Our Day Off.

Today, Lon and I went on our annual trip to the mall! Santa pictures, some little bits of shopping, etc.  It is turning into a very fun tradition for us. 

Santa Picture preview! Yes, he wanted to wear the antlers with the little hat. He thought it was funny.  The wonderful outfit is from his Grandmother. He looks so good in it.

In front of Williams Sonoma! Santa  was wonderful as always! The elves who work with Santa recognized Lon.  That was fun.  We had a good time looking at all the fun things in Williams Sonoma

This window was in front of a store we had never visited! It is called Once Upon A Time. It has wonderful things for smaller children. The under 5 crowd.  They have a few things for bigger kids.  The things they have in there are beautiful.

LEGO STORE! Lon had a wonderful time looking around the store. Telling me which ones he wanted.  He wanted to get some of the missing parts. The Lego cashier gave him a bin, told him to fill it with what he wanted. Lon put in the one piece he wanted.  The payment method is by the bin. The cashier told him to just fill it up!  He figured it out, and filled it up.

After our shopping, we had a bit of money left. We told the bell ringer that we would be back when we were done. I am pretty sure he did not believe us, until we came back! 

See's Candy. They know Lon there too!  Lon changed his shirt so we could go to lunch.

Time for Lunch. I wanted to go someplace nicer, but Lon very much wanted to go to Pizza Hut. We did go there. Lon ate all the pizza.

We had a wonderful day! As soon as I get the Santa Pictures, I will scan them in. They turned out very nice. Antlers and all.

Ornaments

While Mark went to the gym, Lon and I brought up most of the boxes for Christmas decorating.  In one of those boxes Lon found an ornament kit I bought last year at an after Christmas sale.  He really wanted to try it.  It is a vinyl ornament, they have colored pencils to decorate it. You carefully brush water on the colored pencil and it turns into paint! Then, a black marker to trace the lines.  I did the water and the black lines. He was so proud of how his tree turned out!

Hard at work. Trying to do his best work.

Lon's finished tree. He signed his name to the back

I am trying to get some more blogs in this month, so there might be lots more tiny blogs like this one.

It's Begining to Look Alot Like....

Today and yesterday we put up lights. It was not raining yesterday so up to the top of the roof I went! We got the gutters cleaned out too!  Today we finished up the garage and the porch. All we have left for our outside decorations is the luminarias.

I am going to take the bright white lights off the garage.

 Lon helped me with the lights around the windows above the garage. He wanted to go up on the roof, and if he stayed next to the house, I let him. He was so happy to be up there!  He plugged the lights into the extension cords, and I plugged them into the wall.  He held the lights up, so there was slack in the line while I stapled the cords to the house. He was a big help. He told me when he was 9 he was going to staple the lights in, but not before.  Good boy!

This beautiful wreath is from Theresa in China!  It is by far the pretties wreath we have ever had on our front door! Thank you, Theresa!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Seems like this year is no different. I did not get a chance to take many photos.  I think next year I am going to give Lon the task of taking pictures.  There might be a few more than there are today.
It was a great day. Plenty of food, good company and cooperative weather!

Our table. Lon made some wonderful decorations. He did the two turkeys and the leaf rubbings. He learned how to do leaf rubbing at Tiger Scouts.

Dessert, coffee and cider bar.  We did have a pumpkin pie, but it was still in the fridge. There is now very little left

The turkey turned out SO pretty.  It was very tasty too. 

We wish everyone a happy Thanksgiving!

Happy 5th Birthday, Brian

Brian turned 5! He celebrated his birthday at Kidz Bounce out in Preston. It was a bit farther away for us, but it was worth it! We had a great time.

The cake I made for Brian.  A nice vanilla cake. It was a half sheet, with a Lightening McQueen cake on top. Just a little bit leftover.

Brian loved his cake!

The boys had a little bit of time to chat before the other guests arrived. 

It was time to BOUNCE! Up and down and all around. On all the houses. This place was NICE

Sliding down!  Weeeee!

Having so much fun!

Lon found the pneumatic tube system.  The soft little balls fell out into a crate near the wall or right over the center of the room. The kids could try and catch them there. Lon LOVED this. He played on it for a very long time, gathering up the balls, feeding them in, watching them go. Then doing it all over again.

Pizza time! The kids got a chance to eat, then some more time to play before the cake

I went on a couple of the inflatables with Lon. The obstacle course is much more difficult when you are a big person.  The slide part was worth it!  It was fun

Group photo. Now it was time for cake. After cake, we had to go home. Lon could have played with the tube system for much longer or bounced some more if I went with him. He did not want to go home.  We all had a great time at Brian's 5th Birthday party! 

A New Hat

It is not as if we are not doing anything, we are! But it is just either I forgot the camera, or it is just everyday stuff. 
A day or two ago, Lon saw this hat at the grocery store. He had to have it. I had to buy it for him!  Too cute

He loves his new hat

A sock monkey hat!  I think Gigi would approve!

Halloween!

Lon was looking forward to Halloween. Halloween fell on Monday, and they had a harvest party at school. This year I was able to make treats for the class. I made mini cupcakes and deviled eggs. The children did not eat many deviled eggs, the parents who were there ate all of them. 

After we helped the kids get their costume adjusted, they had a parade through the school, through the gym and back to their class rooms. Lon was a fine looking Marine. 

Snacks at their desks. Lon pretty much had cupcakes and the lollipop. Lon got a ghost lollipop on his trick or treat down town. A Tootsie pop with tissues over it and a face drawn on with black marker. Lon wanted me to make those for his class. After I dropped him off on Monday morning I got the pops and tissues and made one for each of his class mates and some siblings.  We really were not supposed to bring candy, but it was Halloween!

All the yummy treats!

When the party officially ended at 3:15, the parents who were there got to take their children home early! I bought Lon a See's Halloween candy, he was thrilled with it!

Inflating giganto pumpkin! Watching it fill with air

The annual picture with the pumpkin! And the second year with our big black cat!

Pouncing like the cat!

Our house all decorated!

Lon was starting not to feel well so we did a shorter version of our trick or treat route. I took this one and only photo of him trick or treating since the pumpkin o lantern was so creative.  I am going to try that next year.

Even though Lon did a shorter version of his route, he still got an enormous amount of candy. The split it up between our friend in Afghanistan, the navy, a college student and him self. 

He had a fun night, then stayed home sick for the next two days.  Poor little guy.