Pre-Halloween Prep

We've been preparing for the big day. Yesterday we attended two parties, in costume.

Today: pumpkin carving.

Uncle Darren helped with the easy cutting part.

Daddy helped Ry.

Then I had to get the gross guts out.  It took some convincing before I believed that I was, in fact, NOT going to die if I touched it.

And here are the results! Mine is on the left and Dad's is on the right. (Mom says she likes mine best.)

Here are Mom's and Ryan's. Ryan's is surprisingly good...

Happy Halloween! We'll post costumed pictures tomorrow. Maybe Mom and Dad will even get in their costumes again...

Love,
J

Playing, Partying, and Planting

Yeah, we've been doing all of those things. It seems like time has just been flying right by. Wasn't it just summer?

On Tuesday, Mom had a conference with my teacher at school. It was a regularly scheduled conference, I'm not in trouble or anything. It was perhaps not the most glowing report I've ever received, but it was good enough to earn me a night out with Daddy!

Dad and I headed over to that well-known boys' night establishment: Chuck E. Cheese. It was awesome. We had some delicious pizza and played games together.

I'm sure Ryan was really sad while we were gone.  Poor guy.

Yesterday, I had my Wednesday golf lesson. It's pretty fun. Mom thinks I do better when she's not paying attention to me so we don't have any pictures of this. Maybe next week...

But here's the really fun thing I have to tell you about: MY HALLOWEEN PARTY at school! We got to wear our costumes to school this morning and then we had a parade. Mom got to come back and watch it, too. Check me out...

Can you tell who I am without the mask? Maybe seeing me with my accomplice will help...

No? Scooby-Doo didn't give it away?

Well, this guy showed up on the scene and he ought to give you a better idea.

 
He looks a little strange here, but that's just because he needs his coffee..

 

 

Scooby, again, the obvious choice. We heard he's friends with Chewbacca, so...it kinda makes sense.

Many more Halloween festivities await. There will be pictures.

Love,
J

Oh, the planting part...we planted strawberries when we got home. More on that later.

Videos

This post is an experiment...

Watch "Oh, Just a Sunday Night" on YouTube

Friday at Home

It feels like we've been really busy lately. I'm not sure what exactly we've been doing (school, golf lessons, spending time with friends...), but today we decided we were just going to stay home and hang out in our own yard for a while.

Mom was mowing the grass, and this always makes Ryan cry. That guy just has a thing about lawnmowers, I guess. So, since Mom wasn't looking I told Ryan he could sit with me until he felt better.

But JUST until he felt better...

HA HA. See? I'm being nice, Mom.

And now I'm done being nice. Sometimes if I ignore him he goes away.

Lunchtime. I decided that it was "a beautiful day" and chose to eat outside on the patio. Chewy always likes this idea.

Ryan was clearly unimpressed.

And now, it's naptime. Happy Friday!

Love,
J

Shows

One of our most favorite things to do is watch shows. Tonight, we got into our cozy jammies and snuggled in on the couch. An episode of Yo Gabba Gabba made us two happy little clams!

Love,
J & R

Ryan time

Sometimes on Tuesday and Thursday mornings, I get some special playtime with grandma and grandpa while jake is at school.

Today, we did puzzles!

Home from Home

We're back safely in our San Diego home.

Mom keeps confusing people by calling East Aurora home AND San Diego home...but I guess that's kinda true. We feel like we're home in both places.

This means that I cried on the plane when we were leaving Buffalo. Mom cried, too. We were excited to get back here and see Daddy and the rest of our family and friends here, but we were really sad knowing how much we were gonna miss everyone back there.

We decided that instead of feeling sad, we were going to feel lucky that we have TWO special places that feel like home.

We've been posting pictures the whole time we were gone, just not here. There are tons, way too many to post here, but clicking the picture below should take you to them...

Ohio/Buffalo Trip

The trip back to San Diego was...umm...successful? We made it. Ryan ALMOST was left in Chicago, though. And not by accident.

You may remember the Mexican Jumping Bean Incident of 2010, in which my little brother knocked down an entire display of beans in the airport gift shop. Well, he was going bigger this time. Something happened to the sweet, funny little boy who got on the plane with us in Buffalo. Somewhere over the Great Lakes, he turned into a terrorist. Being blond and all, no one suspected him as such.

A monster de-planed in Chicago. And the monster thought he was HILARIOUS. We grabbed some Happy Meals for dinner. He whipped his nuggets and french fries across the room. And shrieked with delight. (The elderly couple who was showered with fries did not find this nearly as amusing.)

He also thought he was very funny as he ran into some columns and pretended to knock himself out. Repeatedly. Some other people might have thought this was funny, too.

We attempted to get a snack from the store. Mom made the mistake of trying to also get herself a bottle of water, meaning she had to let go of Ryan's hand long enough to open the cooler door. In 4 seconds flat, he managed to clear an entire board of Chicago magnets, a display of energy bars, and a shelf of something in boxes. It was awesome.

The more Mom told him to stop, the funnier he thought it was.

This behavior only lasted another hour and a half or so once we were on the plane, so it wasn't exhausting or anything.

I was amazingly well behaved. Of course.

We're home, San Diego home, now. We are happy to be back with our Daddy. We're pretty sure he's happy to have us back, too. Check out what he did to welcome us home!

One more surprise I found when I got back was in my room...there was someone's bed on my floor. Mom told me to guess who it belonged to. I guessed Uncle Dan. My second guess was correct: Uncle Darren. So I said to Mom, "I've gotta go tell Dad about this. He's gonna freak out."

He didn't seem surprised. Weird.

Thanks to everyone who made our trip wonderful and special. We had a great time in Ohio visiting family and partying at the wedding there, and we loved being in East Aurora.

Hugs and kisses to all!
J