I can't wait to show you our adorable costumes this year, so here they are!  As I said earlier, tonight was the Halloween party for our church.  It was carnival games and trick-or-treating.  Jack had a blast!  Sam was agog at all the lights and people and noise, in a good way.  Our costumes turned out perfect.

Ever since April Jack has been saying he wants to be a dragon for Halloween.  I couldn't find the time to make his costume this year, but my mom rescued me!  Look at this amazing job she did.

Ben is a wizard, using costume parts we already had, plus a Gandalf hat from Amazon.  We were surprised at how few adults dressed up, but we got a ton of compliments for doing so. 

Sam is a spider and I'm his web.  I only had to buy the black socks and red tape for him, and a $5 piece of fabric for me.  That's the kind of DIY I can handle this year. 






Jack loved the games, but got extra excited when the trick-or-treating was announced.  Even Sam got candy.
















Can't wait for more celebrations!  I hope to take nice pictures on the actual holiday, so stay tuned.

What a weekend we have ahead of us!  Today is Jack's Messy Art Class and my 6 week postpartum check-up.  Then we have a Halloween party at church tonight, and Ben told Jack they could have a camp-out together in his room.  Then, most exciting of all, Betty and Rick are coming to visit!  They get to meet Sam and play with Jack all weekend long.

What better way to kick off all the fun than with pumpkin pancakes?

Jack read this book to Sam this morning while waiting to leave.  So cute!



Fall is the best.

There's no lack of fall foliage at our house.  Thanks to three mature trees in our yard we have an abundance of leaves to rake this Fall.   I should have taken a "before" photo so you could see the thick carpet of leaves on our patio.  This is one of four piles I made. Do you remember when you were this small?





















I'm leaving the bagging for Ben ;-)

We have good days and bad.
Yesterday = nursing every 45 minutes, 10 minute naps, constant fussing.
Today = nursing every 1.5-3 hours, naps for hours, smiles on demand.

I like good days.

Today Jack called me a stinker when I told him to eat a carrot.  It was the first time he has called me a name.  (I call him stinker all the time when we play, it's our friendly insult.)

A couple days ago he trash-talked for the first time.  While playing Lego Star Wars with Ben, he called out "You want to fall?  Do you want to fall down, Darth Vader?"  So cruel ;-)

Birthday dinner for Amanda!

Came back on suddenly. Bonkers.

I'm finding a rhythm to the day and it's nice.  Sam is surprisingly regular about his feedings.  I even got the boys to take naps up in their rooms at the same time, three times this week!  It's so liberating to have them safely snoozing away from me. 

Our trees are not disappointing in the leaf department.  It's actually fun to help with the yard work. 

After feeding Sam, potty helping Jack, changing diapers, and grabbing my robe, I ambled downstairs to start breakfast.  We had leftover bacon from last weekend and I excitedly turned on my oven.  The display briefly turned on, then went dead.  Well, crud.  The range top worked, and so did the oven light.  Grumbling to myself, I pulled out an iron skillet to cook bacon the inferior way, and reported to Ben that I broke the oven. 

We had a repair man here within two hours.  He just banged on the display and informed me what I already knew.  For $70 we got the obvious diagnosis that the electrical panel was dead and an outrageous estimate for $547 to replace it.  Apparently the part is $400+.  Ben dismissed him and we decided to replace the whole thing.  Until we found out that ranges like ours are $1200 and up.  Cheaper models won't work in our space.  Hurrah for the internet - I found the part we needed for just $250!  I took apart the oven to explore and it seems like an easy fix.  I've upgraded both our car stereos, so I figure this can't be much harder.  Until Monday or Tuesday when the new panel comes, we will have to rely on the stovetop and slow cookers for meals.  I hope my DIY works.  I'm sick of appliances breaking. 

Today was Jack's first of four art classes.  I dropped him off at the rec center and felt a little weird leaving the building.  It's the first time I've left him with strangers while I went away.  Sunday nursery and babysitting don't count for that.  Any twinges of maternal sadness melted away when I entered Target.  Armed with a sleeping baby and a hot chocolate, I slowly browsed ONLY the sections I wanted (no toy aisles!).  It was strangely therapeutic.  I came away with a few practical purchases and a few unplanned, cheap, splurges - typical Target experience. 



I picked up a very happy kid after one hour and we all went out to lunch with Ben, taking a break from his work at home day. 

Tomorrow I look forward to help with the diaper changes (I HATE changing diapers) and a birthday dinner out with Amanda and her friends.