Halloween 2011

 I was a bit skeptical when they scheduled the ward Halloween party outside, but it turned out to be a beautiful evening. Thanks Suze for the great photos!















I'm not into paying full price for Halloween costumes, but James NEEDED to be a duck this year. Random people have been calling him ducky because of his blonde crest of hair and he waddles so cutely. I looked at making a duck costume, but we found this one at Costco (which btw has been ruining our budget since we got the membership so I could get my Blendtec blender this summer) and it was much cuter and cheaper than a costume I would have made.

 Ryan was "playing army" while were were enjoying peanut butter fingers and amazing creativity exhibited for the trunk-or-treat. (He was in Nebraska for his Change of Command... The nice thing is this means he won't be traveling back to NE one weekend every month for Army drill).

I took the boys to the Spooktacular while Ryan was in class. Alexander LOVED the slide and spent most of the evening waiting in line for it (I don't think he quite understands the concept of lines yet, because I was distracted for a bit and a bunch of kids cut in front of him and he just patiently waited in the same spot until I coached him to move up whenever the space in front of him became empty.) 

Alexander wasn't so sure about sticking his hand in a tank with a tarantula get a piece of candy. Luckily big brother came to the rescue.









Yes, that is a blurry photo of Benjamin riding piggyback on a unicycle! 

A reporter from the Daily Universe interviewed Benjamin. It's a bummer his photo didn't make it in the paper, but he was quoted. "But perhaps the best thing about the night according to 5-year-old Benjamin Lewis, 'It gives candy.'"

I am a bit disconcerted by the hold sugar has on my family. Ryan says that I come across as an extremist when it comes to candy, but he explained to our neighbor that I have a love-hate relationship with processed foods (i.e. sugar) and I go crazy after 8 p.m. at night (bedtime) which is why all the refined sugar has not disappeared out of our house... yet!

Benjamin's p.m. kindergarten had a shadow show on Friday.

 He was proud of his puppets. The pink one is a grave stone.












I was wondering how Ryan was going to get James out of the dramatic play area. It took quite a bit of coaxing.

I want to be the Weird Parents! Watch out Lewis boys!

Ryan volunteered at Benjamin's a.m. kindergarten on Halloween.

There was a sign posted by the basement laundry for a Recycle Maze and I asked Ryan to take Benjamin there on the way home from picking him up from school. Ryan wonderfully called and invited Alexander along. It was a great thing because the maze was one of the boys' Halloween highlights this year.

I didn't realize what I was asking of Ryan when I assigned him to carve pumpkins with the boys while I made dinner. He had never carved a pumpkin before?!!?!? We've been married almost 10 years and I didn't realize that?!?! He helped Alexander and Benjamin worked on his own with minimal instruction. Benjamin's pumpkin was half rotten b/c it had a nick on it that I should have swabbed w/ rubbing alcohol and covered in Vaseline when he brought it home, but I didn't. It actually worked out okay though b/c the jack-o-lantern looked like it had a lobotomy and the molding seeds inside added nicely to the visual.

I saw a recipe for a snake calzone, but the boys said we needed a spider because it was more Halloween-esque. The finished product looked a bit like a crab to me. (At least it wasn't one of the Queen's crabs... Sorry, obscure DG reference from my days in the AF. Ryan was wearing a pith hat as his costume, but I didn't get a photo.)






Benjamin's a.m. teacher said she had special treats for kids in her class who trick-or-treated to her house. We left a bucket of candy on our doorstep and headed out with the jogging stroller. James was content to watch for the first 1/3 of the journey, but then wanted to follow his brothers. He helped knock on the doors, grabbed some candy, and waddled back to the jogging stroller at a few houses.

(As an aside, it's amazing how quickly babies learn. Our friends the MacCallum's were watching the boys the other evening and James knew which door was ours. He's also recently started knocking on our front door from the inside when he wants to go out to play.)

It was just over 2 miles round-trip and we got to Benjamin's teacher's house right around 8 p.m. He received a large Hershey's candy bar, skeleton eraser, and candy corn pencil. We stopped trick-or-treating at that point and I carried James in the sling while B&A rode in the stroller and were too busy contemplating their candy haul to fall asleep on the walk home for us.

Why My Boys Love Doing Laundry with Me...

 Alexander is my big laundry helper. He actually gets really mad now if I go to the laundry room without him. He usually carries the soap or dryer balls, turns on the lights, pushes the cart, swipes my card, and pushes all the buttons. He can recognize the #8 because that's usually the dryer we use. He says that Wall-E lives in the cage where they keep the cleaning supplies. We always have to hurry after Alexander turns the lights out so that "Wall-E doesn't get us!"

I don't remember when the laundry basket rides started, but now they're a tradition. Even Benjamin has been involved. They have been careful so far and haven't clothes-lined each other on the table that is just taller than the cart.

 The boys are usually sad if someone else is in the laundry room and we can't use the laundry cart.

(Am I giving away our secret here?!)

Our ~100 lbs of Precious Jogging Stroller Cargo Survived a Mishap with an Oldsmobile Alero

This is my post from Facebook on October 7 at 6:09 p.m.  "Ryan just called to tell me they (actually the jogging stroller loaded w/our 3 kids) had been hit by a car. They were walking to the Creamery. B. has a bruise on his head. J. bit his lip. Amazingly, B. was able to hang on to J. through it all. A. was giggling by the end of their encounter w/ the police and paramedics. God is good."

Actually, Ryan was taking them to Little Caesar’s to give me a break. We don't eat out often, but when we do it's usually a last-minute $5 pizza so I don't have to make anything but a salad to go with it. The boys had been sick and it was a rainy miserable evening, so I was a bit surprised he was willing to take all 3 of them. My mom had visited recently gave us the idea of letting James ride on Benjamin's lap. Normally, if I have all three of them and Benjamin doesn't want to walk or ride his scooter or bike, I've carried James in the sling, but it's too small for Ryan to wear (and not very manly).

Ryan was crossing the street just north of Benjamin’s school and the driver was waiting to turn north on 9 East. He was rolling forward to prepare to turn (the opening in traffic wasn’t until Ryan would have been across the street) so luckily he hadn't hit the gas and he stopped when he hit the stroller. The first thing the driver said was "I didn't see you". Ryan's 1st reaction was anger and said "I know you didn't see us." He had the guy pull out of traffic to wait for the police. The 911 dispatcher wasn't quite following that our jogging stroller with 3 kids had been hit by a car. Ryan had to repeat the situation 3 times. It took about 8 minutes for the police and ambulance to arrive. Benjamin and Alexander just sat in the stroller quietly and waited while Ryan held James. The driver had some Smarties in his pocket and won their approval by sharing with them. The police didn't ticket the driver, but said that Ryan could get a police report later if he needed to. 

The boys checked out fine with the paramedics. The collision bowed the frame of the stroller and Ryan thought the front tire might be bent. There’s a Mad Dog cycle bike shop right next to Little Caesar’s and Ryan headed down there. By then James was asleep again. The guy at the bike shop was surprised to hear that they had been hit by a car and readily agreed to inspect the stroller for free. He said Baby Joggers were engineered well. It turns out that the front tire was not bent. One of the struts that come off when the stroller is folded had disconnected.

After the bike shop, they got the pizza and made their stop at the Creamery to get a gallon of milk. James finally decided he was too cold and tired and cried the last 3 blocks home. Their hour long excursion became a 2 hour long adventure. 

When they got home I told B. he was my hero for holding on so well to J. A. said he was a hero too. I told him he was so brave b/c he was on the side where the car hit and it must have been really scary. I hugged my boys tightly that night...

Ryan and I talked about what the phone call might have been like if the outcome hadn't been so benign. I can't even imagine...

I also had never considered the thought of losing all three boys at once. I had thought about what it would be like to lose each one individually or all three of them with Ryan, but not all 3 boys at once. I'm glad we got a taste without having to experience it. 

James bit his lip and possibly his tongue. He was asleep until the impact jolted him awake.

 Benjamin was screaming for about a minute after the collision and Ryan couldn't figure out why at first. This is a picture of the bruise on Benjamin's head the day after the accident from where his head bounced off the jogging stroller frame.

This was yesterday afternoon on our way home after I picked up Benjamin from kindergarten. Alexander did mention the accident when I told him we were taking the stroller to get Benjamin, but he wasn't too shell-shocked because he enjoyed retelling the accident story to me and didn't hesitate climbing into the stroller otherwise. James again wasn’t in the sling because he fell asleep on the way to Kindergarten and I didn't want to disturb his nap. Benjamin still has a bad cough when he exerts himself from when he was sick last week. The boys were on opposite sides of the stroller during the accident with Alexander on the side of impact.