Halloween

Sawyer

Sawyer's been telling me about letters that he's learned at school and has been especially impressed with the letter H. For awhile it was all about lowercase h, but now he let's me know if he spots an "H" at all and reminds me that he learned "H" at school. He likes to read books himself now instead of just being read to and I'm constantly surprised at how well he remembers the words for each page of his favorite books. We've been pulling out his new dinosaur book a lot lately that he got from Grandma and Grandpa at the Apple Fest. It's a fun interactive Usborne book that has hidden images in the pages that you can find if you use a flashlight. It's been a really awesome independent activity for him.

He had a blast with all of the Halloween activities and really loved wearing his shark costume (he liked being a skeleton too but the shark was by far his favorite). We hit up four trunk-or-treats, two Halloween parties, and a Halloween trail at the hospital. We might have overdone it a bit though because he started asking if we could go home shortly after arriving at whatever outing we were at. I think we've got a little bit of a homebody on our hands. At our ward trunk-or-treat it was windy and freezing. The wind was blowing a bunch of leaves off of the trees and, after some of them fell on us during dinner, Sawyer pointed up at the falling leaves and shouted, "Get back up there! You're ruining every-sing!" Kids are silly and entertaining creatures.

Dawson

The cooler weather means warmer clothes and warmer clothes have brought out some funny little quirks in Dawson. If he's wearing something that has a hood (shirt, sweatshirt, coat) he prefers to have the hood on whether he's inside or out. When he's in something like joggers or his pjs and the leg rides up the tiniest bit he freaks out and screams, "Leg! Leg! Leg!" until it's pulled back down by his ankle. Whenever our hallway furnace kicks on Dawson will bound over by it, put his hands up in front of the air flow, and greet the warm air with a, "Hi, hot!" It's definitely one of my favorites right now.

The Monday before Halloween Dawson had a run in with one of our drawers. I was unloading the dishwasher and had the utensil drawer open (and they're right across from each other). Dawson wanted a wipe for his hands because they were just too sticky for his liking. So I walked over to his room, handed him a wipe. He ran away. I went to shut the wipe container and suddenly heard a big crash and instant screaming. I turned to see poor Daws flat on his back and can only figure that as he was running at his fast toddler speed, he went to sidestep the open dishwasher, and smacked his forehead right into the open drawer. He had quite the gashed indent on his head and, not having handled an injury quite like that yet, I quickly snapped a picture and sent it to my mom with the question, "How do I know if this needs stitches?" She said that it might be worth taking him in for, and let me know that I could just take him to the pediatrician instead of the ER. I told her that I still needed to run Sawyer to school and she very kindly offered to leave work to give Sawyer a ride while I took Dawson to the doctor.

His cut thankfully wasn't a crazy bleeder but still seemed pretty groovy to me. Dawson doesn't love the doctor so I tried to calm him down by telling him we were there for the doctor to put stickers on his head (since I was guessing butterfly stitches were probably what would happen). After getting it cleaned out (which he didn't love), the doctor and nurses tried to just glue it first but it was too wide for the glue to do it's job so they layered the glue with some butterfly strips and we were set. Dawson very politely told them thank you in the sweetest little voice after they told him they were all done. And then he thanked them again when he discovered that he really did have "stickers" on his head ("thank you, 'tickers"). He got an actual sticker and a balloon, some Tylenol, and was extra snuggly the rest of the day.  

Dillon & DaNae

We both mostly did all of our typical day to day things mixed in with lots and lots of family time and activities, parties, and outings. It was so fun! And so exhausting, but mostly fun.

At a kid Halloween party a couple of the Bunco girls organized. 

Cookie decorating station.

The first he's played with the best elementary school PE toy. He definitely didn't get the game, but had a ball playing with it.

Crazy little skeleton, content with his balloon.

The kids played the balloon pop game. When it started, Sawyer promptly ran out of the designated circle then turned around and popped his own balloon that was tied to his ankle ha.

Flipping through the Scientifics Direct magazine. He loves when we get those in the mail now and will flip through them multiple times a day.

Spotting the robots and the dinosaurs in the magazine.

Just saving some veggie straws in his shirt pocket.

"Take a picture me too, mom!"

We partied hard at Staheli Family Farm. This year both the boys could run around and play and it was a blast.

The corn pit is always a hit.

Racing some ducks.

These two have some serious concentration faces going on for this face painting. But really, they both have some pretty angry looking resting faces.

There's a Frankenstein face under all that glitter.

Cute little pumpkin.

He was in his element on the bouncy blob.

Dawson was less impressed at being jostled and tipped over by the other kids' bouncing.

Spiderweb swings.

"Papa Steve, tractor??" He didn't understand why we were at a farm and Papa Steve was nowhere in sight.

Hayride.

A little dancing to end the night.

Hanging out at the Sheep Parade.

Sawyer wasn't impressed with the sun shining right in his eyes.

But Grandpa Dale snagged a hat for him from one of the parade entries which helped.

  

The cutest shark ready for treats.

A scuba diver ticked off at being forced into his scuba gear.

But then he lightened up.

This was my first ever homemade costume and I gotta say, I'm pretty proud of the result. It helps that Dawson's tiny two-year-oldness upped the cute factor quite a bit.

All of us ready for one of our Halloween parties. Scuba diver, shark, crab, and sea turtle. 

Painting and carving pumpkins.

Boy 1 wanted a turn helping dad carve.

So then Boy 2 needed a turn too.

Reading Goodnight Goon.

Best part, "A bare-wolf that yells, 'Boo!'"

Sad little boy with a split forehead.

Post cleaning, waiting for the doctor.

And all done with some glue and steri-strips.

Pictures from his preschool blog. 1. Making witches' brew.

2. Their costume parade.

Walking home from his school day/party.

  

G and the boys ready to party at the hospital Halloween trail.

Devan and G.

One of my favorite pictures of the night.