Happy Halloween!

For the third year in a row, we took the kids to UVA's Halloween on the Lawn, where the college students hand out candy to what feels like the whole town. It's always crowded, but fun to look at all the different costumes and run into friends. This year the kids seemed to understand the idea of trick or treating more and were excited to get candy, but too shy to say "trick or treat" or "thank you" or even "hi". And then we had to explain why they had to wait until after dinner to eat any candy. And the whole time I was assessing their bags for choking hazards. College students don't really think about the perils of small round candies, I guess.

On our way to the Lawn

As usual, we were quite the spectacle

Lucas refused to wear his Cookie Monster costume, so Jason wore it instead

Hat-Dad joined us

This green guy was weird but the kids didn't mind as long as he gave them candy

People-watching

Stomping in the leaves

After trick or treating we went out for pizza. The kids kept their costumes on. We need to check the Elmo fur for crumbs and pizza sauce...

It was an exhausting afternoon, but fun! Click on the dates for a peek back at Halloween 2010 (7 months old) and 2011 (19 months old).  I can't believe how little they were and how big they're getting!

Fun with Goggles

Sheesh. Two weeks since my last post, and I still haven't finished with vacation pictures. I may still be posting about the vacation at Thanksgiving. I have a whole CD of pictures that Grandma Di took and I haven't even looked at them yet. I'm determined to get to it, though! It's just so hard when I don't even get any "me" time until 8:30pm, and then I'm tired enough to go to bed by 9:30pm.

So while you're waiting for beach pictures, here are some pictures of the kids playing with goggles in the bathtub. After Abby almost stole some other kid's goggles at the pool, I got them some cheap ones from the grocery store. They loved them! And, I made the serendipitous discovery that they don't complain as much about their hair getting rinsed when they're wearing the goggles.

Beach Vacation: Playgrounds

We explored every playground we could find during the week we were at the beach. We found a small one shaped like a pirate ship:

 

 They enjoyed practicing their tummy swinging technique

There was also a secret clubhouse inside the pirate ship

There was a fun playground near the lighthouse that had tire swings made to look like horses.

Abby and Zoey were quite adventurous on the slide and monkey bars

And a few more pics of the playground at our resort. Lots of fun!

It was so hard to wear these kids out on vacation! Every day we had to take them to the playground, and the pool/beach, and for a walk. I think I got more exercise on vacation than I usually do at home! (and we still had trouble getting them to take naps)