Trick-or-Treat!

The weather this Halloween was amazing! We were out without coats, when just earlier in the week, I had to drag out our winter coats. Overall, it wasn't exactly our typical Halloween at all! First off, Jeff forgot it was Halloween when he made the schedule at work and scheduled himself to close that night. By the time he had realized what day it was, it was too late to get anyone to switch with him. Everyone had already made plans. Of course I was mad because none of his staff has kids, which to me, is the whole point of Halloween in the first place! They just wanted to go out and party. I was ticked. I mean, they could have been out of there by 10pm at the latest and still made it to their parties anyway. Where we were done with the festivities and ready for bed by that time. Whatever - it is what it is. I got off of work at 2pm and Jeff dropped the kids off to me so people in the office could see them in their costumes. Then we stopped by my mom's work since her job is 10 minutes from mine. Then we stopped by Greg's work so he could see Patrick in his costume. I felt like we were in a parade with all of these stops! LOL Then we went to my mother-in-laws house to do our trick-or-treating. This church near their house had this festival-type thing going on in the parking lot where all these cars lined up and had their trunks open. They decorated the back of their cars and we did car-to-car trick or treating. You just walked up and down the rows of cars and got your candy. I've never seen anything like it - it was genius! No more wasting your time at houses where no one is home. No more waiting for people to come to the door. It was quick and easy! And it was at a church, so I felt a little more at ease. I didn't have to worry about some stranger grabbing my kid and running off. I know that's a little extreme, but the fear has crossed my mind at some point. We ended up having a really nice time. On the way home, we stopped at Dairy Queen so I could try the fabulous Pumpkin Pie Blizzard (thanks a lot, Tiara)! LOL I was not disappointed at all! It was delicious! Anyway, here's my troop - we have a grim reaper, Scooby Doo and a butterfly:

Paint-n-Party

Yesterday, Austin accidently broke his beloved Hershey's taxi bank. Anytime he finds a coin, he always wants to put it in his bank. It's the highlight of his day sometimes! We've been putting money in there since he was born, so needless to say, it was getting pretty heavy. For whatever reason, his three-year-old mind decided he needed to take it off the dresser to put money in it this time. Not realizing how heavy it was, he dropped it. The beloved little taxi now looks like it was in a fender bender and is beyond repair.

He immediately got over the fate of his taxi cab when I suggested we go to the store and pick out a new bank that he can paint himself! This was the most exciting thing to him. It even served as a bribe to get him to nap today! After dinner, we went to the mall to this neat little store called "Paint-n-Party." Austin got to choose from a wide selection of banks. He went with the school bus (he's always talking about how Patrick gets to go on a school bus). He sat down with Daddy and got to painting. He painted it all by himself and even picked out his own colors. He had the option to add glitter to it and went with it, of course. After about 20 minutes, it was dry and ready to go home. When we got home, he immediately went for his pile of money so he could start putting it in his bus bank. He got really excited each time he found a "big one" (quarter) as he put each coin in, one by one. It's almost full. I'm thinking Mommy needs to go to the bank to deposit most of it in his account. I'll have to leave some so he doesn't freak out that it's empty. While we were there, we let Patrick choose an item to paint too. He went with a really cool dragon. He took his time and did a really nice job! It looks as good as their display dragon.

Back to School

It's official - my baby isn't a baby anymore! Patrick started middle school today. It feels like just yesterday when he started kindergarten! We woke up early this morning to make sure he was all packed up and ready for his first day. The bus picks him up an hour earlier than the elementary school bus did. It will definitely be interesting to see how he does this school year. I'm hoping he matures a bit and gets out of this funky stage he's in right now. It's like he's stuck in between ages. He still plays with his toys (aka: Action Figures), but he wants to dress and hang out with the "cool" teenagers. It's like he has multiple personalities sometimes! LOL I know he's just trying to figure out where he fits in right now, but it is a challenge for us parents at times. Overall, he's a pretty good kid though and I realize that things could be much worse. Here are some pictures of him on his first day as a 6th grader...