Happy Halloween

What do to an elf, a candy corn, a pirate, and a lamb have in common? Not much other than they are easy costumes to create the night before Halloween. I believe the kids originally wanted to be a vampire, a princess, and a tractor, but they kindly scaled back their ideas this year given that I didn't have a lot of time to work on costumes this year due to all my travels.

Gabe didn't have an opinion, so I just recycled Elizabeth's first Halloween costume. One key difference was Elizabeth was standing without support. Gabe isn't there yet.

Elizabeth, 9 months, 2005

Despite being born on Valentine's Day, Elizabeth's favorite holidays are Halloween and Christmas, so she decided to combine the two for her costume. She came up with the idea of stripes and pom pom buttons. I suggested candy corn to Ava. She wasn't sure about it, but willing to go along with it because I said short dress and tights.

Casey has had a thing for pirates lately and I figured that I could whip up some pants and a vest real quick. Knowing that we had some accessories in our dress up box. Ryan really enjoys Halloween but had to work, which left me trying to figure out how to take the kids trick-or-treating and pass out candy. My solution was to take the kids downtown to trick-or-treat at the local shop from 4-6pm, and then be then be home to hand out candy. Only I didn't bet on two things: 1)Rain 2) Gabriel getting sick.

The rain started in the morning, and around lunch time I got a call from daycare that Gabriel was running a fever of 102 and that I had to pick him up. He was a miserable little kid all afternoon. However, the older ones were just as miserable when I mentioned that we probably shouldn't go trick or treating because Gabriel was sick and it was pouring. I tried to get their mind off trick or treating by offering to make Halloween cupcakes or have a candy hunt around the house. They really didn't buy my ideas, so at 5: 45pm we packed up the car and drove the couple of miles to downtown Fayetteville. There the kids trick or treated the three blocks of shops. It worked out perfectly. Pedestrian traffic was light because of the rain and the shops were getting ready to close, so store owners were passing out a ton of candy. The kids had small bags, to they filled them up quickly. Within 30 minutes they had amassed a full bag of candy and were cold and wet and ready to go home. Our last store we stopped at was make you own jewelry store, they were passing out goodies bags and invited us in to warm up and partake in cupcakes that had been donated by the bakery across the street that had closed at 5pm. I love small towns. 

By 6:30pm we were home. I got Gabe off to bed, and worked on homework and dinner with the kids. Casey took on the role of candy distributor to the souls who braved the cold, dark, and rain to collect their loot. Please excuse the pictures they were taken after the kids wore their Halloween costumes all day at school, and trick or treated in the rain.

Look what I can do

I leave for a week long business trip, and when I come back my baby boy can do all sorts of new tricks. Gabriel can now sit all by himself. He can almost transition between sitting and laying down and back again. He get up on all fours and rocks. He can definitely roll. If you leave him alone for 2 minutes he will be halfway across the room.

He can hold his own bottle. This a huge deal for me. I can pump and give him a bottle, so that I can get dinner ready. Half the time, the kids would get bored feeding him, and would run off to play, leaving me with a screaming baby and burning food.

Another big plus is that he is now sleeping 12 hours at night.

**Except for when I go on business trips, and he gets sick which leaves Ryan waking up every two hours. Not cool when you just finish working the 3pm-midnight shift.

Now for the stats, Gabriel is 6 months old. Weighing in at 15lbs. (15th %tile) and 25.5 inches (10th %tile). He seem so much bigger to me, than Casey was at this age, but I guess he is still a small fry.

Colorado Vacation

Ryan's best friend, Mark, invited us to join him and his family on a vacation in Colorado for a week in July. In addition, his wife invited her cousin and her family out as well. The result was 9 kids, 6 adults, and pure chaos for the week. Someone was always hungry, tired, in tears, whining, fighting, or upset. Alcohol for the grown-ups and snacks for the kids made it all bearable.

Despite the amount of time it took to get everyone out the door, we did get to see and do a lot on our trip.

• The kids got to play in the snow and go sledding in JULY. We reaffirmed that Elizabeth loves the snow, and Casey hates being cold.

• We took some beautiful hikes and saw lots of waterfalls. The kids even did a six miler, which is not easy at 10K ft, and the first half of the hike is all up hill. Casey was a real trooper and completed every hike under his own power.

• We saw mountain goats. Elizabeth can climb like one. She and Ryan did a little bouldering adventure.
• We took in the Breckenridge 4th of July parade and fireworks. The fireworks were pretty weak, but the kids enjoy them and all the candy they got at the parade.
• The boys toured the New Belgium Brewery.
• We also took a tour of an old mine and learned about how to pan for gold. Ava found all sorts of pretty stones, but alas no gold. We also dropped in on "Old Town Days" in Frisco to learn more about the gold rush and the mining culture.

Run, and jump, and sled and play, while Gaby Baby slept the day away. Ten week old Gabriel spent most of his vacation in the back pack or in bed, so his adorable little face was not captured in any photos.

Pumpkin Patch or Fair Grounds

It is October, so you take your kids to the Pumpkin Patch. Right? However, I am not even sure they grow pumpkins in Texas. Funny thing is that the Pumpkin Patch was at a Christmas Tree farm about an hour outside of San Antonio. We saw no patch, just pre-picked pumpkins set out for sale, but they had lots of activities for the kids to do. Which is good because they charge $8 per person to visit. I am really glad that I had a coupon for half off and two free ice cream cones, otherwise it would have been a very expensive day out for a family of five.

Elizabeth started with "dress a scarecrow."

We moved onto a little fishing. Ava was the only one who caught anything.

The kids also did some bike races, took a tractor ride through the Christmas tree farm, ran throught the hay maze, and checked out the farm animals.

Some relief from the heat. So much for fall weather, I think it was about 90 degrees.

The kids had a blast and wanted to stay twice as long as we did, but it was super hot and we had to get Ryan home to work that night.

P.S. We did get a little family of mini-pumpkins.

Annual Pilgrimage

Some folks go to Disney World, we go to Kiddie Park, a small, local, miniature amusement park filled with rides from the 1920's. We went here last year, and decided it was definitely worth another visit before leaving San Antonio.

The weather was gorgeous and our neighbors with their little girl came with us. It was a great morning, and Kiddie Park probably ranks higher than McDonald's Playland on the kids' list of favorite activities.

Ridden not less than a half dozen time, the school bus remains a favorite.

This ride makes my head spin, but the girls love it.

The funniest thing was hearing all three girls talking about who was going to get to ride in the one and only pink car, and then watching Casey shoot through the open gate, sprint around the track, and jump in the pink car-claiming it for himself.

Government Canyon State Park

I had to work on Columbus Day, but Ryan and the kids had the day off so they decided to explore Government Canyon State Park about a 30-45 minute drive from San Antonio. Ryan tried to take the girls a few weeks ago, only to find out the park is closed mid week. This time they met with success and hike a good six miles through the park. Little Casey even made it the whole way, but I did hear that he was begging to be carried the last mile. Not bad for a little guy. We are officially stroller/back pack free for a few more months.

The adventure begins.

Rest stop.

After some lunch.

Little pet frog. The long walk home. I wish I could have joined them. It looked like a fun day.

Three Ring Entertainment

How do you resist the girl who begs you for a week to go to the circus, and go so far as to present you with circus coupons that she has found in the mail, at gymnastics, from school, and the grocery store? After I had about 15 coupons from Elizabeth, I finally took the hint and bought some tickets for the family to the Shriner Circus that was passing through San Antonio. Saturday couldn't come soon enough for the kids. A food standoff with the kids did put a slight damper on Ava's and Casey's enjoyment level. They didn't eat dinner on Friday night (macaroni and cheese, chicken, and peas- really, what is wrong with that?), so they saw it again for breakfast and still didn't eat it. All I heard from Ava during the first half of the circus was "I'm hungry, I want to go home." Casey just pointed at every snow cone and cotton candy vendor and said "bite."

Lizzy was on the edge of her seat the entire show. She loved the tigers, bikes, and motorcycles.

Ava decided she like the pony act, and the girls with hula hoops.

Casey went for the bikes and motorcycles of course.

Mom and Dad enjoyed 3 well behaved kids and seeing the giant smiles on their faces.

I don't have any really good pictures of the circus b/c of the lighting, but I figure you would rather see the kids.

Casey's "cheese" face.

P.S. The kids finally caved by dinner time and ate either the mac and cheese, or the new fish dinner I prepared.

Ava's 4th Birthday

What better way to enjoy 100 degree weather than at the Splash Pad. Ava and about 20 of her friends from school, baseball, church, and the neighborhood came out to celebrate her 4th birthday.

The umbrella was a birthday gift that made all the kids jealous.

Ava is absolutely amazing and we are so thankful that she made a full recovery from her accident last year. Life wouldn't be the same without Captain Destructo!

The good news is that we didn't have to worry about the pizza getting cold, but the icing on the cake was melting, and Casey kept stealing candies off of it.

It was a great day to be a kid!

April Showers

Lots of fun racing straws down a river following a major thunder storm.

Backlog Blog

Wow, I can't believe that so much time has past. Life has really flown. Other than my kitchen and work calendars (which have about 10 things per day on them), I haven't taken the time to document it. I guess I will start where I left off and try and post a new update each night until I am back on track. However, I need to hurry because more big events and adventures are coming up. Where I left off was with Ryan and Houston and myself playing single mom to three. I don't recommend this to anyone for long periods of time because you will lose your mind. We had a such a fun weekend in Houston the first time, the kids and I decided to make another trip out there half way through Ryan's rotation. The weather wasn't as nice, but that didn't stop us from driving out to Galveston Island to visit the aquarium and catch a 3D sea movie. Casey was bored, Ava kept thinking the fish were going to eat her, and Elizabeth was captivated and kept reaching out to grab things. It was a great aquarium, but it was a bummer that it wasn't a good beach day. We also checked out Houston's Museum of Natural History. It was overpriced and boring. They were suppose to have a good dinosaur exhibit, but it paled in comparison to the one we saw just this past weekend here in San Antonio. At the tail end of the Houston trip, Ava came down with a virus and I got to spend the rest of the week staying home with one sick kid after another while it passed through the family. Ryan came home the following week having missed all the fun, but just in time for Elizabeth's 5th birthday. P.S. The kids want to know when the can go back to Houston, so that they can get some snacks. They now equate long car trips with gas station pit stops for potty breaks and special treats.

Growing Older

While we were out at the park enjoying the brief return of 70 degree weather, I realized that Casey was no longer 18 months. People at the playground would ask me his age, and I had to stop and think. Casey is now 20 months old and much closer to being 2 years old than every seeing one again. My baby is no longer a baby. His lack of vocabulary, small size, and blonde fuzz throws me off sometimes. I keep thinking that he is younger than he really is. However, he really is a toddler now. He can drink out of regular cup, jump with both feet in the air, and can almost keep up with his sisters. He still loves to sleep with a 2 hour nap each day and 12-14 hours at night. He is growing, thriving, and rather eat cookies than carrots.For the most part the girls are very kind and helpful with Casey. They will pick up his laundry and throw dirty diapers away for me. They will also report to me every instance that Casey finds trouble which is about every 2 minutes. Ava can't wait to wake Casey up each morning, and loves to help me put him to bed at night. Elizabeth is very considerate. She will share her snacks and toys with Casey. Both girls enjoy their one on one time with Casey and will play silly games with him to get him to laugh. Casey is very lucky to have such great big sisters. He shouldn't think it is so funny when he hits them on the head with toy frying pans or steasl their favorite blanket and runs away. It is going to be fun to watch them all grow up together.Speaking of kids getting older, I also just realized that Elizabeth is going to be FIVE in two months. I don't know where the time has gone. I remember her being 10 months old and just learning how to walk. Now, she learning how to read.As for Ava, I always think she is older than she is that is probably because she and Elizabeth do almost everything together. It seemed to take ages for her 3rd birthday to roll around, and I keep thinking that her 4th is just around the corner, not 9 months away. For the most part she is a very happy delightful girl (very stubborn though), and no worse for wear after falling on her head.

Sound Familiar?

Canyon Lake

After working 24 shifts in the month of July, Ryan got a block of 4 days off. I figured we better make the most of it, so I took some time off from work and booked us a cottage at Canyon Lake. Canyon Lake if a popular recreation spot about an hour north of San Antonio, and Ryan and I had previously talked about taking a trip up there with the kids. We had a good time, but I wouldn't necessarily recommend Canyon Lake to others. At least not the way we did it.OUR ACCOMMODATIONS: I rented a cottage through the recreation office at Fort Sam Houston. I use their term "cottage" loosely, because in all actuality it was a trailer. Now, I am not one who needs or wants 5 star accommodations, but if I am paying $75 a night would expect a clean room, decent sheets and a lake view. Instead, what we got were bugs in the kitchen and bathroom, rubber pillows and torn sheets, plus our trailer circled with others like a mobile home park. It was a bit disappointing, given that the Army charges $75/night for their hotel on Waikiki Beach. The only redeeming features were 3 bedrooms, so we had plenty of space for the kiddos and a giant covered playground right off our picnic area. I think the kids will tell you that the playground was the best part of the trip. They played on it about 4 times a day during our stay. I think roasting marshmallows was the runner up. The girls couldn't get enough of the sticky gooey treats. Ava would toast her marshmallow for about 2 seconds and then proclaim it done, so that she could eat it and move onto another. Elizabeth was much nicer and actually roasted marshmallows to share with mom and dad. We also had to eat the burnt ones for her. THE BEACH: San Antonio is in Stage 2 drought conditions, Canyon Lake is one of the water sources that feeds our aquifer. Needless to say, the lake was down about twenty feet. In fact there was a whole section of lake that was closed off because of low water. Most boat ramps were closed, beaches were 100 yards from any water, and trees and rocks were sticking out everywhere. When the girls think of beaches, they think of the ocean and white sandy shores. They were not impressed with rocky shorelines where you had to keep your shoes on and it was tough to find a flat spot to sit down. Lizzy had some fun swimming, but Casey and Ava didn't spend more than 5 minutes in the water before whining. After one day of trying the beach, we opted for a boat the next two days.THE MOTOR BOAT: The second day, we rented a little motor boat to putter around the lake. All of the kids though this was great fun. No tears, no whining or complaining all day. We stopped at an island to look for treasure, and of course have some snacks. Plus, the girls got to drive the boat.THE PADDLE BOAT: On our last day, we rented a paddle boat. We should have done this one before the motor boat, because the girls just wanted the boat to go faster. Elizabeth and Ava both agreed on a pirate ship paddle boat. We squeezed everyone in and set off around the marina. We had some fun chasing ducks, and Captain Elizabeth was shouting out orders as we navigated our way through a sea of trees.