Halloween 2014

This year for Halloween Gabe wanted to be Buzz Lightyear. He also wanted to be a shark, Heatwave, a frog, a knight, Optimus Prime and Captain Hook but Buzz was the most frequent request so we went with it. To accompany his Buzz costume, we had Calvin dress as Woody. Per usual I procrastinated putting everything together until the night before the ward Halloween carnival but with a little help from Devin, we got it all done in time!

Calvin is the only one who got a really decent picture before the ward party. Here he is as Woody. 

Devin and I decided last minute to join in the fun. He went as Sid and I went as Bo Peep. Luckily my nicest sister Julia walked me through a bonnet tutorial via Skype with hot glue and fabric remnants and I had my mom's 8th grade graduation dress to make a workable outfit. But I still don't think many people in our ward got it.

It was too sunny to get a great Buzz picture of Gabe. We got better ones on Halloween night. 

 

Devin painted and created Gabe's wings and did such a good job! Amazing what you can do with a little cardboard and paint.

Annie went with us to the ward party and then was headed to her YSA ward party after so she dressed up as Katniss and looked fabulous per usual. 

 

The following Monday we had a little party with our preschool group and we each brought a treat. We brought spooky banana ghosts and chocolate donut spiders.

 

Gabe wanted to dress as something new which was fine with me because I needed to wash his Buzz outfit (White costumes + candy ?!?) so he went as a knight. 

 

The day of Halloween we wore our spookiest purple, orange and black outfits.

 

Annie was the cutest in black and white stripes with an adorable orange floral scarf.

 

Had to throw in a picture of me wearing Calvin. SUCH a life saver with a second kid to have a wrap like this. And it went perfectly with my outfit to have  a little baby pop of orange peeking through! ;)

 

Here is Calvin on Halloween.

 A better picture of the back of Gabe's costume. 

And Gabe as Buzz! Cute kid. His front chest plate even said Buzz catch phrases and lit up!

Sweet buddy brothers together. I hope they grow up to be best friends!

 

I had way too much fun making Calvin's costume especially since it was just the appendage costume to what Gabe wanted to be. Here is his tiny gun holster and match like Woody has in Toy Story 1.

 

And as an afterthought we used electrical tape to make his boots say Andy on them. 

We took Gabe on his awesome, pushable tricycle again this year. Seriously the best way to trick or treat with a kid!

 

We went out with our friends Rachelle and Pierce (her baby). Before trick or treating we had mummy dogs and pasta salad at her house with her husband Brandon. He is a year behind Devin at Baylor and we are SO happy they live by us! They are such a fun family to be friends with and Annie loves them as much as we do!

 

Family picture

 

Rachelle, Brandon and Pierce

 

Gabe got lots of compliments on his costume and had so much fun going up to each house!

As an afterthought, once we got home we lit Gabe's pumpkin and took a little picture to commemorate it. 

Now its 10 pm and I'm putting these up on the blog while the boys (including Devin) are all asleep! Devin is in the middle of finals and is so tired. But we were grateful he took the time to come out with us so we could be togther as a family to celebrate!

Gabe's Third Birthday

We celebrated Gabe's birthday two days early this year because Sunday birthdays are hard. Devin and I stayed up late the night before making his crown and decorating with streamers (because we are great procrastinators) and we foolishly left his wrapped presents on the kitchen table. In the morning, Gabe ran into our room yelling, "Hey, Mom! Look I got a horse!" He had already opened one of his presents.

After taking a few pictures I started getting ready leaving his presents on the table again (apparently I'm a little slow) and Gabe opened another one of his presents (a robot backpack) at which time I told Devin that Gabe had ruined my birthday fun. Finally I put the rest up high so he couldn't reach them and got ready the rest of the way. Then he spent a majority of the morning looking at the decorations and yelling "I can't believe I'm free!(three)"

We packed up everyone except Devin who was schooling and went to HEB to get some birthday donuts. Gabe had already told me twice that morning that he didn't want birthday donuts but I figured he'd change his mind. This is coming from a kid who asks most weekend mornings to go get donuts. So we each grabbed one and then headed to Toys R Us. Gabe walked around the store for nearly 2 hours with Annie, Calvin and I in tow. We didn't end up buying anything (he honestly was satisfied with just looking at everything and pressing all the buttons) but he wanted a ride with Ernie and Bert before leaving.

We had planned to go to see the movie "The Box Trolls"  but when we were on our way there he said he thought it would be too scary so we decided to not go. He wasn't quite ready to go home after the store so I asked him what he wanted for lunch. He said PB&J and Cheetos. Three year olds are easy. We stopped at Target to get Cheetos he requested a blue Slurpee as well. We walked around the store and looked at all the Halloween costumes. 

After that we went home and Gabe took a nap. We knew we'd be staying out late and that he would need the extra sleep.

Once Devin came home we ate Gabe's choice for dinner. He wanted mashed potatoes and gravy with green beans. 

After dinner we opened the rest of his presents. He got robot masks and a hat.

We had him take a picture with each of us.

Then we headed downtown to get cupcakes from a fun food truck. We had delicious cookie dough cupcakes and brought along a 3 birthday candle so we could have Gabe blow out a candle and sing him happy birthday.

Baby Calvin is kind of smiling! :)

After cupcakes we went over to Lion's Park or KiddieLand. Gabe went on all sorts of rides. I'm pretty sure they were rides only a 3 year old could appreciate so it was perfect!

After the rides we went home and Gabe chose for the family to watch Rio. Gabe also opened a present from Annie, a green beanie that she made for him, but I didn't get a picture of it. 

 It was pretty low key as far as birthdays go but it was kinda fun to have Gabe choose all of the things he wanted to do. The next day Gabe opened presents from Grandma Nan and one last present from Devin and I. It was Boulder his favorite transformer. 

We are so lucky to have Gabe. He is one of the most compassionate boys I have met. He is so gracious and grateful. He is constantly thanking us throughout each day. "Mom, thanks for teaching me how to make cookies!" "Mom, thank you for helping me use my fork!" and then even after his birthday he thanked me for making his favorite dinner, for taking him on rides and the next morning.  Gabe has impressed me so much with what a kind older brother he has been to Calvin. He is constantly giving him kisses and hugs and asking to hold him. Gabe's imagination has grown so much this year. He can turn one toy into a tuba, a fire house, a watering can, and a rescue rope. He loves to play transformers, aquabats, buzz light year and all sorts of dress up. He constantly walks around pretending to be a T-Rex and loves dinosaurs. He has all his dinosaur songs memorized. Gabe loves music. He has a play list of 120 disney songs and he knows the words to most of them. He always asks what a song is called and later tells you the name of it and who sings it. Gabe is a great friend. He knows how to share toys. He may get upset at first about someone having his toy but after talking it over he is usually willing to share or take turns. Gabe's favorite movies are Peter Pan, Toy Story, Tangled, Frozen, Wreck it Ralph, Robin Hood and Winnie the Pooh. He calls Lion King "King Lion" and sings the Circle of Life at the top of his lungs while running around the house. Gabe comes into our room and wakes us up most mornings. He is always ridiculously happy in the mornings and we still aren't sure who he got that from. He grabs an apple or string cheese from the fridge and tries to steal someone's phone if he can to watch Netflix. We have all had to lock our phones so he can't  bet into them. Gabe has the best laugh. When he and Devin play wrestle mania on the trampoline you can hear his laugh inside. Gabe likes to play with Legos and is learning to play games. He likes Uno and Sorry. When he is disagreeable he shouts "Never! Never, ever, EVER!" and we all have to hide our faces to keep from laughing. We just love him. He is the sweetest boy and we are lucky to be his parents.