Trickey Treat its Halloween!

The kids had a great time trick or treating this year. The weather was perfect, for once. In the past, we seem to have had the extremes of sweat-drenched saunas or freezing rain. As you can see, we had a Cinderella and a Spiderman. Georgia tried to have him be her prince in keeping with the matching tradition we started two years ago, but Brody would have none of it. Let me tell you, if I could have found a store bought Spidey in his size, I would have bought the thing. Sewing a black yarn web onto tiny sweatsuit arms is not exactly the most fun that I have had. Oh well, he was warm, loved the thing and looked adorable. You can't ask for more than that!
Brody was really into it this year, so it was fun watching him get so excited. He started out the night saying "trickey treat" but that eventually evolved into yelling "candy time" near the end. I guess he was overcome with thinking of devouring the large bag of sugar he was carrying. We tried to lessen the mountain of candy, but taking out all the ones that nobody wants (you know, the modern day equivalents of Chick o' Sticks and Bit of Honeys that we used to toss), but they each have a gallon size ziploc bag of candy. I tried to offer to buy some back at ten for $1, but so far there have been no takers. I guess Mom and Dad are going to have to resort to stealing our favorites when they aren't looking.

Pumpkin Carving

Georgia and Brody helped carve their pumpkin by scooping out the seeds. Georgia declared the pulp to be its brains and had fun teaching her little brother how to squish it between his fingers. They (which means Georgia) decided that we would have a scary face jack o' lantern. She chooses this every year--it always has to have an evil smile with pointy teeth for some reason. She made the face with her face, but I didn't catch it on camera. No happy, sweet pumpkins for us. I am beginning to wonder what they will look like in the future.

Brody in the Park

Got these pictures of Brody at the park. He had a wonderful time running around and squirrel watching. They were out in full force and were not shy at all. They even ended up sharing our grapes.

Survivor

My mom and I decided that we would take the Refinery Survivor Challenge at my gym while she was here visiting. Basically, you have to participate in five workout classes in a week to get a free t-shirt. I love a free t-shirt so why not? Let's just say that four of the five classes can be pretty intense and judging from my mom's fitness monitor that she wears while working out, you can burn upwards of 900 calories. Yeah, I like to have my mom come for a visit and WORK HER TO DEATH!!! She tried Body Pump, my regular class, and liked it. We both felt the zen calmness of Body Flow. Body Jam is a dance class that is fun, but this track moved too fast, so we looked more like epileptics than club dancers. We almost died in Body Step, which to me, was a torturous step class. I know some people like it, but it kicked my butt! The other class was Body Combat. It is kind of like the Karate Kid meets self-defense class--on steroids. It was super fun, especially when your instructor is very enthusiastic about stomping on someone's head, chopping them in the neck, or splitting their head open with your elbows. I will definitely take that class again. Not because I am a sociopath, but because it is a fun way to get your aggression out. If you have ever tried to referee your kids fighting to the death over a crayon, you understand. Anyway, got our t-shirts.

Cars and G.P.

Just some pictures of Brody and G.P. playing race cars.

Chicago with Honey..part two

As part of our visit to the Windy City, we went out to the 'burbs through Downer's Grove and Naperville. I love little towns like this with their quaint downtown areas and cool little stores. We found a candy store that probably had every kind of candy imaginable all stuffed in a 10 ft by 25 ft area. Both of these towns have some residents that go all out for Halloween. I would go back at this time of year just to see them. Even some of the restaurants were dripping with the spooky and macabre, so much that Brody kept staring at the ghoul in the corner instead of eating his dinner.

We checked out the Magnificent Mile on Saturday. I had promised Georgia that we would take her to the American Girl Store for a new outfit for her doll, so Honey got to see all three stories of doll bliss. We at least got some pre-Christmas shopping done....on the sly without her knowing. After stuffing ourselves with stuffed Chinese dumplings, we checked out the Legoland store, which has some very cool statues made entirely of Legos.

Brody would not pose with anything, so all the pictures are of Georgia. Oh well.....two year olds. Too bad we only really looked at kid places and my mom didn't get to do any real shopping. We finished off the day with some good old southern shrimp and grits at the little Canjun place that we found this summer. Yum!

Sunday, we did the aquarium where the dolphins were a big hit. By then mom and Honey were wiped out and ready to go home.

Chicago with Honey..part one

My mom and I took the kids to Chicago for the weekend and had a great time. The weather was cool and perfect, except the last day when it rained. We checked out the Star Wars exhibit at the Science and Industry Museum which was so cool. If you even remotely liked the movies, you will find this pretty interesting. I am a dork who loved the movies, so this was really my thing. I only wish Chris could have gone, because he would have been in there for hours. Georgia and I each drove a hover craft for a few seconds, played with robots and learned how magnetic levitation works. The neatest thing was getting to ride in the cockpit of the Millennium Falcon and experience the "jump to light speed."

The kids got to watch their own spinning tops being made step by step and packaged in the toy factory. They also fought over who was going to fly a plane and checked out the submarine exhibit. We spent the rest of our time in the "train room" where my little boy could spend days watching the choo-choos. That place is so huge, you will never get through it in a day. I am so glad we bought a membership.

Golf and Squirrels

What was just supposed to be a three-hole golf outing for Georgia and Chris, ended up being a family affair when Brody found out that they were planning to go out....golfing....without him. He ran and got his clubs and stood by the door, so we all had to go (Mom kinda had plans with the couch and the Tivo).

The kids putted, Georgia and Chris played, and I got to chase Brody chasing the squirrels.