A Rainy Day

I DO NOT like rainy days.  They are depressing, and we and the kids go a little crazy.  My second day back at work was a rainy day.  I came home, and we all needed a little distraction.  LUCKILY, I had just pinned something on Pinterest about making rain.  SO.....before dinner, I made rain with the big boys.  Great activity for a great distraction. And appropriate for the nasty weather we had!

My Sweet Girls

How I miss these sweet girls in the early infant months.  I go to bed so early that I don't get as much snuggle time with them after kids go to bed.  Molly - of course -is on the table.  And sweet Kona is just the model citizen in the house.  LOVE these Lady Browns.

My FUN boys!

Graham LOVES spider man.  And he loves that his friend Allison gave him a spider man glove for his birthday.  He regularly sleeps with is on.  (His hand must get so hot!!)

My Brooks - he has SO much fun personality.  This kid LOVES wearing glasses.  Any kind.  These are his "old man reading the paper" glasses!

Putting together a SUPER coo airplane that Graham's friend, "Kallen from Texas" gave him.

Birthday Party!!

We had Graham's birthday party at Hunt Club Farms this year, and it was just perfect!!  The kids got to feed the animals, took pony rides, jumped in the moon bounce, played on the playground, had a great lunch, and finished off with a hayride.  Graham had a BALL!  And he had about 14 of his friends at the party to celebrate with him -including almost all of his cousins!  (Evie, Lila, Virginia Monroe, Jack, Sam - missing Madders!)  And we had quite a few generations of family members there - we got some special pictures!

This little fella was All.OVER.THE.PLACE.  He rules wherever he is, and he is ridiculously cute at it. The party next to ours was an Elmo party, and he kept sneaking through their door and yelling, "Mo Mo"!  Party crashing and he's not even 2!!!  Oh - and the red vests - PERFECT for finding this little sneaky guy.

Kyle was hysterical - after Graham blew out his birthday cupcake candles (I made orange creamsicle cupcakes, and they were YUMMY!) Kyle yelled to the kids - all right - that's the only cupcake we have.  You all can share it!  Silence.... (Not really - they all got their own!)

Graham and his favorite friend, Allison - these two are like a little married couple.  They are just too sweet together!  (And her older brother, Mike, to chaperone her!! :)  Just kidding - Graham really enjoys Mike and in his words thinks he is a "really nice friend".)

Graham's favorite friend from Texas - Graham thinks his name is "Kallen from Texas!"  And his dad who is OUR favorite friend!!  (Actually Kyle's....Brian's wife, Christy, is MY favorite friend!)

Jack and Brooks held hands for at least 5 minutes on the hayride - the sweetest thing!

My beautiful mom!

So many generations....and a lot of cousins born in Sept/ Oct this year!

Silly boys!

Graham is 4!!

We started out Graham's birthday weekend by having a family dinner at my parents' house with BeBe and Ammi.  This was the first year that Graham completely understood what was going on.  He stayed at the dinner table longer than he ever has - ate his whole dinner, ate the cake he requested (he looked at pinterest with me to pick it out), and enjoyed opening every single present.  And GREAT kick-off to his birthday weekend!

Halloween!!

Halloween was just magical this year for Graham and Brooks!  They were both spiders - although at certain times during the evening one would only wear the spider hat and one would only wear the costume.  So together they were one spider!  My sweet Tanner was just along for the ride - as a little skeleton.  (Although he is anything but skinny!  He doesn't miss any meals, and he's got the sweetest fat rolls!)

Our street had a block party with food and games, so we went to that around 4:30.  Brooks got to see his friend Campbell who was his FAVORITE character, Elmo.  Makes him love her even more!  (I wonder when my boys will figure out that she lives right next door....)

Then we went to another friends' house for chili and kicking off trick-or-treating.  A handful of Graham's classmates - all girls in his "harem" - were there.  And his very dear friend Allie.  (They've grown up together.)  When he friend from school, Allison, showed up, he left Allie and headed over to see her.  Well, what's funny?  Brooks has a little crush on Allie and moved RIGHT in.  Didn't waste a minute.  And proceeded to show Allie all of his tatoos that he got at the Tatto Parlor during our Hurricane Sandy lockdown.  He has his first crush!!  Guess my two boys will be fighting over cute Allie!

Trick-or-treating was SUPER fun.  Brooks caught on very quickly.  Probably wonders why we don't do this every night!  I let the boys eat as much candy as they wanted in their wagon as we walked around.  And they had a few more pieces at home.  And since then, they have completely forgotten their Halloween bags!

(The "CRAZY FACE" in my neighbor's yard that my kids are FASCINATED by!)  Erika let them touch it!

Brooks showing off his spider legs to Allie - which then turned into showing off his "Tats".

This funny fella made a BEE-LINE for every house. Didn't waste a second!

Halloween Parade at Sunnybrook

Graham's school does an annual Halloween parade where the kids all decorate masks and the parents come watch them march around the parking lot.  Oh it was so cute!!!  Brooks wasn't quite sure what to think about it - he was completely mesmerized by the whole thing.  Graham was a little nonchalant when he saw us the first time, then he got a little silly.  And his mask was great!