Halloween 2013

Back in August Noah and James decided that everyone would be a character from Peter Pan this year for Halloween. Noah would be Peter Pan, Audrey would be Tinkerbell, James would be the tick tock croc (per his insistence) and Ben would be Captain Hook.

The week before Halloween a small miracle occurred- all 4 kids allowed me to take their picture TOGETHER in their costumes... I am not sure how it happened, but it did, so we will take it! 

I was very glad the kids were able to participate in some pre halloween events to wear their costumes because actual Halloween was cold and rainy.  We thought about going out anyway, but with Audrey and the pouring rain it just wasn't worth it.  So, instead we walked across the street and trick or treated at our neighbor's home, then came back to our house.  Instead I hid candy in each room and we played the "hot and cold" game to find it all.  The kids had fun and didn't seem to care that we didn't make it to more houses.  

After school we had our annual "Halloween Party" that the kids seem to look forward to each year.  This year they requested adding "wrapping daddy in toilet paper" to the agenda.  They were just so thrilled that daddy was home to actually take part in the party this year (in past years he has been still at work during this festivity)! They showed him exactly how to do each activity and were happy to show off their skills at the "pin the nose on the jack o'lantern" and bobbing for apples. All in all another great Halloween in the books.

Fall Boston Visit 2013

A visit to Boston and the Carlile's never disappoints.  Suvi and Rain showed us around their new home in Brookline complete with a zip line in the backyard.  The top picture is of Noah's turn.  I have most of this on video and all three boys love watching themselves on it.  On Saturday night the 4 big kids got to go to a Halloween kids night out at the local gymnastics facility, stay up WAY past bedtime (and mine to be honest) and have a sleepover on the floor.  I am not sure if anything would have been more fun, they were pretty wound up from lots of candy and treats by the time they arrived home.

On Sunday we had grand plans to go to the zoo, but something crazy busy was going on there, so we headed to a park to play instead by the Museum of Science.  As we should have known, these kids will have fun playing with each other anywhere.  After playing for a while we went "duck boat hunting" to the spot where the duck boats enter the Charles River... they may have stayed here all day given the opportunity. Thank you Carlile family, we had a blast!

Sunday afternoon we drove back to Portland to stay at "Uncle Russel's hotel".  Per usual, the pool was a huge hit and after Chipotle we were all asleep by 8pm I think.  Gabe is on vacation this week, so we let Noah skip school on Monday while we played in Portland, went to the Children's museum and stocked up our freezer and pantry with lots of Trader Joe's and Whole Foods goodies. No trip would be complete without a trip to Freeport to redeem all those LL Bean gift cards we have been collecting. The bottom picture is of Audrey eating some ice cream... it was spitting snowflakes, but the kids hadn't forgotten that we had promised ice cream at some point in the weekend. It was a great family vacation and we always love an excuse to visit friends:)

Mukohara Family Visits!

We were so lucky to be able to get together with Toru and his family this weekend!  I am impressed that they made the trip from Japan to visit New England this year.  We met them for the day Saturday in Portsmouth NH.  The kids loved playing with Nodoka and were very excited to show her the children's museum in Dover:)  It was trick or treating day in Dover so the downtown was packed with lots of kids in costume. By having a late lunch though, we were able to mostly avoid the chaos and have an all American meal of pizza slices and ice cream;) We loved visiting with you and your family Toru!  The kids LOVE their gifts and play with them constantly:)

Spirit Week 2013

Noah celebrated spirit week this week at school!  I forgot to get pictures for each day, but these are they days he was most excited about.  Monday was hat day, Tuesday was pajama day, Wednesday was "Wacky Wednesday" when the kids were supposed to wear the craziest mismatched clothes, Thursday was crazy hair day and Friday was school spirit day.  He really had a fun time choosing what to do for each day and collecting spare change around the house.  If their goal of $750 is raised their principal has said he would kiss a pig... Noah is so excited to see if this happens!