happy halloween

The Ryan's had their 5th (I think) annual Halloween party last night. It was a blast and the kids were as cute as ever!

Batman and Robin.

We didn't spend any money on costumes this year thanks to Kai handing down his costume from last year and grandma seeing into the future and getting Andrew a superhero dress up pack that included Robin! Maybe that's why I think they're extra cute this year!

Andrew asked me to take his picture. Done.

Here they are admiring their loot this morning. Mason got a toothbrush (I've always heard of people doing that but we've never actually seen it). It was packaged with a couple York peppermint patties, so I'd say he scored!

Thanks for hosting another fun night out! And for being awesome. : )

have I ever mentioned I love holidays?

Frost was nice enough to send me a coupon for a free Halloween donut, so we paid them a visit. Andrew chose a moldy maple bar.

Mason chose a rotten carmel apple (the gummy worm sold him on the deal).

We lucked out and got to watch a parade of dressed up dogs trick-or-treating while we ate. There are some pretty rad dog costumes out there. My favorite was a big bulldog in a beautiful (and probably quite expensive) tutu/ballerina outfit. You'll just have to take my word on it because I wasn't fast enough to catch a picture of her.

birthday

I love the way Mason says birthday. And I love this little video.

supermen

For their school Halloween party:

I had to bribe Mason to take these pictures. Then, after all the trouble to get the picture, he didn't even last to the car with the costume on. He ended up just wearing a cape.

I really do love Bellingham

Me and the boys went to Bellingham while Matt enjoyed a little weekend fishing trip in Winthrop with Tim.

My dad was able to head out to the park with us, so per Andrew's request, we all rode in his van.

My dad caught me being a huge dork trying to make my boys laugh. I don't remember if it worked on the boys but it makes me laugh. : )

We went to the Shrimp Shack for lunch (my favorite!) and stopped for a quick photo shoot on a cool couch I noticed across the street. Oddly, the boys were not that interested. Then we heard a train so Mason had to cover his ears and it was over after that.

The end.

scaredy cat brownies

A friend from work passed along a recipe for these fun scaredy cat brownies. I simplified it and altered a couple things so I wouldn't have to buy a bunch of stuff we'd only use once and this is what we ended up with. Pretty cute and quite delicious!

birthday party prep

Both boys filled up a cup. Then we put Mason's back. It's how we do things - Mason doesn't get how big of a rip off that is yet. I'm guessing that won't fly for too much longer...

he's a good fall-er

I could never fall like this - I remember practicing. I always bent before landing.

he's open!

Andrew is on his 4th week of soccer and tonight he got his first crack at the ball during their scrimmage! He was very excited. And ran it the wrong way. But he finally got to kick the ball and it made his night!

He's just kicking the ball around here before practice started.

Here he is showing his stopping-the-ball skills.

They pair up the kids to kick the ball back and forth and Andrew got a boy who was not at all interested in that plan. It seemed like it was driving him crazy!

I didn't get a picture of him actually kicking the ball, but here's their cute scrimmage. I think he's adorable during soccer. And to top it off, he blew me kisses in the middle and melted a fellow soccer mom's heart. Love that boy!

yeah, my "boys" will love that...

My boss found a Hershey's s'more maker that he'd never used and asked if I thought my boys would like it. If by 'boys' he means me, then heck yes! is what I say to that. I don't understand people who don't use rad stuff - it took us less than 24 hours to give it a test run. It's wonderful.

It was great timing because Andrew is learning about F this week and the craft was to make a fire with a marshmallow roasting above it. It was just kind of fun to do the craft and then do it in real life. I love it when fun things like this line up.

enjoying fall

I told Andrew he could have an extra marshmallow if he'd let me take his picture in front of my favorite tree. Totally worth it, isn't he cute? Oh, you can't really see anything other than his arm. That's weird...

As usual during October, the late afternoon was beautiful, so we soaked it up.

pick me, Shutterfly!

Shutterfly is offering free Christmas cards to bloggers again this year. Although this year it looks like they'll be a little selective on who gets it. It's too good of an offer to not at least try for it, so here's the link for you: http://www.shutterflycards.com/ (Thanks Brooke!)

I think our family pictures at the train depot would look pretty rad on this one:

Or maybe we'll be sophisticated this year and go with something like this:

I loved doing this last year. I hope they pick me!! : )

no shirts required

our house just got bigger

We decided to take down our pellet stove safety fence today! It makes our living room feel so much roomier - it's awesome!

We put it up when Andrew was a baby and by the time he was old enough to be safe, Mason was on the way so we just left it up. Mason fully understands 'hot', so we're good! Yay!!

our first visit to Bob's

I can finally check a good pumpkin patch visit off my list! We had a great time at Bob's Pumpkin Farm today.

A shot of all the girls and any kids that were nearby. Apparently I am a giant.

Ryean was awesome and packed cookies and juice for the kids. It was just what we all needed!

A friend of mine works at the farm and just happened to be in charge of the hay ride today. It was the perfect chance for a full group shot!! (Thanks, Leah!). You have to look really close to see Easton, and it looks like I perfectly blocked out Max, but other than that, I'd say it's a pretty great shot.

magic

I love, love, love that I was able to get this picture! Matt and Darin were doing silly magic tricks for the kids tonight. And magic tricks always lead to Matt showing off his levitating skills. The kids thought it was pretty cool - Andrew thought it was the coolest thing in the world and couldn't have been more excited that his dad was so rad. It literally blew his mind! : )

carving

We had some friends over to carve pumpkins tonight. I got a few snacks to set the mood...

Cam, designing his cool pumpkin.

The kids did a great job digging out all the seeds!

We planned to find some cool templates and make really awesome pumpkins this year. Instead we got tired of looking, gave up and ended up with 3 of our 6 pumpkins carved while the other 3 wait patiently for us to get creative (or at least carve them).

And...here they are. Andrew designed the one on the bottom left.