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Halloween 2011

With Halloween and small children, you're never quite sure what you're going to get.  It could be all smiles one minute and crocodile tears the next.  Some blame it on the sugar highs and lows and others just say it's kids being kids.  This Halloween was no exception.  We shopped early for costumes this year which is so unlike me.  I think we hit the Halloween store just days after it opened which means Brenna has been chomping at the bit to wear her costume for what has seemed like an eternity.  I'm starting to see a trend with her and Halloween.  To Brenna Halloween means find the fanciest dress possible and deem yourself a princess.  Last year she was a Southern Belle, and this year a Spanish Princess.  May I present to you to Princessa Brenna de Riviera Glen.

 

 Here she is striking a pose for the local paparazzi.

She likes to stay in touch with the people and keep it real.

Austin, on the other hand, decided that all you really need to get candy on Halloween is an orange pumpkin shaped bucket, and a "Wild Thing" T-shirt, blond hair, blue eyes and dimples.  Turns out he was right.  No one turned him away when he ran up to their door and said "twick or tweet" and "thank you".

At least SOMEONE got some use out of the adorable Mater costume.

Halloween just wouldn't be fun without a group of kids to scamper about with, and the River Glen Gang is about the best bunch of kids I know.  Allow me to introduce them to you.  Some of them you have seen before and others are making their debut on this blog.

Here they are raiding our candy bowl for a warm up "Trick or Treat".

Hey, you can't go off the Glen looking needy, plus you're going to need the energy to make it all the way around the corner to the next group of houses.

 This little cutie is "baby" Jordan.

This was her first foray into the wonderful world of Trick or Treating!

She had it the easiest of all the kids with her sweet ride.

The look on her face says, "Enough with the pictures already, give me some candy!  It's getting close to my bed time."

 This is Tinker Belle, I mean Silver Mist.  After her Mom bought her this lovely costume, Karleigh decided she wanted to be Silver Mist instead of Tinker Belle.  Instead of panicking and rushing out to the store to buy her a new costume, her Mom simply said, "Okay, you're Silver Mist" and that was that.

 "Mommy said I can't run in my Crocs, but she didn't say anything about flying.  How can I get these wings to work?  Oh Man, did I leave my Pixie Dust in my other pumpkin?"

Last year, Brady was Mario from Super Mario Bros, the best Wii games EVER!

This year, folks still called him Mario even though clearly he is Luigi.  I mean did they not see the "L" on his cap?  Anyone in their right gaming mind knows that Mario's base color is RED not GREEN.  Seriously people get with it.  Every time someone said, "Oh look, it's Mario" all of the River Glen kids said in unison "He's Luigi!"

 Maybe they just saw him from the back and assumed that because he was Mario going, that he was Mario coming.  If they knew anything about Super Mario Bros, they'd realize that Luigi is performing the daring feat of carrying Mario on his back which dodging fireballs, mushrooms and Venus flytraps all the while collecting gold coins without losing a life.  Good on ya Luigi!

 Even one of the River Glen dogs got in on the Halloween action.  This is Aggie one of the sweetest Golden Retrievers I've ever met.  She's got a headless horseman on her back.  This costume probably drove her crazy, because most of the time her stuffed animals are in her mouth!  If it's stuffed, it's fair game for Aggie.

It's great to have a good friend to talk strategy with on the way to the next house.  Who's going to ring the doorbell this time?  What is that we say after they give us candy?  Oh yeah, "Thank you!"  You'd think they'd remember that detail after only going 20 feet from the last house, but once again the sugar and adrenaline rush take over and their minds go blank.

I swear every where we go the paparazzi follow us around snapping pictures trying to catch the kids looking cute and doing adorable things.  This is Wendy -  the woman behind all of the wonderful photos on this blog as of late.  Thanks Wendy for sharing your talents with us!

BTHOM 2011

Last weekend, we attended a fund raiser for an event called Beat the Hell Outa Melanoma.  The event was founded by the family of a woman named Julie Koch Lyons who lost her life at a young age to melanoma.  Each year the fundraiser is held to raise funds to help another family that is battling this awful form of cancer.  We didn't know Julie personally, but have heard her story from our neighbor, Wendy, who grew up knowing Julie and her family.  There was wonderful barbeque to eat, a fantastic 2 person band who could play just about anything, free skin cancer screenings, a silent auction, and lots of activities for the kids.

Brenna and Jordan got right into the action by dancing their shoes off on the dance floor.  Well, okay their shoes were off because they had been in the bounce house and once you've been in the bounce house and all that adrenaline is pumping through your veins, who has time to remember to put on shoes.

Clowning around with a dancer.

She's poetry in motion

 Next up was a little barrel racing stick pony style.  

Look at them listening intently to the instructions given by the rodeo clown.

I guess Wendy and I should paint our faces and wear crazy big shoes all the time.  

Maybe Brenna and Jordan would listen to what we have to say for a change.

 Jordan went for speed and a perfect technical score...

 ...and Brenna took a bull riding approach!

Sometimes you ride the pony...

 

...and sometimes you carry it.

Either way you're darn cute.

 We met the largest long eared bunny I've ever seen.

Too bad for Austin, he wasn't a silent auction item.

He LOVED the bunny.

 

Brenna challenged me to a jump rope race.

She won, but in my defense, the rope was too short.

'Cause you know I'm so tall and all.

Wendy, Mark, Brent and I got into a bidding war in the silent auction over this framed cross made out of a baseball.  It is one of the coolest things I've ever seen.  The crosses are sold to raise funds to impact the lives of children in the Dominican Republic as well as the Houston area by a group called Sports Fusion.  If you have a baseball fan in your life you might want to check them out.  Might make a good Christmas present.  The bidding war came down to the last minute, and I'm proud to say that Brent's bid was the highest and final bid.

 

  

It was a wonderful afternoon, and I'm glad we got to do our part to help a family going through troubling times.  Thinking about what others are going through makes you appreciate what you've got.  Even if it's just a good place to rest your head.

Photos taken by Wendy Pierce who's gonna be famous one day.

Num-Num Interruptus

 Austin... Austin... Austin!

 Who disturbs my num-num?!

Oh, hey Daddy.  Didn't see you standing there,

pointing your camera at me and

trying to get my attention.

It's not delivery... it's DiBrenna

One day last week, Brenna decided she was okay with staying home along while I went to to pick up Austin from school.  There are several caveats to her staying home alone.  

1)  I can't go anywhere other than his school.  

2)  I can't linger and chat with Austin's teacher or the ladies up front.

3)  She must call me at least 2 times before I get to his school, and it's only a 10 minute drive at the most.

As I was driving along, I realized that I should have preheated the oven before I left.  I thought about asking Brenna to turn on the oven, but I wasn't sure what temperature I needed.  Then it occurred to me that she CAN READ NOW!  So I called her up (in between her calls to me) and asked her if she would help me out.  She was VERY enthusiastic at the prospect of helping me with that night's dinner.  It was homemade pizza... the very first time we were making it.  She quickly located the dough canister in the fridge and had no trouble finding the instructions on the label.  Then she was over to the oven to get it turned on.  Fortunately I have used the oven enough times to remember the sequence of events to get the dang thing turned on.  Gone are the days of turning one knob to bake and the other knob to the desired temperature.  Now you have to push a button here, select the desired temperature there, and stand still for a retina scan before it will even turn on.  And don't even get me started on the difference between "cook time" and the "timer" buttons. 

Once I got home with Austin, she practically tackled me asking me when she could make the pizza.  What?  Make the pizza?  You want to help?  Who are you and what have you done with my Brenna?  She spread out the sauce, generously added cheese and topped it all off with pepperoni on one half.  The results were quite impressive.

Good grief, there's the gum sticking out of the corner of her mouth again.

 

And I guess she's got the baking bug now.  Today she wanted to bake cookies.  If this goes on too much longer, my waistline is going to suffer even more than it already is.

Into the oven with a little leg flair and head tilt.

Hurry up Mommy.  My hands are burning!

No cookies were harmed during this process or ended up on the floor.  Poor Jennie.

In Case You Forgot

For those of you who may have forgotten what we look like because of either distance or just too much going on, here's recent picture of all four of us together.  It's a rare thing for ALL of us to be in a photo at the same time, so we're going to overlook the fact that Austin has road rash* on his nose, that Brenna's gum is almost hanging out of her mouth, that I'm getting a chicken neck, and that Brent's sunglasses are on his head.  But, hey, we're all smiling, so it's a keeper.

*Road Rash - Austin took a dive getting off his Lightning McQueen scooter the weekend before we took this picture.  The nose was all that was injured... well, that and his pride.

Perpetual Summer

It looks like Fall is not going to grace us with its presence any time soon, so I'm going to blog like we just went to the beach yesterday... because we could have it's so hot here!  I know I live in Texas, but really can't I get a break from the heat just for I don't know 6 months or so?  Is that too much to ask?  Anyway... on with the post.

The week before school started Wendy, my neighbor, partner in crime, photographer extraordinaire and just a fun person to hang with, and I took the kids to Stuart Beach on Galveston Island.  Yes, lived 45 minutes from the beach for an ENTIRE YEAR before taking in the sand, the sea, the waves, the gulls, and all the fun the beach has to offer.  I really have to get out more.

 Brenna and Jordan hit the waves right away and struck a pose for posterity.

Like all girly girls, they managed to turn a day at the beach into a day at the spa.  They covered every inch of themselves in sand whether it was dry or wet. But even a day of beauty has its price... the prep work for the mud bath is grueling at times.  You have to find the right kind of sand, dig it up and haul it back to the spa area.  Next year I'm sure they'll request a Cabana boy to do all the heavy lifting.  Come to think of it, I want a Cabana boy to bring me drinks and carry all the stuff back and forth to the car.  In the end it was all worth it, their skin was as smooth as silk.

Not to be outdone by the girls and their spa day, Brady invented a game that rivals the latest and greatest Wii games on the market.  The mission - conquer all waves that come your way.  The tools - only your arms and legs.  And let me tell you folks, this kid is tenacious and a master at wave wrangling.  The first level of the game was pretty tame - just waves to jump.  On the second level he had to watch out for seaweed which could take away all your jumping powers.  The third level brought giant logs that could knock you down under the waves into a murky under the sea world of spiky fish and crabs with pinching claws. I'm pretty sure he reached level 4 and had about a bazillion lives banked before we dragged him out of the ocean to head home for the day.

Preparing to leap

Wave prepare to meet your maker

I'm really not sure I'm into this whole wave whacking thing

Sometimes you smile for the camera

Sometimes you don't

All in all it was a great day at the beach.  At the beginning of the day, I was all I should live at the beach.  I was born to just sit by the ocean, bask in the sunlight and be lulled by the sound of the waves.  When we had to pack everything up and haul it back to the car and deal with the vast amounts of sand attached to our feet, my idealistic thoughts were dashed.  So for now, I'll leave the beach to the sea gulls and just visit from time to time.

Downsized

This is a photo of my office in progress about a year ago. Some improvements have been made along the way. I hung up some pictures and got a nicer chair. I added the return to the left side of the desk and bought some cool lamp shades to replace the ones that were destroyed in the move. I even got rid of all the boxes in the foreground!

This is my office this week while we have new flooring installed on the main level of the house. Yes, I'm co-existing with all of the kids toys and my severely under-used elliptical machine. I keep reaching for things like my calculator or reference folders. Hopefully I won't have unpacked everything before the floors are done. But do you see the cool black lamp shades I got? I love them!