Happy Halloween!!!

What a FUN Halloween we have had! Matt had his Fall Festival at preschool on Thursday...him and Luke had a blast! Matt was LOVING all of the attention he got for his "super awesome" costume during the Halloween parade:) The best part was when he told people "Mommy gave me the black eye!" We then spent the rest of the day having parties, craft and game rotations and some yummy Halloween snacks!!!

Click on the two pictures to see full albums from our fun!!!

Halloween Day was even more fun (especially because Brian was a part of it!!!) Craig wore a Batman shirt in honor of Brian and Luke's costumes and had a black eye and bloody lip in honor of Matt's costume (and no, I didn't actually punch him to make it more realistic!!) We started out our evening at the block party for some "Halloweenie" fun and enjoyed grilled weenies, snacks and a neighborhood costume parade before heading out to trick-or-treat:) We came back home for quick potty breaks and all of the boys headed out while I parked myself in the driveway with the treats! Luke had a blast!!! His first house was the one across the street where he proceeded to dig in shouting "can-ee, can-ee" and quickly caught on to the the fun he was about to have!!! He made it about 25 houses and was brought back home so the big boys could have their "real fun"! Well Luke is obviously no dummy because the first thing he did was run right back across the street and hang out in the driveway with the neighbors, eating from their bowl of candy while they were passing it out:) He literally hung out with them for a good 40 minutes, shouting "Hi Mommy" across the street a few times!!! Everyone is now tucked away for the night, dreaming of all of the fun they had with full bellies of candy to keep them content!

All of this for...$4.09 (NO JOKE!!!)

I was a woman on a mission today after reading a coupon blog and I gave coupons at Target a try. I got everything you see in the picture for $4.09!!! I actually spent $6.09 if you look at my receipt but two things I bought were dollar bin items that I had no coupon for and didn't put in the picture as they are going away for Christmas stockings and they don't really count towards my coupon savings! So there you have it...with a little time on the computer and a list of items to purchase, you can leave Target with 2 boxes of Huggies wipes for $0.49 each ($2.49 each with a $2.00 coupon for each), a Connect Four game for FREE (currently on sale for $9.00, two coupons, one for $5 off and one for $4 off), a Glade scented oil candle holder and one pack of Glade scented oil refills for $1.50 ( $3.49 for holder and $2.99 for refills with a coupon for $2.00 of any scented candle holder and a coupon for a FREE pack of refills with any holder purchase), 1 package of Target Bakery Brownie bites for FREE ($0.99 with a coupon for $0.99 off any bakery item) and 3 packages of Keebler Chips Deluxe cookies for $1.50 (Target has them on sale for two packages for $4.00 with a buy two get one free promotion and I had two coupons, one for $1.50 off two packages and the other for $1.00 off two packages). So there you have it...I spent $4.09 and walked away saving $35.05...not too shabby if I do say so myself:)

The Race & Sea World's Halloween Festival!!!

**click the pics to see more photos from the fun**

Another busy, fun weekend in our house!!! We started with the boys running in the 1 mile at Brian's school early Saturday morning! Papa and Daddy ran with them and they had a good time:) After that, we loaded up the car and headed down to Sea World, making a "quick" pit-stop along the way!!! The UT Co-op is an amazing store full of Bevo apparel and we had to get some Bevo Halloween shirts! (You can't live in Austin and NOT have a wardrobe full of Bevo apparel!!!) My Mom and I "ran in" for some "quick" shopping which was put to an end when my Dad and Craig decided to bust in on the shopping (it had only been 20 minutes)and order us to the car where everyone was waiting...oh well..we'll go another day without them:) We arrived at Sea World to see the park covered in pumpkins and skeletons!!! The kids got to trick-or-treat through the shark exhibit, we saw some fun Halloween shows, went through Jacks Frightmare Forest...in the daylight of course so no scary guys with chainsaws chasing us, just lots of creepy decorations!!! Luke LOVED it while my Mom was terrified!!!

The highlight of the day had to be when my Dad and Craig decided to take Brian and Matt into the bird cage to feed the birds. It went something like this...you pay $4 for 1 T. of nectar in a tiny cup. You hold it in your hands and when you walk in the birds will land on you and feed from your hands:) I wanted no part of this as I am beyond terrified of birds as I saw the movie "The Birds" as a child and have hated them ever since!!! I opted to stay out of the cage with Luke and my Mom thought she would head in (what was she thinking!?!?!?) to try as well. They no more enter the cage when birds start flocking to my Mom...she gets scared, throws her $4 cup of nectar and a bird bites her finger, actually drawing blood!!! You can imagine the laughter that went on as a direct result of this incident!!! She is fine...a little more terrified of birds, but fine and gave us a great memory of the day:)

Paint Eating + Chicken Dancing = SUCH A FUN DAY!!!

Craig's Dad is in town so we spent the day yesterday at Six Flags! The entire park transforms for Halloween and has so many fun activities for the kids!!! We started off visiting Scooby Doo and Trick or Treating for a candy bag:) We then headed to where else?!?!? Wiggle World!!! Luke rode his ides, saw "his people" and even got a picture with the whole gang for fun!!! After a few big boy rides, we headed over to Pumpkinville and let the kids each choose a pumpkin and a cookie, both of which they got to decorate:) Three kids and three adults "seemed" like the perfect amount of supervision but Luke decided to prove us wrong:) The boys were eagerly painting their pumpkins when Luke just couldn't resist the urge to taste the bright green acrylic paint! After a good amount of spitting, a mouth cleaning with a baby wipe and a quick call to poison control (thank goodness for the Internet on my phone which quickly gave us the number!!!) Luke was deemed fine! A little green teeth, cheeks and tongue never killed anyone and Luke was DONE with the pumpkin painting. We thought it might be a little safer if he moved onto cookie decorating where at least he could safely eat the decorations!!!

We headed off for some more rides and ended our day with the Looney Tunes Halloween Dance Party! What a GREAT way to end the day! As you all know...Luke has serious people issues (although they are getting better recently!) but Luke does NOT have giant chicken issues!!! Foghorn Leghorn (that really is his name...thanks Ker) was a 6.5 foot tall rooster that Luke LOVED!!! He danced four songs with him and proceeded to chase him around the dance floor when he started to move away:) Brian, Matt, Luke and Craig had a ball dancing at the dance party and even joined in on the conga line!!! I had the most fun watching my four guys dance without a care in the world:) So my tip for all of you still trying to win over Luke...get a Foghorn Leghorn costume and come dance with him...he'll be your best friend for life!!!!

(click on photo to see pics and click above to see dancing video!!!)

The Boys Cruise with Gaga and Papa!!!

The boys are back and we couldn't be happier!!! Within twenty minutes of getting in the car for our journey back to Austin there were tears, fighting, yelling and two very tired little guys!!! (Life was back to normal!!) They had such a great time in Jamaica, Grand Cayman and Cozumel with Gaga and Papa. They went to the beach in Jamaica where they played in the ocean and jumped on water trampolines, went on a pirate ship in Grand Cayman...(complete with cleaning the decks and walking the plank!), and spent the day at a beach resort in Cozumel learning to snorkel with Papa!!! Brian's favorite part of the trip was not only walking the plank but diving off of the top rails on the pirate ship in to the clear teal waters of Grand Cayman, the jump was at least 12-15 feet high and he LOVED it! Matt's favorite part was the mini golf and unlimited ice cream on the boat...Matt is our junk food lover and in "true cruiser form" returned home three pounds heavier than when he left:) They are SO fortunate to have such amazing Grandparents that take them on these incredible vacations!!! Click the photo above to see all of the cruise pictures on my Mom's Shutterfly site:)