Friday, November 30, 2012

Date Night with Dylan

Tonight Dylan and I had the best date night ever.

Daniel and Dylan are going to be in the play, Its a Wonderful Life (more on that later) and usually Daniel takes Dylan to all the rehearsals. Tonight he had to work late though, so he asked me to take Dyl. I'll be honest, I was a little annoyed at first. The practice didn't even start until 7pm and I didn't want London out past her bedtime. But when my mom offered to come over and sit with London, I agreed to drive him.
I'm so glad I that went. It was so fun to see Dylan on stage. He takes it so seriously. 
He only has a couple of lines but he does a great job with them.

After rehearsal wrapped we walked outside and found tons of people walking the square (the theatre is right on the town square) and live music playing. I asked Dylan if he'd like to go on a date. He smiled that smile he gets when he's excited and surprised, wrapped his arm around my waist and said yes. We followed the sound of the music and found a band playing Feliz Navidad. Dylan instantly started dancing. He looks and acts just like his Daddy, but THAT he gets from me. We both danced and smiled ear to ear the entire length of the song.  I watched him swaying his hips and moving his feet way faster than the beat of the music and tears instantly welled up in my eyes. I said a quick prayer that I would never forget this moment. Being with my sweet eight year old boy, watching him dancing without a care in the world, knowing that he loves that I'm dancing with him and that he isn't embarrassed by his mom, feeling how much he loves hanging out with me.... it was the best moment I've had in a while. I only wish I could freeze it and soak it in a little longer.



When the song was over, he asked if we could go get ice cream.
We went to this little yogurt shop and talked about how second grade was different than what he expected, what he wants to be when he grows up, his friends, and a funny thing that happened at school today.
He talked and I listened. Like really listened. I'm so, so guilty of "talking" to the kids while doing other things. I listen for bits and pieces but I don't soak in everything they have to say. I'm pretty sure every parent does this and I'm not beating myself up over it, but  I'm going to work on being better at  really listening to them.


We also played Wii at  the yogurt shop. He says that this was his favorite part of the night.

On the way home, I took a wrong turn (or two) and got us pretty lost. My phone was dead so I didn't have GPS. I told him that we'd have to figure it out the old fashion way and he says, in complete seriousness,"I'm just a boy, not a man, so I don't have a compass in my head yet!" I'm still laughing. Daniel always says that men have an internal compass and don't get lost.
Little ears hear everything.

Tonight was one of the best nights I've had in... I don't know how long.
I love this boy. But tonight I love him even more.
Tonight was the kind of night that you want to freeze and breath in.
It was the kind of night where you are so aware of the little hand your holding, noticing how big it feels now but that its still smaller than yours.
Tonight is the kind of night that makes you feel so lucky to be his mom.
I'm still smiling about it.

I try hard to be a good mom, I really do, but tonight made me want to be a better mom.
My kids are amazing.
I want to be amazing for them.  

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Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Halloween 2012

This may have been my favorite Halloween ever.

The kids are at such fun ages.
They get so excited about holidays that it makes me even giddier than usual.
I love holidays so much that sometimes I over do to the point of making them less enjoyable. This year we kept it relatively simple and it was really just perfection.  I don't remember  feeling stressed at all, which I think is huge! There may be a lesson to be learned there!

Back to Halloween.

This year, after lots and lots and lots of discussion the kids settled on Batman and Robin. I was THRILLED that they agreed to be a duo. I love for their costumes to go together. Last year, they wanted to be completely different things, and Daniel convinced me to be okay with it, but it so much more fun when the coordinate!!!



Also, this was the first year that London had a school party of her own! Parents didn't stay, but I did get lots of pictures when I dropped her off. She was so excited and so cute. The best part was that her teacher was Batman!! How fun is that!?
 
Dylan's school doesn't do Halloween parties, but they do other fun things to make the day special. Of course all the kids got to wear their costumes to school.  Then after lunch they went to the gym, which was decorated so cute, during their specials time and had free time to either dance or play at all sorts of different stations. I took lunch to Dylan. It was fun to visit with him and see all of his friends dressed up.
 

In the evening, we headed over to a cuddle sack
party with a lot of our friends.
 It was complete perfection.
 Yummy food. Friends. Laughter. Cake Walks.
What more can you ask for?



We sneaked out early to go back to our neighborhood to trick or treat. 
We went with our sweet friends next door.  



I'm obsessed with this picture.
 
As usual, Grammy came over and handed out candy while we trick or treated.
I'm so glad she's always part of our Halloween night.  
 
We literally had to stop trick or treating because the kids couldn't fit anymore candy into their buckets. I've never seen so much candy on Halloween night. It was crazy!


I'm a little crazy about sugar intake with the kids, so they by no means got to enjoy ALL of it. But I did surprise myself with how laid back I was with letting them enjoy some of it. 


I'm still smiling, remembering that night. 


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Trunk or Treat

Our church hosted its second annual Trunk or Treat the weekend before Halloween.
The kids had a blast running around with their friends and playing all the different carnival games.
We feel super blessed to have such an amazing church home.


.
Here's our Batman and Robin living large. :)



 
 There were all sorts of fun things set up. My favorite is always the cake walk. 
 

The kids of course love the trunk or treating.
Its always fun to see how creative people are with this.


And there were also games and inflatables.
I think the games were the kid's favorite part. 
 
 
 


Here's my favorite picture of the night. My sweet family on the hayride. 
 

I had a moment while we were there where I felt like time had crept up on me. I'm not sure when London became a little kid who is big enough to really play and enjoy all of the games. I glanced over at a little toddler sitting in his stroller content to be licking a sucker while his big brothers played, and I felt like it was just yesterday that it was London in the stroller and we were following Dylan around from station to station. Now, it's  her we follow around and Dylan is suddenly big enough run around on his own (with strict boundaries)  with his friends. I love this phase of life, it may even be my favorite. But sometimes I just can't shake the disbelief that my babies are growing up so fast. 

I told Daniel that I just wanted to freeze time that night.

I'm thankful for all the sweet memories we're making with them. I hope all of us remember nights like this for many, many years to come. 


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Field Trip to the Pumpkin Patch


London had her second field trip of the year last Thursday with a trip to the Pumpkin Patch.
This was new one that we had never tried out before and we love it!

I love seeing my sweet little girl around all of her school friends, in her own element.
I just kept looking at her thinking how big she is and how fast time flies.

Here's my little pumpkin at the patch.




This pumpkin patch had miniature rides set up. Its actually a bit of a racket, as they charge 3 tickets per ride. That doesn't sound like a big deal, but the tickets are $1 EACH! It hurt my cheap little heart a bit. But the smile on her face was worth every overpriced penny! 
 



London's favorite thing was the pony rides. She loved this one little pony, whose name was Daisy.
She had to ride Daisy twice
 
 


They also had lots of inflatables that didn't cost any tickets. London loved those too. She just looked like such a big kid playing on all of it!


My sweet four year old pumpkin, I love you!



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