Halloween at California Adventure

Last night we took the boys to Mickey's Halloween Treat at California Adventure. They got to dress up in their costumes and trick-or-treat all around the park. It was decorated to the hilt and had Disney characters and loud, live music on every stage. It was very cute and the boys got a ton of candy. It would have been a perfect night if only I hadn't had a fever and a sinus infection, if Jeremy wasn't exhausted from getting up for work at 3:45 am, if Derek hadn't had two major meltdowns screaming, "MY CANDY, MINE" and if Gavin hadn't decided he was going to pee his pants at the very moment we finally reached the front of a very long Monsters Inc. line. SIGH.... Perfect we are not, but Gavin was able to hold it until we raced to a bathroom and Derek was pacified with a box of raisins that we told him were candy. Tell me my kids aren't the only ones who do these things!!!!

Trip to the Dentist

Gavin got to visit the dentist today. He did great. He seems to have inherited none of his mom's dentist fears. Of course I might do better at the dentist too if I got to watch Shrek and play video games!

Look at them eyes....

Gavin and Derek both have brown eyes. I have hazel and Jeremy has green so it was logical of me to think while I was pregnant that at least one of my children would have light eyes, right? Apparently not. Both of my babies have eyes the color of Hershey kisses. Is it any wonder that their eyes are my favorite feature?

Guess Who's on Vacation???

Ok so maybe I'm not headed anywhere tropical like this, but words cannot explain how excited I am to be on vacation for the month. I am SO ready for a break. Who wants to hang out?

Happy Birthday Laura!

Our kids have the best babysitter ever. When we had to do the dreaded "who can we find to watch our babies" search we had no idea what an awesome person we would find. Laura treats our children like her own and they love her to pieces for it. She has been a good friend and an inspiration. She had to endure her younger daughter Jessica battle cancer (and beat it) this past year. In celebration her husband decided to throw her a surprise birthday party last night. You know I love Laura simply for the fact that I dressed up in a costume for her. (Anyone who knows me well knows I DETEST costume parties). So tell me, are we "ghetto-fabulous" or what?!! Anyhow, happy birthday Laura, may your 30th year on this planet be your best yet!

Moment of panic

So Gavin and I are in the car when he says, "Hey Mom. Remember when we saw that boy and he was on the bottom? And that girl and she was on the top. And they were moving up and down a lot. Huh Mom. Remember?"

Thus ensues a moment of panic. What the heck was on the TV last night? What did I expose my child too? Oh @#*&! How do I explain this one away? Why do these moments always happen on my watch? Jeremy never has to deal with this kind of stuff!

Then Gavin says, "Yeah, those monsters were crazy. That house has girl monsters and boy monsters. They move a lot." Now I remember. It was one of those blow up lawn decorations they have out for Halloween on a house we drove by. I know, I know. Get my mind out of the gutter. But can you blame me? What would YOU have thought if your child said the same thing?

The Pumpkin Patch- Sort Of

Every year we go as a family to the pumpkin patch. This year we went to the pumpkin patch of hay surrounded by asphalt and really big bouncers in the Kohl's parking lot.
Nothing says fall better than a giant shark bounce house.... :)

KA-CHOW!

As many of you know my least favorite part of all this parenthood stuff is potty training. Gavin has now been totally day trained for so long I barely remember him in diapers. Night training for us though has been tough. A couple weeks ago we went shopping and he saw some Cars underwear. He asked if he could have them and I told him once he was dry for 7 nights he could have them. I didn't make a big deal out of it but inside I was praying that finally he would figure this out. I am happy to say that yesterday we went shopping for some new lil' chonies. The best part is while we were out he saw some Spongebob ones and asked if he were dry 7 more nights if he could get those. Someone is feeling might confident! Yay Gavin....:)

Can a cat get embarassed?

If so, then my mom's cat Dexter is mortified. You see, Dexter is my mom's new child. She needed someone to spoil since her kids are all grown up & moved out. Meet Dexter: my new brother. 95% of the time Dexter has a pretty easy life. He eats good food, bathes in the sunlight of the family room window, and has even taken over my folk's favorite armchair. Then there is the 5% of the time when my children come over to play. My children LOVE Uncle Dexter. They want to pet him, play with him and cuddle up to him all the time. Unfortunately for Dexter, Derek is only a year and a half old so the petting is kind of rough, the playing is basically my children chasing Dexter while he tries to find a new place to hide and cuddling is usually one of the boys laying on the poor cat while he is squirming to get away. The funny part is the boys genuinely love Dexter. So much so that they wanted to buy him a Halloween costume so he wouldn't feel left out. After a little wrangling to get it on, Dexter's costume transformed him into a chicken. It didn't seem like he really appreciated it....

Can you guess my mood????

I love being on vacation but the next best thing is being on countdown to vacation! I feel like my life does a complete turn around when I'm off track. I get to be home with my kids, I get to see my husband, I can reconnect with my friends and I get to have a pedicure now and then. My toes are wiggling in anticipation....:) Twenty days left (but who's counting)!

Roadhouse

Tonight we went out to dinner to Roadhouse with our friends the Paulo's. We love hanging out with this family because they have 2 little ones the same ages as our kids and they love to go out & do stuff just like us. We had a great night... until Derek got so wound up from running around after dinner that he decided to barf all over the place. Way to make an impression kid. I guess after all those times I embarassed my own parents, karma was bound to get me back! Anyhow we had a blast... let's do it again soon!

Hungry?

Sometimes it is not the best idea to stop and take a funny picture. See, it was dinner- making time in the Collins home (always chaotic to say the least), and I was busy. You know, cooking. So when Derek asked for some cheerios I figured "sure." I gave him a couple and put the box on the counter. Apparently he can reach the counter. What you see is what he did. A pain to clean up but kinda funny so I had to snap his pic. What you don't see is what happened next. My child decided to sweep that whole pile onto my just cleaned floors. And you know the cereal dust that comes at the bottom of the package? Let's just say I am blogging in an effort to avoid mopping. Maybe next time I will clean up the table before whatever it is hits the floor!