AJ's first birthday card this year

AJ turns 6 tomorrow, a couple days ago he received a birthday card in the mail from my grandparents. He was really excited.

Gingerbread Train

Corey's dad got the boys a gingerbread train to build, so one night while I was at work Corey built it with them.

I don't have much story to tell, since I wasn't here.

I had to put it up high because Andrew kept climbing up to steal candy off of it the next day.

AJ's painting at preschool

I recently noticed that one of AJ's paintings from last year or the year before is framed and hung in his old preschool that Andrew attends now. I thought that was kind of neat.

He says it's a fire truck.

Halloween

AJ wanted to be Harry Potter again, so we just got all his costume stuff out from last year.

Drew couldn't decide, first he wanted to be Indiana Jones, then Peter Pan, then a vampire. He went back and forth between those for weeks, finally on Halloween I took him to the store and told him he just had to pick and he picked Indiana Jones.





I took the boys trick or treating by myself, Corey got stuck at work until 7 and I had to work at 8, so about 6:30 the boys and I went out to go around the neighborhood. They get bored after about 45 minutes anyway, so by the time Corey caught up with us they were ready to head home and hand out candy to the trick or treaters that came to our door.









With Andrew's food allergies, there isn't much candy that he can have, plus they always get way too much, so this year we decided to put all their candy out on the porch just before bed and leave a note for the Great Pumpkin asking him to trade for a toy. AJ got a Leap Frog spelling game tin and Andrew got an Indiana Jones Mr. Potato Head. They also got a little bit of candy too. It worked out really well.

We met up with the neighbor kids for a bit, they had some pretty cute costumes, the Oompa Loompa's mom made his costume and her Wonka Bar costume too.





And finally, a picture from last year that's too cute not to share. Andrew had a monkey costume, and when we were out trick or treating we ran into another neighbor who's little girl had the same costume so we took their picture together.

More pumpkin carving

The boys got some more pumpkins in the last week, so we had another night of carving tonight.

AJ insisted he had to carve his own without help, he chose a skull pattern, and he did a great job.

Andrew isn't big enough yet, but he picked his pattern - which is a spider, just like his other pumpkin.

Corey's work is having a pumpkin carving contest so he brought home a pumpkin and carved a pirate ship to enter in the contest.

I don't actually do any carving, so while the boys were busy hacking away at their pumpkins I was busy scraping out seeds and goop. I separated them and saved the seeds to roast tomorrow, and I plan to turn the last pumpkin into bread (it's small and thick so it's too hard to carve).

The bed that AJ built

AJ built a new bed in the living room the other day for him and Andrew to snuggle down in and watch a movie, he is so creative, it cracks me up sometimes the things he thinks to do.

Reading Night

AJ's school had a reading night, where all the kids come in pajamas and bring pillows and blankets and crash in the gym and listen to some teachers read stories. AJ liked it, Andrew got bored and ran around out in the halls for awhile while Corey chased him.

Visit to Grandmas

My mom wanted to see the boys before she left for Oregon earlier this week, and also she finished a quilt that she's been working on for Andrew, so we headed up for a visit.

The boys had fun blowing bubbles and playing with their cat.












Andrew rubbed his face all over my shirt awhile after I'd picked Jax up and pet him, and got all puffy and red so we had to leave to get him home to his allergy medicine - I need to get that back in my purse!


He fell asleep on the way home and was just fine. I hope he outgrows this allergy soon, he loves animals so much and it's so sad to see him get so sick after being around them.