Friday, October 30, 2015

Happy Halloween!

The Halloween season is wrapping up this weekend, so I thought I would share some of the Halloween happenings that have occurred at our house!

Jack visited the Halloween aisle in Target.

Jack brought out the scary clown mask...

..So he could scare his Aunt who fears clowns.
 
Aw...this poor little Lego guy got attacked by the birds.

Sam ate some eyeballs.

Jack blew his eyes out with all his video game playing and his uni-brow is totally out of control!

Jack ate a cupcake with gummy eyes on them. He put frosting on his eyelids and stuck the gummy eyes into the frosting!! We think that sticking out his tongue helped keep the eyeballs in place.
 And then he lost one!

No worries, my MOM put it right back on for him, because this entire event was HER idea and doing!!

I will give her credit...she did help clean his eyeballs up!
This weekend, we still have trick or treating, maybe a haunted house, hopefully some pumpkin carving and scary movie night! Check back Monday to see how we survived!!
Happy Halloween!!

Thursday, October 29, 2015

This and That...

Here are some odds and ends that went on in October!

 Both boys love to spend time with their dad doing "guy" things!  On this day, Jack and Jason went up to an Iowa State Football game together. When they leave I always remind them to take pictures!! Jason does a great job sending me pictures of what they are up to!

When Jason sent me this photo, I wondered whose shoulder Jack was leaning on, but it's just the way the picture was taken. You can see that Jack is clapping and cheering on the Cyclones as they walked onto the field.
They had great seats for the game..not that the game was that wonderful, but the weather and view was wonderful!

 Sam went to an overnight retreat with his youth group. This is what he looked like the entire next day!
 Sam wrapped up a successful first season of school ball. The amount he improved was amazing and so fun to watch. I actually miss going to the Tuesday night games. This was taken at his last game with a few of his fans!!

Sam and Jason headed up for a football game at ISU on a Saturday evening. Sam told me the conversation about the "picture" went like this -
Jason: We need to take a picture to send to your mom. 
Smile. 
(click) 
Okay we are done with that now. That should keep her happy.

The pictures DO make me happy! Thank you, Jason!

Tuesday, October 27, 2015

Mitch...

As I said yesterday, I think Jack was a little inspired by the movie birds. He came in the next day and said, "Check this car out I just made, it's a lot like the one Mitch drove out of town in the movie!"

Jack also created a Mitch. Love how he drew the tie on Mitch.
He found crows and put them on the car and on "something." I asked him what was that thing the crow was sitting on...he said the railing at the house!


 Here is the car from the movie. Jack's isn't silver...they are not enough silver Legos! Notice the birds on the railing!
 

 And here is Mitch!

http://www.wearysloth.com/Gallery/ActorsT/16948-1789.jpg 

Here are a couple other views of The Birds Lego creation by Jack. You can see more details of the car.
 
 Jack took this picture and he loved the shadows!

 I must make a mental note of what movies we watch in the future, due to what he may decide to create. Hmmmm...might be too late.

Monday, October 26, 2015

Dinner and a Movie...

Last Friday, the four of us had dinner and a movie. One person gets to pick the movie for the night's viewing and chooses a dinner that  "goes" with the movie.  It was Jack's choice and so we had chicken tacos and watched Alfred Hitchcock's movie The Birds.  The perfect movie to start off our Halloween week!
http://hitchcock.tv/mov/birds/images/birds.jpg 

The boys have heard us talk about this movie and how unsettling it was. Well the boys had a different opinion about the 1963 movie. 

About 40 minutes in, Jack turned to me and said, "There is absolutely nothing happening in this movie. It is about a girl who bought some love birds to a guy and all they do is talk." 

Then the kids got attacked by birds....
http://bavatuesdays.com/wp-content/images/thebirds3.jpg 

http://www.filminamerica.com/Movies/TheBirds/birds24.jpg 
Finally, some action!!
And guess what they boys did...laughed and laughed!! 
What?? Why??
They thougth it was so cheesy because the kids were obviously not even running down a street! No blue or green screen technology in this flick!

This scene got a few chuckles too. The girl just laid there and Jack said, "Get up! Only one bird on ya!" Between his giggles.

http://33.media.tumblr.com/f99852b5d9636d1a12740cf1475c4ad7/tumblr_inline_nwhh3kmS5N1r4j8j1_500.gif

Both boys were a little more quiet during the "bigger" attacks, such as the one in the phone booth and the one in the bedroom.

http://franklin.davidson.edu/academic/music/public/nelerner/petittiger/media/melanie'scage2.jpg


http://bbdemo.bbook.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/oly1.54135image.jpeg

If you haven't seen the moive, then I am sorry...I am going to give the ending away!!

http://www.empireonline.com/images/uploaded/bird-final-shot.jpg
This is the final shot in the movie.  They drive away from the house not disturbing the birds. The end. We were all quiet and suddenly Sam says, "IS THAT IT?"  I was the one laughing this time! I can't stand movies that just end. I knew this was how the movie ended and I wondered if either boy would make a comment. I was obviously not disappointed! 

Though the boys may not have enjoyed THIS old horror movie, I must say it does inspire me to create a great Halloween costume someday!

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3074/3002259296_6a3d17c1dc.jpg 
And I believe Jack may have enjoyed the movie a little more than he is willing to admit. Stop back tomorrow to check out his "Birds" inspired Lego car!

Friday, October 23, 2015

We've Got Costumes!!

I would like to share with you the "rough drafts" of this year's Halloween costumes. 

Jack has decided to go as Bart Simpson from the TV show "The Simpsons." I don't know why.
http://vignette3.wikia.nocookie.net/simpsons/images/1/14/Bartsimpson2.png/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/180?cb=20140110020448 
He finally got his mask in the mail. What is all that black stuff on it? The company we purchased it from placed a flyer in the package asking for feedback on how pleased we were with their product. And it rubbed all over his mask!! UGH!! Not pleased!!

It's a good thing I am a crafter and have un-do product! With a little elbow grease, we were able to get a majority of the black smudge off the mask.  

 Jack plans all of his costumes. This year, he needed a red tee shirt (check), blue shorts (check) and a yellow morph suit! (amazon)

Put it all together and you have Bart Simpson!!

One of our many trips to Target, Jack and I spotted a Homer Simpson costume!! SAY WHAT?? Sam...you've got yourself a costume!!

http://www.republicofcode.com/tutorials/photoshop/homer/26.gif 

This costume makes Sam over 6 feet tall! It is great! It also has a fan that blows up the costume. Sam had to check himself out in the bathroom mirror!!

Check him out from the side!!

The two Simpsons checking each other out.


This picture cracks me up. 
For two goof balls, this is the calmest picture!!

Homer usually has a drink in his hand. Sam thought it would be a good prop...don't worry, it was never opened!!!

 Enjoying the pictures!!
 The plan is to have Sam take Jack trick-or-treating, not to trick or treat himself, but be the "guy" in the background. He is hoping one of his friends will dress up as another Simpson character. "Mom, want to be Marge?"
 Eek!!

Thursday, October 22, 2015

A Fish Funeral...

I am sorry to let you know that we have had another passing in our family.  Jack's beloved fish, Gilligan, passed sometime on Monday.

I knew something was wrong when he came into the room. 
 "Mom it's urgent. Please come with me. It's urgent. Hurry mom."
While walking to his room I noticed Jack had one sock on, one sock off...something had suddenly distracted him. Uh oh. 

"Mom, Gilligan won't move. He just lays at the bottom.
After much shaking of the tank and touching with a long Lego stick. We came to the conclusion that Gilligan had lived a long life and had died. Jack was so sad.

So yesterday, we had a fish funeral. 
Jack decided he wanted to bury him under his (Jack's) favorite tree. He went and got a shovel. It was the largest shovel we own. Notice Sam just turned and did not say a word. His smile tells us all what he was thinking. 
I said, "That's a mighty big shovel , Jack!"

We all took a turn digging the hole for Gilligan. 

 "You know Jack, when my fish died, all Mom did was flush it," shared Sam while digging. "Yea. Remember when Chubby died? Dad just threw him off the bridge for the raccoons to eat!"
Yea....we probably didn't handle those two passings the best. 

After Gilligan died, we kept Gilligan in a plastic container and then placed in a baggie. He had a bit of a stench to him from floating in the cup for two days. 
"Does he smell?" I asked.
"Nope," said Jack. "OH, Jeepers!" he then stated.
"Did you get a whiff?" I asked him.
"Oh yea," he replied.
"I bet that's what zombies would smell like," shared Sam.
(Really , Sam!)

 Jack loving placed him in the freshly dug hole.

We all said some kinds words and shared how good of care Jack took of Gilligan.

Jack carefully place the dirt over Gilligan.

 Jack had decorated a rock for Gilligan's marker for the time being. We will try to mark it better after winter. Jack wondered if it would be ok to crave Gilligan's name into the tree as a reminder. (wow)

 Jack drew a picture of a fish and wrote "Gilligan."
It was a nice little fish funeral.
R.I.P. Gilligan.