I probably should have cut it for him before letting him inhale the whole thing ;)

The boys were really sweet and gentle with him. Everett turns everything into a sword lately and did try to battle Riley once or twice, but luckily it wasn't too extreme! Talmage gave him lots of love and was so soft and tender.

As always the trip was far too short (and ended with a very sick Talmage) but I'm so glad we got to say goodbye to Ri, should he not be there the next time we go home. He's been such a loving, kind, obedient and loyal dog. I still remember the day we brought that rolly-polly puppy home for Christmas, his endless licks after my wisdom teeth surgery and his gentleness as we've brought each new grandbaby into the family. What a good, good dog. We'll miss you Riley!

All on a rainy day

Many days last week were rainy ones in these parts. Add that to a whole lot of virus going around our house and we have been spending a lot of time inside. The rain mostly excites Talmage. Usually he is out of bed and in boots on our patio in lightning speed, with McQueen umbrella in hand of course ;) I'd love the rain a little more if my boys liked to cuddle and watch movies but alas, they don't. I try to keep busy though!

This rainy day happened to be laundry day. And this is what happens when Evie's blanket has to be cleaned. I wish I was kidding when I tell you that he sobbed during most of the wash and all of the dry cycle. It was insane! I disgustingly put off washing his blanket because I know this will happen--but the corners of the blanket were straight as a board so I knew it was time!

More pictures of the laundry madness! Poor kid really, really, really loves that blanket. What is it with my boys and blankets?

Luckily I was able to distract him (for a few minutes) with play dough. I could tell he thought he was a super big deal playing at the table with his brother and it was way too adorable. And I got to see his smile again, major plus!

I seriously LOVE that smile. It's so happy and bright and cute! I saw that smile until he realized that his blanket was still in the washing machine. Then the tears returned.

I kept telling Evie to watch what T was doing with the playdough so he could learn the right way to play with it (you know, instead of shoving it in his mouth by the fistful!)

And T was a good little teacher! He was working so hard on "his special work." We also colored on the doors with our window markers and did Halloween crafts. It was a great rainy day!

Basketball

Basketball season is right around the corner and no one is more excited than Evie Knight. He LOVES balls in general, but especially basketballs. He frequently can be found plopped down right in the middle of the courtyard basketball hoop--he just loves to watch the big boys play (and they are SO nice to him!)

On Friday Stanford had their first scrimmage and the boys were excited to suit up in Stanford gear to cheer for our Cards. But first we grabbed dinner at Arillaga dining hall, which has proven to be our favorite lazy-night place lately.

Franklin and Talmage were running through Maples Pavillion singing songs about how they are friends and love basketball. I wish I had it on camera because it was seriously priceless.

They then proceeded to do all of the same things in multiple pictures in a row:

Can you tell they spend a lot of time together? ;) 

Our friends the Gibb's were also at the game, and even amidst the whistles, game and my screaming hooligans their little girl fell fast asleep. We were all laughing so hard about the cuteness! It was such a fun night.