friday five

1. Happy Halloween!!  All day Jilly's been saying "I just can't believe today is Halloween!"  We're excited to trick-or-treat with some friends tonight and there will possibly (likely) be a costume change from last week so stay tuned.

2.  Bryan bought a skeleton head last weekend as part of our trunk decorations.  In order to help the girls not be afraid of the skeleton he named it Ken.  And the girls bought it hook, line, and sinker.  Mattie will give Ken kisses, Jilly shares her snacks and drinks, and they both love to tell him hello each morning.  Dads are kind of superheroes.

3. Jilly started a little Ballet class at the Y this week.  When we were buying ballet shoes I told her to point her toes and she used her index finger to point to her toes so... lots of learning to be done.  She had fun in the class and I just loved watching her do something that I loved so much.

4.  Mattie is such a shoe girl.  While Jilly tried on ballet shoes Mattie found every sparkly shoe within reach and and then tried them all on.  

5.  With October ending we enter birthday season.  In the next two weeks we have my mom, Bryan, Bryan's dad, my nephew Knox, and Jilly's birthdays.  Whew.  And I have bajillions of Christmas projects floating in my head these days; it will be miraculous if they all come to fruition.  It's the most wonderful time of the year!

trunk-or-treat

Our Trunk-Or-Treat was on Saturday night.

As always happens when I'm in charge of big events, I was calm, cool, and collected- not a bit stressed  (hardy har har.)

But our lovely Elsa's were so excited for the party

(sidenote: this is Mattie's first real dress-up and she is so in love; she asks to put it on alllll day long and then sings "Let it Go" and spins around.  Oh my heart.  Thanks Nana!)

Mattie's eyes got huge when she realized people were giving her candy

And Jilly was an old pro at trick-or-treating.

Pirate Bryan gave out candy from the Black Pearl 

(he put this all together an hour before the activity started- impressive)

I never got any pictures inside which makes me sad because it looked pretty great (if I do say so myself)

We had Halloween twinkle lights and ghost lights and lanterns

And eyeballs floating the in punch (my favorite part)

My girls filled their bellies with popcorn and chips

And were happy to hold hands and walk across the stage during the Costume Parade

And for the second year in a row Bryan's pumpkin won an award 

A fun, successful night.  And now I can breathe a sigh of relief.

Nana's Visit Part Three - Halloween Dinner and Weber's Farm

On Sunday we had the traditional Martinez Halloween dinner of homemade corndogs

I made a few other Halloween-ish side dishes and decorated the table for a fun and festive meal

after 3.94 years of mothering I finally earned rockstar status with green food coloring in our water 

They don't look like much, but trust me, homemade corndogs >>>> storebought corndogs 

On Monday we went to Weber's Farm

It had everything we could have asked for-
hay maze, tractor ride, duck races, tire mountain, boo barn,
and our very favorite- the slides.
Also, apple cider donuts and the best cider I've ever tasted.
It was a perfect way to spend our last day with Nana.

 "I'm Queen of the Wooooorld" 

M's turn as queen 

Jilly kept yelling at me to put my hands up.  This was my best effort.

Come back soon Nana!!

five on friday

one

Mattie's had a big week.  She can now sit up for a few seconds, but pillows are needed to cushion her inevitable fall.  She also can say "da da da"which is not an unexpected first word.  I'm sure she'll learn "mama" about six months from now just like her sister (stinkers.)  She also has decided she loves rice cereal; I cannot get the spoon to her mouth fast enough.

two

Sunday mornings are not my fave.  Bryan is in meetings most of the morning, and Jilly begs every 1.2 seconds to go to church (which starts at 1pm.)  Also, she insists on putting her dress on very first thing just because she enjoys watching me stress all morning about her staying clean.  This Sunday I finally convinced her to paint in the bath which provided a lovely distraction for our looong morning.

three

After our fun weekend we all came down with colds.  Jilly and I were lucky and got better quickly, but poor Bryan and Mattie have been suffering.  We're ready to say adios to the coughs, runny noses, and lack of sleep.

four

We had an unexpectedly awesome Halloween.  I hadn't really planned anything since we were recovering from colds and we'd already had a great weekend celebrating Halloween.  But first my friend invited us to go to the park, which was so fun.  After the park I had to run in the library to get a book that was on hold.  While there we found out they were about to start Afternoon Story Time (who knew??)  Jilly begged to stay and I couldn't say no.  It was Halloween themed and there were only three other little girls there so it was perfect.  We went to Jamba for free kids smoothies and came away with two- one for Jilly and one for Mattie/me.  Then we decided to go trick-or-treating with some friends who knew the ultimate place to go.  This neighborhood was filled with trick-or-treaters and there were lots of houses that were all decked out.  We had a blast.

five

And now it's November, which is quite possibly my very favorite month.  We get to celebrate birthdays of three of my very favorite people- my mom, Bryan, and Jilly.  We'll get a new nephew, take a road trip, celebrate half a year with sweet Mattie, and enjoy Thanksgiving with family.  Doesn't get much better than that.

Halloweekend

Since last year's Halloween was kind of a flop, I was determined for this year to be better.  First success was letting everyone pick their own costumes.  If you didn't already know Jilly was going to be Aurora, you should probably read this blog more.  Bryan decided to be the Brawny guy.  And, I did control what Mattie wore, but she didn't seem to mind our game of Cat and Mouse.

On Friday night we went to our ward Trunk-or-Treat.  They had dinner, a photo booth (see above), costume parade, and pumpkin carving contest.  Bryan won the pumpkin contest with his carnivorous pumpkin (in the spirit of full disclosure there were only 2 pumpkins entered, but I'm sure he would have won no matter how many pumpkins were there :) )

Unlike last year Jilly was all about the trick-or-treating.  Her friend Abby loves princesses just as much as Jilly so they are a match made in heaven.

On Saturday morning Bryan made us Pumpkin Pancakes, and I promise that green syrup tastes much better than it looks.

In the afternoon we went out to Oakley for the annual Martinez family Halloween party.

Close-up of the Brawny man, see the resemblance?

We ate homemade corn dogs, baked beans, salad, string cheese fingers, used band-aids, and mouths.

Jilly was not amused with donuts on a string so she took matters into her own hands (literally.)  Proud to be raising a cheater.

Then we played a game where we had to use chopsticks to put Reeses Pieces in a jar.  I lost with a whopping 2 in my jar.

We also ate lots and lots of candy and donuts.  We had a great weekend and I now feel like Halloween has been adequately celebrated; I have no clue what we'll do on Thursday!

Tradition

I just finished reading Happier at Home and now have a greater desire to create lots of fun holiday traditions with our girls.  So on Saturday we headed to our nearby pumpkin patch for the fourth year in a row.  It was the perfect chance for the girls to wear their matching shirts my mom sent. 

^^ her reaction to finding out hot dogs were for sale (we went the cheap route of grilling our own hot dogs at home)

2012- I remember sitting on the hayride and thinking that the next year we'd have a baby with us

2011- Little Jilly toddling all over

2010- Pregnant in the Pouring Rain

Little Red, the Wolf, and Booritos

This morning I've been reading blog posts of many friends whose toddlers "thought Halloween was the best night of their lives."  They all had darling costumes, yummy candy, and big smiles.  Well, after last weekend there was no way we were going that route.  I was disappointed, but figured we'd just have a fun Halloween dinner at home and hopefully get a few trick or treaters.

And then Pandora changed everything.  I was listening while cleaning up and suddenly a commercial came on announcing that anyone who went to Chipotle in costume could get a $2 boorito.  I texted Bryan, "We have a plan!"

Bryan met us at Chipotle after work and threw on his costume.  We got yummy booritos and J got a quesadilla but then she ate most of mine begging for bites of "wice wice!" (Costumes were ripped off the moment burritos were in hand.)

We came home and lit our pumpkins which enthralled Jilly.

Then I made them put their costumes back on.  Let's pretend that face is because she's afraid of the big scary wolf dressing up as her Grandma, and not that she HATES the cloak she's ripping off.

 Jilly took her role as donut distributor very seriously

 Until she thought of the brilliant plan to hoard them all in her tent

So, a successful Halloween after all.