"We Are Here To Scare You-ooo-oo--oo!"

Pepe Le Pui

This Skunk is stinkin' cute even when he is being a stink!

Abizella LOVES being in costume. She spent most of the day as "ELMO WORLD!" She thinks Elmo's last name is "world" because of his spot on Sesame Street (Elmo's World). She spent most of the day clapping her hands and singing, "La la la la, La la la la Elmo World!" and giggling. That rest of the day was spent stuffing suckers in her mouth.

I'm the type of Mom who lets the kids dump out their candy and gobble it all up in one sitting. Afterall, they earned it. Abizella was so excited she took about one lick and one bite out of every piece of candy, depositing the sticky remainder in my hand.

Superkid humored his mother for our "Trunk-or-Treat" party by dressing up as this adorable snuggly dragon (at least it wasn't a big floppy bunny costume).

But when he got down to business he dressed as Spiderman .

And he was pretty pleased with his haul. Yes, that is it. After 30 minutes he told Pops he was ready to head home and eat some candy!

Halloween Warm-up

We're practicing our scarey faces...

Increasing our sugar tolerance...

Trying a few different costume ideas (yes, those are tiny cowboy boots)...

And suring up our donut eating contest skills...

Because Halloween is T - 4 days away! Can you stand it?

Well, some of us are more excited than others of us...

Weighing In

Tadpole had his 2 month checkup last week. He tipped the scale at 14 lbs.6 oz. This places him in the 95th percentile! He ranked in the 50th percentile in height. This explains why he is busting out of 3-6 month onsies, but I have to roll his pants. The doctor's comment to me was, "So if he is fussing for something, you might want to try something besides feeding him." I told her I was a one trick pony. And it is the trick that always works! I came out of there feeling pretty smug about the quality of my cream!


That is until I compared notes with S.K. P.J. had her 1 month appointment the same day and her weight was OFF THE CHARTS! Go S.K.! She makes them FAT!

Potty Training Quote of the Day

After waking up from his nap, Superkid said, "MOOOOOM! I told you I didn't want to sleep here. There's a puddle!"

So Do You Think They Are REALLY Going To Leave?

Since I am in the denial stage of grief, I am not ready to eulogize the George's yet. Rather, I choose to think of this past weekend with my Beantown friends, just another fun weekend. This is even after talking to S.K. today who is driving through Tennesse on her way to their new home in Texas. They have gone away for a week or so in the past. So you can expect some really pathetic posts in a couple of weeks when I realize they really are gone. I did have a few close calls where I might have had to accept that they really are leaving... like when I actually told Superkid that the George's were moving. This was horrifying to him as he regaurds S.K. as his second mother. Or when we pulled up to their apartment to pick up A.K. so they could load the truck and Abizella yelled, "Yeah! I go play with Sanny and Ava!". But somehow I have managed to tuck that away somewhere and just believe that they were just staying with us a couple of days before they left on a fun trip.

Abizella and A.K. had a peanut butter snack and true to form A.K. ate hers like princess, not getting a speck on her face, hands, pants, shirt or hair.


Abizella got her peanut butter in all of those places (and more!).
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So they all got a bath, but A.K, escaped having her hair scoured. She told me, "I don't have peanut butter hair, I no wash hair." I can't argue with that logic.


The kids did a little Halloween dress rehersal


And later we went for a spin on the beach carousel (I wish I could spell it like A.K. says it).


And a walk on the beach...or the rocks...

We came home and got comfortable for a cozy night.

And in the morning the kids helped clean up the bed.


We said a few good-byes and the George's were off on their trip (not ready to call it a move yet).

LUSH!

Anyone who knows Cindurs KNOWS that you don't go travel to a town that has a Lush store in it and not stop by. So the first thing Nerseyfers and I did after I picked her up from the airport was to drive to Harvard Square to see Lush. Ners even hung out the window to take a picture as we drove by. We were feeling pretty good that we got that off our check list and were happily driving out of Cambridge when Cindurs gave us a ring (it is like she has some homing device that goes off whenever a family member is within 10 miles of a Lush or something). We excitedly told her that we had just been to the Cambridge Lush. I could tell she was pleased and anxiously asked who was working. Busted! We had to admit that we didn't actually park the car in Harvard Square (like there is actually a possibility of parking in Harvard Square) and drag 3 sleeping babies out of the car into a tiny store with lots of fun things to grab (last time we were in one Superkid hucked 2 bath bombs in some water and they had fizzed all over the table and floor before I noticed). She told us that there was no visitiation credit until we actually go in and talk to the manager (and of course mention our sister!).

SO the last few hours that Ners was in town,we hit the streets of Boston to get in our Lush visitation. This time we have picture proof. Here is Ners and I with the manager Michelle at the Newbury Street Lush.

We chatted with her for a bit and she recited the family members who had been in to see her. We were probably in the store for 5 minutes. About 10 minutes later were were sauntering down the street and I turned to Ners and said, "I taste Lush." She affirmed that she did as well. If you have ever been to Lush you know what I mean. They are potent stores. We were well fraganced with Lush as well.

Our next stop was Johnny Cupcakes to look for a shirt. There was a new shirt release that day so the store was closed and people had been lined up out front since 3 a.m. We hung out there until we discovered the store was not opening until 8 p.m. Even after hanging out with these pot-heads we STILL smelled like LUSH!


In fact, we ran the Boston marathon...

Went to Captain Hooke's Fish Market...

Ners treated me to lunch at Maurizio's and a Holy Canoli...

And we took a walk along the Boston Harbor...

And we STILL smelled like LUSH! Unbelievable.

I pulled my Utah Ute sweatshirt out of my closet today, 10 days after visiting Lush... and yes, it STILL smells like LUSH!

And What About Them Apples?

And after a day of apple picking we have a fridge LOADED with apples and what better way to use them then to make CARMEL APPLES! The kiddos were big fans and Pops was right, they do taste like fall!
Abizella was eating them hot out of the pot!

Superkid was double-fisting them!



They were FABULOUS! if not a bit sticky. Nersyfers caught me delicately removing some of the carmel from my teeth and quietly captured it on my camera, much to my surprise when I later downloaded my photos...

Okay, so I had to go in with my (gasp) finger...

Almost...

Almost....

Almost...

Almost...

Yikes!

Okay... so then I was double-fisting it!

Then Ners started in on it.

So I gave her a hand, that is what sisters are for!

Happy #4 Superkid!!!

The Day FINALLY arrived! Superkid turned 4 yesterday! What a FUN day for ME! We dropped Pops and Auntie Ners off in the city and then started the party preparations. Superkid was so fun to listen to. He just jabbered on and on about his birthday and who was coming to his party and about making his cake. He and Abizella were in charge of decorating for the party. All week long I have been trying to commit Superkid to what exactly he wanted the theme of his party to be. Sometimes he wanted Transformers, sometimes Hot Wheels, or Spiderman or Batman... I FINALLY got it! It didn't matter if it all matched, it just had to be what Superkid wanted. We went to Wal-Mart and Superkid picked out his party ware: Halloween cups and Spiderman plates. As for the cake, Pops suggested I make a yellow and black car cake, that way if Superkid was in the mood for a Hot Wheels cake he would be set and if he wanted a Transformer cake than he would have Bumblebee. If I didn't know better it would just be a car cake, but I must have done a decent job because when D-Bob saw it he said, "Oh Bumblebee."
That was encouraging to me because until about 5:00 that night I had never seen a picture of Bumblebee.






It has been 4 years since Superkid came along and made me a Mom. I can't imagine life without him. Pops and I like to talk about his birth from time to time because of the drama of the event. We couldn't even talk about it all for a month or so after his birth. It was too close of a call and riddled with much emotion. I'll sum up here by saying that Superkid had a knot in his cord and we almost lost him. The nurses and midwife cried when he finally got here and was perfect. The doctor that delivered him said that it was a Chinese tradition that if a child is born alive with a knot in his cord that it is a sign that the child would be a great leader. We, as parents, have great expectations for Superkid (especially with a tradition like that to live up to!). He continues to be EVERYTHING I could hope for in a son. He is bright, fun, snuggly, imaginative, friendly, and loving. We love to watch him interact with Abizella and Tadpole. He loves his brother and sister (even though he does have the occasional clash with his sister).

I LOVE YOU SUPERKID! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!