Happy Halloween

Ready to go

Pumpkin bowling

Trick or treating at the lumberyard. Notice the open Mounds bar?
Our little octopus, my last minute attempt at Seaweed and Tony went as a surfer. He claims that this in fact is a proper costume since he barely gets out in the water anymore. I am not so sure about that. Trick or treating in Harbor Point
Our Halloween night was super fun. We went to the lumberyard to walk around see some pumpkins at SRF, hear some music and even take advantage of a free family photo opportunity. We should have lingered around town a little more. We rushed home to be able to go out and trick or treat with the kiddos on our street . Brayden was having a swell time wandering around the shops getting candy with kids more his own age and listening to the band. We committed to our neighbors and thought it would be fun to have a little happy hour while walking around the neighborhood. Apparently we were the only ones who thought that idea was clever out of our group. We drank our beers quickly and in covert plastic cups- alone. We only made it a couple of streets and then our Brayden wanted something more to eat besides candy. We spent the remaining night handing out candy, eating leftovers and have a couple of beers in their original container.

Our Friday night Halloween party. I think next year we will try for a day party.

Pinata mania

Brayden with his poodle pal Malley

Before the mini's arrived. Watching his favorite show- Yo Gabba Gabba.

Celebrating 87

When you pass 80 in our family you get a big party every year complete with a house full of family, a lovely dinner and a cake with the number of candles equal to your age. My grandma turned 87 this week and 30 or so of her closest family wanted to help her celebrate.

Our sad attempt at a German Chocolate cake. It never made it to the party. The frosting was too clumpy to present to even family. Maybe next year for #88Some second cousins. ( l-r Tim, me, Amy, Jason ( my brother) , Michael and Chris.)

Hovering around the birthday girl. My mom made her wear a hat that looked more like horns instead of candles.

Double fisted.

Fire!!! She blew them out in a couple of blows too. Happy birthday Grandma. We love you and look forward to celebrating #88.

October and 85 degrees

We had a fun time at Bates Nut Farm last weekend with the Hayden's even though it was quite warm and crowded. What was started out as a crisp fall morning quickly turned to blazing hot day.
Stuffing the big mac's

The tractor tour

Costume finished with 2 weeks to spare. I still need to whip mine up and see if I can convince Tony to dress up in theme. Not too much cooperation modeling the finished product was offered up before bedtime. I am quite pleased with his little costume. I would have preferred to have his head be the octopus head but I know he would not have kept anything on his head for even a minute. Pick your battles as they say.

More Octoberness

Last weekend at the Carlsbad Oktoberfest. A very fun family event to kick off the fall season. Sooooo excited to be on a real firetruck.

Polka dance party!

Fun play date with Patrick and Liam at the Del Mar pumpkin patch.

Petting zoo

Handling the inventory

They are hired!!

Winding down

Have a lovely weekend.

Spooky in September

Pirate party at the Encinitas Library.

At least he is not eating the glue.

So excited for all of the Halloween spook, candy and decor. I am thrilled to display my score from last years 75% off sale at PB kids. I think they had so many left over from last year the decided to sell them again. I love it. The days are already stuffed with treats and fun things to do all month long. Brayden is quite fond of these singing toads to his right. They come with us everywhere. Hopefully the novelty will wear off or the batteries will run out of juice.


This year we are getting a jump start on the Halloween season. Tony is making some wooded lawn ghosts and scary critters, I am making a few things for the house in addition to the costumes. I am rather excited that we have started our projects and costumes early. We are even toying with the idea of having a Halloween party. Hooray!
Sadly we decided we will not be going to San Francisco for our belated anniversary trip. I was going to run my half marathon and Tony was going to cheer me on. Awwwwww... but actually it was a fair trade since we spent the majority of our anniversary night attending a surfboard auction ( but a lovely dinner followed). I was excited for the challenge of the run and have been diligently been running at least one distance run a week. I am running from our house to Seaside which is a milestone for me. The economics were not in our favor. When the cost for 2 days staying in dirty Union Square was exceeding the cost of 2 plane tickets to Hawaii , time to reevaluate the trip. I am fairly confident I can find a local race to sign up for here.

Savoring Summer

We spent the last week of summer doing a lot of hanging around. Realizing a little too late that we live in a home with air conditioning that works fantastic. One of the highlights of our week was a midweek boat BBQ. My dad put their boat in a slip in Oceanside and wanted to BBQ and have Brayden have his first harbor cruise.

His life vest made me nervous. I am pretty sure the coast guards would frown on it. We managed to keep him from climbing overboard. I will be in charge of selecting the vest for the next boat outing instead of my mom. She brought the one that looked the most comfortable.

My dad was THRILLED to finally take his Grandson for a ride. Tony goes fishing with him a lot but it usually takes drinks and food or a trip to Catalina to get the whole family on board.

THE NEW BED.........

The bed rail-the best $30.00 we have spent lately. Brayden and his parents love his big boy bed. (Did I mention Tony made the bed frame for him? I think I did) We obviously take every opportunity we can to point out how fantastic it is to keep the excitement of sleeping IN the bed alive. So far so good. He got a new rug to help hide the hideous green( new to him anyway- Thanks garage sale on Neptune), a new pillow, and gets to use his quilt I made for him before he was born.

A brief demonstration of how you access the top of my bed with the assistance of a friendly whale step stool.

This is right about where I lay down. Right in the middle.

And this is what I think of mom's lame useless pillows. And there is the quilt crumpled on the floor which she slaved over.

"daddy"

..is a quite a popular guy in our house these days. With Tony being extra busy with work and not being home as much Brayden has been at his side every moment possible. When Tony is gone his whereabouts are questioned repeatedly. Over the last couple of weekends we have made up for lost time by spending lots of time at the beach. First surf lesson.. A natural already

Changing the back brakes. Tony did both of our cars last weekend. I figure that saved us at least $600 for both of our cars in labor alone. Too bad the money saves has been earmarked to be spent on tires.

At the nighttime zoo with pal Liam.

***sleeping in crib continues to be a challenge but getting better. Maybe next week will offer a more promising update.