The Littlest Link and Jay's 2nd Halloween!

Figured I better get this one out before Thanksgiving is upon us!

We don't go "all out" for Halloween like some people do, mainly because hubby's family has never been one for the day (his dad HATES it with a passion, coming from a religious point of view). But there are some things I enjoy doing - pumpkins and dressing my kid up being some of them!

This year we took Jay to the pumpkin patch for the first time (we figured he was too little last year to really enjoy any of it). We were only there for about an hour, and he refused to give up his Thomas notepad so he could actually do much of anything, but oh well... I'd like to think we had fun! (side note: he didn't know what to make of the witch lady and her skin being all green, lol...)

"Oscar... why are you 2 dimensional and not talking?!"

Running around, with notepad in tow. He would NOT give that thing up!

Climbing up to the Great Pumpkin

We took photos in the face cutout thingys

We let him pick out his own pumpkin and I carved it a few days later.

And then there's his costume this year...

Little Link from Zelda!!!

You may have seen this idea on Pinterest awhile back (obviously I did, as that's where I got the idea for it). It was too awesome not to do!

Raiding the Trick or Treater's candy bowl

Hubby had to work so it was just me and Jay this year so we stopped over at my parent's house for trick or treat, by my aunt's who lives around the corner from my parents, as well as by one of Jay's uncle's houses as he's in the same neighborhood, lol... my mom joined us for Trunk or Treat up at church this year. Hubby's sis, my cousin, and some friends of theirs did a Finding Nemo themed trunk this year.

Hubby's sis as the yellow fish from Finding Nemo, Jay, my cousin as the starfish
and a friend of theirs as a turtle.

Freaking out over Tigger and Pooh =)

They also had people dressed in costumes to entertain the kids as they waited to get into the Trunk or Treat part of the lot, including a Tigger and Pooh, who Jay went crazy for! He let out a squeal of "Tigg-ah!" and went running over, pulling on Tigger's leg to get his attention. While we waited for hubby's sis and her friends to finish up, I took Jay back over to where Tigger and Pooh were stationed, to keep him entertained for a bit since there wasn't much of a crowd by them anymore. He danced along with them (they had a band playing music during the event, Jay would stop and dance every time we snaked past them, lol...) and just had fun in general, interacting with Tigger and Pooh.

We found Link's game!

Quite a few people recognized him as Link and corrected those that didn't - one lady behind us, in her 20s, even jumped the line to come take a picture with him, she thought he was too cute! A guy, probably in his 40s or 50s, corrected his wife when she mistook Jay's costume for something not Link, lol... Older, non-gaming people called him "The first Robin Hood" or Peter Pan... someone even thought he was an elf (with a sword and shield, really?).

Afterwards we stopped by Best Buy to say "hi" to da-da as he was working all evening - the customers he was with thought Jay was the Jolly Green Giant, although hubby quickly corrected them, lol... it was funny though, as Jay went running through the video game section of the store while a couple college-aged guys were playing one of the demos. They both saw him - one started smiling and laughing while the other exclaimed "OMG! That. Is. AWESOME!!" It was too funny!

Too cute!

All in all, I'd say we had a successful 2nd Halloween!

Jay started to get a bit tired and overwhelmed by the end of Trunk or Treat, so we sat down and I let him pick out a piece of candy (he seems to like Snickers). He got quite a bit of candy. I also left out our bucket of candy again this year, with the sign to take a few. We had 2 groups of Trick or Treaters before we headed out. And I'm guessing a few more stopped by as there was a bit of a dent in the candy I had left out!

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Be sure to check your children's candy though! This year there were 2 reported incidents in our area of objects being found in kid's candy - one that was posted online showed a razor blade stuck in a thing of Starbursts, while another report showed that of a pin/needle in a piece of candy! How sick and sad is that?? And the razor blade one was found in a decent neighborhood too!

Fun at the Fair

This past season one of the 2 local county fairs happened and we took Jay! If you remember, last year was his 1st time at the fair. He was only about 6 months old so we didn't do much aside from push him around, take him in the petting zoo and let him try some ice cream. This year he was a bit more into it.

Hubby took Jay around the petting zoo, where they attempted to pet a goat (Jay was more interested in opening and closing the petting zoo gates!)

 I got my annual ear of sweet corn. There's 3 things I get at the fair every year: baked potato with toppings from the Boy Scouts, an ear of sweet corn, and some ice cream from the Merry Milk Maids.

The Dish Network booth was free passing balloons out to all the kids so we got one for Jay and tied it to his stroller - kid had waaay too much fun with it! LOL

Jay got to ride the carousel twice as we bought a set of tickets thinking they'd charge one of us to take him on, but nope! Parent escorts got to ride for free! Kid loves the carousel!

 What a pair!

You can see Jay's temporary tattoo on his hand of Lucky the Leprechaun from Lucky Charms cereal got mostly rubbed off too - he wasn't a fan!

Playing with the balloon some more!

 Pondering!

We went to get him out of the car when we got home only to see he had 1 shoe and sock off! Little Stinker!

 

And since it's Phone Photo Fun Monday, here's some other pics on my phone since the last time I shared:

 Silly boys!

 Playing

 This one cracks me up!

 Watching TV together

 Typing just like daddy!

 Typists!

My Teefury "Wookie the Chew" shirt came this week - I LOVE IT!

Splish Splash, We Had a Blast!

I apologize in advance for any typos or format errors - I'm typing this on my tablet with the keyboard attachment =)

Yesterday we crossed an item off my summer bucket list and took Jay to our local stateline waterpark for the 1st time! There was a Groupon for our area a few weeks ago for 2 admissions with tube rental and an all day locker key so we thought it would be fun. We didn't read the fine print til after we purchased it though and saw that it was only valid for June so we needed to get our butts out there sometime soon! Hubby took a half day at his dayjob, getting home a little after 1pm and we got there right at 2pm.

Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures as I didn't want water damage to my phone (neither did hubby with his), so you'll just have to use your imagination as you read my recount =)

Anyways, Jay was apparently free as they didn't charge us for him. They did give us this little plastic reuseable diaper thing to put over his Huggie's Little Swimmers swim diaper as they claim those tend to disinagrate in their pools.

First we got our locker and put sunscreen on and then we headed over to the Little Lagoon pool and water area they had for kids Jay's size. He walked into it just fine but got a little nervous once the water went up past his knees and started getting clingy to mommy and started crying when he would fall on his bottom and the water was up to his chest. He played with the water stream shooters for a bit before we decided to go check out the lazy river.

He rode in my lap but at first started getting antsy, climbing all over me, almost tipping us over once by trying to climb over my shoulder. Daddy picked him up and my tube started floating away which made Jay freak out - mommy was going bubbyes! Hubby handed him back to me and he sat in my lap for the rest of that trip around as well as another trip around.

After that we got out, we checked out Tiki Island (a water playground for grade-school aged kids) and then we went and sat in the shallow end of the wave pool (apparently the largest one in Illinois!) as the waves started up. We stayed in for a whole cycle, but Jay wasn't a fan once the waves picked up and spent most of the cycle standing in my lap, his head over my shoulder, clinging to me.

For whatever reason he didn't want Daddy to carry him - he wanted only Mommy :-/

After the wave pool, hubby declared he really wanted to ride one of the water slides before we left so I told him to go ahead - I'd take Jay back to the nearby Little Lagoon. Instead we sat on benches at the exit of the water slide hubby was in line for and watched people make big splashes as they came off the slide - Jay thought some were funny.

Next we tried the Little Lagoon again. Jay got a little braver, I sat in the pool with him and he played with some water bubbler things in the water near me before he wanted me to pick him up again.

We figured we'd try the lazy river again but on our way out hubby mentioned wanting to do the water slide again so I told him to go ahead and I'd occupy Jay. We went to go sit down on the benches by the slide exit again but Jay wanted down, so I let him roam, following him as he went.

That little stinker, he started walking towards a picnic area! Luckily there was no one eating for him to beg for food from (all our money was in the locker and hubby had the key on him and he was in line at the top of a water slide). Jay did stop at a bottled drink vending machine though and started hitting the buttons trying to get a drink to come out.

Thinking he might be thirsty, we set out to find a drinking fountain, which was a whole new experience for Jay - first he put his arm in it, then he splashed his hand it and I had to push his head/mouth towards the spout so he'd get the idea to drink. Then he realized if he put his mouth closer to the spout he could drink more at once... And you can guess that that led to him trying to put his mouth on the spout.

After he got a drink we headed back towards the slide exit to wait for hubby. He was still in line so we waited. Jay saw some kids playing in a water sprayer nearby that you operate by pressing buttons so we watched them for a bit and I let Jay down to go check them out. Hubby made a big splash again and joined us as Jay played with the sprayers.

Then we walked over to the lazy river. And once again, Jay tried climbing all over me but once Daddy took him away from mommy and handed him back to me Jay was fine. By the end of the 1st trip around Jay had snuggled up on me and fell asleep (it was naptime anyway). Hubby and I took 4 more trips around the lazy river, Jay sleeping the whole time, before it was getting to be time to leave (they had announced it was 5pm soon after we started our last trip around the lazy river).

We woke Jay up as we left the lazy river and got our stuff and trekked back out to the car. We stopped at Beef A Roo on our way home (a local area burger joint with the best cheddar fries EVER!) and got some cheddar fries and a strawberry milkshake.

We got a large shake as hubby and I were going to split it and figured Jay would have some... Jay ended up drinking 1/3rd of the shake! And because he was hogging it, I ended up putting some in one of his own cups, some hubby and I could drink some, lol...

So yeah, that was our trip to the waterpark!

Hubby thinks Jay might have been a little scared as it was a new place he'd never been to before and there were a lot of people too - he loves bathtime at home in the big tub, but again, it's just him in the tub and no one else. We're thinking maybe we'll go again in August as he'll be 1 and a half then and maybe 2 months will make a difference and he won't be quite so clingy and nervous and have a bit more fun.

This was actually hubby's 1st time there too! Apparently he never went as a kid or during any of the church youth group trips there back in the day. He seemed to enjoy it! I hadn't been in probably 10 years or so - we used to go at least once a summer when I was a kid. Things changed a little bit, new (and more) slides were added as well as the 2 kiddie zones, but it was still familiar.

Oh and Dippin' Dots - "the ice cream of the future" - is still there! I remember being a kid in the early 90s and how cool I thought it was that they were serving the ice cream of the future and just had to try it! And I remember telling my parents all about it and how it was "THE ice cream of the future!" Yeah, that was like 20 years ago... We're still eating the same ol' ice cream we were back then, lol...

99 Red Luft Balloons...

I saw this 99 Things post on (my Button Swap Partner) Vicki's blog over the weekend and thought it looked like fun! You're supposed to bold the things you've done. (By the way, if you'd like to be blog button swap buddies - just lemme know and take my button there <--- on the left so I know to add yours!)

1. Started your own blog
2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than you can afford to charity
7. Been to Disneyland
8. Climbed a mountain
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sang a solo
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightening storm
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
18. Grown your own vegetables
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitch hiked
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping (but it was a private pool)
27. Run a Marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run
32. Been on a cruise
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Taught yourself a new language
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David
41. Sung karaoke
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had your portrait painted
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Been in a movie
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies
62. Gone whale watching
63. Got flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma
65. Gone sky diving
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten Caviar
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone
78. Been a passenger on a motorcycle
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had your picture in the newspaper
85. Kissed a stranger at midnight on New Year’s Eve
86. Visited the White House
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
88. Had chickenpox
89. Saved someone’s life
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous
92. Joined a book club
93. Got a tattoo
94. Had a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a law suit
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee

I've done 36 of these.
How many have you???

Home for the Holidays

A friend on Facebook just posted this tonight.

Granted, we're Verizon users (although my only complaint re: my time with T-Mobile was their lack of coverage outside major cities), but this is a really neat flash mob that was recently done at the big mall in the Chicago suburbs that we visit several times a year (Woodfield, in Schaumburg, which is like an hour away), so it was neat seeing this done there!

Enjoy!

Jay's 1st time at Chuck E Cheese!

I probably should have posted this last weekend but I was just sooo busy with the holiday and work... this past weekend was quite busy!

"Chuck E Cheese! Chuck E Cheese!"

Anyways, last Wednesday we took Jay to Chuck E Cheese for the 1st time, at the request of my college roommate's fiance. They were in the area this past week for the holidays, visiting her family, and I had requested they meet up with us at some point (I really am thankful that my out of state friends still make time to visit with me when they're in the area!). Her fiance really wanted to go to Chuck E. Cheese and requested to take Jay so he wouldn't seem weird going there sans kiddo, lol...

It was fun, but boy has that place changed since we were kids!

I don't know how your Chuck E Cheese was where you grew-up, but the one here was in separate rooms - you walk in and there's the register with the prize stand by the door as well. Then there was the arcade-type game room with the skee-ball lanes. Then there was a smaller kid area and some tables. Then there was another room with the main dining room and the stage with the animatronic Chuck E Cheese characters... and then there was another room where the tubes, slides and ballpit was.

Yeah... all the walls, dividing up the rooms, are gone. The ballpit is gone (thank God! I've heard and read about too many horror stories with those!) and there's a tube that you climb up and you can go in a few different tubes that are up in the area and one is connected to a slide - it's very compacted in a corner of the now very open huge room! It was sooo weird!

Anyways, we took Jay and he seemed to have a blast! He LOVED the kiddie car rides - there was one where you can take a picture with Chuck E and another that was Bob the Builder themed which Jay LOVED! I have no clue how many tokens we spent on that, lol... and once hubby showed Jay there was a button to push on it that made noises, that was all he wanted to do on the ride!

Riding with Chuck E.!

Picture of the crappy quality photo the ride takes, lol...
It was cute enough to hang it on my fridge though!

"Can we drive it? YES WE CAN!"

Winning tickets with daddy.

Playing with the token cup while mommy shows off our ticket receipt

We all shared tokens - hubby and I got 168 tickets (I hit a lucky streak playing Skee-ball!) and got Jay a blow-up mini guitar, a bookmark and some Fun Dip for myself! Jay also liked the token cups so I snagged a few of those on our way out so he can play with them at home.

We went at 8pm on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving so it wasn't very crowded at all - only 2 other families and none of the kids were close in Jay's age so we didn't have to worry about sharing the rides he was hooked on, lol...

I definitely recommend checking their site for coupons before you go though, as the prices are a bit steep! We got a large pizza with 4 drinks and 70 tokens for $29.99, plus my friend's fiance spent probably $10 or so to get another bunch of tokens. It was a fun 2 hours though!

This is Halloween... Jay's 1st Halloween!

Growing up, we went Trick or Treating every year until we were too old and it wasn't cool anymore (then we'd pass out candy). Not that we were celebrating Satan or anything like that, but just as a fun time to dress up with everyone as part of tradition. Every since my sister was too old to dress up for it, my mom has looked forward to making costumes for her grandkids and I admit, I looked forward to dressing my own kids up in cute, awesome little costumes too - especially after seeing friends and acquaintances showing off their kids in adorable little costumes!

While hubby's family never partook in Halloween traditions (his dad absolutely HATES Halloween) let alone any holiday kid traditions (ie: easter bunny, Santa), we had to come to a compromise. Basically, he got his way with us not doing Santa, the Easter Bunny or the tooth fairy, but my mom and I would get to dress our kids up all cute and take them to our church's Trunk or Treat outreach event if they wanted, so long as they weren't dressed as anything scary or evil.

Baby Wicket the Ewok!!

For Jay's first Halloween we dressed him up as the cute and cuddly Wicket the Ewok from Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi. Originally I was thinking he'd make a cute little Yoda, but after watching Return of the Jedi once again over the summer I thought the Ewoks were just too darn cute and cuddly and decided Jay should definitely be an Ewok. Plus, since the costume is essentially a bear outfit, it would be nice and warm with the fur since it tends to always be cold on Halloween around here (I believe this year it was in the 40s!).

My mom's a seamstress so obviously she did the costume for us! And it turned out GREAT! And completely kept him warm too! While I didn't dress up too much, I did find a cream sweater and I did my hair in Princess Leia buns (cuz, ya know, Leia's hanging out with the Ewoks for the last half of Return of the Jedi) - a few people recognized Jay and I as Princess Leia and an Ewok and commented how awesome we were =)

Leia and baby Ewok

We took him over to my mom's for a visit, walked 3 houses over to my old neighbors who had requested we stop by with him and then down the street to my aunt's house to say hi before heading up to our church's Trunk or Treat outreach event (it's basically a safe alternative in town for trick or treating as hello - we've been in Forbes' top 10 most dangerous cities for 2 years in a row now and there's lots of areas in the town, especially on the west side and down near the river, that just aren't safe for anyone, let alone kids, to be walking around at night). He really seemed to enjoy it though, as there were so many people dressed up as fun characters.

He got some candy he can snack on too and for his piece tonight he selected a Reese's cup, which he devoured and then threw up 2 seconds later before bouncing around on the couch, lol...

Gotta say, my favorite part of Halloween is the cute, creative costumes people come up! I haven't seen too many people on Facebook post party-related ones (probably cuz most of us are married with kids now, lol...), but at Trunk or Treat I did see an adorable little Spongebob and Sandy the Squirrel!! Hubby also showed me a picture of one of his co-workers who dressed up with his son as UPS delivery men! Hubby said he'd like to do that with Jay one year, which I think would be cute!

Trick or Treating for our city started at 530 and went til 730. We were home til about 645, as hubby had to work til 6 and I wanted Jay to take a little bit of a nap before we went out for the evening, so I got to pass out candy for a bit. Unfortunately our doorbell only ran like 6 times - a few kids solo and a few groups of small kids with their parents (one very little girl - think it might have been our neighbors - was dressed in a cute Eeyore costume!). One kid, whom I would guess as being about 8 years old, was dressed as Michael Meyers - maybe I'm getting old, but doesn't it seem a bit inappropriate for young kids like that to be dressed as serial killers? One girl I know on Twitter posted that one kid reminded her of the infamous Dexter, as his response to her asking who he was was that he kills people! Oh well... we left the bowl out when we went up for Trunk or Treat (which was from 630-8ish) and sadly, when we got home around 9 it looked like no one had touched it! Oh well, guess I know not to get a huge bag for next year!

How was your Halloween? 

What cute/creative costumes did you see this year?