Pumpkin Baby!

We had to give this a try.  Christopher carved a pumpkin for Nick to sit in.  Full disclosure he had to open the leg holes and inside several times before Nick could fit.  True full disclosure there is no back to this pumpkin....because his little legs couldn't fit!  Oh this sweet boy.  And yes, after we did this we thought it would have been better to line this pumpkin.  Opps.

Ben 16th birthday surprise party!

Ben is turning 16 this year and I really wanted to do something memorable for him, but he wasn't making it easy!  Every time I'd ask him what he wanted to do he would reply, "I don't know".  It was driving me mad!  Simple decisions, like what kind of cake he wanted, was answered with "ask me when I'm hungry.  I can't pick out a cake when I'm not hungry".  We were actually traveling around Cornwall when we were discussing this and on a random day I asked him, "Ben are you hungry?" To which he replied yes.  I then asked him what kind of cake he wanted....and he was so impressed I actually remembered to ask him when he was hungry!  Haha!

What he didn't know is I had already planned a big surprise for his 16 birthday.  Working with his friend, Brodie, we planned a surprise party for Ben.  Ben had to take his Geography GCSE that morning, and wasn't feeling his best.  We had prepped him a few days in advance to let him know Dad would need help doing a service project after his test.  Ben wasn't thrilled about it, but was being a good sport.  It was a cold rainy day and he really didn't want to go and dig ditches.

The time finally comes and I have to suddenly run a quick errand with Nick (we had rented a big van, but had to move his party by one day and couldn't extend the rental...so we just took two cars).  I went to town to meet up with his friends and Chris and Ben followed a few minutes later.

When Chris and Ben pulled up Ben was kind of hurt that all his friends had gone into town without inviting him...and told Christopher to just drive on by.  He was so confused when Chris stopped next to them.  This is a picture of Christopher explaining to Ben that all his friends were here for his surprise birthday party.  Ben was totally confused!

He finally gets out of the car and everyone hugs him and tells him Happy Birthday.  He is still totally out of it!

We take all the kids paint-balling at our favorite paint-balling place in Andover.  Afterwards we came back to the house for a taco bar, caramel brownies, root beer floats, and video games.  Hopefully it was a birthday Ben will always remember!

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Our Last UK Halloween

Sadly this is our last Halloween in the UK.  We had carved our pumpkins with the Singletons and Cahills, but Andrew missed out to go to a slumber party.  Not one to miss out on things, he gathered all the supplies himself (without telling anyone), sat down at the kitchen table on Halloween night, and carved a pumpkin all by himself.  That boy is one determined, independent soul!

For Andrew's costume he found this super scary Halloween decoration that yells "let me out!!!" and wore him around his neck all night.  I tried to get him to put a scar, tattoo, or face make up on but he told me he was good.  Eleven year olds..

This year Chris and I were zombies (or tired parents...you pick), Ben was a 16 year old with a smoker cough (he said he could get away with it since he was still 15....ugh), Kallie was a hippie, Andrew we discussed earlier, Zack was a dead zombie prison person, and Nick was a wizard in training.

We went over to a little Halloween party and trick or treated in their neighborhood.  Zack and his friend George (who was day of the dead) had fun going around together.  George's makeup was amazing!

Trick or treating in the UK is very different than in the US.  The biggest difference is the tell.  In the US if a house has on their porch light it is safe to trick or treat.  In the UK you can tell if a house is safe by if they have a pumpkin....and it is lit.  Most houses you kind of had to search for a pumpkin, ,but this house made it super obvious...which I appreciated.  It was strange to see all house all bright and lit up....but no pumpkin, so you just walked on by.  This kids really had to work for their candy too.  In the hour and a half we were out they probably only found 10-15 houses that were passing out candy.  No huge loots like in the states!  I can remember living in New Mexico and the kids would run out of steam before they ran out of houses to trick or treat to.  Here you ran out of houses first!

After our long walk around we went back to the party, enjoyed their bonfire and treats, and visited with friends.  It was a great last UK Halloween.

Starfish Baby

Doesn't he just remind you of a little starfish strapped to Christopher!?

Caterpillar music class

Nick's favorite day of the week!

Every Tuesday I take Nick to a little baby singing class.  He absolutely loves it!  The past two weeks when we walk in he screams with delight.  He loves to watch Kathryn as she leads the songs.  This is how we discovered his love of the party lights!

Carving Pumpkins

This year we got together with friends to carve our pumpkins and enjoy some yummy chili!  The kids did a fantastic job and Kallie even did her OWN pumpkin 100% start to finish!  This is a first!  Ben was in Berlin and Andrew at a sleepover - so they missed out on all the fun.  Nick loved getting his hands all dirty in the pumpkin guts!