I said "Boo!!"

"Let's carve our pumpkins now, Tyler!" I said enthusiastically. Tristan was sleeping, it was the perfect afternoon activity for a five-year-old to focus on before heading out to get a plastic pumpkin full of loot. "No, that's okay. You can do it, I don't want to waste my time," he responded. What a party pooper! I ended up carving all of them, even the ones I had painted to look like ghosts the night before. Luckily, when Tristan woke up he was more than happy to get gooey with me.

Happily stuffed with sloppy joes, the boys are ready to hit the 'hood! Batman did not bring his blankie along for the ride.

We covered the walk streets of Hermosa closest to the beach. The folks there are so friendly and practically every house is well-done up in over-the-top decorations with parties galore. It gets horribly crowded later in the night but we went early and all the folks oohed and ahed over my two little goblins. We did two short streets before we had to take a candy break, as seen here. Only a few more houses later Tyler was ready to head home to take stock of his loot.

Grandpa visits!

So we have a new little cousin, Sierra, up in Belmont and Grandpa drove all the way out to see us and then up to see her in his big, red truck. Knowing that he likes to keep busy and not sit around the house taking naps, we decided to take him to as many places as possible. Our first stop was the annual "Pumpkins in the Park" up at Fort-Lots-o-Fun. Tyler was a race car driver who became a tiger at the park and now refuses to let me take his pictures while....

Tristan was a very hungry batman who liked to snack on popcorn instead of saving people which is really overrated in the first place. Here he is clutching his popcorn bag to his chest like its his most precious treasure.

We also took him to the world's most ridiculously over-priced vacant parking lot-turned-pumpkin patch in the world where we fed the goats, bounced in the bounce house and met the most unfriendly pony ride attendant in the free world. Regardless of all the ugly grouches, both real and fake, we had a fun time running around.

Then we chose the cloudiest day ever to go to the observatory. Not much to observe when you're in a cloud, but we learned some stuff anyway (like clouds are cold!).

Then we made the trip down to Legoland where everything is constructed of Legos and there are rides and fun galore! We love this place and wish we could go there every day to see the mini-city, ride the roller coaster, and build, build, build with Legos!

The two-hour drive home in Friday afternoon traffic was well worth it for this super fun day!

Tyler turns 5!

Every year on Tyler's birthday I take a picture of him in John's swim trunks. He still has a lot of growing to do to fit into them (especially around the middle) but my goodness he's getting big quickly! Can I buy something to make him stop growing and just remain my perfect little boy forever????

Hey, you swash-bucklin' rum-drinkers! Git yer lousy stinkin' hands off my cake! Tyler's party was, as you can see, a pirate party. There's nothing quite like eight little boys going back and forth between a trampoline and a bounce house jacked up on sugar and wearing pirate gear. Even Tristan got into the mode and would threaten me with a sword.

Happy birthday pancakes? Of course! We had candles on everything from pancakes to sandwiches on his big day. By the end of he day he had completely run out of wishes.

Tyler's big surprise was going to be taking him to Disneyland on his birthday. Who would have guess that it would have rained on that day, and not just rain, we're talking monsoon-style rain! Instead we played with his new toys and took him to AdventurePlex and gave him a raincheck for another day at Disney. He was a mighty happy camper and so were we. How lucky are we to have such a sweet, funny five-year-old running (along with his brother) our household?