Happy Halloween!

In years past, I have either chosen for him or strongly persuaded Griffin when it comes to choosing a Halloween costume. But this year I decided to let him be whatever he wanted to be...and it came as no surprise that he wanted to be Lightning McQueen. I decided to take off from work on Halloween so that I could attend the festivities at Griffin's school and finish the twins' "costume" (more on that in a minute...). Here are some pictures I took in Griffin's classroom before the costume parade and Halloween party. I tried to come up with a really cute costume idea for Baylor and Hudson. I didn't want them to wear the exact same costume, but I thought it would be cute if they were things that went together. Some of the ideas I had were milk & cookies, Elmo & Cookie Monster, and Tigger & Pooh. But in the end, I decided that instead of making them coordinate with each other I would have them coordinate with Griffin. And so this idea was born... I spent a good part of the weekend turning cardboard boxes and the double stroller into Mater the Tow Truck. Of course, he had to be "Race Team Mater" from Cars 2 so he needed flames and a 95 on the side as well as the headphones and mic. I ran out of time before I got him just the way I wanted him (no rust, no working headlight, etc), but my little Lightning McQueen was very excited about having his pal Mater with him for trick-or-treating.

Griffin really loved trick-or-treating this year. It was getting pretty late and cold, but he kept asking to go to "just a couple more houses." We covered almost all of Forest Brook and didn't get home until about 8:00. He said several times that it was a great day and "I just love Halloween!" It was past the babies' bedtime when we got home, but I wanted to get pictures of them in their Halloween outfits since they'd been bundled up in the stroller. Hudson is our smiley baby and he had this big grin in several pictures, but he looks very serious in all of the pictures I took of all three of them together.

What a week!

October 10-16th

On Monday, Griffin had an appointment with the pediatric opthamologist to see if the patching we'd been doing for a few months had helped his eye that wants to drift (unfortunately, it had not). On Tuesday, he had his 6-week follow-up appointment with the ENT to make sure everything looked good from the tonsilectomy/adenoidectomy that he had in August (luckily it did).

Griffin and I both had Fall Break on Thursday and Friday, and we were excited about getting away for a night with our friends, Sarah and Bo, and their two kids. Unfortunately, the beautiful fall weather we'd been having earlier in the week didn't last and we had a dreary day. While there was a break in the rain, we all took a walk to the nearby creek. Sarah snapped this picture of me, Griffin, and Hudson on the way to the creek. I had originally told Griffin not to go far enough to get his pants wet, but that quickly went out the window. He was quickly soaked and had boots completely full of water (which he didn't want to empty before walking back because he liked the sloshing sound). I'm glad I let him just have fun being a boy and getting messy because that ended up being the highlight of the whole trip.

Back at the cabin, Baylor was napping and I was in the kitchen holding Hudson while the big kids were playing in another room. We heard one of them crying and Matt went to check on them. A minute later he was yelling my name and carrying Griffin into the kitchen with the back of his shirt covered in blood. Brody had accidentally hit Griffin in the back of the head with a candle snuffer. Matt and I left the babies with Sarah and Bo and rushed Griffin to the Blount Memorial ER. He ended up getting 3 staples in the back of his head, but he was amazingly tough during the ordeal.

The next day was the babies half birthday. It's amazing how quickly 6 months has gone! I had wanted to make cupcakes with Griffin and have a little birthday party for the babies, but we didn't get back from the mountains until that evening and we were all wiped out. But I did at least get a few pictures of them together before they went to bed. 

 And the babies did get a little 6-month gift--when we got home from the mountains, we found that the new double stroller we'd ordered had been delivered. It took Matt a little while to get it put together so it was Saturday before we were able to take it for a test drive. It's definitely easier to push than the double snap 'n go that we'd been using and the babies seem to like their new ride. Baylor was asleep just a few minutes into our walk and Hudson smiled the whole way. I love that I can have both babies facing me, both facing out at the world, or facing each other like they are here.

On Saturday, we went to get Griffin's glasses. He really didn't want to wear them and was self-conscious about people seeing him in them. Matt took him to Mr. Gatti's on Sunday as a treat for having a rough few days. He won some prizes playing games, and I was able to take this picture of him in his glasses when he got home (the teeth really worked in my favor since he likes to make silly faces all the time now when I try to take his picture).