Sunday, October 26, 2008

Halloween 2008 - Preview!


Halloween is coming - and to be honest, we have a lot planned that day. So, I thought I'd give you a preview so you'd be able to "hit the ground running", as they say. The boys have also picked out their Halloween costumes. Lochlain had been petitioning us for weeks to be an "Asian Turtle". An Asian Turtle? What the heck is an Asian Turtle? I thought I knew, and a trip to the costume store confirmed my hunch.


Hero In A Half-Shell

But which Asian Turtle? Oh, Lochlain knew which one he wanted: "Leo, the one with the swords!" FAN-tastic. Lochlain was disappointed by getting just one sword - "But Leo has two swords, Daddy!" (the getting of ANY sword which by itself was a staggering parental internal struggle that Bean and I shared) - but has been following the rules that accompany stewardship of said sword: 1)He must never hit anyone with it; 2)he must never point it at anyone (human or animal); and 3)it will not be part of his costume while at daycare. He has followed the first 2 rules exceptionally well so far and until recently really displayed real enthusiasm towards his costume and his sword - taking the sword to bed, carrying it around the house (all sheathed within the scabbard, too). The last week or so, he has changed his mind and now wants to be The Flash again.

Sean has settled for this choice below - but don't be surprised if it changes by actual Halloween time:


Here are a couple of more shots - should have some great stuff from this Friday!


Charging Into Action


The Traditional Stand-In-Front-Of-The-Front-Door Pose


Lochlain Shows Some Life; Seanie - Not So Much


My Jack O'Lantern at night (I Carved It Myself)

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

If A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words.....

...then 4 pictures must be worth FOUR THOUSAND WORDS! We got the boys fall pictures back today and thought we'd share them with you (place your orders now):




You may now tell me how handsome my sons are.......

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Fall Festival 2008.....And Beyond!

Two weekends ago, we had the annual Fall Festival across the street again this year. This time, we went with some folks from the neighborhood. They had a lot more to do this year. There was a whole section devoted to free games for the kids, including a little carnival-like "use-the-hammer-to-ring-the-bell" which Lochlain just HAD to try. I was too busy wrangling Seanie to get a picture, but suffice to say Lochules did not ring the bell. The boys did get to pick pumpkins and color them for the front porch ("and I helped") - as seen here:



From there, we moseyed on down the hill to the bounce hut for the kids. The netting inside made it difficult to get pictures of the boys - plus, Seanie spent most of the time trying to climb the inflatable staircase to go down the slide. Beanie challenged one of our neighbors to a race through the obstacle course setup. I thought she had pretty much lost almost right out of the starting gate as she couldn't get over the first hump, but she caught up on the rock-climb part and almost ended up winning. Her herculean effort seemed to wipe her out for the rest of the day.



After that, we went to the new playground that had been setup on that side of the park, where Seanie enjoyed the swings:


Then the boys rolled down the hill to where we got see the following:


Roll, Roll, Roll Down the Hill


Return of the Cow!

Hayride!
It was a tiring day.


Seanie has two new things that he does - when he puts something down, he lets you know that the object is going "RRRIIIIIGGGHT Hea." His second thing is he now says "Because". I make it my mission in life now to ask him "why" questions just to hear him say it. Lochlain's new thing is how he answers me when I ask him if understands me when I lecture him when he's in trouble. He will now sometimes reply with a quick "Yessir!" and give me a salute. The first time he did it, he unknowingly got major-ly out of trouble with me. Lochlain has also lately cultivated a great interest in superheroes, much to his Daddy's delight. I cannot tell you how many times we have watched the 16 episodes of Challenge of the Superfriends...but they were enough so that when Lochlain was a good boy and earned a reward for his behavior, he went and picked out a new superhero-related DVD. Target was all out of other Superfriends videos, but they did have a compliation of old 60's Filmation cartoons of DC characters. Loch's favorite are the Teen Titans - but of course now he peppers his conversation with 60's hipster slang ("dig it, daddio")......


Loch's Current Favorite

This past weekend, Bean went away for Homecoming at her collegiate alma mater Wesley College, leaving me with the boys. But we still managed to keep busy and have fun, thanks to a birthday party on Saturday and a Scooby-Doo movie marathon on Sunday. I would've taken pictures of all the fun we had while Mommy was gone, but if there was any evidence of the hijinx that ensued, I might've been the Meagher boy who got in trouble with Mommy.