New Traditions

There are great things about every stage of growing up, and right now I'm really enjoying this stage with Alec. We communicate pretty well most of the time, and he always wants to do things with me. Since the babies are becoming more and more aware and have a longer attention span we've been able to start some of the family traditions I've been dreaming up for the past few years. Lately Alec has been cooking and baking with me! A dear friend gave me some frozen zucchini so we decided to help warm up the house on a cold, blustery day baking zucchini bread. I found my recipe here. It's really yummy, though I would probably not bake it as long as it says on the recipe. I felt like my bread was a tad bit dry. Alec sure loved the batter though and Lyssa wanted to eat and entire piece all by herself!We've also started pulling out the traditional Halloween Fun! This is a picture of the kids in their costumes before a Halloween party last week. With three weekends of Halloween fun I really feel like I'm getting my money's worth out of these costumes! Lyssa enjoys wearing Alec's old Tiger costume and Alec was a little jealous at first, but he's handled it well. Personally I think he's the cutest mouse there ever was, but I know I could be biased. Thank you to one of my favorite stores, Target, for the wonderful costume sale a few weeks ago! Funny that Lyssa's the tiger, and Alec the mouse. :-)Friday night we decided to venture out in the blasted cold and rain to go trick or treating at the Living History Farms. Nick's company helps to sponsor the event so we get in for free! We took Alec last year and had so much fun that we thought the kids would enjoy it again this year.This was Alec's first real introduction to candy. He was so enthralled with the first two pieces and couldn't seem to grasp the concept that if he would keep walking he would get even more... He just wanted to hold what he had! Lyssa really wanted in on this candy bit too. We decided that she needs to wait another year, though we thought it was sweet Alec was willing to share his tootsie rolls. The trick or treating ended something like this..... Yikes! I can only hope that this is the last time Alec is sitting in the back of a police car after trick or treating. They had a fire truck and a police car there for the kids to climb in and Alec was obsessed with the police car and the flashing lights. (The officer was so nice to turn them off for the picture, but turn them back on at Alec's bidding.) Though it was late (and oh so wet and cold) we set off to pick up pizza for dinner and ride in the "race car carts" at the my favorite grocery store! Which brings us to our next tradition! We've started Family Pizza and a Movie Night! We lay out a big picnic blanket in the TV room and watch a kid movie while eating pizza, popcorn, cinnamon rolls (Thanks Sara! Delightful!), and whatever healthiness we have around to feed the kiddos. This is Alec ready in his Jammie's for our movie and feast! And this is everyone glued to the TV! To keep with the festive theme we watched "It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown" and "You're Not Elected, Charlie Brown". (Last Friday we watched the fabulous "Finding Nemo!" and heard about it for the rest of the week) Once the show was over we whisked the kiddos off to bed. Tomorrow was race day and morning would come early!And now I invite you to watch a brief clip of Alec in walking action (which is no small feat with a costume so big and warm). I can't help but laugh and call him 'Gus Gus' from this great movie!(Maybe we'll watch that one next Friday for Pizza and a Movie Night!)

The End.