Vicarious Halloween

Jaime is away in France during her most anticipated holiday of the year and I am posting this for her benefit.

Joslyn left her wig and hat to her costume at school, which is an improvement over last year wherein she left her entire costume at school, and we had to improvise on game day. That stunt earned for her the hot displeasure of her mother and the curse that she would "just have to wear the same costume next year". That is a punishment, I learned, which is akin to wearing the same dress to consecutive school dances (This is also a punishment rather than the apparent blessing of not having to shop for another dress, incur additional expense or experience the dissatisfaction of changing dress sizes. Its a rather impractical mindset I know, but ask your wife she'll confirm it). Perhaps Mom's ire will be tempered by Dad's indifference through whom she will be made aware of the grievous infraction. She compensated for her forgetfulness by coloring her hair haphazardly, or least deliberately non-uniformly, at her friend Madilyn's home. Her recently lost front teeth were a wonderful addition to her appearance.



Caleb fought to not have to dress as "Buzz Light" but, having apprehended that candy was to be had only in character, became readily compliant. No sooner had he completed his transformation than the forces of good and evil gave forum to settle the age old question: who really would win in a battle between Buzz Lightyear and Megatron. In the end a truce was called as both parties realized that their energies were better spent accumulating energy units. They joined forces and embarked on a daring journey through the neighborhood seeking their plunder, which promised to be so rich that the mere anticipation of it brought peels of laughter to their throats and a glint to their eyes.




The kids were well behaved and enjoyed the experience as well as the bounty, and at the end of the night after all of them returned I took them up the street to the Winsteads home. I was happy to both be able to distribute candy to trick-or-treaters and follow the kids to a couple of doors. They were so well behaved that perhaps a reward would be appropriate, but how does one compete with Halloween? Beside my reward may be the same as Jaime's punishment and lead to all sorts of Halloween confusion.

Spooky Stories at the Beach

While Phil was away, we were invited to a beach party out in Haleiwa by some members of our ward. We went and roasted hot dogs and marshmallows. We made smores and told spooky stories around the campfire (although we had to tone them down due to all the kids who were there). It was a lot of fun. The kids played in the water, hunted for crabs, and generally had a blast with their friends. I was happy to get out of the house, have an easy dinner, and visit with adults. Thanks Devon and Shirlyn for the invite.



Roasting the perfect marshmallow in honor of Phil.



Eating said marshmallow



Joslyn and Brooklyn



Looking for crabs



Listening to the scary stories. BOO!

Gap Toothed Grins

Joslyn has been busy loosing all of her teeth. She lost one of the front teeth last week. Here she is in her Halloween costume on her way to a party.



A few days later, she lost another of her front teeth, only not the one next to the gap. So now she has a gap, then a tooth, then another gap. I guess it will make her Halloween getup even more authentic. Don't witches have gap toothed smiles? Anyway, the good news is that the tooth in the middle is also loose and will hopefully fall out any day now. Just in time for Christmas!:)

8 Months Old

My baby is now eight months old. It has flown by so fast. He is crawling all over the place now and has started pulling himself up so he can stand. The other day he used the bathroom cabinets to help himself stand, and then let go for a second to get a better grip. At this rate, he will be walking by the time we get back from France!



His big cheeser says "I'm standing by myself, Mom!"

Look out world, he's mobile!

Chase started crawling this week. Actual legitimate crawls, not the half army crawl half scooting thing he had been using to get around. He loves to be able to move about by himself and investigate all the neat things out there. Good motivation for me to keep up on the cleaning of the floors!



He sees his target.



He turns himself around so that he is facing the right way.



Up he gets . . .




Here he comes!



Gotcha!

The Honolulu Zoo

This week we are on Fall Break and the kids are out of school for a week and two days. In an attempt to keep kids occupied and mothers sane, the ward Mother's Group planned a trip to the zoo on Tuesday. I thought it would be a fun activity for the kids, especially Caleb, since it had been over a year since the last time we were there. The kids were able to see the animals and their friends at the same time and I was able to visit with some of the ladies. Caleb loved all of the animals, especially the monkeys and the turtles and I only lost him once at the beginning when I was feeding the parking meter and he tried to go ahead without me. Luckily a nice person corralled him for me and we were able to go the rest of the day without another incident.



Here are some of the kids in front of the elephant enclosure. We got to see one of the elephants take a dip in the water. He played there for about 10 minutes, splashing and making elephant sounds that delighted Caleb to no end.



Here are Joslyn, Madison and Kellen in front of the giraffe, zebra, and rhino area.



Chase spent most of the day in the stroller playing with his toes. He is such a great baby!

The Honolulu Zoo is great because it is big enough to have all your major animals, elephants, tigers, giraffes, zebras, rhinos, monkey of all varieties, cheetahs, crocodiles, hippos, lions (although the lions they had died of old age and the new ones had not arrived yet), a reptile house, a bird house and a few other odds and ends. It also has a petting zoo and a playground. However, it is also small enough that it does not take you forever to get through, so we were home around three and had the rest of the afternoon to do other things. It was a hot day, but we had a great time.

Seven Months Old

Now I know that Chase has been seven months old for a couple of weeks now, but I'm a little behind, so here goes. He is getting so big isn't he? I think he is just about the best baby in the world and he is so fun and sweet. The other kids just love him and he loves it when they talk to him and play with him. He is sitting up now and after weeks of scooting backwards, has finally perfected the forward army crawl. He scoots himself all over the place and loves being mobile, although he will still sit in his high chair and on my lap for long periods of time, which I hope lasts until after we get home from Paris. He is a little love!


Bouncing! Bouncing, bouncing, morning, noon, and noony night.


I guess dinner wasn't all that interesting.