If you're going to party, do it right.

I'm going to backtrack a little to catch up on the past couple of weeks.  

PARTY #1:  Izzie had her halloween class party and dressed up as a purple dinosaur.  She absolutely loved her costume.  When I went to pick her up, I walked in her room to find a purple dinosaur chowing down on her lunch amongst all the other 'regular' dressed children.  The teacher said that Izzie was the only one who did not want to take her costume off when it was time to eat.

PARTY #2:  On Thursday Noah and Izzie had their halloween party at the YMCA.  Noah was a combat army soldier and he looked so freaking adorable.  They played a couple of games, did some sort of activity, and left with a goody bag.  The staff and other parents thought they were too cute.  It's okay to be jealous.  I have beautiful children. 

PARTY #3:  Izzie goes to a Christian preschool so the school had their harvest party on Friday.  All the grades dress up as Bible characters.  They each go up front during chapel and tell everyone who they are and if they're old enough, a little bit about their character.  Izzie's teacher said she was very shy about telling everyone who she was.  Oh, she was Lydia, the purple seller.  The story of Lydia is actually really good.  Anyway, one of Izzie's favorite color, mine too, is purple so we have a lot of purple clothing, scarves, hats and such lying around.  It was easy to dress her up in purple.  And since we were going on party three, easy was just fine with me.

Izzie's class was outside playing when I picked her up.  She ran over and started up with her allergy cough.  You could practically hear her phlegm screaming in her throat.  The teacher felt bad thinking maybe she ate something she wasn't supposed to.  She said that she didn't want lunch and the last thing she ate was a plain doughnut and some apple cider for snack.  On the way out to the truck Izzie seemed fine but then that cough would make it sound like she was about to hack up a lung.  We had just started down the street, which means we had been driving for approximately 2.5 seconds, when Izzie started coughing then gave me that panicked look.  It's the look she gets when she's about to be sick.  I won't go into detail but I will say that she didn't make it to the end of the street.  Neither did the doughnut and apple cider she ate; or the empty, flimsy box I gave her to be sick in.  Thankfully, we only live a few minutes away from home.  Our plan had been to go home, pack up the truck and head to my parents for the weekend.  Instead, I cleaned up Izzie and gave her a quick shower.  I put the babies down for a nap, then spent the next two hours cleaning the truck and Izzie's car seat.  Everything pulls out and apart without too much difficulty so my tools of choice were the mini carpet cleaner and the hose.

Right before we left for my parents, Izzie was sick again.  On the way to my parents it happened twice more.  Don't worry, she had a bucket and now she uses it.  Every time she felt sick, she would start coughing and then hack up a combination of phlegm and snot.  (She gets like this when her allergies get bad.  You know those commercials for Mucinex.  It's like that.  I guess all the mucus, phlegm and whatever else were a bit jealous by all the parties Izzie was going to and decided to have a party of their own.)  Anyway, she would feel fine after being sick and I would have to reassure her that we were still going to Nana and Papa's and that she was still going to get to play when we got there before they went to bed.  We arrived at about nine in the evening and they ended up going to bed after ten thirty.  I guess Izzie tossed and turned most of the night, but she was probably hungry by that point.  The next day she ate and was fine; a bit of coughing, but nothing to dramatic. 

PARTY #4:  We had my cousin Christi's baby shower on Saturday and Izzie was so excited.  She wanted to help hand her presents and couldn't wait to see everything Christi received for baby Madison.   Great company, great presents, and great food made for a great Saturday afternoon.  When the party was over, I dressed the kids up in their costumes and Mom, Jordan, and I took them over to loot Brian and Amber's house.  They made off pretty well.  The pictures below are blurry but oh, well...Story of my life:)

Izzie scored 'Dora's Halloween Adventure'.

Noah scored 'Mr. Potato Head Trick or Tater'.

Noah tried on part of Amber's costume.

Brian and her decided to try their luck at being elves.

I'm so mad I didn't have my camera and my phone kept freezing on me, but they still look cute.  Oh, and Brian made sure Noah and Izzie got some candy too.

As the evolution of Noah's continues, my family on the west side gets to see a bit more every time we visit.  During this visit Noah showed off his vocal range and volume to my dad while exerting his will against doing whatever he didn't want to do.  Getting his diaper changed, coming in from the garage where he has a slight obsession with Papa's car, going down for a nap, getting ready for bed, coming back down or back up the stairs, coming out of the pantry closet where he usually gets into things he shouldn't, and being told to take it easy on the attitude are just a few examples.  Noah's response to my dad every time was an emphatic, "NO!"  My dad would reply by declaring, "Yes!" over and over again.  Saturday night Noah took a bath and needed his hair washed, which is basically the same thing as torturing the child.  He was not to happy with Papa.  But then my dad had the brilliant idea of turning the tub into a slip slide.  He would grab Noah's ankle and slide him around.  Even when Noah slammed hit his head twice, he screamed with glee as he glided back and forth and sideways.

  

Yes, I cropped it, even though his 'lil tush looked so adorable.

Noah was pretty clingy to my dad the whole weekend.  He's teething a sharpie and maybe a molar, and was starting to come down with his first cold of the season.  This was a short trip to my parents because we had another party on the east side on Sunday.  Our departure was nothing short of dramatic.  Neither Izzie or Noah wanted to leave.  I think Noah may have left some claw marks on the garage floor pavement.  They finally settled down and we left much to their disappointment.  It's not like we won't be back in a few weeks or anything.

PARTY #5:  We got back Sunday late afternoon just in time for our last party.  I put Izzie and Noah's costumes on for the final time and woke up Kris so we could over to Darla's.  We made a quick stop at Uncle Tom's house so the kids could show off their costumes and get some candy.  Back in the truck on the way to Darla's, Kris turned to look at Noah and asked me if I had opened a piece of candy for him.  I said no and turned around to see chocolate all over Noah's face.  He had chewed right threw a Kit-Kat bar.  Good Lord, I'm a little afraid of what might happen once his other sharpie comes in.  He may try to sharpen his teeth with rocks or attempt to chew through chords.  Oh, wait.  He's already tried that.    

We had a rockin' time at Josh and Darla's.  We were minus a beaver and scary iron mask guy, but we still had a great time.  

Okay, so maybe some of us had our moments.  Darla was comforting Izzie and sharing in her feelings of sadness and fright.  So what caused Izzie to be happy as a purple dinosaur one moment and hiding under the table with only her tail visible the next?  Trick or treating boy in scary mask meets ferocious, but really I just want you to be my play thing, Woodson equals Izzie screaming and shaking under the table.

     

Noah geared up and told Izzie he would protect her.

 He's smiling just thinking about the first zombie or Mario brother 

who tries to mess with him or his sister.

 

Noah decided to carry his candy bucket instead of his assault rifle.  

He relied on his combat training instead.

After trick or treating there were plenty of treats at Darla's house.

Noah enjoyed some delicious homemade potato soup Auntie Darla made.

We also feasted on homemade tortilla soup with all the fixins' (also made by Darla), cheese, truffles, cheesecake, pumpkin spice coffee, and other sweets.

Gigi took the first shift passing out candy.  No, she's not wearing sandal socks.

Our family parties tend to get a little crazy.

The next few days were spent recovering from the previous week's festivities.  Still lots to catch up on so I'll write a bit more later.  And I still have lots of pictures:) 

A picture is worth a thousand words.