Princesses & Superheroes

Halloween is one of the best times of the year in our neighborhood.  Our street hosts a block party with costume and jack-o-lantern contests and lots of great food.  Everyone comes out and enjoys the last of the daylight hours in the middle of our barricaded street before we all head out for a night of trick-or-treating.  The couples without small children pass out the candy for the rest of us so we can watch our kids have the sugar-loaded time of their lives and our houses won’t get TP’d.  We love our neighborhood.  We have lived here for seven and a half years.  With the exception of our childhood homes, this house has been the place where Jake and I have each lived the longest.  While we are so excited to move into our new house, it will be really sad to leave this house that we’ve called our home for so long.  I wouldn’t be surprised if we venture back here on Halloween for several more years.

One of our favorite Halloween traditions is spending the evening with the Edwards ladies.  I love knowing that no matter what happens and how busy our years get, we’ll always see each other on Halloween.  Chrissy has been compiling Gabe and Lana’s future wedding slideshow of the photos she’s taken over the years.  It’s so cool to watch them grow up together.  It’s also really startling to realize how much they’ve grown and how quickly the time has flown by.

The cousins also joined us this year!  I love the fact that they are local and we can see each other almost anytime and that our kids will grow up together.  I am thrilled that we run into each other at Home Depot on a weekday!  We’ve had this dream for years, and it’s now coming true. 

Ari was Princess Jasmine, and she loved being Jasmine.  She said “trick-or-treat” using her talker at every house we stopped at.  She also remembered to say “Thank you” after receiving her candy (in sign language or on the talker).  Sometimes, older people would not recognize who she was dressed up as, and she would tell them “I’m Princess Jasmine” (on the talker).  She frequently told people “Happy Halloween” as we were leaving.  She rocked that talker.  She had gotten plenty of practice in school that week, hitting up every teacher in the hall for candy or whatever they happened to have in their pockets.  Bella’s teacher informed me that Ari cleaned her out, and she even made off with her small change.  That’s my girl – taking care of business!

Bella was Princess Rapunzel in her wedding dress.  I think she pulled it off pretty well.  Stunner.

 

Gabe was Human Torch.  For those who don’t know who Human Torch is, you are missing out.  He is not only one of the Fantastic 4, which is a league of Marvel superheroes that, like, save the universe from evildoers that can eat universes, but he spontaneously and intentionally bursts into flames.  Gabe was not about to break character for this photo.  He called this his “magazine look”, and it was all him.  He also wanted to make sure that I got a picture of him with the spider.

I don’t know if you can tell, but I was trying to make Gabe smile here.  I love the Zoolander face he’s giving me in the middle!  He is trying so hard to resist.  These expressions are way better than any normal smile anyway. 

Liam also tried to be fierce and do the Hulk-roar for me.  I don’t know what I love more, the abs or the cheeks!

Marvel madness.

Disney princess prettiness.

This is our crazy bunch.  Love them!

Fun Week At Carlson

The last week of October was one of my favorites.  The weather was so gorgeous that everywhere you went, people would greet you with “Isn’t this weather gorgeous?!”  You could hear it twenty times a day, and still you couldn’t agree more.  I’ve found that when weather gets like that, people tend to let their playful sides out.  Back in Buffalo, where I’m from, spring fever took on a whole new meaning.  Here, our spring is October.  And by “spring”, I just mean the month after a long, horrible weather hibernation.

Even the school days tended to take on a playful spirit. 

A few of the school activities we enjoyed in the final week of October:

Bella’s first Kindergarten field trip.  They went to Schnepf Farms to ride fair rides and pick pumpkins.  I tagged along, and it was a good one.

Going on the swings and the rollercoaster were all Bella’s idea, but she got a little nervous before every ride.  I was the same way at her age (and even occasionally now).  She loved them all once they were over, but she insisted that the rollercoaster made her “butt scared”… ‘you mean stomach?’… “No, my butt!”  I have to admit that I can relate!

I volunteered at Gabe’s class Pumpkin Party, where the kids got to do all things pumpkin.  Gabe made me feel so special when I was there.  I love getting to know all the kids in their classes.

The Carlson Boo Bash rocked!  No school knows how to throw a party like Carlson!  Of course, you can’t have an awesome party without awesome people… and Carlson totally wins in that department. 

Can we please press pause at October?

Butterfly Dream Come True

It must be butterfly season in my neighborhood this month, because every Lantana bush is flocked with pretty orange and black butterflies.  And since the weather is beautiful (finally), the butterflies aren’t the only ones to come out of their cocoons.  We’ve emerged from our air conditioned house to take walks around the block. 

Bella’s newest obsession is butterflies.  I’m all about stopping to smell the roses, but last month, she took it to the next level.  Bella simply could not walk away until she caught a butterfly or until one voluntarily “lands on [her] finger”.  This went on for a while.  There was a lot of swiping at the air, climbing through bushes, and begging with the most earnest begging look you’ve ever seen.  Every thirty seconds, she’d pause to ask “Is there one on my head???”  It took me a minute to realize that she was sincere about her question, even after hearing the tenth “no”.  So, I did what I thought would satisfy her desire, and I told her at one point that ‘yes’, there was one on her head.  This only made her touch the top of her bike helmet more frequently and it didn’t squelch the questions even a little.  After holding up our four child parade for her chase butterflies for fifteen minutes, she pleaded, “Please, just one more minute!  It is my dream to hold a butterfly!!!” 

Then I remembered that we were going to Butterfly Wonderland for an upcoming field trip with her Special Blessings (Limb Deficiency) Group.  Right then, I was able to truthfully promise her that her dream would come true in 11 days.  Bella counted down the days every morning, and Butterfly Wonderland did not disappoint.  It was an amazing, dreamy day.

First brush with a butterfly.

 

Liam was so happy to explore on his own and get completely filthy.

Moment when the dream came true, and I started crying.  I still feel emotional just seeing the photo one of her most sincere childhood wishes be granted.  It was so appropriate that this was a field trip for her “Special Blessings” group.  This group is such a blessing in our lives, for her and our other kids to meet other children and adults with partial limbs like Bella’s, goes without saying.  But now this.  This was magical.

  

Even Liam knew to be gentle and just passively reach out and wait for the butterflies to land.  The butterflies didn’t trust him enough to land on him, despite his patience though.

Ari held her hand out and waited for her butterfly.

 

“Is there one on my head?” 

“YES!  There’s one on your head!!!”

Gabe didn’t know if his moment would come.

But then it did.

Liam tried to get clean in the waterfall.  That just made it worse.

Twyla was swarmed by three at once – two of which decided to mate on her arm!  If that’s not good luck, I don’t know what is.

Ari met a therapy dog, which may have been the crowning moment for her.  She can’t get enough of puppies these days.

That face just about sums up the day for me.