Halloween Night 2007

This post is special because it marks 2 years of blogging for me! It was 2 years ago, Maya's first Halloween that I created this blog to be able to share pictures more easily with family and friends. It has been fun for me, and something I hope my kids will enjoy later in life. Since I have NOT been good about keeping up with the traditional "baby books," I consider this a replacement.

Mason was Mr. Incredible. He got the movie "The Incredibles" for his birthday from my friend, Jennifer. It quickly became one of his favorites. He has known this is what he wanted to be for Halloween for many many months now. I struggled deciding about Maya this year. I thought about Dora, or a ballet dancer, but when my Mom came across the pink poodle costume, she called me and we knew this was it. Maya has this little build a bear pink poodle that she takes with her everywhere and sleeps with. She loved the costume which had a dog tag with the name "Fifi." She wanted to be called "Fifi" while in costume. She is a character for sure.

We drove over to take a few pictures with the cousins. Zoe was a pretty princess. She was FULL of SMILES, very cooperative for the camera. (Unlike Maya who frowns when the camera is pulled out!)

Action shot....ready to say "Trick or Treat"

When I mentioned having Maya sit with Lala for a picture, she had no problem smiling.

Here are Lala and her friends.

And finally the group photo of the 6 little cousins. Carmen, Gabe and Paloma were circus "freaks" as Angi said. Paloma was actually "JoJo" from the Disney show "JoJo's Circus."

Jack-O-Lanterns

Brian and I eached carved a pumpkin for Halloween, but it was NOT a contest! I think they both looked pretty cool.

Happy Halloween! Until next year....

Trunk or Treat

The kids got to get dressed up in their costumes a few days early to go to the Trunk or Treat at the church where they attend school. Maya got to fullfill her wish of riding a pony!! She loved it.

Mason had no interest in riding a pony, but he did want to sit on the gorilla!

They had a great time in the bounce houses and trick or treating!

Haunted Trails

The nature center very near our home had a "Haunted Trails" event. They had some games, stories, and guided walks thru the "haunted" trails. The guide was a sweet jr. high aged girl who knew we had small children and she made it very NON scary for us. Just the dark was scary enough for them.
Gigi, Allison, and Zoe went with us and we met up with Mason's new buddy from soccer, Preston, and his Mom, Michele and his older brother Jacob.


Maya and Jacob really hit it off. Even though Jacob is 6 and Maya is 2, they were best buddies all night walking around hand in hand. Very cute.


We made it thru the haunted trail!

The kids "won" a cup cake in the cake walk. They mostly just ate the icing off and went to play on the playground.

MVP - Wildcats!

Mason had an AWESOME game. The final score was 6 to 0, and Mason scored 4 of them!!

Maya had her own game going with Grandmother and Pops.
She ran back and forth between them -- yelling at Pops each time she made it back to Grandmother.

Pickin' Punkins

Yes, I know how to spell PUMPKINS.

M&M say "punkins" -- and I think it's cute!

Mason and Maya learned a song at school that we have been singing a lot around our house this month (it is to the tune of "Oh My Darling Clementine":

Pickin punkins, Pickin punkins,
oh, it's punkin pickin' time
Pickin punkins, Pickin punkins,
oh it's punkin pickin time....

We went to a local Pumkin Patch with Colette and Reese. The kids ran in 3 directions and we never captured a good picture of all 3 of them.

Mason and Brian went thru the corn maze. That was pretty cool.
Shortly after this picture, Maya was standing on the top of this tall stack of hay and fell of the back! THANKFULLY the stack of hay was built in sort of a pyramid design, so she didn't fall as far down as it would appear.

Haircut

We have been going to Cool Cuts for a few years now for Mason's haircuts.

He always has great conversations with his sylists! I happened to have my camera in my purse because we were headed to the pumpkin patch later.

It's so nice now compared to 3 years ago when he SCREAMED thru haircuts!

Pumpkin Football

When I bought a bag of little pumpkins on Saturday, I never imagined they would be played with and enjoyed so much. Mason has really been using his imagination a lot lately. He requested help in carrying all of the little pumpkins upstairs last night at bathtime. After bath he had lined up 4 little orange pumpkins and 4 little white pumpkins.
It was pumpkin football. The orange team was "Texas Tech" and the white team was "Texas Budge." He made that up -- we don't know where "Texas Budge" came from.

So, he would blow his pretend whistle and we each had to move 2 pumpkins toward the other team to try to get a touchdown. Poor Maya had to go it alone on these plays because I HAD to go get my camera!
I got an especially big laugh when I found out that the slightly larger pumpkin that you see on the right was the "Coach." Also, there were 2 sets of orange teams because there were 2 types of little orange pumpkins.
Here is Maya with her "Texas Budge" team lined up and ready to go.

Rain boots

Most afternoons we walk Nesha out to her car when she is leaving for the day. The kids like for her to roll down her window for them to say one last thing to her.

For some reason, almost a year ago, Mason started asking her:

"Do you have any rain boots?"

Nesha each day would answer, "No, I don't have any rain boots"

Mason would respond adamantly "WELL, GET SOME!"

It didn't take long for Maya to pick up on this game. So, everyday Nesha gets the question from either Mason or Maya, and everyday they tell her to get some rain boots.

I started shopping for some cute rain boots for the kids to give Nesha last year -- but it was just past the season where most stores had them, so I had been unsuccessful. FINALLY, Target has some adult rain boots again -- so Mason and Maya picked out a super cute polk-a-dot pair. After Mason's game on Saturday, they surprised her with them!

Sunday night into Monday morning we had a lot of thunderstorms in the area. Nesha showed up in the pooring rain and with NO RAIN BOOTS ON... what's the deal? She says she didn't know it was raining until she came outside. We will give her another chance!

Wildcats Picture and Game

Saturday was Wildcats Team picture day. I got a few shots on my own camera. Coach is so sweet. He had mentioned at the previous practice that it would be cute to have Maya in the picture since week to week she is the team's cheerleader.
So, Maya is right in the middle of the team holding the ball!! Brian and I were kind of surprised she cooperated -- but she sure did.

After pictures, it was GAME TIME!
Mason had a great game. He did not use his hands, push or tackle anyone! He is getting all the rules down as the weeks go by. He scored several goals. In this picture, he was playing defense and he stole the ball from the other team and drove it all the way down the field! He was so proud -- and of course, so was his cheering section!
Mason and Preston have really hit it off. They play great together.

This is Keely. She does a lot of crying at each practice and at each game. She gets very frustrated. It's tough to be 4.

Future (and Former) Red Raiders

We had such a fun weekend in Lubbock.

We hope that Mason and Maya continue to love and be interested in all things Texas Tech!! Go RED RAIDERS!!!

Texas Tech Game Day!!

We made it to Lubbock, or as both kids call it "Luvvick," on Friday night. We got up on game day and headed to Broadway and University to see the Homecoming Parade! (or as Maya would call it, the "Baraid," kind of sounds like braid.

Maya loved to see the Masked Rider on Tech's mascot, Midnight Matador.
M&M had fun seeing all the floats, cars, cheerleaders, dancers, and others coming down the street -- some of them throwing out candy!

We made it to our seats just in time for the game to start that evening. Mason and Maya immediately joined in the tradition with their "GUNS UP" as we sang The Matador Song.

"Fight, Matadors, for Tech!Songs of love we'll sing to thee,Bear our banners far and wide.Ever to be our pride,Fearless champions ever be.Stand on heights of victory.Strive for honor evermore.Long live the Matadors! "

One of the highlights of the game for Mason is when we went down below the bleachers and found him a Texas Tech hat. We had looked many places for one that day and could not find one that fit him properly. All the people sitting around us could hear him pleading with me throughout the evening for the hat. We came back up to our seats and he was hiding it behind his back. He stops at our row and says: "are you ready?......" He then pulls out his hat, and many people around clapped for Mason and his new hat!!

Sometime in the 3rd quarter when Tech was way ahead of the Iowa State Cyclones, Mason and Maya were restless -- and I was tired of trying to entertain them sitting in the bleachers. I took them out in front of the Merket Alumni Center and let them play in the grass. Along came RAIDER RED to pay a visit to those in the Alumni center. He was nice enough to stop and let the kids meet him and for me to take a quick picture. Maya was so intrigued by him that she could not turn around and face the camera. She cried when he left her. The guy leading him around was rushing him off and I think slightly annoyed that he stopped for my photo op. I was very appreciative though!!