Halloween 2014

The kids were super adorable again this year for Halloween.  I put zero effort into Halloween; the kids wear whatever hand-me-down costume we have from their cousins.  Conveniently for me, my kids have no opinion about what they want to wear.  I think is mostly due to the fact that I don't make a big deal of Halloween, Disney movies, or superheroes.  Little ones in fuzzy animal costumes is the cutest thing in my opinion and I will make every effort to dress at least one of them in one as long as I can (and I have a hand-me-down).  

The hand-me-down for Braylen was a Mickey Mouse costume.  When we tried it on months ago, it looked huge on him, so we put together a Bob the Builder looking costume as a back up.  It was chilly tonight therefore we opted for the Mickey costume.  He was so stinkin adorable in it; I'm glad we went with the animal costume

Shockingly, he did not touch the hood once

Miss Evie was a cheerleader.  

Just for the blog record- this was the year of Disney's movie Frozen. I saw many girls dressed as Elsa and Anna.

Yesterday, Daddio did his yearly job of carving the family pumpkin(s).  Daddio takes great pride in his two creative jobs: Kids' birthday cakes and pumpkin carving.  A friend shared a really cool pumpkin they made using their drill.  Brilliant!  Daddio took pumpkin carving to the next level!

The power tools come out!  I can just hear Tim Allen grunting.

Two happy boys with power tools

We might not watch Frozen yet, but we sure love Daniel Tiger!  For those of you that don't have toddlers obsessed with Daniel Tiger, it is a spin off of Mr. Roger's Neighborhood.  I love the lessons Daniel teaches my kids!

In daylight, it doesn't look that exciting....

But with a candle in the dark, pretty awesome!

Pizza inhaled, 6 PM hit, and it was time to trick or treat!

As with the past two years, it took Evie about 10 minutes to warm up to the idea of trick or treat.  Braylen was ready to go from the first house.  Daddio took them around while I handed out pretzel bags to the masses (ha!  We had a light showing this year).  

After an hour, the two of them came back with full pails.  As soon as they came into the house, they emptied their pails and moved candy between bins.  It brought back memories of sorting out my candy back in the day.

That's a lot of candy for two!

Braylen was fixated on the "roller" he received.  He carried it in his hand from the time he got it until the time we went up for baths

"Roller" AKA Rolo

The kids were well behaved and adorable together.  They are so blessed to have each other to do all of this stuff together.  

Decorating pumpkins with stickers that just arrived from Mema

Sharing :)

If that all wasn't enough, we came up with one more special treat- glow sticks in the bath!

Fun with the lights on....

... but totally radical (dude) with lights off!

Why did we come up with a fun bath activity the night we are
late doing baths?  Oh well.  Stock up on glow sticks, friends!

It was a fun night had by all.  Hoping for some extra sleep in the morning ;)

Leaves With a Side of Ticks Please

Sounds yummy!

Unfortunately, it seems to be the norm in our neighborhood, finding ticks on our little ones after a romp in the leaves.  It's making the fall season a tad less exciting.  The other common denominator seems to be playing in the middle of the circle, near the gazebo.

Now that we are all well versed in tick removal, we gave in and let the kids play in the leaves again.  They had a blast.

Instead of jumping in leaves, they were sliding in leaves

My sweet blond

A little extra splash of leaves at the end

This screams "Ticks!  Come get us"

 Once they started losing interest in the slide/fighting over the slide and rake, Daddio started some kind of ball throwing game.  Lisa and I sat back and watched as the kids smiled and giggled at this simple game.  Why don't we think of these things?!  (do you really want me to answer that question...)

Yes, they were playing with Parker's ball

Mid "ready, set...."

Love them.  Pretty soon Alex will be in the mix!

After all that, no ticks were found :)

Baltimore Half Marathon

Yesterday was the big Baltimore Running Festival.  Thousands of runners took to Baltimore's streets for various length runs: 5K, Kids Fun Run, Half Marathon, and Full Marathon.  Maybe we are reaching an age where running is the preferred form of exercise, but it seems to me that running has become the trendy thing to do.  All kinds of themed runs are happening.  Like you get sprayed with color dye, run in the dark with glow sticks, or frolic through Disney in your tutu.  You can't offer me enough gimmicks to run 13.1 miles.  I am happy to be a fan though.

Daddio has been diligently training for the half marathon for months.  While I turned over in bed at 5 am, he was putting on his running sneakers and heading out in the dark for a morning run.  I am really impressed with his dedication and his speed.  A 7.5 minute mile is Olympic speed in my opinion ;)

After much debating, I took the kids into the city for the race via the Light Rail.  Thankfully Pops and Paula were with me; I don't think I could have done it all without their help!

Waiting for the "train" at the end of the line

Only a few stops to Camden Yards

Plenty of room for us to spread out and enjoy the 20 min.
ride into Baltimore.  

An added bonus- we were right near BWI so the planes were
close and loud.

This is my 3rd time supporting Jason at the Baltimore Running Festival, so I have it down to a science.   We arrived shortly after the half marathon started since the beginning of the race is super crowded.  We took our time going to my normal viewing area right outside the Hilton.

Plenty of room to spread out and cheer on the runners

The kids were so good during our wait for Daddio.  They enthusiastically cheered for the runners.  Braylen was so darling with his pom-pom yelling "go runner!"

Daddio's biggest (and cutest) fans

<3 td="">

Evie will be superb cheer leader for Halloween

We were positioned at about mile 12 of the half marathon, on the home stretch to the finish line.  As 1 hr, 30 mins. approached there were hundreds of runners dashing by and the number of spectators building.  The kids started to lose interest around the time we were expecting Daddio.  Unfortunately, Daddio did not see us despite our bright signs, pom-poms, and me yelling for him.  It was a major bummer for me, but we did see him run past and the kids were great supporters of their Daddio.

The security was really, really tight at the runners village thanks to the Boston Marathon bombing.  Somehow I was able to get in with a stroller and backpack thanks to being a mom with kids, but others were not so lucky.  We met up with Daddio to see his crab medal and congratulate him on a job well done.

Daddio looks amazing after a 13.1 mile run.  I, however,
am ready to crash... and did upon returning home

The crowds were overwhelming to me and the kids, so we left Daddio to have some celebratory beers and mingle with the other runners.  Jason didn't quite meet his goal of 1 hr, 40 min.  He did run his fastest half marathon yet (he has run 3 others).  His official numbers:

Time of 1:43:05 (7:52/mi)

364 out of 8605 participants

289 out of 3465 males

60 out of 562 in his age group

Not too shabby!  The main motivation for Jason running the half was to raise money for the Children's Heart Center at the University of MD.  Jason was the first one to raise $1000 and received a free stay at the Days Inn.  (Can we say date night?!)   Thank you to all of you that donated to this cause.  Good job, Boo!