Halloween Week

After seeing pictures and hearing stories of Superstorm Sandy, we felt very lucky to have survived the storm with no injuries or outages. The kids' school was closed one day due to incredibly high winds and a ton of rain. We spent a much needed day at home relaxing and having fun. Finished off our day with an iPad movie and popcorn.

Later in the week, Alexis brought presents for the kids. Their new capes are a HUGE HIT! Thank you so much for always thinking of us. The boys put their capes on and sped through the house all night.

Halloween trick or treating was postponed until the weekend due to the storm. But, Aarti had her own Halloween plans in store. When we went to their house for dinner, she had a whole Halloween trick or treat set up in her house! She hid 10 bags of treats for each kid, and each kid had a separate room in the house. Genius! Oh, they loved every minute of it!

 (Mom, because I know you will wonder...I change into my pj's when we get to Aarti's house after work.) Thank you so much for a wonderful night. I vote Aarti to take over all holiday fun and games from here on out. =) We love our Aarti/Leela time!

Once the weekend hit, the boys and I started leaf blowing, raking and dragging tarp-loads of leaves to the curb. We only made a small dent, partially because I was taking pictures of them in the backyard and partially because I'm so out of shape that my arms actually got tired from carrying the leaf blower. Oh my, I definitely need to start working out again!

And when the kids weren't outside with me, they were inside swimming in packing foam helping Jack. Yes, this is our life.

After cleaning the house of all packing foam, we went out to celebrate Reagan & Brooke's 8th birthday. Yes, they are 8! Take a look at this cake. Apparently, Monster High is the new cool trend - and their family friend really knows how to make a cake. Pretty cool, eh?

 The Cleveland cousins.

Somehow Jack gets put in charge of the kids. And then this ensues..

And finally, Halloween trick or treating took place on Sunday night. We joined our friends and had a group of about 5 kids. It was small, nice and perfect. Justin was very confused because he thought that trick or treating meant looking for bags of candy at Leela's house (what Aarti organized earlier in the week). Justin was not happy about all of the walking in the cold. We ended our night after about 10 houses...just enough candy for me to dig into. =)

Other week highlights:

• Justin is wearing underwear. He's using diapers for overnight sleeps, but during the day, we are diaper free!
• I had parent/teacher conferences. Colin is doing well and loves science, building, and writing. Colin & 2 friends even laid hardwood floors in their block area. Apparently, Colin had a tool belt on and was using blocks as hardwood flooring and was hammering away! Justin is also doing very well and is great with sharing, talking and ripping paper (which I am told is a fine motor skill). Lately he has been very occupied at their art/writing center and he loves drawing circles that must connect at each point and talking about colors. 
• Jack is reaping the rewards of this blog and is humored that everyone actually thinks he did the kitchen renovation on his own. He did all of the scheduling and coordinating, but we had sub-contractors do the work. =) 
• Jamie is busy blogging. Haha. No in reality, Jamie is working, parenting and feeding the children. I wish I could say I do more, but at this point, I'm grateful to be awake enough to enjoy these moments with the boys. Love them.