Hair Cut!

I was letting Tessa's bangs grow, because they are easier to clip back when they're longer. But I finally admitted to myself that while she is super cute with a clip in, and while the longer bangs makes it easier, Tessa would not leave them in. She ended up with bangs in her eyes well more often than not. So, it was time for a hair cut.

She was about as amused as Luca was the first time, but at least she doesn't have hair in her eyes anymore!

Around the house

Just some pictures for things we've been doing recently.

Last year we accidentally decided that the fallen leaves would make a good cover for the grass during the winter. Because it snowed before we had a chance to rake them all up. This was not the best decision, and this year Josh made a real effort to keep the leaves raked. Which meant lots of jumping in leaf piles.

I'm pretty sure that this is what people were talking about when they say in Illinois you should "vote early, vote often." Just doing our civic duty!

Tessa likes to read all the books. Or at least take all of the books of the shelf. All. Of. The. Books.

Happy Halloween!

Luca was so excited to go trick or treating this year! Last year we went to some family and neighbors and Luca didn't want to do anybody else. So I was expecting about the same this year. He, however, had different plans.

Taken after his school party-it's icing on his clothes

After we spent a couple hours visiting with family, we went to my parents house to do their neighbors and have dinner before heading home. After doing the neighbors he knows, though, he decided he wanted to keep going. Of course by that point it was dark and snowing and the trick-or-treat hours were almost over. About half the houses were dark, but we stopped at every single one that was lit! And he said trick or treat, picked some candy, and was especially excited about the retired teacher who gave out pencils instead.

Diver guy and a mermaid

 
As we were heading back to Oma's he tripped on the sidewalk and I ended up running back with a piggy back rider. As he whispers in my ear "I'm so happy it's snowing!" So much fun =)

On a Horse

Since Luca goes to preschool through the parks department, every so often he brings home a flyer with upcoming activities. One that sounded interesting was a 10 minute ride on a horse that would be dressed up for Halloween. He loves riding Sandy (the mechanical horse) at the grocery store so I thought he might have fun on a real one.

His horse Rosie was dressed as a skeleton

We talked about it. I explained that it would be a big big horse and he would be all by himself on it but we would watch. He said as long as he was buckled on he would like to ride. So I signed him up. And we went. And he got on, got a helmet that fit, and off he went. Making sour faces every time I lifted the camera in his direction. I have no idea whether or not he enjoyed it.

I was looking though the parks dept catalog recently for something fun and found that they do something similar again around Easter. I'm thinking about signing myself up and getting a babysitter for him. ;)

Playing in the leaves

When we got back from the town trick or treat the weather was beautiful and the yard was full of leaves. Naturally, that meant playing in big ol' leaf piles!

Last year while Luca played in the neighbor's leaves 2 month old Tessa was inside napping. So this year we were excited to see what she thought of it. She loved it! She liked handing leaves to whoever was closest, laughing and watching Luca, and splashing in them. =)

Luca of course had a blast running and jumping in and then immediately asking us to rake them back in a big pile so he could do it again. He was less excited about sharing the pile with Tessa, but was eventually convinced that she could sit to the side and he could still jump in the big part.

Pa had come over to help fix stuff (again... Thanks Pa!) and tried to convince Luca he knew a fun and exciting new way to play in the leaves! Luca was not sold.

Still, lots of fun, lots of jumping, lots of raking, good way to spend an afternoon.

Pumpkin painting

The last couple years we've carved pumpkins. And by "we" I mostly mean Josh. It was fun, we had both gone years without carving a pumpkin. The first year we figured Luca would be too little to enjoy it, but we did it anyway. Then last year we thought he might get into it more. He didn't. So this year we decided that playing in pumpkin guts and hoping it doesn't rot before we're done enjoying it just wasn't worth it.

The stem needed to be pretty too

Instead, we found some huge pumpkins for a huge deal at the grocery of all places, and gave Luca a couple plates of paint blobs and told him to go to town. And he did. I debated doing it with Tessa too, but decided it wasn't really a good idea. She has her own little white pumpkin that Luca picked for her that she carries around and tries to eat and has fun with. So she's good with the festivities.

Happy kids equals happy parents!

Little Creeper

One of Luca's duplo sets came with little eye stickers so he could turn any block he wanted to into an eye. I didn't want all eye blocks so I took the sheet and stuck it somewhere. Ages ago. Luca found it. I have no idea where it was because, genuinely, it was probably a year ago that I hid it. And because he's clever he knew they were eyes. But he had bigger plans than putting them on duplos...

I mean, love him, but creepy, right? ;)