October 27

Today was our monthly gymnastics class, which the kids love. Eli especially dominated today!

Look at him balancing!

(And look at those weird moms in the background, ignoring their children while they chat and play on their cell phones. How ridiculous. Kidding - they are my friends and I love them and I spent most of my time chatting with them while our children played.)

This is a really short video of Eli swinging on the trapeze. He was so good at it, but this was his fourth or fifth time in a row, and he was tired. Still, he loved it!

That's Daisy, Eli, Lydia, Naomi, and Vivian. I love when my children become friends with my friends' children!

And then, because I needed more time out of the house, we went to visit my mom. Did I mention that she had her knee replaced a week and a half ago? She needed a grandbaby fix, and we were happy to deliver that, along with some lunch. It was a lovely way to spend an hour! 

We rushed home for naps, and then the kids and I got to work.

By happy accident, yesterday I randomly wondered when our favorite Trunk or Treat would happen. Had we already missed it? I looked it up, and discovered it was tonight! Luckily, our schedule was open, so I had to scramble to get costumes together for the kids. 

Eli is young enough that he doesn't care.

Lily said she wanted to be Sophia.

Daisy said she wanted to be a princess.

Caleb said that he wanted to be a skeleton ghost.

That's doable - the first three can be pulled from our costume bin, and thanks to my fabulous inherited stash of fabrics, I had plenty of white fabric to throw together a ghost costume for Caleb. Worn over his skeleton jammies (aka last year's costume) with a little bit of face paint (leftover from last year - is that gross?), he would be thrilled.

But when it came time to sew the costume, Daisy decided she wanted to be a skeleton ghost, too. So, ghost costumes x2. And then Lily decided to be a "ballerina", wearing a dance recital costume that my mom picked up at a thrift store a year or so ago. And then Eli refused to wear his giraffe costume.

It all came together, though, and all of the kids were pleased. They ended up like this:

Eli is wearing a Storm Trooper mask I just happened to grab on my way out of the house. I love that you can see Daisy and Caleb's skeleton bones through their ghost costumes, and I love Daisy's serious pose. Lily got to wear red lipstick, and she thought she was hot stuff. (related: putting lipstick on a three-year-old is like putting lipstick on a dog - i.e. nearly impossible.)

Caleb and Daisy helped me tear the shreds in their costumes, and were so proud of their handiwork!

Lily was the unafraid go-getter of the evening. That girl was in her element, saying hello to everyone and charging ahead to play all the games and take all the candy. She is so different from the older two!

They were too entranced by all the chaos to look at me, but I like this view.

Off to get candy!

Eli was terrified of Daisy and Caleb's face makeup. When I finished Caleb's face, he looked at Eli and Eli immediately started crying and ran away, yelling, " 'pooky! 'pooky!"

It was a good thing he had a Halloween shirt on, because Eli's mask didn't last long, and we were left carrying his giraffe costume around all evening. He scored candy based on his charm and personality, and not on his costume.

Lily charmed the softball team with her focus and determination at their softball bowling game. 

See? Lily leading the pack! And where is Eli?

On my back (in a Beco baby carrier borrowed from the lending library). As he grew tired, it was harder and harder for him to keep up, so I tossed him up on my back. It didn't stop him from getting candy, though! He grabbed some from every candy bowl from his perch on my back. At one point, he even opened a Twix and popped it in my mouth. I love that my boy likes to share good candy with his mama!