Halloween 2011

I wanted to post about Halloween before this baby makes her grand entrance, because I know if I wait and she comes, well, chances are I'll post about Halloween more towards Easter.

The kids were thankfully agreeable to a more modest Halloween this year. They all used costumes we had on hand, which was so nice. Thomas protested a bit, so we told him that if he wanted a new costume, we'd pay half and he'd have to use his allowance to pay the other half. Suddenly he was perfectly fine with being Optimus Prime!

We decorated Halloween cookies the week before then carved pumpkins the day of Halloween. Cousins Elise and Cameron came over to trick-or-treat together, which was a lot of fun!

A friend of mine made me this cute Halloween shirt. Isn't it fun?! If you don't get it, I'll explain- it's a Twilight reference. The new movie comes out 2 days after my due date, and it's the one where Edward & Bella have a baby. See how the timing is perfect?! I got comments on it everywhere I went, which was pretty funny.

Meet Sammy the Salamander

I don't know what it is about our backyard, but we find the craziest things in it. The neighbors get the normal ladybugs and grasshoppers- we get praying mantis' and, our latest find- salamanders!

The kids found Sammy and he stuck around for a couple of days. They really enjoyed seeing where he'd turn up next. Ick!

We used the opportunity to do some reading on salamanders- first in an effort to figure out what our little friend was, then to figure out what he eats. Yep, good ole Sammy had a buffet of sorts as they kids tried to get him to dine in the underside of a frisbee. {It was a no-go.} We did find out salamanders are in the frog family as opposed to the lizard-snake family. That makes me feel somewhat better about walking around our backyard without any shoes on.