Early Morning Playdate

Two Saturday mornings ago, Luke was snuggling in my bed after JUST waking up when Gibi called to see if he wanted to walk down to her house for a playdate and breakfast before his soccer game. Of course Luke said yes, and he was too excited to change his clothes or brush his hair. We slipped on a jacket, packed his bag and he was off!

Stowaway

Dave was buckling Luke in and Mason made a pretty good attempt at stowing away and hitching a ride to school with is ;)

Animal Lover

A few weekends ago I took Like to a classmates birthday party. They had an "animal show" and Luke LOVED it!!!

Second Best

What is the second best holiday to decorate for??? (Christmas is first, duh!)

HALLOWEEN!!!!  I love me some Halloween!  I have really fun and fond memories of Halloweens as a kid and I love that Halloween really "kicks off" the Holiday season. LOVE LOVE LOVE!

I try not to go overboard, but definitely want it to be festive.  Here's a view from my front door..

And my entry table..

I currently have too many Sid Dickens blocks to hang up (I need three more to make another row), so I have a few that I display in easels.  This one and another one are out in my kitchen and I think that they're fun with the Halloween stuff.  

There's lots of laboratory glass around - last year I kind of had a "mad scientist" thing going on, I put them out again this year, but think I'll probably fill them with candy corn and other candy at some point.

This is the "lego dresser" (yes, because it's filled with lego pieces, booklets, etc., etc., etc.)

And it has one of my favorite little arrangements on it...

This is my buffet table in my kitchen, I pondered switching out Luke's artwork for more seasonal prints, but couldn't make myself do it :)

SIGH! They're getting so big! Here are my boys in the Pirate and Robot costumes before our Sunday School class's Harvest Party last year:

And here they are dressed up as a hamburger and hot dog (they're "real" Halloween costumes)

This is the fireplace in my kitchen and I saw shutters somewhere last year (probably on Pinterest) and really wanted to find an old pair.  THEN - when I was putting Christmas stuff back in our attic I found a pair! (random, I know... but when the previous owners renovated they took them off of what used to be the wet bar and just stuck them up there)

This used to be the wet bar where the shutters were...

This was my first opportunity to get to decorate my "new" kitchen and I'm obsessed!  I'm still loving the antiqued cabinets and I think that they make all my decor look that much better!

If you're my FB friend then you probably saw this wreath on FB... I made it about a month ago out of tulle, burlap and ribbon.  It's looking a little lopsided in the picture, but I really like how it turned out.

Here's another Sid Dickens block in my little corner counter window:

And my favorite spot to spiff up - the bay window behind my kitchen sink!

I've had this little wooden house FOREVER and originally it had some creepy ghosts and stuff in the windows so I removed all that and replaced it with orange vellum paper.  During the day the light shines through and at night I put little LED tea lights behind there. SO FUN!

My plate that the boys "made" last year (we'll have to make a new one next year with THREE little hand/foot prints)

A little framed Halloween sticker picture that Luke made last year (or maybe the year before... I can't remember)

My favorite little pumpkin man thing and a picture of Luke and I two Halloweens ago (I was pregnant with Mason and he was dressed as a monkey and WAY too busy to take a picture with his mom)

If you don't have any Halloween decorations out GO GET SOME! Light a fall-scented candle, put up some cobwebs and candy corn and bid ADIEU to summer and hello to Fall fun! :)

Messy Mason

Mason West is a MESS!  He's a FABULOUS eater, but is messy in every sense of the word.  He'll occasionally use a fork, but typically he places the food onto his fork using his hands.  He manages to get food ALL OVER himself at almost every meal - including in his ears, in his hair and on his toes. 

Since his high chair sits on one of our kitchen chairs and he was making a habit of rubbing those dirty little fingers all over the chair - we've had to resort to putting a t-shirt over the back of the chair in an attempt to keep it clean.

Most meals end in a bath, because that's easier than trying to wipe him clean - and I have no clue how his babysitter sends him home squeaky clean every day :)

Not only is he a mess, but he's a total ham :)

GATORS!

What's one of the benefits of having a group of friends with kids the same age as mine???  Being able to form our own soccer team!  We figured that if we were going to attend practices and games for eight weeks, that we might as well do it together.  :)  Thus... the Gators were born.

(Sidenote: I totally wanted them to be "The Bananas", because how fun would it be to yell, "Go BANANAS!" at games... but my friends lacked the same enthusiasm for the name - maybe next season.  hahaha)

This is Luke before his first practice.  He put his gear on when we got home at 4:00 and it had to be forcibly removed when he got home from practice that night at 8:00.  The shin guards are super cute, but after having a brother who played soccer for YEARS (and still does), I'm already dreading the "funk" that comes along with a well-loved pair of guards. EWWWW!

This past Saturday was their first game, and despite a mix-up and some hectic RACING to the sports complex, the kids were BEYOND excited...

Xander, Luke and "The Other Luke"

(my Luke won't stand on the bench because he is SERIOUSLY afraid of heights - yes, even standing on a bench heights)

EEEEK! CUTENESS!!!

Jaxson, Olivia and Luke

1) Could they look any cuter

2) WHEN on earth did they get this OLD?!?!?!

Carter manning his self-proclaimed position at the goal.  He was cracking us up - not protecting his own goal, but just waiting for the ball to come to him so he could have an opportunity to kick it in. SMART kid :)

Smart boy and his mama...

GOOOOOOOOOOOOO Gators!!!

Best group picture I got. hahaha :)

These are out of order, because the last pictures were at the end of the game - but whatever.

Right before Luke's goal...

SCORE!!!!! :)

Brother was there, shoeless, (did I mention it was hectic???) cheering on the gators and sharing his snacks with Maddox.

Still can't believe that all these kiddos are big enough to be playing sports - and so so so grateful that they get to do it with their friends.  No other group of kids I'd rather watch play and no other group of girls I'd rather be "soccer moms" with :)  We're looking forward to an awesome season for the Gators!