Spider Hunter

The boys have been devising a Justice League for 4 to 6 year olds since Halloween. They build forts in the living room on a daily basis and make it a point to get the big superhero books from the library full of plenty of color pictures....for research, of course.

Hunter decided that he wanted to emulate Spiderman and took it upon himself to draw the spiderwebs himself...


....ON himself


.....with a black marker


....a permanent one.

First boingies

When I was little my mom used to put my hair into pig-tails or pony-tails. My hair has always been curly, so she would comb each pig tail around her finger and make a ringlet of hair on either side. She dubbed them "boingies". Elle's hair is long enough now to gather them into her very first little piggy-tails. They didn't last very long...she pulled them out when I wasn't looking.

As I was trying to take her picture, Michael kept encouraging her to stick her finger up her nose. What a pill!

Playing in the surf

We took a family trip to the beach at Pacifica since Daddy had to go anyway to look at a retaining wall job for the city. We had a picnic in the truck and watched the waves. Lo and behold there were a pair of dolphins playing in the surf! They were hard to spot, and despite all of our pointing Ethan never actually saw them.

The boys had great fun running away from the incoming surf. Hunter thought it was much too fun not to get a little wet...and then a little more. Then he practiced writing his name in the sand.

Ethan and I read a book about the Pilgrims and he was curious about the well they used to get their water. At the time I told him that if we went to the beach you could dig a hole away from the surf and it would fill with water from underneath. I reminded him of the conversation and we dug a hole and tried it out.

After all the flirting with the surf, both boys ended up with the bottom half completely wet so their pants, socks and shoes went home in the bed of the truck. They thought it was great fun until we got home and they had to go in the house in their underwear.

Must.... finish.... corn....zzzzzz

We had dinner at my mom's house. Elle hadn't had a nap all day and by the time dinner rolled around she was EXHAUSTED! Fortunately I had the camera and could catch her fight between sleep and the yummy corn. Her eyes are just SO heavy. That's Hunter (3) running laps behind her.

End of the Soccer season

This last Saturday was the last game of the season for Ethan's soccer team. He played on the Wild Horses and was one of 3 boys out of 10 players. I was the team parent and organized the end of the year party. The family that volunteered to host the party also wanted to get a bouncy house. They collected $150 for it. It was forecast to rain several days in advance with light sprinkles all day. The rain policy says you can cancel and get your money back. They didn't. The light sprinkles turned into rain that evening and not one kid actually went in it. I didn't want that $15 anyway.

I think overall it was a very good season. I kept score for a few games, but they have a no scoring policy in the younger leagues so as not to damage the fragile self-esteem of the little darlings. please.

Ethan was a great defender. Whenever the other team got control of the ball he would book it down to the other goal and block their attempts to score. It was absolutely amazing how fast he could get across the field. When they received trophies at the end, their coach described each player and had everyone guess who it could be. Ethan was described as Dash (like from the Incredibles) the Defender. He was definitely one of the best players on the team and certainly the fastest. He wasn't so good at offense, but we can always work on that next year. What a contrast from the beginning of the season when he'd go to practice and then come off the field all upset that another kid had taken the ball from him. "That's the whole point, honey! Go take it back from him!"

Halloween fun

Getting dressed up has got to be one of the best perks of childhood! Ethan found a store bought costume of King Peter of Narnia and carried the magazine picture around with him all month. I found the cutest flower costume for Elle that happens to be just like my online avatar for my alter-ego, Cookiemonsterette. Hunter is very into superheros... especially ones that go as fast as possible. I was glad that he was happy to be Superman (a recycled costume of Ethan's) Unlike last year...

The family theme last year didn't quite work as well as I'd have hoped. Elle made a cute TinkerBell and Ethan was very cooperative as Captain Hook, but Ethan's 3 year old recycled PeterPan costume went over like a lead balloon with Hunter. He didn't want to wear the hat, he didn't want to wear the shoes and he insisted on wearing a Batman cape, so everyone was very confused about the what exactly he was supposed to be. A green Batman?

Hunter was overcome with anticipation for Halloween this year. Singing songs all month at Tiny Tots about the upcoming fun was more than he could take and he started leaving preschool all upset and sad because Halloween wasn't here yet. Oh fantastic. I can't wait for Christmas.

Elle didn't like wearing the petal hood. At first taking pictures was nearly impossible, but then she realized the power of the flower at our first official Halloween activity of the costume parade and trick-or-treating on First Street. Everyone made an enormous fuss over her cuteness and gave her candy on top of it all. It got to the point that it was all I could do to keep her out of her costume during the day.

I was glad to have so many Halloween activities to go to so the kids could make the most of their costumes.

The night of trick-or-treating Elle scored more candy than both boys combined. When people came to the door she would scoot right up to the bowl and start putting in candy while the people were bent over admiring everyone's costume. I can't imagine that anyone would have stopped her. Who could say no to such a cute little flower?

As a general rule I let the kids eat as much candy as they can handle the first night. I can understand why most schools cancel school November 1st. Can you say, SUGAR RUSH!!! After the first night of binging I put the rest of it away for desserts after dinner. Once the kids stop asking for candy the rest of it goes in the garbage. By then it's usually the lollipops and coconut filled candies.