Trick or Treat

It's Halloween! So much candy, so little time. After naptime, we threw on Cora's costume (Reed had napped in his) and headed to Grandma and Grandpa's house.

Cora didn't exactly feel like getting her photo taken.

Grandma and Grandpa with the Red Power Ranger

She had more important things to do...

...like eat toddler cheese puffs.

Next stop was to visit the cousins in South Elgin. Reed had so much fun running house to house with the older boys.

Porter, Jackson, Reed, Cora, and Mason

Cora, on the other hand, didn't mind hitting the houses alone. She walked the whole way, stopping at about every fourth house or where ever she liked the decorations. She definitely understood that she was receiving candy and was quite independent in her quest for it.

Hang back, Mom! Don't embarrass me...I got this!

One part sugar-high, one part elation of their big candy haul

Halloween 2011 goes down as a success. No trouble with bedtimes tonight thankfully.

Trunk or Treat

Last week, Bob had a conference in Bloomington from Wednesday to Friday so we all headed down and Granny picked us up and brought us to Greenville. We had a great couple days at home. We visited Great-Granny Maher one day, we did a bit of scavenging for Halloween costumes so we could "Trunk or Treat", and Saturday we spent the day with Willa and Owen, the birthday boy who just turned 7.

We had many photo-worthy moments but only captured the Halloween festivities. I didn't even think about packing the kids costumes since Halloween was the following Monday. We searched the attic for the costume crate and came up with a classic for Cora, Uncle Nathan's old dragon costume. Reed could not be satisfied with any of the choices from the spooky stash. He has had a sole choice for weeks...the Red Power Ranger. NO EXCEPTIONS. Promising nothing, we headed to the Greenville Thrift Shop in hopes of finding something last minute that would satisfy him.

Unbelievably, they had one...although many sizes too big. The sewing magician Granny took in the arms and legs and, voila, we had the happiest kid at the event. Correction, TWO of the happiest kids at the event...Cora has discovered candy and they had music, so she was also in heaven. (video below)

Let's do this!

Booths and booths of candy!

Our little witch and Frankenstein

We ran into my friend Aundi. This is Reed and her son, Ethan (7).

Finally, one of the highlights for me was seeing Cora boogie down in her costume. The girl really likes to move. I am really glad Bob captured this. She was starting to draw a crowd.

Pumpkin Decorating

Sunday afternoon, after my parents left and the kids napped, we headed to the backyard to carve some pumpkins. Reed had been excited about it ever since we went to pumpkin patch a few weeks back. We picked the perfect day to do it.

First step, Daddy cuts off the tops.

Next step, scoop pumpkin guts into a bowl and start carving!

Anytime you tried to take a picture of Cora (with her knowledge) with the pumpkins, she would instead run over to the bench, climb up, and say, "cheese!"

After carving and decorating, Reed decided that the pumpkins wanted to eat their seeds for dinner. He's lining them up around their meal...their own innards.

Left top: Reed's "Scary", Right top: Cora's "Two Bottom Teeth", Bottom left: Erin's "Nightmare Before Christmas", Bottom right: Bob's "Robot"

All lit up. I was too scared to carve my pumpkin/gourd. I wasn't sure how it would carve and I was contemplating cooking it (since the lady at the pumpkin patch said they taste really good...we'll see...maybe.)

This is Reed's second pumpkin, complements of P-pa's garden. Reed saw a pumpkin painted like this at the pumpkin patch and was determined that he should buy it or make one like it. He and I finished it up today.

Beautiful Fall Weekend

My parents picked a beautiful weekend to visit. With temperatures in the 60s and sunny skies, we headed outside for some outdoor adventures. We headed to a local forest preserve along the Fox River to enjoying the colors of the changing autumn leaves. Here are a few photos from our day.

Crossing the cool pedestrian bridge over the Fox.

P-pa and Reed skipping stones

After enjoying a morning hike, we headed to the local Fire Barn Museum. Our neighbor tipped us off to the event when we saw the vintage fire truck parked on our street. The highlight was taking a tour of the neighborhood atop one of the old fire trucks.

Fire truck ride

We had a great visit and the kids loved spending some quality time with Granny and P-pa.

Our Little Chicken

Perhaps I have recounted this story before, but just in case, I will tell it again. Bob's grandparents immigrated to America when Bob's Mom was just a few years old. English was obviously not their first language. It was, in fact, their third.

I'm not sure if Bob was in high school or college, but Oma sat Bob down to have a talk with him. I'm pretty sure it was a talk on peer pressure. She told him that he just needed to be his own chicken. "Being your own chicken" is a saying that has resonated with our family and we often use the quote.

Maybe that phrase has permeated into Cora's psyche on some deep level. For now, she is definitely comfortable in her own feathers...I mean, skin.

Upside down, one lens...so?

She's often found in one shoe...or boot, in this case.

Perhaps this is her Super Hero outfit. And don't rain boots go with just about every outfit? They do if your name is Cora.

This is the hat she chose to wear playing outside last week--a Power Ranger "helmet"

Cora's individuality definitely keeps us on our toes. I figure what's the harm in wearing two different shoes or odd accessories. She loves it and I love having a happy, self-confident girl.

Special Guests

Yesterday afternoon we had some special guests at our house, the Riesmeyers. If you read my previous post about a friend moving to the Chicago area, yes, this is the family. Lately they have been house hunting and enjoying the joys of living in the City, one of which is NOT having multiple cars. One of their cars is living at our house until they find that special place to settle down.

We were elated to have them out for a visit. The kids had a great time playing and we enjoyed catching up. It hasn't been that long (end of July) since we saw Jen and Hadley but it seems like Hadley has changed quite a bit. It's amazing to watch how fast kids develop. It seems like Cora's next big step will be speech too. I can't wait to see Hadley and Cora talking together on future playdates. Hooray to future playdates!

Pumpkin Patch

Sunday, to Reed's delight, we ventured out to a pumpkin patch just outside Woodstock. No, we didn't exactly pick our pumpkins off the vine, but the kids didn't seem to mind and there were plenty of other fun activities there to do.

Decisions, decision...which pumpkin shall I pick?

Look at me, way up here!

Hey Dad, what's in there?

Really cool spider with legs you can talk through like a telephone!

Contemplating the big slide.

Cora and Daddy going down together.

My two cute, little pumpkins!

Now that we have our pumpkins, we just need to decide how to carve and/or decorate them. We chose some interesting pumpkins, so stay tuned for the pumpkin decorating update.