Happy Halloween!

 It has been raining non-stop here and the kids were very afraid that their Halloween would be ruined but luckily, the rain stopped this afternoon and we had beautiful weather for trick-or-treating.  Lia had picked out a little mermaid costume at Kroger a while back but changed things up on me this afternoon.  The kids rummaged through our big costume box while I napped this afternoon.  Lia and Emily came up with this sweet little bat princess costume for Lia.  Her wings are made from Chris's old Zorro costume... it is the tunic tied around her arms.  We found the black clothes in her hand-me-down pile and Emily dolled up the shirt with glitter glue and sequins to make the heart.  They finished it off with a bat tiara and we had one happy little girl.  :-)

 David has been St. George for the last 4 years I think so nothing has changed here.  We couldn't find the red sash to tie the slayed dragon's head to his waist... but we settled for tying the dragon head to his sword and he was good to go.

Emily opted for Warrior princess.  We will use these same pieces to be Joan of Arc at our saint party this weekend so again... all good.  The blue gown are her new jammies so getting ready for bed was easy once we got home.

 

 

Here they all are doing their Halloween pose... no standing nice and still and smiling for my kids but well, that's how they are.  :-)

 

And of course a battle scene...

 

And last if Aunt Stacey, Uncle Te-Te and Cousin Anthony are reading... We love these special Halloween mini cupcakes from Gigi's!!!  What a treat.  We didn't have enough self control to take a picture before our first serving... but luckily I thought of taking a picture after so you could see how cute they are!  Thank you so much!!!  Love you.

 

Pumpkin Fun

Chris promised to carve a pumpkin with the kids last weekend.  They get very excited about the whole process from picking out the perfect pumpkin, to selecting the design, cleaning it out and the entire carving process.  Here is a before picture with Lia:

 

 

 

I think Emily went off to read, but the younger kids didn't miss a moment.  Emily came in to check on occasion.

 





Voila!  Bat perched on pumpkin.

 

And throw in two cute kids.  This is the picture from Chris's phone.  They smiled better for him than for me.  ;-)



Butterfly Museum, Oct 2007

So I had to take a walk down memory lane and pull some photos out of my archives.  Here we are at the Butterfly Center in October of 2007.  I love how little David and Emily are and just like I said, I was carrying Lia in my belly.  I should have been about 5 months along, which is close to where I am right now!

 

The ever-popular caterpillar!

Cheesecake Emily with Grandpa

 

 

The look of wonder and fascination on Emily's face is priceless.

 

One of my all time favorite pictures of the block tower about to go down!

Hard to believe Emily was ever this young!

  

Good shot of the preggo belly!

Thank you to my Dad for capturing all these great pictures.  :-)  Love you.

Butterfly Center field trip



Since I am not reaching at our classical co-op this year, I volunteered to organize our class field trip and chose the Cockerell Butterfly Center at the Houston Museum of Natural Science.  The field trip rate is $3.50 per person, which is awesome for large families!  What is funny, is that the last time I came here, I was pregnant with Lia.  This means that Emily was 4 and David was 2... Emily says she remembers it but it was pretty much a new experience for David and Lia.   The caterpillar at the entrance was very popular for pictures.  And look, all of my kiddos are looking and smiling for the camera.  Love it!

 

 

 

The rain forest for the butterflies is amazing.  Emily was very happy that she could explore on her own so I let her go while I stayed with David and Lia.

 

David spent all of his time in the rain forest identifying butterflies from his chart.  He found many that weren't on the chart too.

 

 

 

This iquana is one cool looking creature.  David is humoring me by posing by him.  It is hard to believe that David was the most cooperative for pictures!

 



David's favorite butterfly was the rice paper butterfly.  I took some pictures of them so we will remember it.

And here is a professional shot I found on the web when I got home.  These butterflies are just stunning.

 

And a few last pictures on the caterpillar before we went home.

 



Emily's Artwork

I just think this painting came out fabulous.  Emily's art teacher told them to paint the flowers very quickly without planning ahead or thinking too much.  I was so impressed and can't wait to find a place to hang this.

Minivan!

With baby number 4 on the way, purchasing a minivan has been on our list of things to do!  We wanted to buy one used with low mileage and struggled a bit with very few being available during the summer and then two occasions of going to see one and finding it had sold before we could have a look.  Luckily, my parents suggested we try CarMax and I was very pleased to have the nicest car saleswoman in Houston help me out.  She was able to have a minivan transferred and held for us so we could check it out.  Long story short, we bought it last week and are very happy.  (The kids are doing their happy dance here.)

 

I love all the room.  I love the reverse camera so I can see what is behind me.  I love having a DVD player for the kids.  I love the comfy leather seats and the fact I can adjust them a million different ways to accommodate my big belly and sometimes uncomfortable pregnant self.  I love the power sliding doors and power lift gate trunk and the way I can open it all up from halfway across the parking lot.  I love the way it drives and the dual AC controls.  The only thing I am not 100% comfortable with is parking it in a tight space.  In fact, I haven't really tried that yet but have opted to practice on spots where I have plenty of room.  I'm getting better and I'm sure practice will bring confidence but the good thing is that I don't have to worry about the kids banging their car doors into anything anymore.  The sliding doors are awesome but I think I already said that.  :-)

Eight is Great! (captured on video)

David's Birthday Party



We had a wonderful gathering for David's Birthday.  David was a very lucky boy to have his grandparents, godparents and  his best buddy with him to celebrate his big day.  The kids ate in the kitchen and enjoyed playing together while the 8 adults got to have a nice sit down meal in our dining room.  Granted, we had to holler at the kids to keep their voices down a few dozen times... but even with that, I really enjoyed the adult conversation and actually using our beautiful dining room for the purpose it was intended for.  After dinner, we all gathered for cake and to sing happy birthday to David.  Before this picture was taken, Emily and Lia were bickering about who would sit in this one particular chair.  Emily got mad and that is why she isn't in this picture...

 



But I did bribe her back with the threat of not getting any cake if she wouldn't be in her brother's birthday picture...  I'm not pleased about the tounge sticking out but at least she is present.  (sigh)

And now that the candles are being lit, you can see everyone is having more fun...

And my next post will be the video of David's birthday serenade...  It got a little silly but I am very pleased that everyone had such a fun time celebrating.  Eight is great!

David's 8th Birthday Cake

We normally celebrate David's birthday at a nearby park that hold's concerts on Sundays.  It is always really enjoyable for the adults and the kids have a ball too because they can run around and play.  Unfortunately, it rained all night on Saturday and a good part of the day on Sunday too.  We feared the park would be too wet and since the rain didn't bring in a cold front, the weather was also very humid.  So... we decided to celebrate at the house.  After we got home from church, David and Lia got busy making his birthday cake.  This year we decided to make cookie brownie bars and keep it simple by skipping the frosting and fancy decorations.  We made the brownie portion first and then the kids enjoyed licking the spoons.  Lia, who was still enjoying her spoonful of brownie batter, was caught on camera making this silly face.  David, however, got busy with the 2nd part of his baking project - the cookie part.

 

It looks like they are enjoying this process doesn't it?  I can assure you there was a lot of silly talk going on here.  ;-)

And now they are getting serious about adding the cookie dough to the top.  This cake business is a lot of hard work!  I like that I can just hang out and take the pictures.

Almost done!

 And here is the final product!  David placed all the candles and then when I asked him if he wanted me to write his name on the bottom, he asked that I write it in cursive!  David has been busy learning his cursive letters this school year and I think it might be his favorite subject we do each day.  I think he felt a little too much pressure to write his own name on the cake... but you can be sure he watched to make sure I formed all his letters correctly.