halloween pasts

Lopresti Halloween History:

Dylan's first Halloweeen (6 months old):

And these are Dylan's first friends (we moms met at the hospital new mom group and we ventured into mommyhood together). The kids are all about six months old here, and now they are all five:

Dylan 2004 (18 months) Fuzzy Bear:

Dylan and Daddy 2005 (two years old) - The Punk Rock Years:



Dylan 2006 (3 years) - most definitely the coolest costume of all time:

Logan's first Halloween 2003 (I'm three months old, why can't they just let me bee??) :

2007 (Dylan 5, Logan 15 months) Mario and his monkey sidekick:

2008 - Dylan the Jedi, and the Bear Returns.

Happy Tricks and Treats To All.

More photos this weekend..

Happy Birthday Jorge

Today, Andrew's Dad turns 70. Happy Birthday Jorge! We miss you, the kids miss you and we all hope to see you soon. We hope you enjoy the home movies we sent. All our love.

getting the job done

Yesterday, the boys and I found the bargain of the month - $3.99 gigantic pumpkins at Harris Teeter. We put two in our cart and could barely fit any other groceries around them. Last night was carving night. And everyone got in on the action. We quickly realized gigantic pumpkins also mean giganticly thick 2 1/2" rinds to cut thru. So it took some work and some sweating. And some bent knives. And finally, some power tools on the screen porch, in the freezing cold 40 MPH wind gusts. What a Daddy.

Fall Football Fest 2008

Yesterday we drove to Maryland to the annual Fall Football Fest in Croom. Its a party held every fall by my dear high school friends (some I've known since elementary school). The party has sure changed in the 8 or 9 years we've been gathering for it. Many of us are married with kids, and we're all older. Its not as much about partying now as it is just catching up and having some laughs while the kids play. We go to this party every year, and I never get any pictures. This year I took just a few, so I thought I'd put them here. It wasn't a super big turnout this year because rain cancelled the party for Saturday and moved it to Sunday. But it was really great to see my old friends.

Thanks for hosting the party again Ronda!

Shannon and Julie with babies Todd and Lukas.

Jay (Julie's husband) and Miss Liza (and Mairin in the background, Julie and Jay's daughter)

Sean and Andrew

Dylan

and Logan

We are family.

We have a big family. BIG. We're lucky to have three families - Andrew's, my Mom and Stepdad and that whole side, and my Dad and Stepmom and that whole side. The biggest side of the family award goes to my Stepdad. There are almost 50 of us, and everyone lives within 1 1/2 hours of each other. You should attend the annual Christmas celebration!

Last Saturday night, we got together with my Stepdad's family to celebrate my stepgrandmother's 70th birthday. In all, there are two grandparents with seven adult children. And those seven children have kids of their own, and some of those children have children. When we all get together, we need a mighty big space and a whole lot of food.

This is the entire family - all 47 of us. With two more on the way in the next couple of months.

And this is John and Martha with all of their grandchildren and great grandchildren.

Everytime we get together, we seem to multiply like gremlins, minus the fur and sharp teeth.

how 'bout them apples?

Halloween and Thanksgiving, I love you both. But there are so many other reasons I love fall.



1. The color of the sky. Its never as blue as it is during these crisp autumn days. No humidity, chill in the air, blue skies and white puffy clouds, ahhhhhhhhh.


2. Sweaters. I love sweaters. Its like wearing a blankie all day. And I love to put the boys in sweaters. Cuteness!


3. I love that I can run errands, leave my bottled water in the car, come back and its still cold. Its a small detail in life, I know. But so convenient!


4. Soup. Any kind. Seriously, is there anything better than a hot bowl of soup and some crusty bread? I need to expand my soup recipe collection.


5. Apples. Especially green ones. The more sour, the better. I love them plain, dipped in caramel, baked into a crisp, and sprinkled with cinnamon and sugar.


Dylan got a time out at school yesterday. I'm not sure I got the whole story. From what I could decipher, the kids were taking turns saying what kind of apples they like. When it was his turn, he said "I like green apples!!!" in a loud monster voice, and the teacher didn't like that one bit. He said he wanted to make everyone laugh. So into time out he went. He told me about it as soon as he got off the bus, but it took a while of him trying to explain what happened. At least he seems disturbed about getting in trouble at school. There was a part of me that wanted to laugh when he told me the story, but of course I couldn't do that. It could have been worse, I guess. At least he didn't make fun of someone or disobey the teacher. I think his teacher runs a tight ship and good for her. I simply can't imagine wrangling a herd of kindergarteners twice a day!

number two

Dylan lost his second tooth last night. Now he has a gaping hole in the front bottom of his mouth. He could probably pass a Cheerio through it. When he smiles, you can't really see the hole. However, when those top ones start falling out, it will be a whole different story.

Again, it happened while he was eating something. This time he was having mac n cheese and it just fell out. I knew it was just hanging by a thread. In fact, I thought he might lose it at school yesterday.

The tooth fairy left a little something to add to his Leapster game fund. He needs to lose a few more to have enough cash for his purchase!

Do you hear that sucking sound?

Its the sound of every last cent being drained from our bank account. Seriously, 2008 has not been a stellar year for finances here at the Lopresti household. Andrew's car is in the shop again this week. At 94,000 miles, we can probably still milk it a little bit before having to buy a new car. No car payment is nice, but what's not so nice is the frequency in car repair bills this year. And already, on both cars combined, we've spent about $2500 since the beginning of the year. Not including the new bill this week.

However, that's small potatoes compared to the next issue. You know its probably time to call a contractor when you have mushrooms growing out of your bathroom floor. Yes indeedy. We have a mushroom farm in our master bathroom. Our house is only about 12 years old, but due to shoddy builder construction, there has been a leak over the years from the shower into the floor. The crappy linoleum flooring has been discolored and we've suspected for a long time water was getting in there. We figured we'd do the bathroom sooner or later, when we won the lottery or something. Then about two weeks ago, we noticed a small water stain on the family room ceiling below where our shower sits. Then the mushrooms started sprouting out of the grout by the shower basin. So that project has been swiftly moved to the front burner. On the bright side, I've always wanted a pretty bathroom floor and a nice little seat in the shower to make leg shaving easier.

We are meeting with contractors all of this week to see what we're looking at. I only hope I don't fall over and/or vomit when we get the estimates. But what can we do? If we don't do the repairs, we could end up showering one morning and falling through the ceiling right into our family room. And that would be no way to start the day.

So maybe we can get Andrew's car fixed up right to last until sometime later next year. And hopefully we can get the bathroom torn out, replaced, fixed and all pretty by the end of this year.

And maybe, just maybe, 2009 won't suck (the money) quite as much.

kindergarten field trip

Yesterday, Mom, Logan and I accompanied 150 kindergarteners to Great Country Farm in Bluemont for the kindergarten field trip. Although rain threatened pour down any second, it held off and we were able to take in a hayride and pick pumpkins in the pumpkin patch. The kids and I jumped on a giant inflated pillow, and we played in a giant bin of corn. We even got to see a real live pig race, SOOooiee!

beautiful, crazy drawings

Before kindergarten started, Dylan really didn't show much interest in drawing or writing. I remember at Dylan's four year check up, my pediatrician asking me how Dylan drew people? She wanted to know if his people were starting to have limbs yet. I had no answer, he had barely attempted to draw anything at that point other than scribble scrabble when coloring. It really had us a little worried.


I started comparing notes with moms with kids his age. It seems girls really develop their fine motor skills earlier than boys. Many five year old girls, it seems, have been writing paragraphs for half a year now. Boys at this age are more interested in the finer points of climbing and jumping.


During preschool, Dylan mastered recognizing his letters but really wasn't attempting to write them, other than some feeble attempts at his name. So I was a little nervous with him starting kindergarten, and wondered how his fine motor skills would compare to the other kids in his class. Once school began, its like things just fell into place for him. I can't believe the difference in his ability to focus on practicing his writing. His letters and numbers are really coming along, and he's even starting to draw at home when he has some free time.


And not only do his people have limbs now, they have eyes with irises, hair, ears, fingers, moustaches and beards... Its like he went from nothing to everything in a month. Its fun seeing him have a bit more of a creative side, even if these do look a little like the ramblings of a serial killer.

happy early birthday Grandpa Joe

Last night, we surprised Grandpa Joe with a little birthday cake a few weeks early, since he was here and all.... We'll see him and Grandma Bobbie in a few weeks when we go to Florida for Thanksgiving. He's building a slide for the boys into the pool, and has promised them lots of fishing and boating. Can't wait for a fun, warm week in the sun!

trick-or-treat bags

Grandma Bobbie made the boys these super cute Halloween bags, so they can collect their booty in style. So cute! Grandpa Joe brought them up with him this week and is staying with us for a short visit. He doesn't know it yet but we're surprising him tonight with an early birthday cake. Photos of that tomorrow...

life, before and after

Before kids, I remember our weekends being very leisurely and calm... sleeping in, eating a leisurely breakfast (with no one going into time-out), maybe working on some random home improvement project, meeting some friends for dinner, going to the movies or a party, reading the Sunday paper from cover to cover, browsing through some junk stores or a flea market... We were always up for some adventure, often hopping in the car to check out some random store and winding up two hours away stumbling upon some festival of some sort.

How things have changed with kids. Logan is still at a very challenging age. He naps, and our schedule is kind of dictated by that. He doesn't use words functionally much yet. So much of our time and energy is spent trying to figure out what he wants or why he is crying. Dylan is much easier and loves to go anywhere and everywhere. Logan has a ton of fun once we get where we are going, but getting him out of the house and to our destination is less than fun, usually.

So for now, our adventures have to be pretty local and easy. Logan needs his naps, and we need him to take his naps. Fortunately, this time of the year lends itself to some awesome little fall outings. On Saturday, we went to a farm down the road that has a cute little fall festival, with hayrides, giant slides, hay bales to climb on and a million other ways for kids to get filthy dirty.

We took in two rounds on the hayride and enjoyed the gorgeous weather. We fed the goldfish some popcorn, and looked at all the gorgeous bright mums that looked like cakes (according to Dylan). We watched Dylan leap from haybale to haybale, while Logan dug in the dirt. In all the adventures we had together before having kids, I don't think we ever took in a hayride or flew down a giant slide.

Our weekends may not be as spontaneous as they used to be. But going anywhere with the boys is always an adventure and I'd never trade that for anything.

I've heard of the boob tube but this is ridiculous

My kids love TV, its a fact. I try to control what they watch and how much they watch because let's face it - there are some good shows for kids and there are some REALLY BAD ones. Spongebob Squarepants is banned in our house. I find it rude and obnoxious and ridiculous. Just my opinion. The only thing Dylan could possibly learn from that show is how to make wierd farting noises. Which he can learn at kindergarten just as well.

Logan will watch anything, so its easy to control what he watches. Dylan is trickier. He is at the age where Sesame Street is OUT, Power Rangers are IN. Have you ever sat down and watched Power Rangers? It is DUMB. I'm sorry. I know they're good guys and all. But the acting, just horrible. Its unwatchable. He loves Scooby Doo and I can bear that much more. Some Super Hero shows are acceptable (though not educational in the least). I do find, however, if I turn Sesame Street on for Logan, Dylan will certainly sit there and watch, even if he'd never admit to enjoying it.

We recently discovered a new show on PBS Kids, Sid the Science Kid, and my guys LOVE it. They will sit down and watch the entire show, AND its totally educational. Sometimes I even learn things from that show. Another one they both like is the Imagination Movers. And Curious George. Totally safe, totally educational. All of these are acceptable in our house.

However, I am not quite sure what to make of this show. What is up with the red bumpy guy and the white guy? Is it just me or are they just a wee tad phallic?

I mean, come on.. What were the costume designers thinking?

This article lends some insight into Yo Gabba Gabba. Maybe I'm just not a hipster parent. But heck, one of my favorite bands, The Shins, have been musical guest stars on the show. So maybe I should give it a chance. And once I do, maybe I can ask this guy where I can get a hat like his.

perfection

We spent this past weekend enjoying the incredibly perfect weather at my parents lake house on Lake Anna.

Each morning we enjoyed a two hour boat ride around the private side of the lake. Captain Dylan got to drive the boat, and Logan sat back and enjoyed the views. We saw a Bald Eagle during one of our boat rides, and many, many blue heron and other long-legged water birds.

The boys got tons of quality Grandma and Grandpa time in, and Andrew and I got to relax. I read FOUR People magazines while we were there!

Logan fished for the first time with his very own Speed Racer pole. Andrew and Dylan caught over a dozen fish on Saturday!

We enjoyed a delish crab feast Saturday night, and then made s'mores around the campfire on the beach..

The boys played hard all weekend riding their scooters and the rollercoaster.

And Bella swam and ran so much she can barely stand up today..

I do not take for granted that we have this incredible, beautiful place to go and spend time with our family. The childhood memories our boys are making during these lake house vacations are priceless. I love watching them run in the sand, dive to the bottom of the lake to find shells and rocks, point to birds flying along the shore , get excited about catching a fish and throwing it back, roast their marshmallows to perfection, and get filthy dirty as they do what boys do best.

I want to freeze these moments in time and savor their pure, innocent joy and happiness as they take in the world with full gusto. The magic they bring to my life is beyond measure.