Crazy Busy

For us, the holiday craziness always begins on Halloween weekend, and this year has been no exception. Our weekend has been so jam packed that I am sitting down to take a breather for the first time in 48 hours.  I feel a bit like I need to being doing this...

But instead of snoozing, I am blogging. Got to document the crazy, right?

On Friday night we headed down to the aquarium for Fish or Treat. Despite the fact that it was insanely crowded we had a good time. Noah and Liam debuted their Halloween costumes - Mario and Woody from Toy Story, respectively - and had a blast running around the aquarium with all the other kids. I didn't take many pictures for a couple reasons. One, the lighting was bad and so most of them turned out like this...

And, two, keeping up with Liam in the hordes of people was no small feat and did not leave much time for picture taking. Although I do have this one.

Twice that night he threw full bodied temper tantrums, in which he flopped dramatically on the floor in the middle of the crowds. So we did what any good parents would do - we took pictures cause he looked  so damn ridiculous!

Saturday morning Noah had his last soccer game of the season. The Gunners won - yay! - and finished the season with an awesome 7-1 record. Afterwards, we went over to the coaches house for a party with pizza, cake and trophies.

After a short nap time we headed out yesterday afternoon to our neighborhood's annual Halloween block party. All our friends were there and the kids had a blast with jump castles, balloon animals, and yummy treats. The weather was perfect and I have to admit that I didn't even take one picture because I was having way too much fun to stop and pull out the camera.

This morning we went to church and then out to eat at Moe's. (Noah declared he was dying to go "eat at a restaurant".) When we got home the cold morning air had morphed into a crisp, sunny fall day and I decided it would be fun to get a picture with the boys while they were still looking all handsome in their church clothes. Well, that is easier said than done. When Liam decides that he doesn't want to do something wrangling him becomes quite the chore.

After he jumped, screaming, from my arms and caused us both to go splat in the grass I gave up. For today, I settled for a picture with my more cooperative offspring.

And so, even though my couch beckons I am off to yoga in a bit. There is this one posture that they swear is as effective as 8 hours of sleep...

That one on the far left. Right... I will try my best to keep a straight face and not laugh out loud when they say that this afternoon! But who knows? I will try anything in an effort to have tons of energy for trick-or-treating tomorrow!

Pumpkin Carving

We figured since it is less than a week until Halloween we had better get our pumpkin carved. So last night, after dinner, we headed outside to get it done.

We got about five minutes in - the stem being successfully cut out - and realized that the millions of gnats would make this a much better inside project. We gathered our supplies and transferred everything to the house. Also, please note that in the above picture Noah is very intently reading the directions from the pumpkin carving kit. He managed to drive Wes half crazy because he kept freaking out that Wes was using a giant kitchen knife to carve the pumpkin.

He had found this symbol on the front of the package and declared that it meant "Do NOT use knives!" I tried to explain to him that Wes knew what he was doing - and that it is impossible to cut through the pumpkin with the miniature tools in the kit - but he is my little rule follower and remained quite distraught about the whole thing.

While the boys were carving the face of the pumpkin I was sifting through all the slimy innards to collect the seeds. I plan to roast them and enjoy yummy pumpkin spice seeds! (Noah told me I was gross for wanting to eat the seeds. Shocker.)

In no time at all Wes had finished our pumpkin, giving him a friendly smiling face that Noah had picked out.

I love how he turned out! The addition of the little plastic eyes is so fun. Plus, it was a much easier pattern than the ones we have attempted in past years. Yay for finally wising up and buying the carving kit that says "6 and under".

And last but not least, I love this picture. I love how Noah is showing Liam the final product and I LOVE the look on Liam's face as he stares down the pumpkin!

Pumpkin Patch, Round 2

We went to the pumpkin patch again. But this time we did it up right at Boone Hall Plantation. Complete with giant slides, a corn maze, jump castles, hayrides, and more. Oh, and plenty of family and friends to entertain us!

Sorry Wes, but you set yourself up for this one! I mean, who makes that face?! Not that we didn't all enjoy a cheesy photo op. If there is a giant chair to sit in you must take full advantage of it.

Marv looks really tall in that picture by the way! It's like he could actually sit in the giant chair for real.

The boys headed straight for the jump castles and the playground with the two-story tall slide. And Liam would have none of the whole wait on the ground while Noah does the slide business. No sir, and that meant Wes went up and down to slide with Liam. (Who did not understand waiting in line. I could see his face get red and angry every time they had to wait!)

I wish I had a picture of what happened when Aunt J took Liam down the slide... Let's just say it involved her getting stuck in the sand hole at the bottom, getting laughed at by complete strangers, and her needing a hand to get up.

Noah and his buddy Jack conquer the hay bale mountain.

Jack, Joey, Liam, and Noah play Corn Hole. Liam is shockingly good at getting the bean bag in the hole. He has some sweet throwing skills!

Waiting for the hayride to begin... Not that there was any actual hay involved on this one!

"Hi Mrs. Lighthart! If its alright with you I am going to sit as close to you as possible cause you are my favorite. I will do this even if it means crowding your own children out of your lap. Okay?"

"Hi, my name is Liam. And even though my Daddy bought this giant bag of kettle corn for himself, I have decided to commandeer it and carry it around with me. I need a little snack while I walk. Half a bag should do."

On the way out we let Noah pick out a pumpkin - since we hadn't gotten one to carve yet - and he took the opportunity to pose with Bebe on the antique tractor.

Good times were had by all!

Liam At 18 Months

(Or, alternately titled, The Tornado That Lives In My House.)

Hi! My name is Liam.

I am officially 18 months old, and unofficially crazy. Here are some of my stats for those of you who are wondering:

~31 inches tall (20th percentile)

~24 pounds (48th percentile)

~ I can say the following things, Mama, Daddy, Hi, Bye-Bye, more, milk, (I really like to put those last two together in a sentence and scream them at the nearest adult) ruff- ruff, moo, no, and up. Also, today my Mommy taught be how to answer the question, "Liam, who made you?" The answer is God. So, I can add that to my list of things I can say.

My favorite activities include playing with anything that has wheels...

....I just recently discovered that the track on the train table is NOT for ripping apart as I previously thought. Did you know that you can put trains on the track and push them around?!

I also really enjoy tearing my Mommy's house apart. The best is when she cleans everything up and then I go behind her 5 minutes later and pull everything back out. That is my favorite game! (Some good things to pull out: kitchen utensils, the contents of the bathroom drawer including, but not limited to, nail polish remover, tampons, hairbrushes, make-up wipes, and toothpaste. Also books, magazines, remote controls, piles of folded laundry... All of that is great for leaving on the floor when you are done looking at it. And never underestimate the fun you can have dumping out buckets of matchbox cars. Especially on freshly swept floors. Good times!)

Really though, the best part of being 18 months old is getting to play more with my older brother. I just love him. I love running with him, throwing things at him, chasing him, coloring with him, taking a bath with him, and sitting on the couch watching Thomas the Train with him.

Yes sir, life as an 18 month old is pretty darn good!

Go Pink!

I have wanted to the Lowcountry Race For the Cure for the last three years, but something has always gotten in the way of me actually getting to run. Three years ago I had a broken foot, two years ago I was pregnant, and last year we were out of town. I swore that this was the year. And then Wes reminded me it was his reserve weekend (which means he works from 6am-4pm, Saturday and Sunday) and my first thought was, Oh crap, epic fail! But my sister came to the rescue by being willing to get to my house at 7:30am on a Saturday to keep the boys - and take them to Noah's soccer game. Aunt J.... You rock!!!

So I found all my pink gear and met up with this lovely lady to run this morning.

My friend Jessica, also known as Mrs. Lighthart, Noah's beloved preschool teacher.

We headed to Daniel Island and, after much debate about short sleeves versus long sleeves, we lined up at the start in a sea of pink. (Short sleeves was absolutely the best choice, in case you were on the edge of your seat wondering!) The weather was perfect and the sky was blue and people were happy - it was a great day for a run. Of course, there was the usual 5K chaos at the start. For some reason people have a hard time understanding the phrase, "Walkers in the back, runners in the front." Don't get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with walking, but it is so frustrating to have to hop curbs to avoid running into the walkers who started in the front! We spent the first mile bobbing and weaving around people and saying, "Oh no!" every other second.

After things thinned out it was all good. We ran at a comfortable pace and enjoyed the beautiful day. After we crossed the finish line - the real one, not the fake on they tricked us with 400 yards out - we grabbed some water and snacks and lounged in the sun for a while. It was great! I love doing races for a good cause, in beautiful weather, with good company!

'Surrounded' By Fun on the Farm

Isn't it funny how the things that you plan and highly anticipate often end up being kind of mediocre experiences, but the things that are thrown together last minute end up being really fun? That was the case with our family last weekend when we made a random, spontaneous decision to take the boys to the pumpkin patch at Legare Farms.

We headed over last Saturday evening as a way to entertain the boys, but we ended up being the ones entertained.

We started with the hayride since it was late evening and we wanted to beat the dark.

The reason that last picture doesn't have all 4 of us in it is because Liam was in the middle of a small panic attack. He was not a huge fan of the hayride at all. Sitting on the hay in the wagon was fine, but as soon as the tractor roared to life and started pulling us he kind of freaked out. He was better when we stopped to feed the cows.

He seemed to enjoy the cows coming right up to us to beg for food - we even got a few giggles out of him, although he stayed firmly planted in Wes' arms. Noah enjoyed it too -"Oh, look at that cow! Ahh! There is a baby cow. Oh my gosh, look at all these cows!!" - but he was quite emphatic about the fact that he was NOT going to let the cows eat directly from his hand.

"I do not like their slobbery, slimy mouths!"

See, he sat from a safe distance and threw the treats over the side.

We managed to spot the bull in the herd. His massive size kind of gave him away. That, and the fact that he head-butted other cows out the way whenever he wanted to go somewhere. Everyone wanted to see him, and for some reason he spent a good deal of time over by us even after we ran out of cow treats. As I was petting him, I informed Wes it was probably because he sensed from me that I don't eat his kind. Wes kind of rolled his eyes at me and went back to trying to get Liam to release his death grip.

After the hayride, we took the boys over to where they keep some of the farm animals out for children to see/touch. I wish I had pictures of this experience but it was almost dark and my iPhone was not taking good pictures in the dusky light. This year, instead of having the goats in a pen, they were wandering around the area. Noah did not realize this until we were right up on them, and a small goat with horns came over to see if we had any food for him. Noah immediately froze with a panicked look on his face.

"That goat is coming at us!"

We tried to explain to him that the goats would not hurt him, but right about that time a little girl nearby started crying because the Mama pig had bitten at her through the fence, and Noah looked at us like we were trying to sell him oceanfront property in Arizona. (Meanwhile, Liam was walking in between Wes and I, clutching our hands for dear life.) We tried to take Noah around to see the other animals but the goats kept following us and he loudly cried, "I do not like goats!!"

Then poor Wes started lamenting about how his wife has an irrational fear of birds and now his son has an irrational fear of goats. Then we heard Noah scream, "Ahh! We're surrounded!!" Sure enough we were surrounded - by 3 goats.

"Noah they wont hurt you son."

"Yes, they will. They are going to charge us!"

"Noah, when have you ever been charged by a goat?!"

"In my dreams. I had a dream that a goat charged me."

At this point we gave up on the whole farm animal experience and ushered our two city boys back over to the playground. Wes and I could not stop laughing at how dramatically both of them reacted to the farm life experience. We spent the next 30 minutes looking at each other and saying We're surrounded! and then cracking up.

We finished the night by taking a spooky walk in the darkened pumpkin patch and then headed home. Both boys were tired, and almost asleep in the car, but caught a second wind when we got in the house. I captured the following series of pictures of Liam mounting an attack against his brother.

Yes he climbed up there all on his own, and yes, at this point Noah got a little upset and Wes had to peel Liam off his back.

Recent Snapshots

The following are pictures from my iPhone. In the order they appear on my phone, they can tell you what we have been up to lately.

This is a picture of the ingredients for a soup I made, Lentil Stuffed Pepper Soup. I got it from one of my favorite food bloggers. So good! Too good apparently, as I forgot to take a picture of the finished product. Needless to say, this easy to make soup - that yielded enough for several meals - made me excited that cooler weather was here so I could justify huge batches of soup on a weekly basis!

Cold beer in a frosted glass. Do you need any more explanation???

This is what my boys do while we shop at Publix. Unfortunately, those cookies don't last any longer than the produce section.

This picture is blurry because it is an action shot taken on  my phone. Noah has been begging to go for a run with us, so the other night the whole family headed out. (After he had changed into his "running clothes" of course!)

He insisted on running warm-up laps around the stroller. He did it 10 times and pronounced himself officially warmed up and ready to stretch.

Liam went too, in the stroller of course. And he grabbed his most favorite thing to hold while riding in the stroller...

A fly swatter. My kids are SO weird!

What else? Oh, right. Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Balls. (Thanks Mama Pea, for your cookbook that I love so much!) While these are still cookies - and therefore not great for you - they are a vegan recipe that uses less sugar than most so you feel a little better about eating them. Or, at least Wes does, as he has eaten 9 in the last 2 days.

And lastly, this is what Liam looks like when we arrive home after a morning at preschool.

Anyone else think that child looks ready for a nap?!