Trick or Treat!

If I hadn't told the kids it was time to head out, I think all three would have happily handed out candy all night... they loved feeling important!  Carigan stood at the window on look-out and yelled, "OH!  They're coming!  They're coming!" anytime someone approached.  She always had the door open before anyone made it onto the porch.  We told them to tell the trick-or-treaters they could pick two.  Our house was like the Candy Nazi house because all trick-or-treaters were inundated by an immediate barking of three kids simultaneously yelling, "Pick two!  TWO."  Carigan was hilariously vocal.  So funny that sometimes she can feign shyness and then she goes and works up the trick-or-treaters louder and bolder than any of the three!  I enjoyed sitting just out of view and listening to the parents chuckle.  

The bird and the bee and Obi-Wan-Kenobi reporting for duty... The first stop is always Mr. Dave and Miss Stacy's house next door.  The kids were beside themselves fussing over Arabella.  

Ready for the long haul!  We had to continuously remind the girls not to attempt to hop out before the wagon came to a complete stop.  Carigan's little legs ran so fast up and down driveways I was just sure she was going to end up with a major injury before the end of the night, but miraculously she always emerged unscathed.  We had to tell her to "walk" and to "slow down" at every single house.  It was impossible to get a picture of her in action because she was just a blur in the dark.  We also had to tell the girls not to go INSIDE people's houses... at the first few stops of the night both girls just ran directly into people's foyers when they opened the door!  -BELOW- Little Floridian children mesmerized by the concept of a warming fire at AJ's grandparents house (directly behind ours).  

We had to stop and take pictures with the dog dressed as Batman.  I tried getting Wesley's picture with the Bat Dog first, but he was scared to get too close.  Anna Kate is my brave one!  I did the short loop behind the house with the kids and then headed home to resume handing out candy while Michael continued on the long trail down Buck Run.  I had time to do the blog post about Carigan's school party before my sugared-up trick-or-treaters returned.  Carigan ran straight to the potty, which is why she's half dressed.  Then it was time for hoarding and sorting:

The kids resumed candy distribution duties as soon as they got home.  At one point we heard Anna Kate say cool & casually, "Hi Elijah."  I knew there was a boy named Elijah in her class (he was her official first crush of the year.  She told me back in early September that Elijah wanted to marry her and she gave me a full formal introduction one night at a football game).  I got up and peeked out the door, and sure enough, it was her friend from school.  He lives up on the north end of Lakeland so it was a surprise to see him on our doorstep.  The next morning I went to have lunch with Wesley and Anna Kate at school and AK picked Elijah (whenever a parent comes to have lunch, the student is allowed to pick one friend to sit with them at the special round tables up front in the cafeteria).  They were both just beaming, so proud of their rendezvous the night before.  Anna Kate's choice left Isa in tears though, since AK had apparently told her last time I came that she would pick her next time.  Luckily Wesley picked Isa to be his lunch buddy so we all enjoyed lunch together.  Happy November! 

The Bumblebee's Boo Bash

Carigan's class celebrated Halloween yesterday (since the 2's only have school on Tuesdays and Thursdays), and I got to spend the day at preschool with my baby girl for the very first time!  I've spent many an hour at Joyful Hearts volunteering for Wesley and with Anna Kate (often with Carigan in tow)... it's hard to believe she's actually the student now!
 

It's not unusual for a child to shut down and just sit in Mommy's lap when a parent is present, but Carigan really loves school and didn't let my presence interfere with her morning routine.  I absolutely loved watching her sing and do all her little motions.  You can tell she always knew what was coming up next, too, because she'd start doing the next motion before they got to that verse!  Here they're singing, "I giggle giggle giggle and I praise the Lord."  My little jumping bean:

Carigan and Levi (Luigi) helping Miss Barbara with calendar and weather... they had a big job since it was October 30th and they had to count all the way to 30!  Whew!!  When circle time was over Carigan's class went on a costume parade through Miss Erin's and Miss Terry's 4-year-old classes.  They sang one song for each class.  They were a big hit!

Then they picked up some instruments and took their parade to the pumpkin patch.  I failed to get pictures of my kids at the pumpkin patch this year.  I figured I'd do it when I had pumpkin patch duty for 4 hours one evening, but we had a steady stream of visitors and the kids were running wild so I never got the chance.  I even bought the girls new matching Halloween shirts that they never got to wear at the same time.  Anna Kate never got to wear hers at all - this  having to wear an LCS shirt to school every day business is killin' me with her!  It never bothered me when Wesley had to start wearing uniform shirts, but AK has so many precious seasonal outfits and dresses she never got to wear this year.  :o(

Miss Barbara carving a pumpkin and using it as an illustration to talk about shining our light.  She talked about Jesus getting all the ickiness out of our insides.  I love love love how Miss Barbara never fails to seize an opportunity to talk to little hearts about Jesus.  I've learned so much from her!  Carigan listened attentively:

She was truly fascinated by the carved pumpkin though... we never did get around to carving a pumpkin in our house this year! All the kids helping to blow out the candle:

Carigan is ALL ABOUT the pre-food prayer these days... she begs to say the prayer first at home before every meal and she was already striking the pose here before Miss Barbara said a thing.  Praying her little heart out:
 

Yummy frosting!  Playing with the tool bench we donated to her friends at school:

Another great Halloween celebration at Joyful Hearts.  Love this place!

Preliminary Halloweenishness

We officially kicked off the Halloween season last Wednesday following Wesley's field trip.  Khaysy (Hyatt's mom) invited us to join them at Covenant's fall festival, where they had food and games and lots & lots of candy.  The kids were excited about wearing their costumes for the first time.  This year I have a bluebird and a bumblebee, but Wesley officially aged out of my costume-coordination program.  He chose Obi-Wan Kenobi.
  

My jumping bumblebee.  -BELOW- Anna Kate looks like a bluebird/Vegas showgirl/hillbilly!  Love it!

Wesley & Hyatt.  We stayed until they were shutting down and cleaning up - we Rogers know how to overstay our welcome anywhere!  My kids are always the last to leave a party.  :o)  Friday morning Heather Cooper and I took our Carigans (she has a Kerrigan) to Lakeland's children's museum.  We have been scheduling and postponing plans to meet up there to purchase annual memberships for our girls for the past month, and it was just a coincidence that they were holding a big Halloween event the morning we finally made it.  I had a membership pass to the museum when both Wesley and Anna Kate were little, but I let our membership lapse when Wes started Kindergarten.  The museum holds little programs every morning at 10 a.m., so now that Carigan is two and we're always looking for things to do, it's the perfect time to re-join.  And as luck would have it, I walked in and saw a sign on the front desk that read, "Purchase an annual membership during today's special event and receive 3 extra months free."  Woohoo!  So we now have museum passes through January of 2014.

 

Carigan & Kerrigan fishing for pumpkins.  The museum had a few games with prizes and they each got to pick out a pretty decent sized pumpkin to decorate and take home.  The girls had the most fun shopping in the little kid-sized Publix supermarket and playing with the oranges.  They were still having fun when a kid pulled the fire alarm and we all ended up standing outside on Kentucky Avenue.  That cut our visit short but we have 15 months to come back and play some more.
 

Friday evening we painted pumpkins.  We had also planned on carving a pumpkin or two but after slowly repeating instructions for Wesley several times to draw his design for us to carve out with large features, he took his Sharpie and drew an intricate Plants vs. Zombies battle scene.  He's usually very bright but for some reason we were having a total communication FAIL on the how-to-prepare-to-carve-a-pumpkin discussion.  When he realized he'd messed up, he had a meltdown of epic proportions and was sent to his room until he could pull himself together.  It was really unlike him and he had a similar meltdown over something completely different the next morning.  Hate to be the mom making excuses, but it was all so unlike him I'm officially pulling the "he must have been tired" card.  Michael did say Wes was up and sitting on the couch playing his DS at 6 a.m.  I would have sent him back to bed!  Anywho, I only mention his meltdown because Michael and I were laughing as we were taking pictures of the girls painting that everything looks so fun and idyllic and in reality Wesley's screams from his room down the hall were setting the tone.  Ahhh, my perfect little children... 

Wesley finally regained his composure and was able to rejoin his sisters.  We finally started having some fun.

Sorry for the shirtless pics, but you wouldn't want to do that load of laundry either!  Carigan discovered what color you get when you mix all the colors together:

The finished products.  I was craving some Monster Mash so I turned the TV to the "Sounds of the Season" music channel.  And they were indeed playing Halloween music, but it was all really weird stuff like "Lament of Dracula" or something like that.  No Monster Mash.  So we switched to dance music.
 

Rogers Family dance party.  And sorry about the underoos... I actually find it quite irksome for the kids to lounge around in the skivvies, and I always make them at least put on some pajamas.  I guess I didn't want to rock the boat after Wesley's meltdown.  Kid was having fun in those Shrek undies!  Last night I finally got a picture of all three of the kids in costume before heading out to visit a local nursing home with the children's ministry. 

Carigan, Hannah (Sleeping Beauty), Anna Kate, Emory (Dorothy) and Cambelle (Alice) getting ready to go delight some seniors.  Saturday was Marianne's 6th birthday and Anna Kate got to go to her first ever sleepover to help celebrate.  She also got to go to Build-a-Bear for the first time where she made a pink rabbit she named Rosie.  That's what Carigan is loving on in the photo.  AK has not let Rosie out of her sight since the party!  Anna Kate handing out cookies and the door-hangers the kids made the residents:
 

Apparently someone forgot to buzz us out of the facility and we set off the alarm when we tried to exit.  The poor bumblebee has had her fill of alarms this week! 

Butterfly Boy

Mr. Wiechmann (science resource teacher at LCS) sent each child in Wesley's class home with a butterfly chrysalis.  I was doubtful the leaf-green cocoon glued to a stick inside a plastic container would ever actually produce a butterfly, because Wes knocked it around so much.  But a few mornings after he brought it home I noticed it had turned black, and by the time I got home from dropping Carigan off at preschool, there was a butterfly in my kitchen! 

October 25, 2012.  I was afraid Wes would be disappointed he missed it, but I took a picture of the butterfly with my phone and when I picked up the kids from school I told Wesley I had a surprise for him and handed him my phone with the picture.  He grinned ear to ear and immediately started exclaiming... he just couldn't wait to get home to see it!  The butterfly emerged early that morning so its wings had time to dry before Wesley got home, and he was eager to let it go and see if it would fly.  (That's my mammoth photo order sitting on the porch, by the way... didn't see it until we got out there.  The last time I ordered pictures was September of last year, so I ordered 13 months worth of photos in one order!  2,274 photos to be exact!  Thank goodness for PE Photo's 4 cent per print sales!  Now I have just a wee bit of scrap-booking to catch up on before the baby comes... I did relent last year and started using slide-in photo sleeves for the majority of the photos, only doing a true scrapbook spread every 50 photos or so when there are accompanying mementos that need to be included.  It makes scrap-booking go MUCH faster.  And since I have this blog turned into a book each year, I don't need to do any journaling in my scrapbooks anymore).

 

When the butterfly didn't immediately fly out when Wesley took off the lid, I suggested he gently lay the container on its side. 

The butterfly found its way out and stood there for about 5 seconds, just long enough for me to take a picture.  And then it was off!  I couldn't believe how high it flew for the very first time it spread its wings... it flew up and way above the house and then disappeared across the roof.
 

I am SO successfully passing my obsessive photo-documentation genes on to my son... he stood there and coached me.  "Okay, now get one of me waving goodbye to the butterfly."  Good one, Wes.